#the souther-hillman-furay band

[krispyweiss]

Eighty Candles for Richie Furay

Richie Furay may not be a household name, but virtually everyone knows two of the bands he co-founded.

Born May 9, 1944, the country-rock-pioneer-turned-pastor and co-founder of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band turns 80 today and preparing to retire from live performance, bringing his all-important, but criminally under-appreciated music career to a close.

A strong rhythm guitarist gifted with a smooth tenor, Furay found himself holding the middle between Stephen Stills and Neil Young and singing such Young compositions as “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” and “On the Way Home” after label execs balked at Young’s voice.

And it was for Springfield that Furay wrote his signature song, “Kind Woman,” a tune that played at the Sound Biteses’ wedding and that serves as the blog’s daily wake-up music.

From Springfield, it was on to Poco, a band that, along with the latter-day Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, basically invented country rock. No surprise, then, that Furay eventually wound up in SHF, with J.D. Souther and Chris Hillman, the latter a Byrd and a Burrito.

Furay should be more famous than he is, but he seems to have found a contended life in his church while making occasional forays into the temples of music lovers. As one of his famous ex-bandmates once said: long may he run.

5/9/24

[joegramoe]

Bidin' my time

Chris Hillman

Survivor by Lori Stoll

[1264doghouse]

Souther Hillman Furay Band: Paul Harris, Chris Hillman, JD Souther, Richie Furay & Al Perkins.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Aw, man...JD Souther! He was THE songwriter of SO many songs! Linda Ronstadt's boyfriend for awhile...led that phenomenal "supergroup" The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, two albums and more incredible songs.

Linda Ronstadt based SEVERAL albums on his tunes..."Prisoner In Disguise" was a high point. Used to play that one at solo gigs...Souther's tunes were PRIME "guy with an acoustic guitar and a hurt heart" songs.

Damn. Watchin' all your used-to-be-heroes all die off does somethin' to you.

[pennstateuniversitypress]

Q&A with Thomas M. Kitts

The author of Keep On Believin': The Life and Music of Richie Furay discusses Furay's place in rock music, how religion impacted his career, and more.

What makes Richie Furay a significant figure in rock music?

Furay is perhaps the foremost pioneer of country-rock. His vision to fuse the two genres started to take shape in Buffalo Springfield with “A Child’s Claim to Fame” off the band’s second album Buffalo Springfield Again (1967) and “Kind Woman” off the band’s final album Last Time Around (1968). As soon as Buffalo Springfield ended, Furay, along with Jim Messina, formed Poco, initially called Pogo, with the intention of fusing rock music with country. Poco featured a pedal steel guitar player in their lineup, one of the first rock bands, along with the Flying Burrito Brothers, to do so. At one point before they began recording, Poco and the Burritos, who featured Richie’s friend Gram Parsons, considered merging, but they decided the personnel decisions would have been too complex. You can hear Furay’s influence in artists like Pure Prairie League, Vince Gill, George Strait, Uncle Tupelo, and in much of the music today labeled as alt-country and outlaw country. From the stage, at one Eagles show in Denver, Glenn Frey saluted Furay, who was in the audience: “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be here.”

Did Furay's conversion to Christianity impact his career?

It is debatable and unmeasurable. Wayne Robins, editor of Creem from 1971–1975, did not think Furay’s Christianity hurt his career. “I don’t think anyone really cared about his religious convictions,” said Robins. “Everyone seemed to be a spiritual seeker of some sort.” But Peter Knobler, editor of Crawdaddy from 1972–1979, disagreed. “I think record companies didn’t know what to do with him.” Richie agrees with Knobler and believes his solo records after his conversion were not adequately promoted. In fact, David Geffen, who was a Furay fan and who signed Richie, told him, “You’re not going to give me any of that Jesus music, are you?” The resulting album featured veiled references to Christianity, but never used the words “Christ” or “Jesus” in the lyrics. I think Furay’s Christianity hurt his career. For a rock artist, especially in the early 1970s, it was important to be “hip” or “cool.” Even though there was a large Jesus movement among young people at the time, Christianity was not perceived as “cool” or “exotic” in the same way as other spiritual movements. Even though Furay recorded some wonderful songs on his solo albums from 1976 until 1982, they received little promotion and, consequently, little airplay. Songs like “Look at the Sun,” “I Still Have Dreams,” “Yellow Moon Rising,” and others deserved more attention and still do.

