"Hats" by THE BLUE NILE (2019 Confetti Records Reissues – March 2019 2CD set and November 2019 1LP Set – Remastered by Producer Calum Malcolm with The Blue Nile) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

"...I Know A Place...Where Everything's Alright..."

It won't have escaped BN fans that these 2019 versions on Confetti Records for The Blue Nile's magisterial "Hats" album (originally issued October 1989 on Linn Records in the UK) are actually 'remastered reissues'.

Released March 2019, the 2CD variant is an exact re-run of the November 2012 reissue on Virgin/Linn Records – the one that came with six rarities on Disc 2 (see listings below). But the big news for Audiophiles and Vinyl Buffs in general is a November 2019 straightforward LP Repress on 180 Grams Vinyl - unfortunately minus the six Bonus Tracks that come with the second CD. The last LPs issued in 2013 and 2014 sold out in minutes, the original 1989 pressing on Linn can pass hands for up to a hundred quid – so this 2019 LP repress is mightily welcome – especially on an album that is so exquisite, it regularly tops people’s all-time fave lists everywhere. 

For the purposes of location (on Amazon/elsewhere) – here are the Confetti 2019 details...

The March 2019 UK 2CD variant of "Hats" by THE BLUE NILE issued on Confetti Records BLUECD2 is Barcode 5052442014942 - available for about £14 using the Barcode number provided above. The LP variant for "Hats" was issued 29 November 2019 and is a worldwide limited edition of 1000 copies on Confetti BLUELP002 - Barcode 5052442016205. 

29 Nov 2019 has also seen Confetti reissue Vinyl copies of the 1984 debut "A Walk Across The Rooftops" and the "Hats" follow up on Warner Brothers from 1996 "Peace At Last" – they are on BLUELP001 and BLUELP003 respectively – Barcodes 5052442016199 and 5052442016212. All three titles are straightforward LP transfers on 180 Grams Heavy Vinyl with no extras or inners. 

Now to the music of "Hats" (I’ve used my 2012 review)... 

Little will prepare fans for this beautifully remastered reissue - sonically up there with the very best 2012 has to offer. Here are the finite details...

Released Monday 19 November 2012 in the UK - "Hats" by THE BLUE NILE on Virgin/Linn Records LKHCDR 2 (5099901730029) is a 2CD Remaster/Reissue and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (38:48 minutes):

1. Over The Hillside

2. The Downtown Lights

3. Let's Go Out Tonight

4. Headlights On The Parade [Side 2]

5. From A Late Night Train

6. Seven A.M.

7. Saturday Night

Tracks 1 to 7 are their second album "Hats" - released October 1989 on LP, MC and CD in the UK on Linn Records LKH 2. The first CD issue carried with it a single page inlay with virtually no details and sound quality that was good rather than great. This is the first remaster of the album - handled by Calum Malcolm (a member of the original line-up and long-time Producer for the group) along with Band members Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell (US customers should use the barcode number provided above to get the right issue when searching on Amazon.com).

Like the other title in this reissue campaign (their debut "A Walk Across The Rooftops" from 1984) - the remaster is again breathtaking. The danger would have been to amp everything up - but it's not like that. It's subtle, clean and beautifully realized. "Hats" was put out initially on Linn Records - Linn were (and still are) a high-end turntable manufacturer - and audio quality is their 'thing'. Well those initial production values have served this subtle remaster well - because the detail now is fantastic.

As the echoed drums of "Over The Hillside" fade in with that synth and drums - the smack is immediate - 'so' sweet. It continues with the album's first hit "The Downtown Lights" (later covered by Rod Stewart and Annie Lennox) - when the guitars begin to crescendo towards its six and half minute end - it's so much more powerful. But then comes the album's first real moment of magic - the hurting yet gorgeously romantic "Let's Go Out Tonight" - a song I've seen people cry to when I was at their live gigs. The slow trumpet and acoustic sounds swirl around the room - "...why don't you say...what's so wrong tonight..." - beautifully done - a song that was old now made new again (lyrics from it title this review).

