This is a record you often see in op shops or, rather, one you think appears all the time in op shops. The drawn character on the front sleeve was on many Pure Prairie League sleeves so it would be forgivable to think that it was the same album (though the drawings are different).
In any event, I have never got around to listening to these guys.
I’m not sure why.
Somewhere I got it into my head they weren’t authentically country (on the country rock side of the equation) much like The Eagles or Dr Hook aren’t. And they aren’t (or are, depending on how you look at it):
“Pure Prairie League was formed in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Craig Fuller, bass player Jim Lanham, and drummer Tom McGrail, who named the band after a women’s temperance group in the 1939 Errol Flynn movie Dodge City. Pure Prairie League built up a following in Ohio, playing around Cincinnati for a year before earning a record contract with RCA Victor. By that time, McGrail had left and been replaced by Jim Caughlan, though Billy Hinds had also drummed with the band for a time. Adding steel guitar player John David Call, the group went into the studio and recorded its self-titled debut album, which was released in March 1972 with a cover depicting a Western character named Luke, an illustration drawn by famed American painter/illustrator Norman Rockwell that had first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1927. Luke would turn up on all the band’s subsequent album covers, giving them a distinctive visual conception”. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pure-prairie-league-mn0000371879/biography
The band’s origins go back to 1965 and Waverly, Ohio, with singer and guitarist Craig Fuller, drummer Tom McGrail, guitarist and drummer Jim Caughlan and steel guitar artist John David Call (who had played together in various bands since high school, notably the Vikings, the Omars, the Sacred Turnips and the Swiss Navy). Despite the roots in Waverly, Pure Prairie league was actually formed in Columbus, Ohio, and had its first success in Cincinnati (Ohio).
But what is authentically country?
I don’t associate Ohio with country music but then what do I know, I’m not American. I do know that Kentucky and West Virginia are next door and I do associate them with country music.
So, Ohio it probably is.
Does it matter?
Well, it does matter to me, because sometimes bands just jump on current sounds / music bandwagons without having any affinity for the sound. That annoys me a little. Sure, take the influence and bend it and make it something else.
Of course there are people who are brought up on sounds who have no geographical relationship to the music and they transcend their surrounds. In the country and Americana world Chip Taylor was from Yonkers, Peter Rowan was from Massachusetts and so on … it happens all the time.
So, it doesn’t matter, but I do like some geographical relationship to the music (especially in folk music, and country still is, or as a folk music).
I know people will disagree but I mean how seriously can you take a white reggae band born and bred in Beverly Hills? Or a rock n roll band from England? (harrrr) …. Okay, I‘m being humorous re the latter (maybe) but you can see what I am saying … unless you add something from your background (time and place) you aren’t really doing anything useful.
The exception may be if you totally immerse yourself in whatever you are into your single mindedness may be enough transcend local culture and geography.
I think I have dwelt way too much on this point, and perhaps not even convinced myself.
It doesn’t matter in any event because Pure Prairie League are “country rock”.
And they sound like pretty authentic country rock.
“Country rock” is that hybrid of rock and country that developed in the late 60s (as a sound, though its roots were in the music of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash) and became a major commercial sound with The Eagles in the early to mid-1970s.
A lot of the air waves were dominated by country harmonies with rock asides.
Poco, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Firefall, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Loggins & Messina and many others (most here not from country areas) had hits and followings.
Their sounds were slicker than the first generation of country rockers like The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons … all who were from California, regardless of where their individual members came from.
To be fair, just like the cowboys who came from all over to Hollywood in the 30s to appear in B Westerns, Los Angeles became a mecca for all sorts of rural types from western California, the south west, the deep south and the high north looking to make it in a west coast music industry high on country sounds.
They were all chasing the rhinestone cowboy dream and sprinkling some of that fantasy dust on the locals.
