The legendary Tommy Shannon

[jerry]

I had heard that the Arc Angels had recently reformed. That band was a little ahead of its time and was a good launching pad for Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton, along with being a solid landing pad for Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton following SRV's death. I enjoyed that record, and I still have "Living in a dream" on one of my favorite playlists. Tommy is solid, as always.

I wasn't surprised to read in this article that Tommy has retired: Invalid Link Removed

He seemed to be on the frail side during Stevie Ray Vaughn's induction ceremony into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And considering his career stretched all the way back to playing with Johnny Winter in the late 60's I wasn't surprised to learn that Tommy had retired. But I was definitely a list bit wistful when I read the article. I hope that the Arc Angels do him proud!

That first Arc Angels was excellent and I'm stoked they are going to give it another shot. I've been following Bramhall's career ever since. I think at the time the first album came out it was at the height of grunge and it just got overlooked, plus Shannon and Layton already went through and kicked the whole drug phase that the two younger guys were dabbling in.

 

[Gluvhand]

Tone of Sobs
FREE ( Pic of Woman leaping on Cover)
Fire and Water
Highway
Heartbreaker
Free At Last
Free Live
Best of Free
There were several offshoot albums too such as Andy Fraser in Sharks, Kossoff, Kirk, Tetsu and Rabbit and Kossoff in Back Street Crawler. I had all of them on vinyl and still have all the FREE albums on cd.

My point was that Free is known for basically a single song in the US, so just because someone doesn't know something about a band, it gives no cause to denigrate them which is common here on this site. We all know something someone else does not know. Its one of the only universal facts of life

I agree with everything here, except the number of albums. One was a “greatest hits” so nothing new on it and one was a live album released by their label after they had broken up. Or not. All good.

 

[Aussie Player]

I agree with everything here, except the number of albums. One was a “greatest hits” so nothing new on it and one was a live album released by their label after they had broken up. Or not. All good.

Not sure of your point of disputing released albums. Once they are pressed the band gets royalties so they are legit.

 

[jerry]

Not until I moved to the States and the band I was in played a song of his. Picked up a snippet here and there on who he was but the band is never mentioned and because I am a bass player, I never had any interest in another guitar player as Hendrix wannabee's were common from the 70's on-wards. I think only Van Halen brought something new and unique to the table after Clapton and Hendrix pioneered the blues rock format.

Same with bass players, The pioneers were in the 60's and very early 70's and several like JPY and Fraser carried over. Have no interest in modern treble bass playing as those guys taught us melody, note phrasing and neck utilization that still to this day generates surprise and comment from both band members and the audience. In the pre internet world overseas, America didn't shine that much, as the British influence was still dominant. There are some nice bass players around today that take those pioneers a step further and they are great to listen to but bass is definitely in 2 camps today and the later camp holds no interest for me.

I have also learned since immigrating that Americans don't know very much about other countries so the internet opened a whole new world to them as well. Example, Free is known in America for 1 song. I had all 8 LP's, respectfully, did you know they had that catalogue? Yet most here seem to know who Andy Fraser is today but back then?

Oversee's is a whole, other world, If you, meaning anyone, hasn't experienced it, you don;t know it or weren't there during the influential years and that's fine because I wasn't in the US then and that's fine too.
Its all about perspective and commonly available information. No harm done on either side of the fence.

FWIW, I saw Free a few times, with and without Fraser and had all the releases and side projects, they were big with all the musicians I hung with and Fraser was probably my biggest influence when I started playing.