posted 22 March 2001 09:04 PM         

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Jim Smith jimsmith94@home.com
-=Dekley D-12 10&12=-
-=Fessenden Ext. E9/U-12 (soon to be U-13) 8&5 (so far)=-

posted 23 March 2001 05:00 AM         

The album Fred has is identical to the Alshire "Steel Guitar Favorties" album, which is credited to Red Rhodes. Most of the songs are remakes of the session stuff he did on Crown in the '60s, as well as a tune he did with Nesmith in '71 ("Rene").

If I remember the rumor right, Nesmith bought the rights to Red's music, and then never released any of it. He also refused to sell the music to Red when he asked....I believe that is what caused the breakdown of their relationship throught the late-70's/1980's. Thus the reason Red re-recorded all these songs in 1979.

Hi Fred....hopefully you like the album, and that's why you are asking about it? I tried to tell you Red was a great player

Take care all,

posted 23 March 2001 06:30 AM         

After all, Red recorded his wonderful album 'Velvet Hammer In A Cowboy Band' in 1973 for the Countryside label, which was run by Nez and distributed as a subsiduary of Countryside. Then in 1973 a bit of wheeling and dealing by David Geffen with Asylum/Atlantic/Warner Brothers/Elektra saw a lot of Elektra and Asylum artists dropped, as well as lot of subsid and distribution deals that Elektra had, including Countryside which was closed down. Thus Red's album was off the shelf the same year it was released.
And yet, Red was able to take the masters to Tom Bradshaw and after some re-recording and an additional track from the sessions in 1973, the album was reissued by Tom as 'Velvet Hammer.'
I don't quite see how Red lost the rights to this as Tom still has it.
This and the Steel Anthology album that Nesmith had in around 1978 should be the only material of Red's that Nez would have the right to.

posted 23 March 2001 10:44 AM         

Again, it's only what I've heard, but I believe Nesmith bought the rights to ALL Red material, including his Crown stuff. I believe it was Red's intention to get some of that Crown material re-released, but since Nez wouldn't do it, he was forced to go back into the studio and recut his best stuff from those days.

Also, after 7 albums together, Nez dumped Rhodes as his steel man, opting instead for Weldon Myrick for the 1977 "Photon Wing" album, and touring with Al Perkins in 1978. This raised quite a few eyebrows at the time, as the Nesmith/Rhodes collabarations were sort of like Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Becker/Fagen, etc. Hard to believe they weren't working together...

Perhaps someone who had contact with Red in the late '70s can clarify this issue a bit? The Alshire (and related) recordings were made around 1979.....this is believed to be the time that the Nez-Red rift began.

Also, (and correct me if I'm wrong), weren't most of the Velvet Hammer tracks on the Red Rhodes Steel Guitar album (on Alshire) re-recordings of the Velvet Hammer LP on Countryside?

Joe
**Dekley E-12 5/4**

[This message was edited by Joe Alterio on 23 March 2001 at 10:45 AM.]

posted 23 March 2001 03:19 PM         

The pint I was making, and I'm sorry to beat you over the head with it, is that the whole Nez-Rhodes split is rumour and conjecture, I'm not saying that you're wrong and I'm right.
I believe you to be the most knowledgable Rhodes recording historian and authority around.
But, I'm still rather doubtful about the whole Crown masters thing. Hardly any of the Crown masters have surfaced in over thirty years.
There has been a lot of B.B. King cheapo comps from his 1950s sides, a bluegrass album has been reissued on CD in the 1990s due to it's relation to bluegrass history, the sister label Custom has had one LP I know of reissued, and even then the material was split over two compilations of a different artist. (Red sessioned on it, email me if you want details).
Jerry Cole cut dozens of album on Crown under different names, and Sundazed Records has reissued some of them through their Beatrocker outlet. (mucho recommendo)

Plus no-one has ever mentioned this split to me, and I have been in touch with a few folks who worked with Red over the years.
I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just heresay as far as I'm concerned.
Red did have the custom amp thing and his shop, which after 1976 he seemed to be heavily focusing on with his sons.
And have you noticed how his sessions had dropped off aftr 1974 or so, now this can be attributed to his constant work with Nez and the shop, but it doesn't allow for other factors.

Now, by all accounts REd was pretty easy to find, you just went to the shop in the late 1970s, he wasn't much for the bar band scene by this point, and perhaps he had given the touring thing the flick.
Okay sure, but this still doesn't account for Nez not using him in the studio, I can understand Nez wanting to used his road guy Al Perkins though.