This is the second "Barnstorm" album from Wichita-Born Joe Walsh. When Walsh left the James Gang, he formed a band called Barnstorm. ABC put out the albums as solo LPS by Joe Walsh. For the most part, it's Joe Walsh's thing, but the tunes are credited to Barnstorm Music and the Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli were members of a band with Joe Walsh at this time, not just his backing band.
The first song on the LP, "Rocky Mountain Way," is a monster. It's a defining hard-rock song of the 1970's. From there though, the album gets a bit soft. Walsh explores soft rock and even Jazz inflicted tunes like the instrumental, "Midnight Moodies." Despite solid songs like "Bookends", "Dreams," and "Days Gone By," they pale in comparison to "Rocky Mountain Way."
The album does have nice melodies, lots of cool instruments, good arrangements, all that stuff. But, I could listen to Fleetwood Mac if I wanted clever soft rock, it's better. It does have Joe Walsh's guitar, though. He's good at that and probably the most famous Kansas born guitarist, ever? I don't think there are too many that did as much with the instrument and established themselves as a player as much as he did.
Richard Pryor Introduces "Rocky Mountain Way"
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