The kick out of the bopping "Headlights On The Parade" is again amplified - especially the bass and walls of synth-counter-melodies that arrive when Buchanan sings the chorus. But then comes the two album sleepers which in my opinion benefit the most from this sonic upgrade - "From A Late Night Train" and "Seven A.M." - their ethereal and aching nature suddenly feel more poignant than ever - so deftly handled. And last - probably everyone's favourite - the impossibly gorgeous "Saturday Night". By now my stroke-addled eyes are bloodied and the cheeks puffy - I'm mush for this song. I fell in love with my wife and partner of 23 years to this melody - walking down streets with my Sony Discman singing "...an ordinary girl...can make the world alright...meet me outside the cherry lights...you and I walk away..." I defy the hardest of hearts not to be moved by it.

But again (like "A Walk Across The Rooftops") the packaging and bonus disc are a combination of missed opportunities and genuine discoveries. The minimalist gatefold card digipak is pretty for sure (the internal flaps are the plain blue colour of the sleeve too) - but the 16-page booklet is fluffy and vague rather than being informative. There's a series of colour photos from the time - but with no history - no liner notes - no lyrics - no input from the band - not even any real info on the 'bonus' stuff (the last page literally). Frankly - an acknowledged masterpiece like "Hats" deserved a little more effort than this. But things improve a lot with some shocking new discoveries on the 'bonus disc'...

Disc 2 - Bonus Disc (33:19 minutes):

Exclusions first - the 'Bob Clearmountain Remix' of "Headlights On The Parade" and the beautiful duet with Rickie Lee Jones on "Easter Parade" (both tracks on the 12's and CD singles of 1990) are missing. The non-album track "Halfway To Paradise" and the Edit of "Saturday Night" that were on varying CD singles are both AWOL too. But what is on here is surprisingly good...

Track 2 is "Christmas" - a Previously Unreleased five-minute studio song. There's no annotation as to where it came from and its hissy - but its also pretty - lyrically festive as the title suggests. But if I'm to be honest - I don't think it's as good as the previously unreleased track "St. Catherine's Day" on the "Walk" reissue (which sounds suspiciously like an outtake from the "Hats" period - perhaps put on there to bolster up proceedings). Having said that - and having lived with it a day or two now - it's gently growing on me. Fans will make up their own mind of course...

Track 6 is "The Wires Are Down" - a six-minute non-album song that turned on the 12" and 3" CD single of "The Downtown Lights" in 1989. The sound quality on that was always weedy - here its remastered form is an absolute revelation. Suddenly sounding all grown up - "The Wires Are Down" is a genuine bonus track now - and one of the highlights on Disc 2. But there's even better...

Although not stated as 'new' - Tracks 1, 3, 4 and 5 are previously unreleased versions. First up is "Seven A.M. - Live In The Studio". Fans will know that there was a non-album version on the 1990 "Saturday Night" CD single called "Seven A.M. (Live U.S.A.)" - this is NOT that track. "Live In The Studio" is a fully-fledged new version with fabulous sound quality. Track 5 is a "Live In Tennessee" version of "Headlights On The Parade" recorded with Larry Saltzman, Steve Gaboury and Nigel Thomas on some unknown date. Again - it is well recorded - and a good version with crowd appreciation at the end. But then comes the real prizes - two new versions of people's favourites - "Let's Go Out Tonight" and "Saturday Night". They're called "Vocal 2" in each case and offer early versions of the songs - the "Saturday Night" take in particular hears Buchanan go off into lyric rapping at the end and accentuates the strings throughout - it's properly gorgeous. Joyful surprises...

To sum up - the remaster of the original album is an absolute triumph - 10 out of 10. Ok - the side is let down somewhat by the bare-knuckles packaging and those sloppy omissions on Disc 2 - and it doesn't take a Mensa membership card to work out that the playing times of both discs could have been amalgamated into one (with more added on too) - and the second disc could have been a DVD featuring those rare videos - but - and I must reiterate this - what's on offer is superb - and worth the upgrade.