Why has Furay not reached the same level of fame as some of his bandmates?

Furay has certainly worked with some famous bandmates: Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Jim Messina of Loggins and Messina, Randy Meisner of the Eagles, J. D. Souther, Chris Hillman, and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles. What Richie and Poco needed in the late 1960s or 1970s was a hit single or a signature FM song. It would have changed his career trajectory. It would have brought attention to him and the album that featured the song—then listeners would have explored his back catalogue, which is very strong. Hit singles or, at that time, signature FM songs had a snowball effect. Besides gaining the artist larger record sales and larger concert audiences, the record company would invest more money into the artist’s next tour and album. A hit song changed an artist’s life and career. Furay and Poco had several candidates for hits: “A Good Feelin’ to Know,” “Let’s Dance,” “Just for Me and You,” and the song that gives this book its title, “Keep on Believin’.” But hit singles or signature songs are not easily manufactured and their success is unpredictable, arbitrary.

Keep On Believin': The Life and Music of Richie Furay is now available from Penn State University Press. Learn more and order the book here: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09523-3.html. Save 30% w/ discount code NR23.

[parkerbombshell]

Rules Free Radio Sept 17 2024

Tuesdays 2pm - 5pm  EST Rules Free Radio With Steve  Caplan bombshellradio.com On this week's Rules Free Radio with Steve Caplan, we'll hear new music from The Armoires, Robyn Hitchcock, James Clark Institute, The Grip Weeds, The Peawees, The New Bardots, Chapel of Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Suburban Key Party, Nick Piunti & The Complicated Men, Cumgirl8, Nilufer Yanya, Mark Rogers, London Grammar, one from an extensive new 8 CD box set by Faces of their BBC performances, and a couple more new ones. Classics and in-betweens by Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac, Hindu Love Gods, The Lemonheads, The Chambers Brothers, Eurythmics, Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Electric Flag, Bill Withers, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Bedouin, and more. In the third hour, we’ll pay tribute to a prolific songwriter, JD Souther. He wrote and co-wrote songs I’m sure you’ll remember. He collaborated with The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, and others including the Souther Hillman Furay band, and he produced some fine albums of his own. We’ll hear a cross-section of his work. The Lemonheads - Into Your Arms James Clark Institute - Black Licorice, Red Lips The Chambers Brothers - Love Is All I Have Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret Robyn Hitchcock - I Can Hear The Grass Grow The Armoires - You Oughta Be Cut In Half The Grip Weeds - Strange Bird The Peawees - She Cries As She Kills Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Having An Average Weekend The New Bardots - Athena Chapel of Roses - It's Not Nothing Franz Ferdinand - Audacious Suburban Key Party - Beautiful Nick Piunti & The Complicated Men - Mind Reader Lear Haven - Soulbreaker Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well (Pt. 1 & 2) Cumgirl8 - Ahhhh!hhhh! (I Don't Wanna Go) Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Nilufer Yanya - Ready for Sun (Touch) Bedouin - Rise and Fall London Grammar - LA Nina Simone - I Can't See Nobody Faces - You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) Otis Redding - Hard To Handle Night Beats - Thank You Electric Flag - Sunny Tindersticks - Don't Walk, Run Bill Withers - Moanin' and Groanin' The Soul of John Black - Scandalous (No. 9) Linda Ronstadt w/ J.D.Souther - Hearts Against The Wind Raul Malo - You're Only Lonely J.D. Souther - New Kid In Town Bruce Springsteen Patti Scialfa - Linda Paloma Linda Ronstadt - Faithless Love The Eagles - The Sad Cafe James Taylor w/ J.D. Souther - Her Town Too Mark Rogers - It's Plain to See (I've Been Blind) Robin Zander - I've Always Got You Souther Hillman Furay Band - Fallin' In Love The Eagles - James Dean J.D. Souther - Dance Real Slow J.D. Souther - This House Read the full article

