Fosterchild - Fosterchild

Fosterchild was a Canadian band who released three albums before calling it quits in 1980. The band's debut, released in 1977, was produced by Bob Gallo, who also happened to be the head of A&R for CBS (Columbia) Records in Canada. The album was recorded at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver, and mixed at Manta Studios in Toronto.

I had been curious about the band for a long time, as I'd first heard of them around the same time I'd picked up Jim Foster's Powerlines. I just assumed the band would be one of those generic '70s rock acts that was good but nothing special. A while back I managed to find all three of the band's records and figured I'd get them all.

Why not?

I'll admit that the first spin through side one was pretty uneventful as I wasn't really paying attention and nothing really stood out. When I dropped the needle for a second pass I was more attentive and found myself enjoying the songs. I really liked the interplay between Jim Foster and Vern Wills, the band's two principal songwriters. For the most part the album is structured as a back and forth between the two - although side two only contains one track written by Wills.

Musically this was in the rock vein with some country flourishes. Not necessarily country rock but you can certainly tell they were eating the Eagle's dust. Vocally, neither Foster nor Wills had the chops of Henley and Frey but they were better singers than Mister Felder (hey, I'm a fan, but as a singer Don is a hell of a guitar player). Now don't let me give the impression this was a poor sounding album, the guys sounded great and there aren't any songs here that I want to skip - that said, the album doesn't really have any standout tracks, although a few get pretty close. The album as a whole is really enjoyable, but in 1977 there were a lot of really good bands with excellent songs, and a collection of good songs just wasn't good enough ... if you know what I mean.

However, none of that really matters now does it? Here I am decades after the fact enjoying myself immensely and am looking forward to hearing the rest of the band's catalogue.

Oh, some trivia regarding the band, drummer Larrie Londin, who played on the album, was considered one of the greatest drummers in the world, and during his heyday, played with pretty much anyone who was anyone and even did a stint as Elvis' touring drummer and even recorded with the king.

Anyway, I thought that was kind of cool. Gotta love the internet.

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