ADD REAL Rock Candy CD! Many of you asked to keep featuring Rock Candy Records releases to complete collections, so here’s STILLWATER debut album, 1977’s self-titled “Stillwater“, fully remastered and including two bonus tracks. Despite appeared not so long ago, this release has become pretty hard to find, not listed anymore at Rock Candy’s website.
An impressive seven piece hailing from Macon Georgia, Stillwater first arrived on our radar back in the Seventies when they were filmed by the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test program playing in a local club as part of Capricorn record’s annual picnic. The track shown was ‘Sam’s Jam’ a masterful guitar-drenched epic that sent a shock wave through the ranks of Southern / Classic Rock aficionados. Some of us have yet to recover from that program.
Formed in the early Seventies and featuring a classic three-man guitar line up, the band courted much attention eventually signing with the Macon-based Capricorn label, home to The Allman Brothers Band, amongst many others. It was a fitting pairing, with the band attracting much attention, earning strong praise and delivering one of the finest albums of the period. Paired with Buddy Buie, songwriter and producer for the Atlanta Rhythm Section the band recorded their album at the legendary Studio One facility in Doraville.
“Stillwater” LP is marketed as Southern Rock platter but the emphasis is on the guitar work and the whole album actually comes off as pretty heavy Boston style rock and roll.
Not to be confused with the protagonists of Cameron Crowe’s 2000 “Almost Famous” movie, Stillwater were a Southern Rock band, from Macon, Georgia. And if nothing else, with 7 members, they were to be admired for not finding plenty of room for musical differences.
There’s a looser, rawer feel to Stillwater’s sound on this debut album, for us, their best, and a great exponent from the second half of the Seventies Classic Rock. The record is anchored to mother earth. And judging by their mode of dress, you could easily believe they recorded the album in the back of somebody’s garage.
What it lacks in polish it gains in immediacy. There’s a “hit it’n’quit it” tone to ‘Rock’n’Roll Loser’, ‘Out On A Limb’ and minor hit single ‘Mind Bender’. All are powerfully provocative and southern fried soulful.
The album’s centrepiece, ‘Sams Jam’, is pure rock n’ roll. By the time we join it, it sounds like it’s being going all morning, and by the time we leave, it sounds like it’ll be going all night.
You know you’re gonna love this band live, and they give us proof on the two bonus tracks: raucously, lovably live versions of ‘Out On A Limb’ and ‘Mind Bender’.
It doesn’t have to sell a million. The remastering and reissuing of Stillwater‘s s/t debut (1977) and follow up, I Reserve The Right (1978) in itself underlines the Rock Candy label’s willingness to pursue the arcane. And glad they exist, bringing back this kind of true rock n’ roll bands.
HIGHLY Recommended
Only at plotn08
01 – Rock-N-Roll Loser
02 – Out On A Limb
03 – Sunshine Blues
04 – Sam’s Jam
05 – Mind Bender
06 – Universal Fool
07 – April Love
08 – Fantasy Park
09 – Out On A Limb (Live) [Bonus Track]
10 – Mind Bender (Live) [Bonus Track]
Lead Vocals, Percussion – Jimmy Hall
Lead Vocals, Drums – Sebie Lacey
Guitar – Bobby Golden, Mike Causey
Guitar, Lead Vocals (track 1) – Rob Walker (tracks: 1)
Bass – Allison Scarborough
with
Keyboards – Bob Spearman
Stillwater – Stillwater [Rock Candy Remaster+2 bonus] 2018, MP3+FLAC, CD w/Scans
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It’s a fake. Sound exactly like the original. Keep searching …