Suggest one obsure album we all should hear

@mbmi: I had the pleasure of working with John Wicks of The Records when after The Records called it quits he embarked on a solo career. We became acquainted after he saw Emitt Rhodes in 1997 perform for the first time in a quarter century, at that years’ Poptopia Festival in Los Angeles. I was a member of the band that was assembled to back Emitt for that performance, and provided accompaniment for John when he began playing around town. We lived not too far apart in Burbank. John unfortunately passed away in 2018 after battling cancer for a few years.

Beside John’s talents (he was the group’s main songwriter, lead singer, and rhythm guitarist), in Will Birch The Records had a fine drummer and lyricist. Paul Collins was himself originally a drummer, being in a trio named The Nerves, the other two members being Peter Case (later of The Plimsouls) and Jack Lee (best known as writer of Blondie’s hit "Hanging On The Telephone").

Not at all obscure to fans of Americana artists, but for the rest of ya'll:

Larry Campbell was in Dylan’s band for eight years, then went to work for Levon Helm. He not only lead the house band at Levon’s Midnight Rambles, but also produced his Grammy-winning 2007 album Dirt Farmer. Larry and his wife Teresa Williams have made two albums: 2015’s s/t, and 2017’s Contraband Love. Just buy ’em ;-) .

I finally secured the album Sweet Dreams And Quiet Desires (Avalanche Records, 1973) by the Country Rock trio Borderline, after learning of its existence from Hedley (Another Fat Bearded Man Talking About Records on YouTube), in his "Five Of The Best Country Rock Albums You’ve Never Heard" (part 1) video. This British chap Hedley really knows his stuff, check him out.

One member of Borderline was Jim Rooney, who went on to greater success as a producer (he produced this album), including those for Nanci Griffith (Other Voices, Other Rooms, a fantastic album for which he won a Grammy), Iris DeMent (her debut Infamous Angel), John Prine (Aimless Love), Townes Van Zandt, Hal Ketchum and Bonnie Raitt. Wow.

For those of you who look for album credits, here are some of the musicians who play on the album:

- Ben Keith on pedal steel (Patsy Cline---he played on "I Fall To Pieces"!, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Willie & Waylon, Warren Zevon, and Jewel--- he produced her debut album. Damn ;-).

- John Simon on piano (producer of the first two Band albums, the first B, S & T, Big Brothers’ Cheap Thrills, Leonard Cohen’s debut).

- Billy Mundi on drums (Mothers Of Invention, Tim Buckley, Geoff & Maria Muldaur).

- Dave Sanborn on sax (you know him as David).

- Vassar Clements on fiddle (Flatt & Scruggs, Stephane Grappelli, Dave Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).

Not too shabby;-) .

@audioman74: In case you are a Jason Faulkner completist and don't know about it: Before Jellyfish, Faulkner was in a group named The Grays, who had one album on Epic Records. I heard it when it was released, but didn't like it enough to buy.

Fellow Grays member Jon Brion of course went on to become a well known producer (Aimee Mann, Elliot Smith, Fiona Apple, soundtracks---including the great film Hard Eight).

@buckroa: A fantastic album, in my all-time Top 10. But I think a fair number of people here know about it.

Less well known is the debut of L.A. Power Pop band The Beat (the Paul Collins led quartet). Have you heard anything by The UK group The Records? Or the s/t debut of Emitt Rhodes? How ’bout Marshall Crenshaw? The Rubinoos? For a blast of high-energy Pop, listen to their "I Wanna be Your Boyfriend". Electrifying! And if you haven’t heard it, Shake Some Action by The Flamin’ Groovies, produced by Dave Edmunds at Rockfield Studios in Wales.

@jrosemd: Yeah, Greetings From Planet Love is one of the most amazing albums I’ve ever heard (I nominated it earlier in the thread), and by far the best parody of Psychedelic music ever done. Very creative, and spot on. Andrew Gold was a very talented guy, but not a real pleasant one (I made his acquaintance in the late-90’s). Though the album is the work of Andrew, the album is officially credited to "The Fraternal Order Of The All", a name perfectly suiting the album ;-) .

Sorry @slaw, CD only. I doubt VMP will be issuing THIS album on LP!

Everybody knows about Marshall Crenshaw, but his first release was not the debut album on Warner Brothers---produced by Richard Gottehrer (Blondie's original producer, previously a member of The Strangeloves of "I Want Candy" renown), but rather a 2-song 12" 45 on Shake Records, produced by Alan Betrock, founder of the great New York Rocker Magazine.

Dang Bill, I forgot you put me in contact with Jim. I have his CD The Floating Zone right here in front of me, gonna give it another spin after dinner. Terry plays clavinet on one song.

