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Riding the success of last year’s critically acclaimed Chris Hillman’s Bidin’ My Time (produced by Tom Petty), Omnivore Records now weighs in with their 20-track compilation of Hillman’s first two solo albums from the mid- ‘70s. This, of course, was after Hillman had made his mark with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas, and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. Although much of the recordings may sound dated, they do reveal Hillman’s growth as a songwriter. Every so often I put the Manassas album on, and this has much of that same vibe. It’s refreshing every so often.
1976 brought Slippin’ Away, Hillman’s first solo release produced by renowned engineers Ron and Howard Albert (Derek and the Dominoes, Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix) with a roster of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, members of Booker T. &the M.G.’s (Steve Cropper), Poco (Timothy Schmidt), Buffalo Springfield Jim Fielder), and the Turtles (Flo and Eddie) along with top shelf studio musicians like Al Perkins, Leland Sklar, and Russ Kunkel, among others.
The liners feature an essay from Scott Schindler and a new interview with Hillman, who reflects on this period. Hillman says, “Having never done a solo album before, I wasn’t really that confident as a singer yet. But I had the songs, and I felt ready to give it a shot. Most of the songs weren’t too far off from what I’d done with Manassas and the later Byrds.” Hillman goes on to first cite the thrill of having Steve Cropper play on the record, (three tracks), “Midnight Again” (Burritos-like), “Down in the Churchyard” (Burritos recut), “Witching Hour” (unrecorded Manassas song), “Falling Again,” and the closing bluegrass tune “(Take Me In Your) Lifeboat,” done with Herb Petersen, Bernie leadon, Byron Berline and Leland Sklar.
Hillman returned the following year to record Clear Sailin,’ where he scaled back the production considerably and assembled a core band with production from Jim Mascon (Poco, Firefall). Five songs were co-written with Crawdaddy magazine’s founder, Pete Knobler. It’s a safer, more traditional sound that hearkens back to Hillman’s early days with the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. In reflection Hillman offered this humble, honest assessment, “it’s a differ kind of record than Sllippin’ Away. I guess the songs were OK but I don’t think it has the feel that the first one had. In some ways, I think it was true to the old adage of the sophomore slump, that you have our whole life to make your first record and then you have a few months to make your second. I don’t know why I changed producers, but in hindsight I probably should have stayed with Ron and Howie.”
Hillman has had as storied a career as any musician from his era. Like ay career, time brings perspective. These are Hillman’s first efforts as a bandleader. He comments, “Doing these records was part of my growing process. Do we ever master our professions? Not really, you’re always learning something. It was with the Desert Rose Band that I really felt that I’d come to a point where I’d put in enough time for it to pay off musically. These records are all steps on that journey, and the journey’s been pretty wonderful.”
Whether you find the music “more of that ‘70s sound,” enjoy the first but not the second, or just find a few tunes that move you, it’s always interesting to learn and hear an important artist’s evolution.