Gene Clark-Silverado ‘75 CD Review
Gene Clark
Silverado ‘75, Live & Unreleased
Collectors Choice Music CCM-924
***
A live radio broadcast from the father of alt. country, this set has been circulating among Byrds/Gene Clark fans for some time as a bootleg called AIRCRAFTS & MORE. The tracks here were broadcast by a radio station from the club Ebbets Field, Denver on 19th February 1975, in front of a small but very appreciative audience at a show when Gene was opening for Tom Waits.
A year before, Clark had delivered his masterwork NO OTHER, which proved to be an expensive flop. Asylum label boss, David Geffen had stumped up $100,000 for the recording and was not best pleased to get just eight tracks followed by a public spat with Clark. Geffen’s revenge was to ensure the record was a stiff, peaking at number 86 on the album chart.
Since his heyday with the Byrds and his collaboration with Doug Dillard, on THE FANTASTIC EXPEDITION OF DILLARD & CLARK, Gene’s career had stopped, started and then stalled. He was a gifted songwriter and a beguiling performer, but his fear of flying stopped him going on the road extensively inside and outside of the USA.
On this show, Roger White supported him on guitar and Duke Bardwell (ex-Elvis and Loggins & Messina) on bass and acoustic guitar. They were billed as Gene Clark and Silverado. He toured with this stripped down unit for two years. The shows were, reportedly, sometimes hampered by Gene’s drinking. However, on this set he is on good form, sometimes sounding rough and occasionally missing a high note.
The harmonies with Roger White and the quality of Gene’s songs make up for the weakspots. With Silverado, Gene performed tracks from NO OTHER alongside traditional country material such as Long Black Veil and In The Pines.
Of course folks attending the show wanted the old Byrds’ numbers and he obliges with Here Without You and Set You Free This Time, as well as performing news songs such as Daylight Time and Dylan-styled Home Run King, while Spanish Guitar appears to have been a popular request that evening.
Although slightly above bootleg quality, the set does have sleevenotes by Gene’s biographer John Einerson.
If you are wondering why there is such a fuss about Gene Clark, don’t start here - you would be better checking out his recordings with Doug Dillard, the A&M double set, FLYING HIGH and of course NO OTHER. Hard core Byrds and Clark fans may already have this but if not, this is your chance to get a legit copy. Tony Burke