SCOTTS HIDDEN TREASURES #28

This weeks posting is influenced by the passing of two greats in Classic Rock. Gerry Rafferty and Phil Kennemore. They get the encore for this list!

This week finds me getting back into the swing of work, and the normal routine we all have to deal with. So of course, my player was all over the place!

Hear what I mean?

TITLE: Sugar Blues
BAND: Thin Lizzy
ALBUM: Chinatown
YEAR: 1980
Cool band. I'm a Chinatown fan! And Ive been reconnecting with their early 80's releases lately, not sure why its been so long since Ive pulled these guys out, but it wont be long before the next time I do, I guarantee that!

TITLE: Nothin' Else I Can Do
BAND: The Alliance
ALBUM: The Road To Heaven
YEAR: 2008
The Alliance is a band/project comprised of Robert Berry, Alan Fitzgerald, David Lauser, and Gary Pihl. I just come across these guys last year and can truly say I've found a real hidden treasure!

TITLE: Runaway Fool Of Love
BAND: John Stewart
ALBUM: Bombs Away Dream Babies
YEAR: 1979
See if you can guess whose providing backup guitar and vocals work? This is acutally a pretty cool litte tune! Ive always loved this album, it has all sorts of strange things on it, which suits me just fine!

TITLE: Dead
BAND: Union
ALBUM: The Blue Room
YEAR: 2000
A very interesting band and very cool album. Corabi and Kulick, two replacement players in huge bands formed this band, and went unnoticed! Thats a shame!

TITLE: Flyin'
BAND: Prism
ALBUM: See Forever Eyes
YEAR: 1978
A really cool album title IMO (hmmm, theres an idea!) I know Prism hasnt went over too well on my lists, but since when has that stopped me before? haha

TITLE: Anything You Say
BAND: Rik Emmett
ALBUM: The Spiral Notebook
YEAR: 1996
Pretty cool concept for an album from a great guitarist! It's a mellow listen but he has a knack for writing a great tune!

TITLE: Higher Place
BAND: Journey
ALBUM: Arrival
YEAR: 2001
This album is so full of hooks its just silly. I think Jon recently said somewhere that he had a song off this album that was stuck in his head. Well, heres the one that's stuck in mine right now...

TITLE: Livin' On My Own
BAND: Ambrosia
ALBUM: One-Eighty
YEAR: 1980
With all the guilty pleasure talk this past week or so, it was inevitable that Ambrosia would make an appearance on Hidden Treasures.

TITLE: City To City
BAND: Gerry Rafferty
ALBUM: City To City
YEAR: 1978
Two sad passing's this past week, and I'm gonna end with a track for each one of them...

TITLE: Fly Away
BAND: Y&T
ALBUM: Musically Incorrect
YEAR: 1995
And the encore goes to Phil Kennemore. RIP!

HERES YOUR LINK

http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/c257f6854449a3a8a4e078524a204198

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Permalink Reply by Jon on January 10, 2011 at 5:00pm

Sigh. I get caught up, and you toss some more in.

Alliance--Doesn't it seem that the keyboards are way out front in the mix? And wasn't Alan Fitzgerald the keyboardist for Night Ranger? Songs allright. but the keyboards really bugged me.

John Stewart--I'm guessing backup by B&N. And it does sound a bit like FM.

Union--Heard of 'em, never picked anything up. Songs pretty good, a little bit more on the pop side tha what I would have expected.

Prism--No matter what song you post, I get sleepy. Prism is a sleepy-time band. Sounds like old Styx here, but Styx really never put me to sleep....unless listening to "The Grand Illusion".

Rik Emmett--I continued to sleep. Sorry, just couldn't get into it.

Journey--Yep that was me, the song was "All The Things" that immediately comes to mind when mention is made of this album. This song isn't bad, but didn't grab me the way the aforementioned one did.

Ambrosia--This is the mellow Ambrosia, the guilty pleasure Ambrosia, the radio friendly Ambrosia. And, I don't think he his, but it sounds like Michael McDonald and I'll go on record here saying that his backup vocals on any song annoy me for some reason. This isn't a bad song, but I like their prog stuff better.

Of course I have nothing to say but good stuff on Thin Lizzy, shame that it's a much-maligned album for some reason. And like the two tribute picks, may Phil and Gerry both RIP.

I like "Musically Incorrect" from Y&T, an album full of different musical styles, up to that point their best album since "Mean Streak".

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Permalink Reply by Scott on January 10, 2011 at 5:27pm

Aside from The Alliance, and Night Ranger, Alan Fitzgerald also played in Montrose, Sammy Hagar and Gamma. He seems to pop up all over the place. I may post a more guitar driven track on a much later SHT list, the albums pretty good actually.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on January 10, 2011 at 6:56pm

And, if rumor is fact, supposedly he was behind the stage doing keyboards on the last Van Halen tour.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on January 11, 2011 at 11:36am

I'm thinking like Jon (I think), that the backing vocals for Runaway Fool Of Love are performed by Buck/Ni....is that correct? I liked that one.

I'm also on the same page with Jon on Prism. Just can't get it myself. But were they sampling The Grand Illusion? I heard the exact same keyboards in parts of the song.

I liked the Journey song. Is that Agueri? He sounds more like Steve Perry to me than Arnel. For some reason, his vocals sound a little more muffled though, I wonder why. I like that he doesn't have the accent that Arnel has. They should have kept this dude.

The Ambrosia song was just okay. But unlike Jon, I like Michael McDonald on backing vocals. But they are usually easy to pick out, no really so in this case.

Love the guitar playing on the Thin Lizzy track, that one is new to me.

Good job picking some real hidden stuff here Scott.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on January 11, 2011 at 12:20pm

Yup, its unmistakeably Buckingham/Nicks. That John Stewart album is full of quirky songs which for the most part really work well. Its the only one I like from him.

It is Augeri, but I thought his voice had medical problems and that's why they dumped him, I could be wrong though. I am not convinced that Arnel will be an answer for them yet either.

I pulled that Ambrosia track because, a) I like it, and b) It was something nobody was expecting to hear. Musically I think its one of their best tracks, although I would agree with Jon, it is the Guilty Pleasure version on Ambrosia and not the cool prog band you would hear on albums like their debut and Road Island...

Thanks for the feedback?