Well, well, well. Right to business, folks. I already said all I have to say about Cardiff Rose in my write-up two days ago, so we'll move right on to Band Of Pirates, the little companion album I prepared as a special chaser for the original album. 'Little' is definitely fitting here, as Band Of Pirates with a slim runnning time of under 27 minutes is what would have been marketed as a mini album in the 1980s, when they tried to establish slimmed down albums of around eight tracks and 25 to 30 minutes as an option between an EP and an LP.
The main source of this album is a radio concert in front of a small audience that McGuinn gave with his newly formed backing band, Thunderbyrd, in 1976. This is the first iteration of that band, which didn't last until the album named like them a year later. McGuinn thought they didn't have the chops to produce in the studio, so they got canned and replaced by studio pros like Rick Vito, Greg Thomas and future Poco player Charlie Harrison. But the original Thunderbyrd - James Smith on guitar and Commander Cody's old rhythm section of Bruce Barlow and Lance Dickerson- are really quite good in a live setting. They bring a distintive country rock sensibility to the Cardiff Rose material, including some tasty steel guitar on a number of songs.
Two songs on this mini-album aren't on Cardiff Rose: Mc Guinn did a bunch of Byrds song or rather: bits of Byrds songs. Some of these were mere snippets, less than a minute long, basically a verse and a refrain. These cut up mini versions to me weren't the absolute best ways to hear that music. So I decided to turn a number of these Byrds songs and snippets into a medley dubbed "Treasure Trove" to go along with the pirate theme around here. The songs included (and in order) are: She Don't Care About Time-So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star-Hickory Wind-Mr. Spaceman.
The other song, and the only one not taken from the so-called Living Room Concert - is "Soul Love", a demo produced for possible inclusion of Cardiff Rose. McGuinn doing Bowie? Yes, it happened, folks, no doubt due to some friendly nudging from producer Mick Ronson, who recorded the song later himself. The fact that this is a mere demo with rather rudimentary instrumentation fits rather well for inclusion on Band Of Pirates, so it fits in pretty well with the acoustic vibe of the rest of the tracks.
Well, and that is that. Seven fine tracks from McGuinn and his merry band of musical marauders, from one of the best periods of him as a performer in the 70s. Arh, har, matey - step on board of the Jolly Roger and meet your captain, Jolly Roger, as well as his merry men...
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