Robert Palmer's version of Lowell George's (Little Feat) 3 tune Medley........era mid to late 1970s.... In 75 at the Roxy on Sunset Blvd., went to a Little Feat concert, small nightclub, with guests galore, on stage for a song set or two: from- Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Robert Palmer, Emmylou Harris, moreso- Valerie Carter, Lowells go to Harmony Vocalist.... Just as many Musicians in the audience also, incl. Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Keith Richards, who's who of LA music scene, back then was 2nd to none......
Jackson from his Running On Empty LP,....... as good a show as there ever was..... JB at Home in L.A.......
...Running On Empty is the greatest live album ever...and IMO, it's not even close. ...The whole album is great, front to back. One of my favs on the album is Nothing But Time with one of my favorite drummers (Russ Kunkel). "Nothing but Time" (Browne, Howard Burke) – 3:05 Recorded "on a bus (a Continental Silver Eagle) somewhere in New Jersey" (9/8/77) Russ Kunkel is credited as playing "snare, hi-hat, and cardboard box with foot pedal." The song was recorded aboard the band's Continental Silver Eagle tour bus (hence the lyrical reference to "Silver Eagle") while en route from Portland, Maine to their next gig in New Jersey. The bus's engine is audible in the background throughout, and its downshift and acceleration can be plainly heard during the bridge."
As good as it ever got from Browne and Co. Kunkel played with a ton of great musicians, a favorite of many musicians......... Running on Empty (ROE), had that extra artistic touch to record, on the bus, with a Kunkel doing his improv of a drum set, the engine low tone of shifting gears, accelerating decelerating, sounds like a bass playing along......NTM-the Hotel Room tune or 2, and his live stuff was spot on...... that was a great tour, which I saw both on its beginning leg, and return leg 9 mos. latter, here in L.A. He closed his ROE show with "The Load Out, and Stay" at the end of every single show he did that year........classic..... I've never met any man, like JB, who lost his 1st two wives, to sleeping pill overdoses, one intentional, one accidental, if there is such a thing, (seems old barbiturate use as a sleeping med, is nil with today's doc's. Yet, I can see how a person could take one, or 2, then forget, thinking they may not of taken any at all, or just 1, when they may of taken half a dozen, one at a time......
...coincidentally, Kunkel was also married to a heart throb of mine when she died suddenly...Nicolette Larson.
I like you fell in love with the great Nicolette Larsen's voice, and hell her gorgeous long hair too.... Nicolette had a voice unique unto her own, Sweet Angelic yet strong a voice, as good as it ever got, or gets....... I enjoyed her work with Neil Young on American Stars n bars, but moreso on "Comes a Time", with their duet of Lotta' Love, which IMO, Nicolette's 1st LP had a much livelier, more enjoyable version and sold more singles of that tune than did Neil........ How anyone could not fall in love with Nicolette and Her Music/Voice.....? A given...!
I have that song.....its on a playlist my wife and I call "music to hold children hostage to" (aka family road trip). Funny but that playlist got us to Oregon and back, so many good songs (mostly 70's). I can't get past Santa Barbara (Vegas or Phoenix for that matter) with music from today.
