West Coast Connection

         

01. Hard Times
02. Madison Blues
03. Ain't That The Truth
04. Mona
05. You Don't Have To Cry
06. Guitar Boogie
07. Walking Blues
08. Mean Old World
09. Nothin' But A Fool

Additional tracks (online only)
10. 19 Years Old - Live at Multnomah Cable Access
11. You Need Love - Live at Multnomah Cable Access

Mick Clarke - Guitar / Vocals
Rod DeAth - Drums
Dover Weinberg - Keyboards
H.Emerson Zachery Jr - Bass
Westside Johnny - harp

Recorded at Fresh Tracks, Portland, Oregon by John Lindahl, February 1987
Mixed at Desitrek, Portland, Oregon by John Lindahl, Doug Dubrow and Mike Demmers
Mastered at K Disc, Los Angeles, California by John Golden

Produced by Mick Clarke
Executive Producers - Michael Kearsey, John Fletcher, John Henderson
Original cover photo - Donn Thomas. New cover photo from Multnomah Cable Access.

"West Coast Connection" originally released on Nebula Circle Records USA.
European release by Brambus Records.
Remastered - new release on download and streaming only - the original album remastered by Mick Clarke at Rockfold Studio 2024 plus two additional tracks recorded live for Multnomah Cable Access TV show.

Mick writes:

In the late eighties I made it over to the USA for a series of West Coast tours, based in Portland Oregon. Towards the end of the first tour we were offered a spot on a local cable TV show being produced by Multnomah Cable Access at the local college. Myself and Rory Gallagher drummer Rod De'Ath were up for it, but the other guys decided to sit it out, so we returned to the TV studio a week later with a new line-up, including Dover Weinberg (Robert Cray Band) on keyboards, Emerson Zachary (Zack) on bass and local harp player Westside Johnny.

The result was a very successful concert which was aired many times on Cable TV in the area. So we decided that the next step was.. an album! On the next trip we booked a studio and recorded the band, with a guest appearance from blues singer Curtis Salgado. The album was released on my friend Michael Kearsey's "Nebula Circle" label and distributed nationally in the US.

Later the album was released in Europe on the Swiss "Brambus" label and did well. For me it's a snapshot of a great time in my life, working with some fabulously talented musicians who also became great friends.

2024 Re-Master Release

The album was unavailable online for some time, so i thought it needed to be up there. However, it did sound a little thin.. don't know why.. it sounded good at the time, but then that was all through the medium of vinyl and good old fashioned home stereos with decent speakers.

So using the latest plug ins and a little AI help, here's a 2024 remaster. Louder and fuller I think. Not bad. A quick rundown:

Hard Times. My bit of vaguely SRV influenced rock. I seem to remember going up the local hard rock radio station in Portland and getting this played. It was fun at the time.. all the DJs stood up to do their thing to give it extra edge. Good stuff.. don't know if they still do that kind of thing.

Madison Blues. Nice, because I was staying on S.E. Madison at the time at my friend Michael Kearsey's house. And there's reference to my girlfriend (to be wife) Linda back home. All real. The track rocks, although I'm embarrassed listening to my out of time guitar playing with Rod's drumming. He was on time, I wasn't.

Ain't That The Truth. This was played on the radio in London.. Greater London Radio I think.. the late Stuart Coleman. That was exciting at the time, although Stuart did ask at the end.."who's idea was that fade?" Yeah, fair point, it's a bit crap. Nice track though.

Mona. Rod really rips into this. Great job. I just try to hit the notes. A club favourite.

You Don't Have To Cry. Curtis Salgado was a Portland local who already had a reputation as a top class vocalist / star to be. Somehow we got him involved in my little project, and he contributed to two or three tracks.. singing a soulful backing vocal on this. Quite a good song I think.. a little Ray Charles influenced but that's OK.

Guitar Boogie. the first time I ever visited The Marquee club in London was to see the Jeff Beck Band - Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood playing second guitar. I know.. eat your heart out. And it actually was that good.. I've never really recovered.

And halfway through Jeff did this little instrumental.. all the killer runs faultlessly played. It's only here because I was playing a version live on stage, and at the time I regarded this album as a permanent record of my live show. So.. It ain't Jeff, that's for sure. But it does rock, and there's some killer keyboard from Dover.

Walking Blues. A staple of pub and club gigs for many years. It just bangs away and everyone enjoys it, so why not? Rod on form again and Westside Johnny hitting some great notes on the harp.

Mean Old World. So we asked Curtis to sing this, since he could sing, and I couldn't - not really. So it's a slightly odd convergence of styles.. classic West Coast Blues meets the uppity Brit. The guitar's a bit thin which is a shame.. I'd hired a Marshall for the session but just couldn't get the right sound out of it, so went back to the little Peavey I was using for gigs. Punchy but a little nervous sounding. Interesting track.

Nothin' But A Fool. A song I'd recorded earlier but I think it was worth doing again. Rocks along.

19 Years old. This whole line-up came about because we needed a band to do a cable TV show, at Multnomah Cable Access. I don't think we rehearsed.. just did it, and it came out great. Here's a kind of bootleg recording from that show - Muddy's 19 Years Old. I think it has a vibe to it.

You Need Love. And also from Multnomah, my old regular.. YNL. Rough and Ready but Rockin'.

I hope you enjoy this trip back to another era.. my version of the 80s, and lots of great memories for me. Keep Rockin' the Blues.