"Hats" has been name-checked by influential music-industry-types and world-famous musicians for decades now as their 'what to grab when the bomb drops' album - and I'm thrilled to say that this 2CD reissue of it does that affection genuinely proud. Melodious, sad and life affirming - "Hats" is a beautiful thing. And it's just been made better.

Now if we could just get those stroppy Scottish buggers to tour again...

PS: there is also a 2CD Virgin/Linn DELUXE EDITION of "A Walk Across The Rooftops" - their debut album from 1984 - and "Peace At Last" from 1996 (originally on Warner Brothers) - see separate reviews. These are also part of Confetti's 2019 Reissue campaign..

"Two Weeks Last Summer" by DAVE COUSINS of Strawbs – Debut UK Solo Album from September 1972 on A&M Records – Featuring Guests Dave lambert of Strawbs, Miller Anderson of The Keef Hartley Band, Dog Soldier, Hemlock and Savoy Brown, Rick Wakeman of Yes, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, Roger Glover of Deep Purple with Arrangers Tom Newman and Richard Kirby (November 2019 Esoteric 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue In A Card Digipak with Five Bonus Tracks and New DC Liner Notes – Paschal Byrne Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1,990 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
Over 260 Reviews from the discs themselves...

"...Float Away..."

By the time Dave Cousins' first solo album hit UK record emporiums in September 1972 (it had no US equivalent) - the band he was an instrumental part of (STRAWBS) had already released four studio LPs and one live - the last of which "Grave New World" had made their biggest splash to date - hitting a very respectable No. 11 position on the UK album charts after its February 1972 release with over 100,000 units shifted.

The four previous slabs of Folk-Rock/Prog-Rock entertainment from our London heroes - "Strawbs" (May 1969), "Dragonfly" (February 1970), "Just A Collection Of ANTIQUES and CURIOS" (a live set issued Nov 1970) and "From The Witchwood" (November 1971) had all built up a loyal fan following and garnished relatively healthy units for their parent company - A&M Records. 

So it’s a bit odd that this genuine little gem from late 1972 seemed to slither away into obscurity like a wounded dog – especially given some of the serious heavy-hitter Prog Rock names gracing its innards – Rick Wakeman of Yes, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum and Miller Anderson of The Keef Hartley Band, Dog Soldier and Hemlock [later also with Savoy Brown]. It even had arranger heroes like TOM NEWMAN (working on his downtime at night on a little project for Mike Oldfield called "Tubular Bells"), ROBERT KIRBY who had sorted for great artists like Nick Drake, Audience, John Cale, Vashti Bunyan, Andy Roberts and Sandy Denny to name but a few, and his fellow Guitarist mucker from the Strawbs – DAVE LAMBERT. 

Yet when I worked for Reckless Records as a Rarities buyer and all-round original records brainy-type in its busy Berwick Street shop for nearly 20 years of microgroove servitude - "Two Weeks Last Summer" was always a shocker when it turned up in the collection of some poor husband under the wife's 'they go or I go' kosh. This was an album you rarely ever saw – a sure indication that it achieved Zippity doo-dah in sales first time round.

So what a blast in late November 2019 to see Cherry Red's 'Esoteric Recordings' finally give DC’s Folk-Rock nugget the sonic upgrade it’s always deserved, five very cool and usable Bonus Tracks and a wee bit of a tasty digipak presentation into the bargain. Let's mark our festive calendars with the Pye Recording Studio details...

