SACD Boz Scaggs – Boz Scaggs

Boz Scaggs at Muscle Shoals in 1969, as a hybrid stereo SACD from the Atlantic 75 Series: soul, blues and country in one programme – with Duane Allman on the extended blues “Loan Me A Dime” and all nine songs in their 1969 running order.

A new setting in Alabama

Boz Scaggs’s self-titled album takes us to Alabama in 1969, to a newly opened studio full of experienced musicians. After his time with the Steve Miller Band, Scaggs was looking for a different musical setting. Boz Scaggs is sometimes called a debut, but it was already his second solo album. Original songs meet blues, country and soul without being sorted into separate compartments. Anyone who mainly knows Scaggs from the later Silk Degrees meets an earlier stage of his career here – with different collaborators and a repertoire that travels through several American traditions.

Jann Wenner, co-founder of Rolling Stone and Scaggs’s neighbour at the time, provided an important connection: he encouraged Scaggs to make demos and helped bring the material to Atlantic. The album was then recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on Jackson Highway in Sheffield, founded in 1969 by Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson and David Hood after years as the rhythm section at FAME. Scaggs was among the first artists at the new address. He, Wenner and Marlin Greene produced, with Greene also engineering – a fresh start combined with the experience of an established recording team.

More than one famous guitar

Duane Allman is among the best-known names on the recording. He had worked in Muscle Shoals but had moved to Macon to build his own band, and came back temporarily for these sessions. His presence draws many listeners to the album, yet it should not hide the others: Hood’s bass, Hawkins’s drums and Beckett’s keyboards shape the sound as much as the guitars of Johnson and Eddie Hinton, and horn players and backing singers widen the ensemble further. Some individual track assignments remain unresolved in the sources, and an album-wide credit is not used here to invent a precise contribution for every song.

“Loan Me A Dime” gives Allman plenty of room and is the longest performance on the album. The blues was written by Fenton Robinson, whose authorship was not correctly credited on early releases. Scaggs remembered the song when studio time was left towards the end of the sessions – what began as an extra attempt became a centrepiece. There is more to follow than the entry of the guitar: listen to how voice, rhythm section and horns carry the long sequence. A performance on this scale depends on the relationships between the players, not on one isolated solo voice.

Country roots and the original running order

“Waiting For A Train” leads back to Jimmie Rodgers and country music. Scaggs’s memory of the session includes an unusual detail: fiddler Al Lester worked as a barber and played between appointments. It suits an album whose personnel reaches well beyond a fixed touring band. Among the backing singers is Donna Thatcher, later known as Donna Jean Godchaux of the Grateful Dead. Such names are not an invitation to hear entire later careers in these performances – they show how many paths crossed at this studio in 1969.

According to the publisher’s tracklist, the SACD keeps the 1969 running order: “Sweet Release” follows “Loan Me A Dime”, just as on the original album. The nine songs – from “I’m Easy”, “I’ll Be Long Gone” and “Another Day (Another Letter)” to “Finding Her” and “Look What I Got” – play in one continuous sequence. Worth knowing: Tom Perry remixed the album in 1977, and that version appeared on several later reissues; the publisher does not state which mix this disc uses.

The Atlantic 75 hybrid stereo SACD

CAPA 070 SA is a hybrid stereo SACD from the Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the nine songs of the original album.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: Atlantic 75 Series

Also in another edition: Boz Scaggs

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented participants in this recording. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Boz Scaggsvocals, guitarParticipation: Album personnel
• Duane Allmanguitar, Dobro, slide guitarParticipation: tracks 5, 6, 7, 8
• Eddie HintonguitarParticipation: Track assignments unconfirmed
• Jimmy JohnsonguitarParticipation: track 8
• David HoodbassParticipation: Track assignments unconfirmed
• Roger HawkinsdrumsParticipation: Track assignments unconfirmed
• Barry BeckettkeyboardsParticipation: track 8
• Al Lesterfiddle, violinParticipation: track 7
• Charles Chalmerstenor saxophoneParticipation: track 1
• Floyd Newmanbaritone saxophoneParticipation: track 1
• Ben CauleytrumpetParticipation: track 1
• Joe Arnoldtenor saxophoneParticipation: tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• James Mitchellbaritone saxophoneParticipation: tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Gene „Bowlegs“ Millertrumpet, tromboneParticipation: tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Jeanie Greenebacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Mary Hollidaybacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Donna Thatcherbacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Joyce Dunnbacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 2, 4
• Tracy Nelsonbacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 2, 4
• Irma Routenbacking vocalsParticipation: tracks 2, 4

Track references describe documented participation, not necessarily every appearance. Duane Allman: four tracks; Al Lester: track 7. Other instrumental and backing-vocal assignments are partly disputed.