Ever since the Beatles first gave folks the idea that a rock star is supposed to be able to sing, play, and write songs with equal skill, fans have expected musicians to be all-purpose point men (or women), but the sad truth is that not every talented person in rock & roll was cut out to be a bandleader. Nils Lofgren is a good example of this notion in action; Lofgren is a demon guitar player and he can knock out a good song every once in a while, but his singing is OK though not great and a long, hard look at his body of work confirms that he's always shone brighter backing up the likes of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen than he has by his lonesome. Favorites 1990-2005 is primarily drawn from Lofgren's two studio albums for Rykodisc, 1991's Silver Lining and 1992's Crooked Line, with some live tracks and unreleased demos…
Ex Grin member Lofgren’s 1977 double live album for A&M Records. Lofgren’s stage shows were always a high point and this recording captured the moment well, featuring such favourites as ‘Keith Don’t Go’ and ‘I Came To Dance’. The album charted on both sides of the Atlantic. Up until the Covid lockdowns, Lofgren had been busy gigging and recording. Digitally remastered.
It's been a busy couple of years for rocker Nils Lofgren: between recording albums for Neil Young alongside Rick Rubin, and finishing his own new effort – Mountains – Nils recently joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street on an extensive world tour. While his own tour to promote Mountains has been put on hold, fans won’t have to wait long to hear the new album. On Mountains, Nils moves seamlessly between bluesy and straight-ahead rockers and tender ballads as only he can, all treated with his trademark attention to sonic detail, and unmistakable vocals and guitar. Mountains contains Nils' adept story telling at its finest, with 9 brand new originals and a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Back In Your Arms’.
Nils Lofgren has a story unlike any other in rock & roll. Something of a teenage rock & roll prodigy, he first made waves when he played on Neil Young's After the Gold Rush at the tender age of 17, just around the time his D.C.-based band Grin relocated to Los Angeles in hopes of hitting the big time. Grin never became stars, but Lofgren did. His association with Young provided a launch pad for a solo career that was acclaimed and fitfully commercially successful, with the late-'70s albums Cry Tough, I Came to Dance, and Night After Night all making waves in album rock…
Spectrum Music, a British division of PolyGram devoted to budget-priced compilations of material from the major label's vaults, is responsible for this CD-length collection drawn from the fourth Grin album, 1973's Gone Crazy (the other three were on Spindizzy and now are owned by Sony), and bandleader Nils Lofgren's first five solo albums: Nils Lofgren (1975), Cry Tough (1976), I Came to Dance (1977), the live Night After Night (1977), and Nils (1979), all of which were released originally on A&M Records. Since no chart singles emerged from these LPs, there isn't any objective criterion for what might constitute the best of them, though a subjective consensus of Grin/Lofgren fans no doubt would agree with the inclusion of the Keith Richards tribute "Keith Don't Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin)," "Back It Up," and "The Sun Hasn't Set on This Boy Yet," all from Nils Lofgren.