While Universal's budget-priced best-of series, 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, is welcome for introducing inexpensive compilations of a wide range of recording artists, it also complicates things for consumers when an act already has one or more collections currently in the marketplace. A good example is Joe Walsh. Walsh originally gained renown in 1969 as a member of the James Gang, which recorded for ABC Records, the catalog for which is now controlled by Universal and released through MCA Records.
While Universal's budget-priced best-of series, 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, is welcome for introducing inexpensive compilations of a wide range of recording artists, it also complicates things for consumers when an act already has one or more collections currently in the marketplace. A good example is Joe Walsh. Walsh originally gained renown in 1969 as a member of the James Gang, which recorded for ABC Records, the catalog for which is now controlled by Universal and released through MCA Records.
Barnstorm, Joe Walsh's first solo album after leaving the James Gang, garnered him fame not only as a guitarist but also as a songwriter. While it's true that Walsh established himself as a late-'60s/early-'70s guitar hero on the Gang's more boogie-oriented rock numbers, it's Walsh's love of lushly textured production and spacy, open-ended songs featuring both acoustic and electric guitars that is showcased here on this wildly adventurous and forgotten, unqualified masterpiece…
The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get is the second album by Joe Walsh and his band Barnstorm, released in 1973, although the album's front cover (right) credits only Walsh. It proved to be his commercial breakthrough, largely on the strength of the Top 40 hit single, "Rocky Mountain Way", which helped propel the album into the Top 10.
The Gang's classic Funk #49 plus Take a Look Around; Tend My Garden; Collage; Ashes, the Rain and I; Walk Away; Midnight Man; Mother Says; Rocky Mountain Way; Meadows; Turn to Stone, and more. 18 tracks!
Barnstorm is the first album by Joe Walsh following his departure from the James Gang, released in October 1972. The core band on this album – Walsh, bassist Kenny Passarelli and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale – was also named Barnstorm. It was the first album to be recorded at Caribou Ranch in Colorado.
Recorded live just before Joe Walsh joined up with the Eagles full-time, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind contains six of Walsh's better-known songs. Things start off with his last hit with the James Gang, "Walk Away," and then the album makes its way through "Meadows" and 18 minutes of "Rocky Mountain Way." The crowd loved it…