[cptnbeefheart]

border town souther hillman furay band save me

[vufcup]

#tbt to my extremely short stint in the Souther-Hillman-Furry Band. i looked the part, but they decided they needed a Furay instead. *sigh* (at Santa Clarita, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnyokfrOIDu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[visfar-the-101]

Souther-Hillman-Furay Band

[krispyweiss]

J.D. Souther Dies at 78

- Singer/songwriter co-founded Souther-Hillman-Furay Band; collaborated with Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Weir and others

J.D. Souther, the singer/singwriter who co-founded the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band and collaborated with Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Weir and others, has died at 78.

“On behalf of Team J.D., we are sad to share this news with all of you,” read a post on Souther’s social media pages that linked to a Los Angeles Times story that did not specify a date or cause of his death.

“J.D. Souther was a friend, and so talented,” Carole King said in a statement. “We’ll miss him.”

The co-writer of such songs as the Eagles’ “New Kid in Town” and “Heartache Tonight” and Ronstadt’s “Faithless Love,” Souther also contributed songs to Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, George Strait and the Dixie Chicks.

“I knew J.D. for 54 years and we were best of friends all that time,” fellow songwriter Jack Tempchin said. “It really hurts to lose him.”

In 1973, Souther teamed with former Byrd/Flying Burrito Brother Chris Hillman and Buffalo Springfield co-founder Richie Furay to form their self-titled trio.

“J.D. was one of contemporary music’s most-gifted songwriters,” Furay said in a statement. “I am very thankful for the time we had together on this part of life's journey.”

Souther kept working through the decades, recently co-writing and appearing on stage with Weir and preparing a solo tour for later this year and another with Karla Bonoff in 2025.

“JD was a remarkable talent, and his contributions to music are immeasurable,” Stephen Bishop said. “He will be sorely missed, but his legacy will live on in the hearts of those who knew and loved him.”

9/18/24

[sorcjapan]

【今日のレコード】BANG/same

【今日のレコード】BANG/same ちょっと自分に気合を入れたくなって、今日はスカっとそしてガツンと元気を出させてくれるハードロック！！

【今日のレコード】BANG/same サバス・ライクと形容されるUSハードロックトリオ、バン！の1stです。ギターがカッチョよくベースもブンブン、ハイトーンのヴォーカルに気分もスカっとします。イギリスのバンドにはない違うカラっとした感じもグッド♪政治と宗教、宗教とジェンダーとか今まで知らなかった事も沢山あってワタシも頑張らなきゃ！？みたいな気分ですが、ガッツあるハードロックでガツンと自分にも気合を入れていきたいなと。暑さしのぎにも熱めのHRを是非！ ☆こちらの商品は携帯サイトBASEから!!商品詳細→…

[csny]

Souther-Hillman-Furay Band

Photos by Henry Diltz

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Lefsetz Letter: Richie Furay in Beaver Creek

[ptsd ed note: this brought me to tears several times. Old Buffalo Springfield/Poco/SoutherHillmanFuray head. But Mr. Leftsetz hit more emotional buttons than those...please read.]

Richie Furay in Beaver Creek

1

It was my generation.

And I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.

It's not like the old days, there's so much activity in the mountains in the summer you'd almost think you were living in the city. Subsidized performing arts centers, name talent, and a ton of semi or non-talent, you open the "Vail Daily" and there's an endless list.

And there's a free concert series in Beaver Creek every week, Andy said he went to see Asia there, without one original member.

Richie Furay is the genuine article. With a pedigree. The only guy with that high a profile who didn't break through to stardom. You had Stephen Stills and Neil Young and Jim Messina in Buffalo Springfield. The Eagles expanded on that sound. Furay ultimately teamed with Chris Hillman and J.D. Souther in the ill-fated Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, but the act broke up because Richie's wife told him it was either her or the band, and Richie chose her. The scuttlebutt was that it was J.D. who broke up the act, but Richie told me he was checked out during the recording of the act's aptly-named second LP, "Trouble In Paradise," which was released with a whimper.