UK released Friday, 29 November 2019 - "Two Weeks Last Summer" by DAVE COUSINS (of The Strawbs) on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2701 (Barcode 5013929480186) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (55:58 minutes):

1. Two Weeks Last Summer [Side 1]
2. October To May
3. Blue Angel (a) Divided (b) Half Worlds Apart (c) At Rest
4. That's The Way It Ends (including "The World")
5. The Actor [Side 2]
6. When You Were A Child
7. Ways And Means
8. We'll Meet Again Sometime
9. Going Home
Tracks 1 to 9 are his debut solo album "Two Weeks Last Summer" - released September 1972 in the UK on A&M Records AMLS 68118 (no US equivalent, but was released in Canada on A&M SP-9008). Produced by DAVE COUSINS and TOM ALLOM - it didn't chart. All songs written by DC except "See How They Run" by DC and Dave Lambert

BONUS TRACKS:
10. The Actor (Alternate Mix)
11. Ways And Means (Alternate Take)
12. I've Been My Own Worst Friend
13. See How They Run (1972 Demo with Dave Lambert)
14. The Rip Off Blues (1972 demo)

Band featured:
DAVE COUSINS [of Strawbs] - Lead Vocals, Guitar and Piano
MILLER ANDERSON [of The Keef Hartley Band, Hemlock, Dog Soldier and Savoy Brown] - Lead Guitar on Tracks 3, 5, 7 and 8
DAVE LAMBERT [of Strawbs] - Guitar on Track 5, Guitar and Harmony Vocals on Track 7
ROGER GLOVER [of Deep Purple] - Bass on Tracks 1, 3, 5 and 7
RICK WAKEMAN [of Yes] - Piano & Organ on Track 3 and Piano on Track 7
JON HISEMAN [of Colosseum] - Drums on Tracks 3, 5 and 7
TOM ALLOM – Producer, Audio Engineer, Organ and Backing Vocals on Track 1
TOM NEWMAN – Backing Vocals on Track 1
ROBERT KIRBY – Arranger on Track 4
THE KIDLINGTON KOSSACKS – Dave Cousins, Tom Newman and Dave Lambert as a ‘Russian Male Voice Choir’ on Track 2

As you can see from the photos I've provided, the inner CD label and gatefold card digipak match the artwork and the 12-page Dave Cousins liner notes (dated September 2019) give a superb recollection of musicians and their contributions. For instance the outtake "The Rip Off Blues" turns out to be about management fees while "Going Home" was an unused Strawbs song that became the one and only 45 from the album ("Going Home" b/w "Ways And Means", September 1972 UK 7" single on A&M Records AMS 7032). You get a Pye Recording Studios tape box and all the relevant (even expanded) album credits. But the big news is a new 2019 Remaster by Audio Engineer PASCHAL BYRNE from original tapes and it sounds stonking. I recall Witchwood Media put out a CD variant in 2004 but I've never had it so can't comment on the Audio - but what we do have here rocks - the usual kind of quality product we've come to expect from Esoteric. And more important to me is that I can sequence out some of the tracks I really hate or can't listen to anymore ("The Actor") and replace them with alternates/outtakes from the five bonus tracks - that for me - makes up the perfect album. To the music...

As you play the opening title track "Two Weeks Last Summer" with its trippy tinkling bells, treated guitars and hazy-lazy blissed out Summer vibe (Roger Glover of Deep Purple fame plays a Fretless Bass through a Wah Wah pedal the new liner notes inform us), it's like you stumbled on the best album The Incredible String Band forgot to make. "Two Weeks Last Summer" is fantastic stuff and many Folk-Rockers will know that on hearing it, none other than Sandy Denny brought it to her new band Fotheringay (having just left Fairport Convention) who covered it for the aborted second album on Island Records that never made its way into the public domain. It would take decades before a truly gorgeous version of it turned up on "Fotheringay 2" with Sandy on Lead Vocals - completed for that project in 2008. Well here's the original in all its 'tinklie' glory.

