Artist: Shoot
Title: On The Frontier
File: Rock/Country
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They may have been relatively short-lived as rock acts go but this sole album release by British band Shoot still packs a punch.
Predominantly melodic country-rock, ‘On The Border’s remit to mix things up steers the material additionally to jazz, psych and progressive genres to outstanding effect.
Formed in 1972 by ex-Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty, Shoot boasted an impressive line-up culled from prominent period bands including Renaissance, Third Ear Band, Cochise, Manfred Mann’s Chapter Three and Raw Material.
Production values were high: engineered by John Leckie (Be-Bop Deluxe, Roy Harper, XTC) at London’s Abbey Road Studios in 1973, “On The Frontier” stand-outs include opener “The Neon Life” with its soaring harmonies, the haunting and expansive “Sepia Sister”, the arrangements of “Ships And Sails”, and the title track itself.
Shoot folded by the end of the year, McCarty going on to form a reassembling of both Renaissance and the Yardbirds in the bands Illusion and Box of Frogs respectively, leaving behind this tantalising one-shot record of a beautifully-realised vision.
Tracks
- The Neon Life
- Ships And Sails
- Living Blind
- On The Frontier
- The Boogie
- Midnight Train
- Head Under Water
- Sepia Sister
- Old Time Religion
- Mean Customer