Bright lights and country music (Rick Nelson) (LP 340 - 341)

Rick Nelson Country (Vinyl, MCA, 1973) **
Rick Nelson and The Stone Canyon Band Windfall (Vinyl, MCA, 1974) ***

Genre:  American pop/rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (Windfall); Vinyl Countdown in New Plymouth (Country)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Legacy; One Night Stand






Gear costume:  Mystery Train (on Country); Don't Leave Me Here (on Windfall)

Active compensatory factors:  The double Country album is a compilation of two albums - Country Fever and Bright Lights And Country Music. Those two came out in 1966 and 1967 and are a long way from his early seventies country rock style with The Stone Canyon Band.

Not to say there aren't some worthwhile moments on the double album but it feels rather tentative. Without a regular band behind him, there's a tendency to slick and soulless session versions compared to the Stone Canyon albums.

Windfall followed the breakout Garden Party album and was the last of the four albums that combined the two parties.

That laid back Nelson sound when aligned with some tasteful steel guitar is hard to beat. He's less successful, in my view, on the more rock styled songs. The exception is the boogie shuffle of Wild Nights In Tulsa.

Where do they all belong? The CD collection has more Rick and more of him with the The Stone Canyon Band.