That's maybe even trumped by the 2:57 minutes of "October To May" that follows, crediting Dave Cousins with The Kidlington Kossacks as the only musicians on the rear sleeve. But his new liner notes of 2019 now tell us that it was the trio of himself, Dave Lambert and Tom Newman who made us the beautiful harmonising 'Russian' male voices (a perfect song follow after the Side 1 opener). You're then hit with the album's big piece - the near ten-minutes of a three-part "Blue Angel". Our DC is standing on the sidelines trying to make out that he wasn't there (in the lyrics) while Miller Anderson's electric lead guitar is given full reign. Colosseum's Jon Hiseman and Purple's Roger Glover bring up the rhythm rear with 'drummer and bassist of the year' aplomb. But its ex Strawbs keyboardist Rick Wakeman's accomplished piano and the half-time pace of the fantastic final section that lift the long piece up into the album's only real moment of Proggy Heaven. A near perfect A-side goes out with the lovely and very English ballad of "That's The Way It Ends including 'The World'" – arranger Robert Kirby giving it that sad but pretty madrigal-feel as the woodwind instruments Morris-float around your speakers.

The horrible Donovan warbling vocals and cod Rock and Roll riffing guitar of "The Actor" (Side 2's opener) has Cousins unwisely sounding like a dejected Peter Gabriel working on a sub-standard Nursery Cryme outtake. Even though it pares down some of the excesses, not even the DC-preferred 'Alternate Mix' in the Bonus Tracks of the awful "Actor" does it for me. I replaced it immediately with the quiet Acoustic prettiness of the LP outtake "I've Been My Own Worst Friend" (the third of the five bonuses) where our hero has no more dreams to weave – a heartbreak divorce ballad that feels like an open wound its so damn stark (in my mind, it would have opened Side 2 with a much more honest statement). With only Cousins on Piano/Vocals accompanied by Miller Anderson on Slide Guitar – they both deftly fill up the "...haven't seen you in a long time" song "We'll Meet Again Sometime" with a musical longing that makes you think of childhood and innocence lost – a very Cat Stevens piano-ballad moment on an album you wouldn't associate such a thing with.

More phased-vocals for the excellent 'river flowing' Progtastic feel to "Ways And Means" - Miller giving it some clever guitar fils while Rick Wakeman plays classy and complimentary on those grand piano keys. We sleeketh home wee timorous beasty with the lovely acoustic vibe of "We'll Meet Again Sometime" - fabulous acoustic slide from Miller while Cousins puts in his best vocal on the album. "...We'll meet again sometime...though the road is very steep and hard to climb..." - the song almost feels like a great long-lost Folk gem that John Martyn wrote circa "Solid Air" and along with the bopping rocker "Going Home" brings a very good LP to a satisfactory end.  For sure the audio to the two 'demo' tracks is hardly audiophile but for Strawbs fans, the harmonising vocals of Cousins and Lambert will be enough to induce flutterings of long-ago warmth while the 30% fee lyrics in "Rip Off Blues" shows DC's seldom seen angry and acidic side.

I've an e-Book I'm unceremoniously proud of called "OVERLOOKED ALBUMS 1955 to 1979" (over 400 entries) and come the latest update baby, Dave Cousins' criminally frozen-out "Two Weeks Last Summer" is in with a bullet. Can it get any better than that peopleoids of Great Britain – I doubt it I says to myself. 

One to check out and well done to all involved...

"The Epic Years 1972-1976" by POCO – Including Five US Albums "A Good Feelin' To Know" (1972 USA, 1973 UK), "Crazy Eyes" (1973), "Poco Seven" and "Cantamos" (1974), "Live" (1976, recorded 1974) Alongside Five Bonus Tracks – Featuring Richie Furay (ex Buffalo Springfield), Paul Cotton (ex Illinois Speed Press), Rusty Young, Timothy B. Schmit (later Eagles) and George Grantham (August 2019 UK HNE Recordings 5CD Mini Clamshell Box set – Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...A Good Feelin' To Know..."

Never as wildly successful or for that matter (IMO) as musically good as their tuneful counterparts EAGLES – yet across five decades now (1969 to 2019) - the American band POCO has nonetheless clawed their Dobro-picking Steel Guitar pickaxe slashing way into the hearts of many a Country-Rock music fan.