But that first Souther-Hillman-Furay Band album, I played the sh*t out of it. I recorded it for a cross-country drive. I remember this fisherman singing "Border Town" as he skied the bumps at Alta, I was stunned he knew it, I thought it was more of a secret, then again, the album did go gold.

And in the middle, of course, there was Poco. Richie's band that never lived up to its rep commercially until he left.

And there you have it. Rock history, FROM FIFTY YEARS AGO! That's right,

Richie Furay is eighty. Doesn't look it, but the stunning thing is he still has his voice. And he played acoustically with his daughter on backup vocals and a young guitarist and the harmonies...were better than Crosby, Stills & Nash's ever were. Oh, those albums were sweet, but live, at Woodstock, on "4 Way Street," I thought it was nearly impossible to get three part harmony right live until I saw Yes, which wasn't known for harmony, but nailed it nonetheless.

I mean all these years later, Richie still has it.

But it is all these years later. Now the thing about these free shows, on the ice rink in the village of Beaver Creek, is people get there early, to set up chairs, to be close.

And they were all of my vintage.

And they knew who Richie Furay was.

I saw a woman dancing and singing to the heavens along with "A Good Feelin' to Know" and that's when I realized, they'd lived through the era just like me, when music was everything, when of course you knew the hits, but also the music of the quality acts you heard occasionally on FM, but never on AM.

The initial Poco album is a classic, "Pickin' Up the Pieces," which got great reviews when it came out but was dwarfed by Crosby, Stills & Nash. There was a trade, Epic got Richie and Atlantic got Crosby and Nash and...Furay believes if Poco had been on Atlantic things would have worked out differently. Then again, Leslie West believed if his manager didn't nix his appearance in the Woodstock movie, he would have become legendary. And the truth is Mountain was pretty big in its era, but now the band is almost completely forgotten, I don't hear about young people streaming Mountain songs.

And I don't hear about them streaming Poco songs either.

2

I initially stopped after "From the Inside." It was clear, the band was never going to break through. I was stunned when it ultimately did, when it moved over to ABC from Epic, but by then Rusty Young was a lead vocalist, which was unfathomable to early fans of the band. And I love "Heart of the Night," and "Crazy Love" is a staple, but no one ever talks about the opening track on the first ABC album "Head Over Heels," entitled "Keep On Tryin'," composed and sung by Timothy B. Schmit with a voice so pure so airy so right sans commercial success it's no wonder Timothy B. ultimately decamped for the Eagles.

So back in '65, after a Vermont washout over Christmas, my parents took us to the Concord, where no snow would not nix a good time. I skied three of the four days, the fourth it rained, and one of the perks of the hotel, other than endless food, was nightclub entertainment, and the star was Neil Sedaka, who was by this time a has-been. We had no idea who he was. We were all Beatlemaniacs. This was my first exposure to someone touring after their prime. It was kind of creepy, then again, who would have expected that Sedaka would have a comeback in the seventies!

At the time of that show, Sedaka was twenty five. Over the hill.

And there were all the acts my parents talked about, that they went to see in NYC. They took us to see Ella Fitzgerald... All these acts on late night TV we'd never heard of, which unlike Neil Sedaka, never came back.

And in the eighties, there started to be the comedy circuit in Florida. Aged acts playing to aged fans. Maybe it started earlier, but that's when I heard about it.

Sad.

But I was young.

And now, the acts that aren't dead are still out there, playing to us.

Mostly retired. All about lifestyle. Not in the mainstream and not concerned about it. After all, it's been half a century, more.

But all that music of my parents' generation, it was disposable. Sure, not Sinatra, some of the big bands, but really, it was music of the time, there's always popular music, but that's different from...

The British Invasion.

The San Francisco Sound.

Singer-songwriters.

Prog rock.

Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones...

Our acts were icons. Untouchable. We played their records in our bedrooms, in our dorm rooms, you went to the gig on a regular basis, it was a religious experience, all about the music, no one shot selfies and many of the venues did not sell beer, although that did not mean we were not high.

Musicians were the new baseball stars. But with brains. We idolized them. We listened to what they had to say. They were beacons in a tumultuous era.

But then it became all about the money, music once again slid back into entertainment as opposed to art.

Which leaves us with our memories.

3

"Kind Woman." Do you know that one? If you were more than a casual fan, you do.

And the aforementioned "A Good Feelin' to Know" resonated with me for the first time ever.

I was a Poco fan, but when Epic sent me the two CD "Forgotten Trail (1969-74)" package in 1990 I became a devotee, long after the band's status had been set in stone, listening to the music with no context, context was created, it was a really good band. Actually, I recommend two two CD compilations, this Poco one and "Free - Molten Gold: The Anthology." You'll be stunned how good Paul Kossoff was. Free was much more than "All Right Now," never mind featuring possibly the greatest rock singer of all time, Paul Rodgers.

Richie was not a nobody. Like failed singer-songwriters singing down in Florida, at the Villages, other retirement communities, this guy was right up front and center when we were all paying attention. And he's just as good.

Not that you know all the material. The solo stuff...

And Richie got deep into Jesus, and if that bugs you, you're going to wince when he goes on about God during the set.

But I stood up to take a look. The first two-thirds of the space were all people my age, there were no youngsters up front, only in the back.

Now nobody likes a deal like a retiree. Especially free.

And the set started at 5:30. You could call it an Early Bird Special.

This is what it's come to.

But even after waiting for half an hour for the crowd to thin out to say hi to Richie, people were still lined up to talk to him, to buy merch, to get a photo, to get an autograph. These are the same people who won't go to the grocery store during rush hour, whose line up days are through, even though they lined up for tickets way back when.

And I look as old as they do. I'm no different from them. I couldn't square it, made me want to go back to L.A. and sit in the Forum, go to a theatre show, hang with the insiders, anything but this.

It's just like my parents' generation. We had our acts, they meant so much to us and they won't mean much to anybody after we're gone. Most of rock history, kaput!

And the funny thing is most of rock history is now being written by people who weren't there in the first place, in some cases not even born. Not only do they often get the facts wrong, the nuances they miss completely. They rely on the charts from an era where Top Forty meant nothing and some of the best acts were rarely heard on the radio.

And if you try to tell anybody younger how it used to be different, they laugh and say it's the same as it ever was. Then again, if that's so, why is there such hoopla over the re-release of "Stop Making Sense"?

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, many are past being able to fool around.

You had to go to the Mudd Club, CBGB's, being home was death, it all happened outside, at the club, whereas today the entertainment at home is nearly always superior to that outside. It's fading away. It's on its last gasp. Do you embrace it or stand up and protest like the Nazi in "The Producers," telling everybody they don't understand how it was, what it meant.

I don't know.

-----

-- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

[gregarnott]

Richie Furay of Poco (and Buffalo Springfield and Souther-Hillman-Furay Band and others!) with Cameron Crowe, 1973. Crowe was only about 16 yrs old writing his first big article for Rolling Stone Magazine about Poco and their plateauing success over their 4 years as a band.

[the-choosey-begger]

The Ozark Music Festival was held July 19–21, 1974 on the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. Today.com estimates that the crowd count reached 160,000 people. The festival was marked by mismanagement as the facilities were not equipped for the number of attendees

Performers:

Bachman–Turner Overdrive

Aerosmith

Premiata Forneria Marconi

Peter Sinfield

Blue Öyster Cult

Eagles

America

Marshall Tucker Band

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Boz Scaggs

Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes

David Bromberg

Leo Kottke

Jeff Beck

Lynyrd Skynyrd

The Electric Flag

Bruce Springsteen (did not perform)

The Earl Scruggs Revue

Charlie Daniels Band

Joe Walsh and Barnstorm

The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Jimmie Spheeris

Triphammer

Bill Quateman

Fresh Start

Babe Ruth

Locomotiv GT

The Sweet

Shawn Phillips

REO Speedwagon

Bob Seger

Banco

Elvin Bishop