River City Street Band

River City Street Band 1971

A1 Some Other Man 2:11

A2 So Many Things 2:09

A3 People 3:58

A4 If You Can 2:44

A5 Love Me Only 2:40

A6 Happy Song 2:33

A7 Modern Man 2:53

B1 Searchin' Man 3:15

B2 Nancy's April Song 2:39

B3 Two Different People 3:20

B4 Lamp Of Love 9:07

B5 I Wanna Be A Star 0:15

Art Direction – Ron Gorden

Art Direction [Creative Direction] – Larry Shaw

Bass, Vocals – Dick Johnson 

Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Randy Gardner

Engineer – John Fry, Richard Rosebrough, Terry Manning, Tim Riley 

Executive Producer – Tim Riley 

Lead Guitar, Vocals – Fuzz Foster

Organ, Piano, Vocals – Blan Heath

Percussion, Guitar, Vocals – Tommy Byrd

Photography By – Maldwin Hamlin

Producer – River City Street Band, Tim Riley 

Remix – John Fry

Synthesizer [Moog] – Terry Manning

Trombone, Vocals – Tom Jones 

Trumpet, Vocals – Dale Marlow, Ethridge Hill

An eight piece band, River City Street Band became the first all white band signed by Stax (in this case the label's Enterprise subsidiary). Having located to Memphis the band recorded their debut in the famed Ardent Studios with Tim Riley producing. (In case anyone cared, Terry Manning was credited with playing Moog synthesizers on the album.) 1971's cleverly-titled "River City Street Band" offered up a somewhat odd mixture of hard rock and horn rock - imagine Chicago with the late Terry Kath calling the shots and you'll get a feel for the overall sound. Featuring a largely original collection of material penned by singer Tommy Boyd and bassist Dick Johnson, the album wasn't all that bad, especially for a horn rock excursion, but most of the songs would have been even better sans the horns. That said, for the most part songs such as 'Happy Song' and 'Lamp of Love' exhibited fairy tight and commercial structures that served to keep the horn section (Ethridge Hill, Tom Jones, and Dale Marlow) in check so this wasn't anywhere near as bad as your typical Blood, Sweat and Tears, or Chase album. The album also benefited from Byrd's nice voice. He had one of those instruments that was rugged and tough, but still capable of sounding quite commercial. The band also had a second lead singer who was featured on a couple of tracks (take a listen to 'People'). Beats me who it was ... The other surprise weapon came in the form of guitarist Bill 'Fuzz' Foster. Whenever Foster was given a chance to open up things quickly improved. Shame he wasn't allowed even more space.

https://www.discogs.com/River-City-Street-Band-River-City-Street-Band/release/2016410

River City ‎– Anna Divina 1973

A1 Statue Of Liberty 4:50

A2 All The Sunshine 1:44

A3 My Friends And The Band 3:40

A4 Seems Like Yesterday 3:50

A5 Sittin' Here On The Porch 3:41

A6 Marlow's Catfish Song 3:57

B1 If You Don't Quit Changing 4:01

B2 Hawkins Farm 2:38

B3 Sunshine Won't You Help Me 3:10

B4 Magic Country Music Box 3:35

B5 Pimp Song (Come With Me) 6:05

B6 Roll Another Joint-Fuzz 1:48

Produced by Tim Riley, the band's sophomore release wasn't a major change in direction. With Boyd and Johnson again responsible for penning the majority of material, their sound remained firmly entrenched in early-1970s horn-rock (think along the lines of Blood Sweat and Tears, Chase and Chicago). That said, this time out the horns were actually a bit less prominent and on a couple of tracks ('Statue of Liberty' and 'Marlow's Catfish Song') there were no horns. So here's the funny thing - they were actually far stronger without the horns ...https://www.discogs.com/River-City-Anna-Divina/release/4696454

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