ALBUMS: JD Souther, ‘John David Souther,’ ‘Black Rose,’ ‘Home By Dawn’
With the wealth of talent the Southern California music scene produced in the ’70s, it’s no surprise that a few acts, despite the quality of their output, got lost through the cracks. JD Souther has to be one of the most notable of those names, providing some incredible hits for his more famous peers but never really enjoying similar success of his own. It’s something of a mystery why Souther didn’t have that big breakthrough hit that made him a household name the way his friends the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt were (and still are). Because of this, it’s no wonder that after four excellent albums, Souther decided to concentrate on acting (most famously in Thirtysomething and recently in Nashville) and only returned to recording in the past decade.
Rather nicely then, Omnivore has dug out three of Souther’s early albums (the other, You’re Only Lonely, sadly isn’t here due to the fact it was on a different label but deserves to be given a similar treatment), remastered these lost gems and added some rather nice bonus tracks to each release.
The first of these is his superb country-rock debut John David Souther from 1972. Souther had previously been one half of folk duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with his friend — the late, great Glenn Frey — so not surprisingly this album isn’t a million miles from the Eagles’ own sound. Souther actually co-wrote some of the Eagles’ biggest hits including “Best Of My Love,” “New Kid In Town,” “Victim Of Love,” and “Heartache Tonight.” The band also later covered “How Long,” which became the first hit for their 2007 comeback album Long Road Out Of Eden. You can understand why the band delved all the way back to 1972 to recover “How Long,” as it’s a highlight of Souther’s debut, a rocker with raw vocals, delicious harmonies and plenty of bluesy guitar licks.
There’s a strong country vibe on John David Souther though (he has even said the album was hugely influenced by the music of George Jones) with the LP opening with the fiddle-infused “The Fast One” and you can even imagine Jones’ pure voice singing, “It’s no wonder that I’m crying, it’s no wonder that I’m blue.” The country influence can also be heard on the Gram Parsons-esque piano ballad “Jesus In ¾ Time” and the plaintive “Out To Sea,” but there’s a little more blues on tracks like “Some People Call It Music” and cool groove of “White Wing.”
There are some lovely bonus tracks here too including a softer, more poppy sounding version of the folky “Kite Woman” and some great acoustic demos, many of which, in their simplicity, sound just as good as the fully produced versions and showcase his strength as a songwriter.
Souther’s second album, 1976’s Black Rose, came after a stint playing with the ill-rated supergroup Souther-Hillman-Furay (with The Byrds’ Chris Hillman and Poco’s Richie Furay) and sounds like a more direct attempt at stardom than his debut. For starters, he recruits many of the players that turned Linda Ronstadt (who he was in a relationship with around this time) into a superstar, including her producer Peter Asher. Black Rose has a lusher feel than his previous work, thanks both to Asher’s production and some beautiful arrangements from David Campbell (Beck’s composer father). It’s full of ballads and mid-tempo rockers that sound made for FM radio so it’s curious why the album wasn’t a big hit at the time. There are some big guest names too including old friends Glenn Frey and Don Henley, Little Feat’s Lowell George, David Crosby, Joe Walsh, Art Garfunkel, and of course, Ronstadt, who sounds incredible singing with him on “If You Have Crying Eyes.”
There are actually a couple of songs here that Ronstadt previously recorded, “Silver Blue” and “Faithless Love” (which Souther performs as a more haunting, stripped-down version, backed with just a violin and acoustic guitar) and one which she would later record, “Simple Man, Simple Dream.” so it’s fascinating for any Ronstadt fan to hear these songs performed by the man who wrote them (although to my ears, Ronstadt’s “Silver Blue,” which Souther actually duets on, is by far the superior version).
Again, there are a good selection of demos included as extras; this time, mostly songs that weren’t included on the album but sound good enough to have been (in fact “Can Almost See It” opened Ronstadt’s 1973 album Don’t Cry Now). There’s also a rather nice live version of “Faithless Love” that shows Souther’s power as a live performer.
Finally, the last release skips forward to 1984 for Home By Dawn. By this time, Souther had enjoyed his first hit single, “You’re Only Lonely,” in 1979, and his fourth album sees him following a similar formula to his big hit, abandoning the country feel (despite being recorded in Nashville, funnily enough) for a 50s-influenced, pop-rock sound. All these years on, it still has a wonderfully fresh feel to it and the sound is often reminiscent to Lindsey Buckingham’s work around this time and this is particularly evident on the second track, “Go Ahead And Rain” (the guitar work at the beginning sounds like it could have come off Buckingham’s first solo album Law And Order).
There are a few nods to his old sound on ballads such as “I’ll Take Care Of You” (which the Dixie Chicks later covered on their album Wide Open Spaces), but this is a more upbeat Souther with tracks like “Night” sounding like it deserves to have been on the soundtrack on some big-budget ’80s film. Not surprisingly, Ronstadt turns up again to duet on the delightful “Say You Will” and again on the bonus track “Hearts Against the Wind,” a gorgeous ballad complete with sparkling Spanish-style guitar that before this was lost for years on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. Eagles fans will also love “Bad News Travels Fast” which features both Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit on backing vocals.
Other than “Hearts Against The Wind,” the bonus tracks are all worthy extras, including a lovely piano demo of “I’ll Take Care Of You,” which is perhaps better than the shiny finished version on the album, and two tracks from the recording sessions, the ballad “Little Girl Blue” and the bluesy “Pretty Girls All Over The World.”
Incredibly, Souther didn’t record another album for 24 years after the release of Home By Dawn, which, going by these three albums, is a damn shame. Thankfully, Souther is back recording and performing again (his most recent album, Tenderness, came out last year), so, thanks to these new expanded editions it’s a wonderful chance to revisit his early years and discover just what a fantastic songwriter and artist Souther has always been.
Get your copies of all three JD Souther albums by visiting Omnivore’s online shop.
(Cover photo by Linda Ronstadt)
