Great Poco Release on Bootleg CD: Live from 1975

 

Poco: Live: Wollman Memorial Skating Rink New York 22^nd August 1975 (Rox Vox 2159)

Venue: As titled

Sound quality: Stunning. Significantly better than most other Rox Vox releases

Cover: digi-pak with slot inside holding 8-page booklet with photos and liner notes. Nice presentation.

Tracklist: Keep On Tryin’/ Sagebrush Serenade/ Blue Water/ Fools Gold/ Rocky Mountain Breakdown/ Bad Weather/ Hoedown/ Ride The Country/ Making Love/ Georgia Bind My Ties/ Restrain/ Railroad Days/ Sittin’ On A Fence/ High And Dry/ A Good Feelin’ To Know/ A Right Along

Comments: An article came through my Facebook newsfeed a couple of months ago with the poster taking issue with NPR's typically narrow focus and condescending attitudes towards rock, often ignoring it altogether. I'm no Deadhead, but leading off by referring to Jerry Garcia's playing on CSNY's "Teach Your Children" as "primitive" is not a good start. It's an instantly recognizable and inventive part of rock history and was recorded when Garcia had only been playing the instrument for about a week. If there is evidence that Garcia was a genius, that is exhibit A. And I wasn't the only one to notice the short shrift Rusty Young got for his innovative experiments on the pedal steel. Music coverage has expanded ~a little~ in recent years on NPR, but not so much that I didn't cancel their newsletter after giving it a second chance. Same ol' prejudice, priorities, and narrow vision. Some local NPR music programs seem to be far more adventurous than the national organization. I'm not a fan. So sue me.

 And now Rusty Young is dead, having passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 14. While NPR, in their article dated Jan. 20, 2020, didn’t feel it necessary to include Young’s contribution to the expansion of the pedal steel, he will not be subject to such an oversight here. His contribution was HUGE.

 I first saw Poco in concert during their tour supporting the DeLIVErin’ album, an album I still rate among the Top 10 live albums of all time. And as good as that album was, the expanded performance at Trenton State Teacher’s College blew my 16 year-old mind away. The harmonies, the songs, the jams on medleys, and the other-worldly sound emanating from Rusty Young’s pedal steel – all of it. I looked around for a Hammond B-3 organ. It wasn’t there. That was Young coaxing organ sounds out of his pedal steel by playing chords through a Leslie cabinet when he wasn’t expertly playing more traditional runs to rock melodies.

Poco has never been the subject of bootlegger’s affections, receiving just one release during their heyday by the great TMOQ label, Country Bump (TMOQ 73036). TMOQ could certainly recognize a great live performance when they heard one. And if it’s a 1971 radio broadcast emanating from Columbia Studios in L.A., (9/30/71) all the better. It’s an album worth tracking down, but don’t expect to get it cheap. Despite being a band that never dominated the charts, Poco fans are a loyal bunch and Country Bump is one rare slab of vinyl.

Which brings us to this CD. In 1975, Poco was in a transitional period, having been reduced to a four piece with a label switch from Epic to ABC. Although their former label, Epic Records, released a contract fulfillment live album in 1976, that record was actually recorded in late 1974. With Poco’s first release on ABC, 1975’s Head Over Heels, the group seemed revitalized and it showed on their supporting tour. The album peaked on the Billboard album charts at number 43, far surpassing the previous year’s Seven, with their single, “Keep On Tryin’,” being the bands first single to break the top 100 since 1970’s “C’mon.”

Wollman Memorial Skating Rink starts off with “Keep On Tryin’” and Poco work a total of 4 songs from their current album into the set, including the fabulous (and criminally overlooked) “Georgia Bind My Ties.” Much of the rest of the set consists of more contrified material from their most recent albums (“Sagebrush Serenade,” “Blue Water,” “Bad Weather” being among the best), ending on a rockin’ note with a pairing of “A Good Feelin’ To Know” And “A Right Along,” the last being another overlooked gem by AOR radio from 1973.

If Poco had mellowed any since DeLIVErin’, it wasn’t much. This is the 2^nd best live album of the band’s career and compliments DeLIVErin’ nicely.

 Grade: A

Bonus view: