Obscure 70's Roots Rock records

Umm... how is "country rock" not "roots rock"? Not all country is Conway Twitty. Or do you think contemporary bands like Son Volt have no country basis?

 

Where did that come from? Of course, Son Volt has country coursing through it's veins.

This thread is about the '70's and the OP specifically used the term "roots rock". As the '70's was a heyday for country rock, I took it to mean he wasn't looking for the Eagles, Poco, Pure Prairie League, Ozark Mountain Daredevils etc etc. Some others have mentioned Poco so clearly everyone didn't interpret the OP the way I did.

To me, country rock (which I like) is NOT the same as roots or alt-country (which I probably like even more). Again, the OP is talking about the '70's. And he asks for "obscure ".

 

Joe Ely. Pretty rootsy guy from Texas with enough rock and roll attitude to have the Clash as fans.

 

I hear you. But the categories overlap... I mean... to me this counts.

 

As does this...but not sure it is 'roots' enough... it gets tough in the 70's in my opinion.

 

I somehow wound up with that Roots and Branches album from a failed attempt to get the Tull lp by the same name! Liked it enough to keep it.

 

The Everly Brothers late career albums fit this, starting with, appropriately enough, Roots, and then their two RCA albums: Stories We Could Tell and Pass the Chicken and Listen.

 

Mother Earth/Tracy Nelson definitely mined the rootsier side of the spectrum.

 

I would put this firmly in the obscure 70's roots-rock camp, although it does lean on gospel and the blues quite a bit more than say, The Band or Brinsley Schwarz. Featuring founding Burrito Bro Chris Ethridge, this is an enjoyable listen, if not exactly a forgotten gem.

 

Never heard that before. Nice!

 

Great pick. I noticed his self-titled album was recently re-released on vinyl.

 

There was King Harvest, who named themselves after a Band song. But they seemed a little more Steppenwolfish to me.

 

From 1971, the 1st Crazy Horse album

 

I was thinking of this album but thought it was earlier ...like 69 or so ....incredible obscure album. I picked up a copy that has a hand written address on it..... San Francisco... I am thinking it is Johnny Barbata's address....nahhh couldn't be.

 

Doug Sahm produced Louie and the Lovers circa '72

 

Well 'Gilded Palace of Sin' came out in '69, 'Burrito Deluxe' in 1970 and this in '71.

 

There's a lot of great stuff from both the US and UK in the '69-'73 time period of the 'brown sound ' as evidenced by many of the said album's color cover choices. We've had quite a few threads on this topic. The UK had a great US West Coast influenced scene that also melded some of its folk influences. The US also had a massive pastoral movement that was mostly indie/amateur as evidenced by the Relatively Clean Rivers album.

 

This

 

MudBoy in 1972...as good as any album by
The Band not having "Big Pink" in the title:

 

That's a good shout I think, Roots was a 60s album though.

 

This is pretty good, too.

 

Yeh, what about that first Brinsley Schwarz album? Slagged off as a bit of a CSN rip off by the experts of the day, but I like it.

 

If you want to go a little earlier and hear a FANTASTIC album, The Rockets S/T on White Whale records is a little masterpiece. On first listen, I didn't think so. By time I gave it a second and third try, it went straight to the top of my favorite albums list. Neil Young talks fondly of the album in the book Shakey. It's earlier than 1970 and not really a roots rocks album, but hey... it's pretty awesome.