Rick Nelson - Garden Party/Windfall

Two-on-one reissue for 1972 & 1974 albums, respec tively. 'Garden Party' features it's 1972 top 10 title hit. 20 tracks total. Album Description

It's Alright Now

Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band recorded two excellent albums in 1970/71 ("Rick Sings Nelson"/"Rudy the Fifth")that totally failed to connect with the majority of record buyers. So it probably surprised everybody when they came up with one of the biggest hits of 1972 with "Garden Party". Everybody knows this song by now (and the story behind it), but there is much more worth hearing on this cd that combines the "Garden Party" album with "Windfall" from 1974. Once again, Rick wrote most of the songs, starting with the title track. I guess that Madison Square Garden oldies crowd was not ready for a Rick Nelson (not "Ricky" anymore) with long hair singing contemporary material. Maybe they weren't familiar with his 1970 hit "She Belongs to Me", and expected his show to be a complete time warp back to the 50's. In any case, Rick got the last laugh, as the event inspired the writing of his biggest hit in 10 years. The song is deceptively simple, but it's all put together so nicely - Stephen Love's bass part, Rick and Tom Brumley's little guitar bits, the backing harmonies. To this day, it is the song most identified with Rick. "So Long Mama" is a hilarious c&w kiss off to a certain ex-lover; "Are You Really Real" is sparse and haunting; "Nightime Lady" features a magical pedal steel from Brumley; "A Flower Opens Gently By" is bluesy, with great acoustic guitar solo's (by Rick?); "Palace Guard" is almost hypnotic. I have no idea what the lyrics are about, though. For the first time, the band members contribute to the songwriting, too. Stephen Love's "Let it Bring You Along" starts of softly, then turns edgy, with hard driving electric guitars, followed by a lush, almost Beatle-ish middle section. Lead guitarist Allen Kemp and former SCB member Randy Meisner contribute the power pop-ish "I Wanna Be with You" - should've have been a single, it's got "hit" written all over it. A couple of covers, Richard Stekol's "Don't Let Your Goodbye Stand" and Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You" round out this collection - I wonder what Berry thought of this almost jazz/rock treatment of his hit? You'd think success would act as a big boost to the Stone Canyon Band members, but instead, Love, Kemp, and drummer Pat Shanahan all left after recording this album, leaving Nelson and Brumley to put together a new lineup, featured on the followup, "Windfall". Guitarist Dennis Laren immediately establishes himself with several strong songs - "Legacy", "One Night Stand", "Evil Woman Child", and "Don't Leave Me Here". His electric guitar playing lacks the edginess of Kemp's, but he's excellent on acoustic stuff. Bassist Jay De Witt White contributes the bluesy "How Many Times" - Rick Nelson is so often thought as a "whiter than white" sounding singer, which may have been true on his earliest records, but he actually had a real natural feeling for blues, as this song demonstrates. Rick himself wrote the hard rocking "Someone to Love", the dreamy, peaceful "Lifestream", and the title cut "Windfall" (with Larden), a percussion driven acoustic tune. There's also a fun country tune, "Wild Nights in Tulsa", and a great Baker Knight rocker, "I Don't Want To Be Lonely Tonight" - the closest thing to rockabilly on this album. The country side of Rick is more in evidence on this album than on "Garden Party", with Brumley's masterful playing front and center on songs like "One Night Stand" and "Legacy". Unlike "Garden Party", though, this album was a poor seller, and has been out of print for years, so this two-fer cd is a great way to get it. Unfortunately, "Windfall" would be the last album Rick and the group did for MCA. It would be three long years before they returned, on the Epic label. November 21, 2007

replaced old Lp's with CD's

I so liked both these on LP I named my first house after one "Windfall", trouble was everybody thought I'd won the lottery! Getting these albums on cd rates as high! They were easily ordered and came quickly, and are a reasonable price. June 27, 2007

3 1/2 Stars: The Best Of Rick's Stone Canyon Band Albums

Review for 'Windfall' only:

This one rarely gets mentioned but is much better than the more popular 'Garden Party' and Rick's other albums from this period. The band is excellent, especially ex-Buckaroo and future Desert Rose Band steel guitarist Tom Brumley. It also rocks pretty hard at times (for Country Rock) and some of the subject matter is relatively edgy/risque (for Rick). A few weak tracks to be sure, but also some excellent ones. Highlights include Legacy, Wild Nights in Tulsa, Lifestream, One Night Stand, and Windfall.
March 10, 2007

Fantastic! Stone Canyon Band Rocks !

Excellent cd ! A must have if you are a Rick Nelson fan. Great musicians, fantastic harmonies ! It is a British Import and 2 cds in one so it may be a little more than a single cd but it is sooooo worth it ! Buy it, you'll love it. February 7, 2007

Rick's 2 best studio albums on 1 CD, sounds good!

As you know from the single, "Garden Party," this is definitely not the same Ricky Nelson who cut "Traveling Man," and "Hello Mary Lou." This is Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, playing rock, often with big country overtones, and it's as close as Rick came to making music that could be regarded as creative art. On this CD reissue you get both Garden Party and Windfall on one disc, (I think it's the first time Windfall has been released on CD in the US, which is reason enough to buy the album), so it's chock full of music at a fair price.

Since you're probably familiar with the laid-back country of "Garden Party," you may be surprised that the rest of the album rocks considerably harder that the hit single. "Let it Bring You Along," the opener, might rock the hardest out of anything on either album, and it's got a progressive arrangement at that. It's really cool to hear Rick stretching himself--you can tell that he really had a desire to grow as a musician, singer and songwriter. The rest of the first album kind of splits up its time between harder country rockers with more laid-back tunes. Throughout, there's some great pedal steel guitar (check out the intro to "So Long Mama"), and some solid rhythm section rocking. "Night Time Lady" almost sounds like CSN with some good harmonies. The poignant "Don't Let Your Goodbye Stand," is one of my other favorites on this album.

Windfall is regarded by many Nelson fans to be his finest studio album. I think on this album the country sounds are toned down (they're not gone, though, listen for that great pedal steel), and the Stone Canyon Band goes for a more folk-rock or straight ahead rock sound. The opener, "Legacy," is a good midtempo folk rocker, followed by another rocker. "How Many Times," is another interesting stretch for Rick--it's almost jazzy. "Evil Woman Child," is one of the band's hardest rockers, so is "I Don't Want To Be Lonely Tonight." "Don't Leave Me Here" has some good lyrics and fresh chord changes. The title track is one of the strongest, and it sounds different from any of the other songs on either record.

Throughout both records, Rick is in good voice. Although I give him credit for stretching as an musician/songwriter, sometimes it stretches his voice a little far, but overall it's an improvement on his teen idol voice. Hardcore Nelson fans are probably wondering why I didn't give this reissue 5 stars. Well, I really do mean all the praise I've heaped upon these two albums, but they do have some less strong points too. Some of the lyrics just aren't outside of the box at all--standard rockstar "love" songs like "I'm Talking About You," "Wild Nights in Tulsa," and "Evil Woman Child," although they rock pretty hard, aren't very interesting in the lyric department. "The Palace Guard," sounds like an attempt to capture some of Dylan's lyrical eclecticism with odd character names, but it just doesn't really make that much sense. That said, it's still the strongest music and lyrics from Nelson's career, and I totally recommend buying this album. I don't think it'll disappoint you, and it's good-time music that rewards fans who are interested in hearing Rick's more artistic music. Its high points are classic, but overall it's mainly two solid releases on one CD. December 1, 2006

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