Cosmic jig (Southern Comfort) (LP 3842 - 3844)

Southern Comfort  Frog City (Vinyl, Harvest Records, 1971) ***  

Southern Comfort  Southern Comfort (Vinyl, Harvest Records, 1971) *** 

Southern Comfort  Distilled (Vinyl, Harvest Records, 1976) ****   

Genre: Country rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Dreadful Ballad of Willie Hurricane (Frog City)

Gear costume: I Sure Like Your Smile (Frog City)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: This band is often belittled as a footnote to Matthew's Southern Comfort (which only lasted a year) and Ian Matthews as, 'three more albums were released by the band under the name Southern Comfort in the early 1970s'. That's a shame because the wonderful country rock that Ian Matthews launched in the UK is carried on heroically by Southern Comfort (who lasted for two years).

Frog City was the first of their efforts of 1971 and Southern Comfort was their second of 1971.  Those first two years of the seventies saw a real outpouring of creativity. Both albums are crammed with great country rock - gentle harmonies, pedal steel and dobro. What's not to love?

Distilled is a compilation that has songs for each of their three albums*. It acts as a great sampler of their strengths.

Where do they all belong?  *Their third album - Stir Don't Shake of 1972 has been on my wants list for a long time.