FLOW
Flow
1970
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from CTI 1003
One of only five LPs released in the CTI 1000 series while Creed Taylor was transitioning from A&M to start his own label (you can read more about it at Doug Payne's site) and one of few rock-oriented albums to be put out by the label. It's also notable for being the project Don Felder left to join The Eagles, for whom he would compose their biggest hit, "Hotel California." Far from the countrified MOR that Henley, Frey, & Co. would spew for the rest of the decade, Flow is a nice slice of jazzy, folky, West Coast style rock with some rootsy touches, including a Leadbelly cover (the only non-original composition of the bunch). It's quite a creeper and grows on you after a few listens so definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre.
John Winter - Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Soprano & Tenor Sax, Flute, Harmonica
Don Felder - Guitar
Chuck Newcomb - Bass, Vocals
Mike Barnett - Drums
Ed Shaughnessy - Percussion
Angel Allende - Percussion
Johnny Pacheco - Percussion
1 Daddy
2 Here We Are Again
3 Line 'Em
4 Gotta Get Behind Your Trip
5 Chicken Farm
6 No Lack Of Room
7 Summer's Gone
8 Mr. Invisible
9 Arlene
Obviously we're all pretty clear on what happened to Felder afterward.
Ocala's John Winter (not to be confused with the fabulous furry albino brother Johnny) seemed to be the main creative force behind Flow but I could find little on his career afterward. He passed away in his home town recently after an extended illness.
Chuck Newcomb seems to be active back in the ol' stomping grounds as that name pops up as current bass player for the Funky Blues Messiahs in Gainesville, for the Beautiful Bobby Blackmon blues band in Orlando circa 2002 and it sure looks like an aged version of him in this video playing with Bird Dog Bobby & The Solstice Brothers in Florida.
Mike Barnett appears to have developed into a talented multi-instrumentalist and worked extensively with guitar genius Adrian Belew (great short but comprehensive video overview by the man himself at his site) during the King Crimson hiatus from 85 - 95. He continues to play with critical darlings Coffee Sergeants, his psych-pop outfit out of Texas and is active as a producer in folk and blues. Then again, maybe he didn't. You can't really trust AMG and there's squat to connect these two occurrences of the name elsewhere and there are some photos that don't lend themselves to as strong a comparison as Newcomb's.
UPDATE 2013: an anonymous commenter has claims to a bunch of corrections for above info on core band members and is probably more reliable - however no links or proof were provided so we'll keep the above as it stands for now. I can corrobrate Newcomb has retired from The Solstice Bros, though.
The percussionists are another story altogether. "Well-known" is an understatement! Shaughnessy has over 400 credits and was Doc Severinson's drummer on The Tonight Show for 29 years, Allende spent the 70s working with Idris, Sonny Fortune, Alphonse Mouzon, Mongo and others while Fania label founder Johnny Pacheco remains one of the most influential personalities in Latin music.
You can also download the tracks individually at 128k from Felder's own site. Check it out, there are pictures of the band, an interview with Creed Taylor, album lyrics, a bit of history behind Flow and the Florida scene at the end of the 60s and it's the only place on the web with much info on the band. He has requested none of the material there be reproduced and I'll cheerfully oblige but it's only one click away, so head over there if you want to know more about them.
There was a Japanese CD reissue in '99 but it is OOP as well. If you don't want to spend upwards of $100 for the vinyl you can get it from Soundological HERE. (Link updated May 23, 2012)
John Winter - Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Soprano & Tenor Sax, Flute, Harmonica
Don Felder - Guitar
Chuck Newcomb - Bass, Vocals
Mike Barnett - Drums
Ed Shaughnessy - Percussion
Angel Allende - Percussion
Johnny Pacheco - Percussion
1 Daddy
2 Here We Are Again
3 Line 'Em
4 Gotta Get Behind Your Trip
5 Chicken Farm
6 No Lack Of Room
7 Summer's Gone
8 Mr. Invisible
9 Arlene
Obviously we're all pretty clear on what happened to Felder afterward.