And this excellent and rather natty little box set shows us why – containing as it does five albums lifelong fans have loved to distraction (four studio and one live) - boosted by five rare bonus cuts only recently issued in 2015. And the whole brass buttons is available in great audio and cool presentation and for not a lot of wonga either, considering what’s on offer.

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There's a ton of detail to wade through, so let's have at those Driving Wheels, Western Waterloos and Crazy Eyes...

UK released Friday, 30 August 2019 (9 August 2019 in the USA) - "The Epic Years 1972-1976" by POCO on HNE Recordings HNEBOX121 (Barcode 5013929922105) is a 5CD Mini Clamshell Box Set of New Remasters (Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham) offering five albums (four studio and one live) plus five Bonus Tracks and it plays out as follows:

CD1 "A Good Feelin' To Know" (47:35 minutes):

1. And Settlin' Down [Side 1]

2. Ride The Country

3. I Can See Everything

4. Go And Say Goodbye

5. Keeper Of The Flame

6. Early Times [Side 2]

7. A Good Feelin' To Know

8. Restrain

9. Sweet Lovin'

Tracks 1 to 9 are their fifth album "A Good Feelin' To Know" - released November 1972 in the USA on Epic KE 31601 and January 1973 in the UK on Epic Records S EPC 65216

BONUS TRACKS:

10. I Can See Everything [Remix] - first appeared in July 2015 on the 2CD POCO compilation "The Forgotten Trail (1969-1974) on Retroworld/Floating World FLOATD6229 (Barcode 0805772622920)

11. A Good Feelin' To Know [Single Edit] - A-side to a June 1972 US 45 on Epic 5-10890 (3:27 minute edit) with the album track "Early Times" on the B-side - 19 January 1973 UK 7" single on Epic S EPC 8240 with same flip-side

CD2 "Crazy Eyes" (53:56 minutes):

1. Blue Water [Side 1]

2. Fools Gold

3. Here We Go Again

4. Brass Buttons

5. A Right Along

6. Crazy Eyes [Side 2]

7. Magnolia

8. Let's Dance Tonight

Tracks 1 to 8 are their sixth album "Crazy Eyes" - released September 1973 in the USA on Epic Records KE 32354 and November 1973 UK on Epic Records S EPC 65631.

BONUS TRACKS:

9. Nothin's Still The Same [Remix]

10. Get In The Wind [Remix]

11. Believe Me [Remix]

Tracks 9 to 11 first appeared in July 2015 on the 2CD POCO compilation "The Forgotten Trail (1969-1974) on Retroworld/Floating World FLOATD6229 (Barcode 0805772622920)

CD3 "Poco Seven" (35:57 minutes):

1. Drivin' Wheel [Side 1]

2. Rocky Mountain Hoedown

3. Just Call My Name

4. Skatin'

5. Faith In The Families [Side 2]

6. Krikkit's Song (Passing Through)

7. Angel

8. You've Got Your Reasons

Tracks 1 to 8 are their seventh album "Poco Seven" - released May 1974 in the USA on Epic Records KE 32895 and June 1974 in the UK on Epic Records S EPC 80082.

CD4 "Cantamos" (36:44 minutes):

1. Sagebrush Serenade [Side 1]

2. Susannah

3. High And Dry

4. Western Waterloo

5. One Horse Blue [Side 2]

6. Bitter Blue

7. Another Time Around

8. Whatever Happened To Your Smile

9. All The Ways

Tracks 1 to 9 are their eight album "Cantamos" (Spanish for "We Sing" - released November 1974 in the USA on Epic PE 33192 and December 1974 in the UK on Epic S EPC 80595

CD5 "Live" (38:20 minutes):

1. Medley: Blue Water/Fools Gold/Rocky Mountain Hoedown [Side 1]

2. Bad Weather

3. Ride The Country

4. Angel [Side 2]

5. High And Dry

6. Restraint

7. A Good Feelin' To Know

Tracks 1 to 7 are "Live" - their second live album and eleventh album overall - released March 1976 in the USA on Epic Records PE 33336 and in the UK on Epic EPC 80705. 