...Nicolette sang with a ton of artists...it's a quite impressive "who's who" list; Larson's work with Emmylou Harris — the album Luxury Liner (1977) prominently showcased Larson on the cut "Hello Stranger" — led to her meeting Harris' associate and friend Linda Ronstadt who became friends with Larson. In the spring of 1977, Larson was at Ronstadt's Malibu home when neighbor Neil Young phoned to ask Ronstadt if she could recommend a female vocal accompanist, and Ronstadt suggested Larson, becoming the third person that day to put Larson's name forward to Young. Young came over to meet Larson who recalled: "Neil ran down all the songs he had just written, about twenty of them. We sang harmonies with him and he was jazzed."[3] The following week Ronstadt and Larson cut their vocals for Young's American Stars 'n Bars album at Young's La Honda ranch — the two women were billed on the album as the Bullets — and in November 1977 Young invited Larson to Nashville to sing on the sessions for his Comes a Time album, an assignment which led to Larson's being signed to Warner Brothers, an affiliate of Young's home label Reprise. Larson continued her session singing career into 1978, accruing credit on recordings by Marcia Ball, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris' (Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town) and Norton Buffalo. Larson also contributed vocals to the Doobie Brothers' Minute by Minute whose producer Ted Templeman would be responsible for Larson's debut album Nicolette.[4] 1978–1983[edit] Larson's work with Commander Cody had led to her being signed to the C&W division of Warner Bros. Records. However her debut album Nicolette, released September 29, 1978, was an eclectic mix of rock, C&W and R&B which recalled Maria Muldaur's eponymous debut from 1973. Despite the release of her album so late in the year, Larson was acclaimed Female Vocalist of 1978 by Rolling Stone who opined no one else could sound as if she were having so much fun on an album. Nicolette reached No. 15 on Billboard's album chart aided by the hit single "Lotta Love", a Neil Young composition. Larson's "Lotta Love" peaked at No. 8 the week of 10 February 1979, the same week the single off Comes a Time: "Four Strong Winds" a duet with an unbilled (on the single) Larson, debuted on the Hot 100 on its way to a No. 61 peak. (A track from the Comes a Time sessions featuring Larson: "Sail Away", was included on the otherwise live Neil Young album Rust Never Sleeps released in 1979.) Warner Brothers also issued the limited edition (5,000 copies) promo-only Live at the Roxy album comprising a December 20, 1978 concert given by Larson at the Sunset Boulevard nightclub. Larson was also featured on the No Nukes album recorded in September 1979 at Madison Square Garden backed by the Doobie Brothers in her performance of "Lotta Love"; Larson can be seen in the No Nukes film but her performance was not included. Like Maria Muldaur, Larson would be unable to consolidate the commercial success augured by her debut: the second single off Nicolette, "Rhumba Girl"1 just missed becoming a major hit for Larson at No. 48 and her second album In the Nick of Time released November 1979 failed to showcase Larson's voice attractively. Don Shewey in Rolling Stone opined: "Larson's rough-edged, down-home tone is definitely appealing — especially when she backs up the likes of Neil Young and Steve Goodman[whose High and Outside album featured a duet with Larson: "The One That Got Away"] — but as a soloist, her limited vocal resources are "severely taxed" — "It's symptomatic of Nicolette Larson's problems as a performer that the finest singing on In the Nick of Time is by Michael McDonald. 'Let Me Go, Love'...McDonald's entrancing vocal presence...so overshadows Larson's that she seems to be playing second fiddle rather than sharing the lead. Elsewhere, Larson is dwarfed by Ted Templeman's typically luxurious production".[4] Released as the album's lead single, "Let Me Go Love" was only reached No. 35 in February 1980 — that year Larson would be heard more on the airwaves via guest appearances on "Say You'll Be Mine" by Christopher Cross and the Dirt Band's "Make a Little Magic". Larson had enough residual popularity from her debut for In the Nick of Time to become a moderate success. Because she had no major hit, Larson's 1980 and 1982 album releases, Radioland (her last album produced by Templeman) andAll Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, were unsuccessful, even though both releases showed Larson back in strong vocal form. Larson almost had a hit with her remake of "I Only Want to Be With You" (No. 53) perhaps the least effective track on All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go; that album was produced by Andrew Gold. Larson had continued her session singing career accruing credits on releases by Tom Johnston, Linda Ronstadt (Mad Love), Graham Nash, John Stewart, Albert Hammond and Rita Coolidge. Larson again backed the Doobie Brothers on their One Step Closer album - she can be heard on the hit "Real Love" - and a song Larson co-wrote with John McFee and Patrick Simmons entitled "Can't Let It Get Away" was a 1981 single release for the Doobie Brothers in Japan; the song was also featured on the Doobie Brothers' Farewell Tour album (1983). Larson also contributed a harmony vocal on the track "Could This Be Magic" on the Van Halen album Women and Children First (1980) to thank Eddie Van Halen for contributing a guitar solo to the Nicolette album track "Can't Get Away From You" against David Lee Roth's wishes. (Larson would be the maid of honor at Eddie Van Halen's marriage to Valerie Bertinelli.) ...among my many favs is a duet with Mike McDonald who also wrote the song...don't think I've ever heard a male and female voice blend together so perfectly.