@whart: Bill, If you haven't heard NRBQ, I think you might like them. Founding member/songwriter/singer/keyboardist (piano and clavichord) Terry Adams cites Sun Ra and Thelonious Monk as two major influences! A fantastic live performer, as is the band.

I just now scrolled through the whole thread, and found inspiration. A lotta great suggestions, some I had forgotten making myself. After subjecting ya’ll to my rant directly above, I thought the least I could do is make a constructive contribution to this excellent conversation.

But there are SO many what I think would be considered obscure albums in my music library, how to choose a few? I decided to go with the lesser known albums by some of my all-time favorite bands, groups, or artists, whether or not they themselves are obscure names.

- Old Enough by Lou Ann Barton. Her debut album, produced by the great Jerry Wexler (Aretha, Dylan, hundreds of others) and the not-so-great Glenn Frey. Though her debut solo album, she first gained notoriety in 1977 as the singer in Austin Texas band Triple Threat Revue, whose guitarist was the brother of Jimmie Vaughan of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. You may have heard of him: Stevie Ray. The album didn’t sell many copies (I bought mine on release day), nor did follow ups. Lou Ann sometimes goes on the road with Jimmie, and remains one of my favorite white chick singers.

- Speaking of The Fab T-Birds, their Tuff Enough album was produced by Dave Edmunds, relatively well known for his string of fantastic albums on Swan Song Records (personally signed by Robert Plant, a big fan) and his group with Nick Lowe, Rockpile (one great album), along with the albums he produced for The Stray Cats, The Everly Brothers, numerous others. Less well known are his first two albums: Rockpile (album title) on Regal Zonophone, and Subtle As A Flying Mallet on Rockfield Records. Not being a songwriter, both albums are comprised of covers of old songs, done as only Edmunds could. On both albums Dave sings all the parts, and plays most of the instruments. Rockpile contains his insanely great reinvention of the Smiley Lewis Blues, "I Hear You Knocking" (which features one of my three or four favorite guitar solos of all time), and on the last track of each LP side of SAAFM is a Chuck Berry song recorded live at the Top Rank pub in Cardiff, Wales (Edmunds is Welsh), his backing band being the UK band Brinsley Schwarz, whose bassist/singer/songwriter was Nick Lowe.

- Speaking of Rockpile (;-), when they played The Country Club in Reseda, CA in 1980, their opening act was Moon Martin. I was already aware of Moon (my ex-wife ran his fan club), whose debut solo album (he had previously been in the band Southwind, who had two albums released on Blue Thumb Records. Obscure enough for ya? ;-) Shots From A Cold Nightmare on Capitol Records is pure American Rock ’n’ Roll. Produced by Craig Leon, the album contains all killer/no filler songs, including "Bad Case Of Loving You" (later lamely covered by Robert Palmer) and "Cadillac Walk" (with a cool cover version by Mink DeVille). Musicians on the album include Phil Seymour (The Dwight Twilley Band) on drums and Gary Valentine (Blondie) on bass. The LP was mastered by Bob Ludwig. Buy it!

- Signed to Columbia Records in the wake of the success of the debut by The Knack, The Beat made one great s/t album. I saw them playing live around L.A. a number of times, and they were one of the most dynamic Power Pop bands that ever existed. Play the LP loud! Singer/Songwriter/rhythm guitarist Paul Collins had earlier been in a trio with Peter Case (The Plimsouls) and Jack Lee (writer of "Hangin’ On The Telephone"), named The Nerves. Their sole release---a 7" EP---is not only obscure, but rare and worth a coupla hundred bucks. I had two copies, sold one a few years back.

- Randy Newman is very well known, but his s/t debut album is unlike all that followed. Not in the least Rock ’n’ Roll, it sounds very "old" (in a good way). Fantastic songs performed on piano with accompaniment, heavily orchestrated. A remarkable debut by a superb songwriter.

- I’ve talked about this album before, but it bears repeating. My Life by Iris DeMent makes life worth living. Very respected by her peers (Emmylou Harris, Joan Osborne, John Prine, etc.), she writes songs no one else could. Some find her unique voice an acquired taste, but I find it delicious. So did Merle Haggard, who covered her devastating song "No Time To Cry", found on this album.

- Who owns and has listened to the Smile boxset? I consider Brian Wilson one of the few genuine near-geniuses Rock ’n’ Roll has produced, and Smile was to have been his ultimate artistic achievement. Alas, it was not to be. It’s too long a tale to fully tell here, but in short Smile was intended to be the story (lyrics by another near genius, Van Dyke Parks) of Manifest Destiny set to music. Aaron Copland would have approved ;-) .

