All my Sons

Earache Records is nominally a label devoted to death metal, but anyone who buys Rival Sons' Pressure & Time expecting an album in that style is likely to be disappointed, just as any rock fan who avoids it with the same expectation will be missing out. The Los Angeles quartet consisting of singer Jay Buchanan, guitarist Scott Holiday, bassist Robin Everhart, and drummer Mike Miley doesn't play death metal, though its music might be called early or pre-metal. Simply put, Rival Sons are a power trio plus singer in the traditional style, who might have made this album after listening to the first Led Zeppelin LP over and over for a day or two.

The fifth full-length by American hard rock outfit Rival Sons retains the continuity of its relationship with producer Dave Cobb and sleeve artist Storm Thorgerson. There's more texture on this set, and tighter songwriting. Of nine tunes, eight are orignals. The two-part title track is raved-up, riff-laden, blues vamp crunch, while "Thundering Voices" weaves spacy psych with Led Zeppelin thunder. A gritty cover of Humble Pie's iconic "Black Coffee" (written by Ike & Tina Turner), delivers an R&B dimension we've not heard from them before.

The Sons of Champlin released three albums on Capitol Records between 1969 and 1971 (Loosen Up Naturally, The Sons, and Follow Your Heart), none of which was a commercial hit for various reasons, but not for lack of musical quality. This 78-minute CD makes a reasonable selection of the highlights from those LPs, demonstrating that at their best, the Sons were a collection of talented musicians who packed their songs full of good solos that grew out of complicated arrangements. Although they were a part of the psychedelic San Francisco scene of the time, their music never quite fit the mold, leaning much more toward jazz and R&B than, say, the Grateful Dead. the Sons played instruments including saxophones and a vibraphone, not otherwise typical of the San Francisco Sound, and they were less interested in songs than in creating platforms for soloing. They might start a tune like "Love of a Woman" as a gentle, romantic ballad with an acoustic guitar, but midway through that would suddenly give way to a jazzy instrumental section in a different time signature, return to the ballad, then again go off into jazz.

This 2014 three-fer contains Loosen Up Naturally, The Sons, and Follow Your Heart, the albums the Sons of Champlin recorded between 1969 and 1971. These are also the Sons' first three albums and it's possible to hear them stretch out with each subsequent record, deepening their grooves, highlighting their jazz inflections, and eventually folding in a rather smooth, sun-kissed gloss. Unlike many of their San Franciscan brethren, they weren't particularly hard-edged or Dionysian: they had a stronger sense of soul and rhythm, they reveled in feel over texture. This can mean that all three of these records meander a bit – songwriting wasn't a Sons specialty – but there's an open-hearted attitude to the trinity that remains appealing.

2020 live EP release. To commemorate the second anniversary of their fourth studio album Delta, Mumford & Sons is sharing the Delta Tour EP featuring live performances from the Delta World Tour.

Recorded in Bruce Walford's studio in San Anselmo, this album sees the Sons in transition. Tim Cain, the sax player who co-founded the band with Bill Champlin back in 1965, had left, as had trumpet player Jim Beem. The stripped down band has an opportunity to stretch out on a number of fine Bill Champlin compositions, and the album also features the recorded debut of Terry Haggerty's "Follow Your Heart", a tune that would stay in the band's set list until Haggerty's departure in 2001 (a more polished version of the tune appeared on the out of print Circle of Love album, and there is a great performance on The Sons Live CD released in 1997). Soon after the release of this album Bill Champlin took the first of his sabaticals from the group, returning to a new rhythm section and a revised name (Yogi Phlegm) several months later. Not quite as good as Welcome to the Dance, this album still cooks pretty hard and is definitely worth a listen.