One Album Wonders: Try Some Cayenne, It's Good Stuff...

It's been a while since we've been in the world of the one album wonders, time to get back and do it in the way old school One Buck Heads like C in Cali know me with my rootsy proclivities to go: the country rock route, obviously!

Cayenne were a country rock group from the Bay area, gigging and occasionally recording throghout the early 70s, mainly between 1973 and 1795. They finally took up a residency in McGowan's Wharf Tavern on San Fancisco's Fisherman's Wharf and finally self-released (via their label Bucksnort records) their eponymous and unfortunately only record. 

One of the issues was timing. The time it took for Cayenne to lay down these ten sides - noted on the sleeve as being a 'demo' rather than a 'master' recording, but sounding perfectly fin eand professionally recorded and engineered - the country rock boom was over. In 1973 the Eagles' eponymous debut came out, but by 1975 , when Cayenne finally came out, Henley & Co. were openly courting the disco crowd with "One Of These Nights" and had otherwise tried to move to a rock sound. Other presumably country rock outfits like Firefall were openly moving into soft rock. So, really, the fine but unassuming country rock of Cayenne didn't stand much of a chance of making a local, much less national splash. 

Cayenne follows the country rock model of having several songwriters and singers in its ranks: both guitar players John Salz and Clair Louis Hinton (who also adds banjo and harmonica)  as well as drummer Ajay Avery. Salz is the most active with half of the tracks here, while Avery has my favorite track with the bluegrass-styled "2 Months In Red Bluff". The sound reminds you of Poco or The Pure Prairie League or latter day Moby Grape on closing cut "Things Get Better". 

Before relistening to this for prepping the write-up I had also forgotten how crunchy the lead guitar can be, as on opener "Make Your Move". The track list had a tiny soft spot in the middle, so I did some resequencing for a better flow of Cayenne. 

This album won't change your life, and it isn't a hidden classic like George Law's selftitled album or Luke Gibson's Perfect Day But it is a damn fine album with all of country rock's hall marks like the close vocal harmonies that you associate with the genre. It sure as hell deserved better than selling a couple of copies via Jim's Used Record Store in San Fran and obviously not enough people sent their five bucks to Bucksnort Records to make Cayenne a continuing thing. 

But thankfully the internet never forgets, so let's pretend to go to Fisherman's Wharf in the early 70s and being attracted by some fine country rock coming out of one of its bars...