Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Rose of Cimarron

This is one of my favorite Poco songs, one of many. Poco perfectly captured the rock side of "country-rock" that began with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds and we used to do several songs by them, even ones that a three-piece band probably shouldn't have attempted.


And if you'd like a little trip back to the Las Cruces Inn on June 30, 1978, here's what the bar sounded like.


Good times! Mark Coker is playing guitar and singing the lead. Randy Miller is on drums and I'm on bass and harmony. I could listen to Mark Coker's smooth voice all night long -- and I did, back in 1975 - 1987. He still plays in Las Cruces with his one man band. He plays guitar with his hands, bass with his feet (organ foot pedals), and uses an electric drummer and harmonizer. Why divide up the money? I always played in three-piece band for money reasons and Mark simply has taken the strategy to its logical end. I do the same thing here in Vancleave, but only you unlucky folks out in internetland have to listen to it.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Tradewinds

This is probably one of those songs I have no business doing but I haven't been recording much lately and this was on my mind. I couldn't remember where I'd heard it but googling showed me that it was Roberta Flack from 1972. I'm sure I've never heard Rod Stewart do it.

It has a great melody, chords and lyrics and the songwriters, Ralph MacDonald and William Salter deserve a hand. I'm not so sure about my weeping guitars. I planned on doing them over the next day, but you know how that always turns out -- I can't get in the groove again and end up settling for the first version.