The mini clamshell box set is pretty to look at and the 16-page booklet with MALCOLM DOME liner notes contains all the data and discography info a body would need - including page photographs of the inner gatefold for "A Good Feelin' To Know" LP, the back sleeve of "Crazy Eyes", the inner for "Seven" and so on.  The band featured RICHIE FURAY [ex Buffalo Springfield], PAUL COTTON [ex Illinois Speed Press], RUSTY YOUNG, TIMOTHY B. SCHMIT [later with The Eagles] and GEORGE GRANTHAM. The five single card sleeves are nice (each CD label is unfortunately a generic HNE Recordings logo instead of the original American labels) but the real news is AUDIO from two fave engineers of mine - ANDY PEARCE and MATT WORTHAM. After the ever so slight crudity of "A Good Feelin' To Know" - Jack Richardson's Production values seemed to settle down and from "Crazy Eyes" onwards - the Audio is great - really clean and expressive ("Poco Seven" and "Cantamos" too). To the music...

Richie Furay provided "And Settlin' Down", "A Good Feelin' To Know" and "Sweet Lovin'" for the debut while their other lead vocalist and songwriter Paul Cotton stumped up "Ride The Country", "Early Times" and "Keeper Of The Fire". Balladeer Timothy B. Schmit threw in "I Can See Everything" and "Restraint" with "Go And Say Goodbye" being a rather workmanlike cover of a Buffalo Springfield song penned by Stephen Stills. The funny thing about "...Good Feelin'..." is that the band somehow considered it better than "Crazy Eyes" because Furay was still on-board with the band - his contributions to the follow-up "Crazy Eyes" being entirely contractual.

But for me the production values of "Crazy Eyes" and the fact that Furay's departure seems to have woken up the other songwriters by virtue of necessity see stunners like the Eagles Country-Rock speaker-to-speaker panned guitars of "Blue Water" vie for attention with the first of two really good covers - Gram Parsons heartbreaker "Brass Buttons" and the gorgeous melody of J.J. Cale's "Magnolia". But for me the winner has always been the extraordinary 9:37 minutes of the Side 2 opener and album title track "Crazy Eyes". I've often wondered was Randy Meisner listening to this when he did his similar track "Journey of The Sorcerer" on the Eagles 1975 album "One Of These Nights". Poco's "Crazy Eyes" throws in everything - strings, banjos, steel and electric guitars, drum rhythms and an epic-ness that they never again achieved nor attempted. And those five bonus tracks are shockingly good - especially the remix of Schmit's "I Can See Everything" which irons out some of the originals rougher instrumentation edges.

There's amazing audio quality on the slide guitar for "Angel" from "Poco Seven" but the "Krikkit's Song..." from Schmit feels cheesy - things redeemed by the lovely acoustic guitars within 'You've Got Your Reasons".  The "live" set is a weird one - recorded across 3 dates in November 1974 on the "Cantamos" tour - "Live" was belatedly released by Epic to spite the band for defecting to ABC Records. When Poco felt Epic no longer had their backs (which they didn't) and left for a new label and a new beginning - when they released the July 1975 and May 1976 albums "Head Over Heels" and "Rose Of Cimarron" (firm fan faves) - Epic went head-to-head by also releasing a double-album "Very Best Of" in July 1975 to try to steal the thunder from their "Head Over Heels" album. "Live" warmed up fans only weeks before "Rose Of Cimarron". That notwithstanding - the band's performance in those Yale University gigs (9, 28 and 29 Nov 1974) is that of a well-oiled machine - one of the LP's track titles being ignored by a petulant Epic Records - "Restraint".

It's not all banjo-yee-haw genius for sure, but Poco's "The Epic Years 1972-1976" is nicely presented and combined with the great new Audio, quantity of material and tasty extras actually worthy of the moniker 'bonus' - will have the Poco nut in your home feelin' real good this festive holiday...