Obscure is SUCH a subjective matter. Some people are aware of the group Television, others aren’t. Same with The Skeletons/The Morells (same core members), a fantastic band out of Springfield, Missouri, whose fans include Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and The Del-Lords (also obscure? Skeletons/Morells bassist Lou Whitney engineered and produced The Del-Lords Frontier Days album). I have all the Skeltons and Morells albums, and even saw them live. Skeletons drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks (sadly passing away in 2017) also played in the bands of Dave Alvin and Steve Forbert.

Is Loudon Wainwright III obscure? How about Willie DeVille? Spooner Oldham? Dann Penn? Laverne Baker? Lou Ann Barton? Iris DeMent? Evan Johns? Danny Gatton? Al Anderson? Terry Adams? Mike Auldridge? John Wicks? Emitt Rhodes?

Record labels long operated by "pushing" only so many releases per fiscal quarter (their promotional budgets were not unlimited), using the other releases as tax write-offs. For every one Alison Krauss, there are a hundred Rhonda Vincent’s. For every one Rolling Stones, there are a hundred NRBQ’s. And NRBQ were/are very well known, at least amongst good musicians. I saw them live recently, and they were absolutely fantastic, far, Far, FAR better than The damned Rolling Stones. Why are people still interested in such a lame band? They stink, and have for years.

How about the great Garage Band The Lyres? Frontman/singer/Farfisa organist/songwriter Monoman (real name Jeff Conolly) is one of the greatest live performers I’ve ever seen (at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd.), like a Punk Jerry Lee Lewis. Legendary amongst fans of the Garage Band genre, totally unknown by, I’ll wager, everyone here. As are by most The Flamin’ Groovies, who are a much, much better live Rock ’n’ Roll band than are The Stones. Why aren’t they more well known? Do YOU own any of their albums? ;-)

Yes, of course musical taste is a huge factor. Casual music listeners have no interest in plowing the musical fields, looking for as yet unheard music. But even more serious listeners have long relied on major media to steer them towards new music. That will get you only so far; read interviews with musicians, singers, and songwriters, find out who THEY like. Following the bread crumbs back to the source also reaps great rewards. Once I had heard "Money (That’s What I Want)" by Barrett Strong, the version by The Beatles sounded like the pale imitation it is.

Most of ya’ll know of (and like, I presume) John Hiatt, but did you that know before his solo career he was member of a group named White Duck (terrible name!)? Their two albums on UNI Records are pretty hard to find, but not terribly expensive should you want to be a Hiatt completest.

While T Bone Burnett is a pretty well known name, it is more for his production work (the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, Elvis Costello's King Of America album, Peter Case's debut, many others) than his own albums.

The first I heard of Burnett was when he was a member of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. He was then in The Alpha Band, a trio whose other members were the great musicians David Mansfield and Steven Soles. They made three albums for Arista in 1976/7/8, then called it quits. The LP's are not hard to find, and reasonably priced.

T Bone's debut solo album is the little-known J. Henry Burnett: The B-52 Band & The Fabulous Skylarks, released by UNI (MCA) Records in 1972. Good luck finding a copy of THAT LP! Mine's not for sale. ;-)

Glad to be of help @artemus_5 ! You make a couple of great points, including the matter of a band being entertaining. NRBQ's albums contain a fair amount of humor, but live is a whole 'nother matter. They are by far the most fun band I've seen live, at least during their heyday (guitarist Al Anderson has retired from performing, focusing on songwriting in Nashville. Drummer Tom Ardolino passed away at a fairly young age. And bassist Joey Spampinato is in treatment for advanced cancer.).

The lone remaining member is NRBQ founder/songwriter/singer/keyboardist (piano and clavichord) Terry Adams, a very "physical" player, who alternates between playing in a pounding Jerry Lee Lewis-style to throwing in Jazz scales and themes. Brilliant! The new NRBQ line-up has an album available, which I haven't yet heard.

Rodney Crowell of The Notorious Cherry Bombs is very well known amongst fans of Americana (he was Emmylou Harris' Hot Band leader/rhythm guitarist/harmony vocalist/songwriter, then started his solo career, married Rosanne Cash, divorced, then started the second half of his career), but his The Houston Kid album needs to be better known. It is imo amongst the very best albums ever made, one of my All-Time Top 10. If you haven't heard it, rectify that situation!

All right, this artist may not be obscure to some of you, but I believe the album will be:

St. Giles Cripplegate by Jack Nitzsche with The London Symphony Orchestra.

Neil Young fans will recognize the name Jack Nitzsche from the Harvest album, upon which Nitzsche plays piano and produces a couple of songs. I already knew of him from his work with Phil Spector, for whom he arranged and orchestrated (think of "River Deep, Mountain High"). He was also a songwriter, having written (with Sonny Bono) for example "Needles & Pins", a big hit for The Searchers. He also played piano on a lot of mid-to-late 60's Rolling Stones albums, and then briefly joined Crazy Horse after completing Harvest, playing piano on and producing their great s/t debut album.