This was the Pure Prairie League’s first album and is usually thought to be their best along with their second album, “Bustin’ Out” (1972). The reason given is that Craig Fuller is the lead guitarist and lead vocalist on these albums. Craig Fuller was born in Ohio but grew up in Oregon. He formed Pure Prairie League in Ohio and departed in 1973 (Fuller had to face trial for charges of draft evasion in Kentucky (before conscientious objector status could be arranged) and was sentenced to six months in jail (he would have to perform two years of community service in a hospital in Kentucky). He formed country folk rock band American Flyer in 1976 and recorded a couple of albums with them, formed a duo with Eric Kaz, joined Little Feat later and re-joined Pure Prairie League.
Fuller wrote half of the songs on this album also.
He was the prime mover at this stage in the Pure Prairie League career (and George Powell was almost on a par). Without him (them) they went on to record another ten or so albums though, perhaps, they were always trying to recreate the sounds of the first album or the breakthrough second album (despite the fact that by the late 70s none of the members were from the original line up).
There are only eight songs on the album but four over the four minute mark including one over seven minutes, They get into the country “vibe” as many a country rocker liked to. Country musicians prior to country rock would not have done the same. But it works, albeit on a laid back country stoner level. This is slick country rock and but given that it is earlier in the piece, the harmonies are still a little rough and ready and not as controlled as later. This is beautiful stuff and a “joy to hear” as suggested in the (good) liner notes.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- Tears – (Fuller) – as beautiful a country rock song as you are going to hear.
- Take It Before You Go – (Fuller) – another good track. Not dissimilar from the first
- You’re Between Me – (Fuller) – Over five minutes and goes pretty briskly and with a hint of the Byrds from their country period..
- Woman – (Adam Taylor) – Taylor was singer and songwriter (solo and in group “Country Funk”) who worked with Todd Rundgren, David Sanborn, Paul Butterfield, Orleans, and Aerosmith, among others. Mick Ronson covered the song on his “Play Don’t Worry” album from 1975. Lead Guitar by Hugh McCracken. A wonderful song.
Side Two
- Doc’s Tune – (Powell) – a short instrumental that is pleasant and lovely.
- Country Song – (T. P. Waterhouse) – I don’t know much about the author of this track (he wasn’t in the band) but it seems to have been first recorded here. At over seven and half minutes it is country rock with extended country jamming in the bridge … a very long bridge. There is a bridge in the bridge. It goes on but it is quite a toe tapper.
- Harmony Song – (Fuller) – not dissimilar to what Jerry Jeff Walker would have done about the same time.
- It’s All on Me – (Powell) – More in the Byrds style. Always welcome. I think the Eagles borrowed from this also. A great song.
And …
A little of this goes a long way but when it’s this good it doesn’t matter. A classic album in the country rock genre … I’m keeping it.
Chart Action
Nothing
Sounds
Tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8eCm58Hfw
live, later line up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rMqRL30X1Y
mp3 attached
Take It Before You Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbcI05So7CI
You’re Between Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdZYCnEh_2s
Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGKU6oltNRE
Doc’s Tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC0cnQZmrus
Country Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUsigXVd-OQ
Harmony Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmC1h2HzUw
It’s All On Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP8akj9plNI
Others
With Vince Gill
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pure+prairie+league+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l4vac9QVt8
chat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycohL_cHz5M
Review
https://www.allmusic.com/album/pure-prairie-league-mw0000845654
http://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/03/pure-prairie-league-pure-prairie-league.html
Bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Prairie_League
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pure-prairie-league-mn0000371879/biography
https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/pure-prairie-league
the (one sided punter) in the comments here make a case for later Pure Prairie League
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Fuller
Website
https://pureprairieleague.com/
Trivia
- Personnel: Craig Fuller – lead guitar, vocals / George Powell – finger-style guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals / Jim Lanham – bass guitar, background vocals / John David Call – steel guitar / Jim Caughlan – drums. Additional personnel: Hugh McCracken – guitar / Barbara Merrick – vocals / Starr Smith – vocals / James “Westy” Westermyer – vocals. Producer: Bob Ringe
- Hugh McCracken played as session man with many artists including Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack, Paul and Linda McCartney, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, B. B. King, Billy Joel, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan.
- Producer Bob Ringe went on to found Survival Manangement Inc in 1992, a management agency owned and run by him and with a lot of notable acts : Black Label Society, Leslie West, The Golden Ghosts, Danzig, Alan Parsons and others
