George Benson and Poco

This week I'm looking at a few albums, some I had in July but with being very poorly I never got around to writing about and another that's on just out this week.
Some groups wrote the template of whole genres and one example is The Byrds to which there has been the odd entry on this blog about for forging Country-Rock with the seminal album  the Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968.
That lead to an explosion of acts of which one the most famous is of course the Eagles who started out as Linda Ronstadt's backing group but in many ways the template they used comes from another group,forgotten by most.
Poco were formed before the Eagles being part formed of members of Buffalo Springfield upon that bands dissolution such as Richie Furey and Jim Messina, had one soon to Eagle and one Ex Eagle in the line up too and were fairly popular in North America not being off the radio or in our tape player.

 This is a pairing of their 1974 albums Seven which was more hard rock influenced and Cantamos which saw a return to Country-rock

 In 2013 the now defunct label Audio Fidelity issued on super audio cd their debut album which remains a fine example of late sixties country-rock. I originally hadn't picked it up but was able to get a still sealed example without paying the silly money sharks collect from collectors.

 An interesting coupling on regular cd was issued in 2006 of 1971's Delivering album which was recorded at Boston's Music Hall and New York Felt Forum and 1973's Crazy Eyes that features ex Byrd Chris Hillman on guitar.

This 1971 studio album was remastered in 2013 by Vic Anesini and issued on IconClassic via Sony/Bmg.

An interesting guy is George Benson who meanders around jazz-funk and smooth soul whose vocal performances had held in enraptured over the years when I've hear them on radio.

 Like many artists of his longevity he's been on a number of labels and this 1973 release was originally on CTI records and issued on CD4 record and Q8 quadrophonic tape briefly.
This week it's all out again on Super audio cd which I'm pleased about as I love it's proto smooth jazz sound

In 2014 Audio Fidelity re-issued his 1976 Breezin' album complete with a 5.1 multi channel remix on the sacd layer which was one his best albums for Warner Bros which was where he was headed after 1975. The album featured This Masquerade is noted for the lush piano introduction and solo by Jorge Dalto and most of the album is instrumental in nature.
Talking of his Warners Output to which it is generally true to say he's more famous for has been re-issued on regular cd and at least in  Europe can be had on two complementary 5 regular cd sets rather cheaply.

This issued in 2010 contains Breezin';Weekend in L.A.;Give Me The Night;Tenderly and Big Boss Band.
Weekend is a great originally double lp live album that shows off his guitar playing abilities well.
Give Me The Night was produced by Quincy Jones with input too from the late Rod Templeton (Ex Heatwave) and stylistically borrows a bit from Michael Jackson's Off The Wall and later Thriller sets and Quincy's own The Dude for the more vocal soul numbers.
1990's Big Boss Band is a more straightahead big band jazz album.

This five pack issued 2013 contains the following albums:
In Flight;Living Inside Your Love;In Your Eyes;20/20 and Twice The Love covering the 70's through 80's.
As with most sets like this the discs come in single card covers replicating front and rear jacket art and nothing else but on the other hand take up little space and are inexpensive just about £11.99 each per set so is a cheap way of replacing any worn tapes like I had.