Jack got into scoring movies in the 1970's, including Performance and The Exorcist. He also produced some great albums, including Graham Parker's Squeezing Out Sparks and a few for Willy DeVille (a great singer).

St. Giles Cripplegate is 20th Century Classical music, released in 1972 on The Initial Recording Company in England and on Warner Brothers Records in the U.S.A. It was produced by Elliot Mazer, Neil Young's manager. Good luck finding a copy! The only one's I've ever seen are the UK and USA's I have (one of each, with very different covers).

@edcyn, small world: I too lived in the Valley for years. Sherman Oaks, Burbank, and Glendale, mostly. I then bought a house up in the Foothills above Glendale, in Tujunga. A lot of musicians live up there.

Van Dyke’s Song Cycle is an acquired taste, way too odd for most folks I imagine. It was his inclusion of Randy Newman’s "Vine Street" on the album that alerted me to Newman’s existence. Thank you VDP!

@1111art, good choice in Emitt Rhodes. His debut is a perfect album, after which the brutality of the music business soured him. He finished a couple more okay albums, then retreaded to his home studio, making a living recording locals. I did a session with him in the late-90’s, and one live show, his first in a quarter century. You know he died last July, right? I have his last album (issued on LP in 2016), but have been afraid to listen to it. ;-)

I don’t know that I would call Sincerely by The Dwight Twilley Band an obscure album (it isn’t amongst "my type"), but I sure concur with the opinion of @buckroe. It is in my Top 10 albums of all-time list, an incredible melding of 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll and 1960’s British Invasion. A perfect album! The Group’s follow-up album Twilley Don’t Mind is also mighty fine.

Another album from approximately the same time is also a perfect album, and is also in my Top 10: Get It by Dave Edmunds. Not exactly obscure either, though it may be to a lot of you younger fellas. Dave was (he has retired) the best Rock ’n’ Roll producer working in the mid-70’s through late-80’s, and was along with Nick Lowe a member of the Supergroup Rockpile, whose lone Seconds Of Pleasure album is yet another perfect one.

Speaking of Edmunds, one of his most remarkable production jobs was the Shake Some Action album by The Flamin’ Groovies, another of my favorite albums. As with The Dwight Twilley Band and Dave Edmunds, The Groovies had superb taste in material and approach. Rock ’n’ Roll (the real stuff, not the "Rock" that is commonly mislabeled as Rock ’n’ Roll) just don’t get no better!

Ooh, Jesse Winchester’s debut on Ampex Records (mentioned above), a good one (produced by Robbie Robertson).

Manfred Mann was a well-known British Invasion band, unique in having Pop hits in spite of the fact that their influences and sound included equal parts R & B and Jazz. By 1969 they had evolved into Manfred Mann Chapter Three, and that year recorded and released (on Vertigo Records) their s/t debut. Drummer Mike Hugg had moved to the front of the stage, playing piano and singing (and writing the songs). The band’s approach was now decidedly in the Jazz/Rock Fusion style (with perhaps a touch of Prog), pretty heavy. I love the album, and I’m not generally a lover of the genre. @whart, you might like this one. The LP has the cool Vertigo "swirl" label.

@edcyn beat me to Song Cycle by Van Dyke Parks, an album unlike any other you have heard, I guarantee you. For another dose of this near-genius, listen to the Smile boxset. Smile was Van Dyke and Brian Wilson’s never completed concept album, the theme being the Manifest Destiny of The United States, set to music.

And just above, @jrosemd suggested the incredible album Greetings From Planet Love by The Fraternal Order Of The All (Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman and a few friends), an amazing late-60’s psychedelic pastiche’ recorded and released in 1997. Brilliant!

That still leaves a lot of candidates, but being the song lover that I am, I nominate Something Peculiar by Julianna Raye, an album also from 1997, produced by Jeff Lynne, and filled with great Pop music.

jrosemd also mentioned The Wondermints. For great Pop music, try and find either of the two albums by that fine Group’s original bassist and songwriter, Brian Kassan. Brian left The Wondermints shortly before they hooked up with Brian Wilson, and started Chewy Marble to record his great songs. The first album is self-titled, the second entitled Bowl Of Surreal (which features drumming by yours truly on half the songs). Great songs and production on both albums.

The Chewy Marble albums were released on L.A. Indi label Permanent Press. Also on that label was a great Nick Lowe-inspired songwriter, Walter Clevenger. He and his band The Dairy Kings (;-) recorded a couple of fine Rockin’ Pop albums, well worth searching for. Walter has relocated to Austin, Texas, but the members of his band The Dairy Kings remained in SoCal.