Chris Hillman - Desert Rose

I'm not sure how I ended up with so many releases that feature Chris Hillman. I knew of him, of course, from that one time he appeared on a 77s album way back in 1987. Everyone always made such a fuss over Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, and that was all I really knew about The Byrds ... of course, there were other members of the band, but they seemed to be a footnote. Right or wrong, perception can be a cruel and unfair thing.

A while ago I found Chris' 1976 release Slippin' Away. It was on Asylum Records (which I always associated with prestige back in the day), and the cast of characters on the album was really impressive. The album, though? I can't remember it ... at all. It was instantly forgettable, but pleasant as well. It was enough that when I found anything with Chris on it, I bought it. From his collaboration with J.D. Souther and Richie Furay to an album with former Byrds McGuinn and Gene Clark, I would snap them up.

When I found a pristine, and I mean pristine, copy of Desert Rose, I bought it. It didn't hurt that it didn't cost much ... still, a record is a record. Here in Canada it was on Stony Plain, the little record label from Edmonton, Alberta, which licensed the album from Sugar Hill. I suspect they figured it was a good bet.

Desert Rose is a country album. An honest-to-goodness hillbilly swinging good time. The songs are sweet, and the performances are top shelf. Al Perkins produced the album and played dobro on a couple of songs.

It's a strange thing, though: this is good. It's also pretty dang generic, and the songs aren't straying from the predictable chord progressions and expected tropes. A solo here, a pedal steel here, a fiddle there. Part of the problem is actually Chris Hillman. The guy is an amazing singer, but he's also blessed and cursed with an everyman's voice. There's nothing that really separates him from any other good singer. There's nothing distinctive that makes things sound like Chris Hillman. I could be wrong, but it's how it feels, and sounds, to me.

Again, I have to say, while this was playing it was a truly enjoyable listen. Chris brought in some great players to guest on many of the tracks. Bernie Leadon appears on a few tracks, providing backing vocals, banjo, mandola and guitar. James Burton, who is considered one of the finest guitar players ever, appeared on a couple of tracks. They bring a lot to the songs, as do the other musicians. They do what they can with the source material. The best backhanded way of describing the album is to say it is full of good songs that are pleasing to listen to.

The trouble, of course, is the world is full of good musicians and good songs. Being good is sort of the ante that gets an artist to the table. Releasing an album of good songs is still an accomplishment when so many artists struggled with filler, but I also know that even after spinning this a few times I likely won't be able to remember any of the songs in a day or two. I'll be left with the memory that this was a good album, but I won't be able to tell you why.

I can also say with a degree of certainty that if I stumble upon any of his albums I'll also pick them up.

After all, this was good, and sometimes that's just good enough.

Life is a funny old thing.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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