Ocala's John Winter (not to be confused with the fabulous furry albino brother Johnny) seemed to be the main creative force behind Flow but I could find little on his career afterward. He passed away in his home town recently after an extended illness.
Chuck Newcomb seems to be active back in the ol' stomping grounds as that name pops up as current bass player for the Funky Blues Messiahs in Gainesville, for the Beautiful Bobby Blackmon blues band in Orlando circa 2002 and it sure looks like an aged version of him in this video playing with Bird Dog Bobby & The Solstice Brothers in Florida.
Mike Barnett appears to have developed into a talented multi-instrumentalist and worked extensively with guitar genius Adrian Belew (great short but comprehensive video overview by the man himself at his site) during the King Crimson hiatus from 85 - 95. He continues to play with critical darlings Coffee Sergeants, his psych-pop outfit out of Texas and is active as a producer in folk and blues. Then again, maybe he didn't. You can't really trust AMG and there's squat to connect these two occurrences of the name elsewhere and there are some photos that don't lend themselves to as strong a comparison as Newcomb's.
UPDATE 2013: an anonymous commenter has claims to a bunch of corrections for above info on core band members and is probably more reliable - however no links or proof were provided so we'll keep the above as it stands for now. I can corrobrate Newcomb has retired from The Solstice Bros, though.
The percussionists are another story altogether. "Well-known" is an understatement! Shaughnessy has over 400 credits and was Doc Severinson's drummer on The Tonight Show for 29 years, Allende spent the 70s working with Idris, Sonny Fortune, Alphonse Mouzon, Mongo and others while Fania label founder Johnny Pacheco remains one of the most influential personalities in Latin music.
You can also download the tracks individually at 128k from Felder's own site. Check it out, there are pictures of the band, an interview with Creed Taylor, album lyrics, a bit of history behind Flow and the Florida scene at the end of the 60s and it's the only place on the web with much info on the band. He has requested none of the material there be reproduced and I'll cheerfully oblige but it's only one click away, so head over there if you want to know more about them.
There was a Japanese CD reissue in '99 but it is OOP as well. If you don't want to spend upwards of $100 for the vinyl you can get it from Soundological HERE. (Link updated May 23, 2012)
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11 comments:
One of the rarest CTI's, thanks for your great blog!
Very nice. It's always good to find an interesting band I have never heard of. And I particularly like music that goes across various genres, which is just the case of this album. Good luck with your blog.
Thanks, Radek! I am also partial to music that escapes easy categorization so I hope you'll find more to your liking here in the future. Always open to recommendations too, no matter the genre!
mi mancava questo release della CTI.
band molto interessante.
ringrazio cheeba
hi cheeba,
hope you don't mind if i link this post up at http://cti-kudu.blogspot.com/
much luck with the mainstream site and thanks..
interesting....thank you for posting. always surprised at the random stuff creed taylor was behind.
woooooooooooo.... thx for the discover...
I bought this albumn at Subic Bay PX in 1970. Had to sell it with my 800+ vinyl collection about 5 years ago. This was one of the few albumns I missed. My copy still had the plastic over the cover with the $2.35 price sticker on it.
Thanks for the memories.
Re Up please it is possible??
I have been a personal friend of a member of Flow since the mid-70's and have been in recent contact with him.There are a cpl of errors in your Flow info. Mike Barnett died of diabetes related complications in the mid-90's and for a time was cared for by another personal friend until he entered into hospice care.john Winter was still alive as of 2 yrs ago according to another friend that was part of Flow's road crew. Chuck Newcomb was a Solstice Bros. with Birddog Bobby but has retired from playing bass professionally. Don Felder is alive, well, touring, and promoting his book Heaven & Hell Life of/with The Eagles.It's been decades since I saw the group pic of Flow, thanks for the memory.
Reupped....finally!
Anon, thanks very much for sharing your info. I've updated the post to mention it.
Would love any links you could provide to make sure we can get the facts right!
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