REVIEW: Humble Pie Town and Country

Town And Country appeared in the UK quicker than it disappeared – released in November 1969, barely three months after the band’s debut album ‘As Safe As Yesterday Is’. Immediate Records announced it was bucking the trend by releasing the new album early in order to capitalise on the debut LP’s Top 30 success, a No.4 hit single in ‘Natural Born Bugie,’ plus acres of press generated by music journalists fascinated by a new ‘supergroup’ formed by one-time Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton from The Herd, powerhouse drummer Jerry Shirley and ex-Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley.

Nice Records, the new label set up after the discovery of original reels and tapes with the help of Small Faces/Faces and The Who drummer Kenney Jones, the resulting reissue of Town and Country helps to rectify previous reissues of the album with sub-standard sound, bringing Marriott and co firmly into your speakers with gusto. Opening with Take Me Back, you can see where Black Crowes borrowed their sound on the likes of Three Snakes And One Charm, The Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake continues on a firm blues shift the Marriott’s harmonica outbursts the crowing glory, Down Home Again is distant cousin to Afterglow, with Every Mother’s Son, Silver Tongue and Only You Can See being expertly executed excursions in hefty rock n roll.

With the addition of previously unreleased Greg’s Tune which features some sublime guitar work plus their revolutionary cover of Ray Charles’ I’ll Drown In My Own Tears recorded at Magdalen Laver Village Hall, Essex 10 July 1969. this set is an unparalleled revised reissue of a much unheralded band.

Nice Records can be found here