Jim McCarty Band

Jim McCarty Band - Two Steps Ahead - 2002 - Kissing Spell

Good rock album from the Yardbirds' original drummer, Jim McCarty, and his band. Six of the tracks were written or partly composed by Jim. Although the dominant flavour of the album is blues rock, there are also some rock orientated tracks like Warren Zevon's great "Lawyers and Guns and Money", and Gregg Allman's "Black Hearted Woman". Other tracks include great boogie versions of Leiber & Stoller's "Framed", and James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy". The real blues rock is on great tracks like Jane Feather's "How Blue Can You Get", and Chester Burnett's "No Place to Go". The music is quite an eclectic in spots. Jim McCarty's own "Your Hearts Not It In" has a strong reggae flavour, and his "Heavy Weather" is a great Rober Cray tinged soul inspired number, with some tasty guitar. However, there isn't really a dud track on the album. The musicianship is terrific from ex-Mott The Hoople guitarist, Ray Majors, the great Strawbs bassist, Rod Demick, and of course John Idan, vocalist and guitarist with the legendary Yardbirds. The Jim McCarty Band is in effect a reformed Yardbirds line-up. Check out the new Yardbird's 2003 "Birdland" album which includes not only Jim McCarty, and John Idan, but also appearances by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May, Steve Lukather, and the legendary Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. Buy Jim McCarty's great"Out of the Dark " album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Outside Woman Blues - Joe Reynolds
2 Slow Drivers - Jim McCarty
3 Lawyers and Guns and Money - Warren Zevon
4 No Place to Go - Chester Burnett
5 Heavy Weather - Jim McCarty
6 How Blue Can You Get - Jane Feather
7 Walking Through the Back Streets - Jim McCarty/John Idan
8 Framed - Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller
9 Your Hearts Not It In - Jim McCarty
10 Black Hearted Woman - Gregg Allman
11 I'll Go Crazy - James Brown
12 No Easy Way Out - Jim McCarty
13 Two Steps Ahead - Jim McCarty/Paul Samwell-Smith/Chris Dreja/John Fiddler

BAND

Jim McCarty - Vocals, Drums
John Idan - Guitar, Vocals
Ray Majors - Guitar, Vocals
Rod Demick - Bass

ABOUT JIM McCARTY

b. 25 July 1943, Liverpool, England. This ex-Yardbirds' musical career resumed after his departure from Renaissance when, in an unfamiliar role on lead vocals and keyboards, he recorded 1973's On The Frontier with Shoot before concentrating on writing for other artists such as Dave Clark and Dave Berry. Plans to revive the original Renaissance line-up were quashed by Keith Relf's death in 1976, but the survivors continued as Illusion. Lingering enthusiasm for this outfit culminated in 1990's posthumous Enchanted Caress, which contained demos mostly composed and sung by McCarty, whose curriculum vitae by then included leadership of Ruthless Blues and later combos who, if popular club attractions, leaned heavily on the repertoires of the Yardbirds and their R&B contemporaries. This tendency also pervaded the British Invasion All-Stars which, financed by an American 60s fan, was a studio amalgam of McCarty and certain middle-aged peers. Earlier delvings into the past included 1981's Afternoon Tea, a spoken-word album of reminiscences with Chris Dreja (with whom McCarty also co-authored a Yardbirds' biography), and a Guide To Yardbirds Drumming video. Moreover, he was one of the Yardbirds who performed two UK concerts in 1983 and recorded under the guise of Box Of Frogs. By the later 80s, the multi-talented McCarty emerged on yet another artistic front - playing new age music - when, as a mainstay of Stairway, his output was as prolific in its way as anything in the Yardbirds/Renaissance canon. In the 90s, McCarty re-formed the Yardbirds with rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja and various new personnel. In 2001, he worked with Canned Heat's Richard Hite (b. 1951, USA, d. 17 September 2001, Memphis, Tennessee, USA) for the project Weekend In Memphis, shortly before Hite's death from cancer. © IPC MEDIA 1996-2009, All rights reserved, © www.nme.com/artists/jim-mccarty

BIO (Wikipedia)

Jim McCarty (born James Stanley McCarty, 25 July 1943, Liverpool, Lancashire, UK) is a British musician, best known as the drummer for The Yardbirds and Renaissance. He was born at Walton Hospital in Liverpool, but his family moved to London when he was two years old. He attended the Hampton Grammar School in Richmond upon Thames where Paul Samwell-Smith was a fellow pupil. When playing with the early Yardbirds, he worked as a stockbroker in London Stock Exchange. He has also played in the bands Shoot (on lead vocals), Illusion (with three other ex-members of Renaissance), Stairway and Pilgrim.

MORE ABOUT JIM McCARTY

James McCarty was one of the founding members of one of the seminal British Invasion groups, the Yardbirds. After leaving the group, he formed the progressive rock outfit Renaissance with Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf. McCarty left Renaissance in 1973; he wrote material for Dave Berry and Dave Clark, among others, before attempting to re-form Renaissance in 1976. Sadly, the band's plans were destroyed by Relf's death in 1976; the group continued as Illusion. In 1983, he joined former Yardbirds Chris Dreja and Paul Samwell-Smith as Box of Frogs. In the late '80s, McCarty launched his own solo career, which has produced four albums that meld his blues-rock heritage with new age philosophies and musical textures. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic.com