Pure Prairie League are a band hailing from Waverly, Ohio, U.S who formed in 1970. Since their debut in 1972 they have become one of the most respected country-rock acts of their generation with twelve studio albums to their name.
Most bands don’t arrive fully formed, and it’s unreasonable to expect that they should. Pure Prairie League are one of the alpha examples of this, as between the conception of the band and the formation of their first solid line-up, it took five years for the band to truly come together. It was a further two before they actually released an album together. To put that in perspective, The Smiths formed and split up in five years of era defining creativity. The Beatles went from a Hamburg based rock ‘n roll covers act to releasing “Rubber Soul” in the same amount of time, but Pure Prairie League are still around to this day, something that neither of the previous two bands can claim. The band was named in 1970 by the band’s first drummer Tommy McGrail, and strangely enough, for a band who took so long to form, they managed to secure a record contract with RCA Records a little more than a year after they’d been together.
However, the band didn’t see much success with the label, releasing two critically acclaimed but low selling albums and were dropped when lead guitarist Craig Fuller was arrested for draft dodging and spent six months in prison. Fuller was arguably the band’s frontman before his arrest, but after his release he was not keen to return, so their bass player Michael Reilly took up the reigns of the band, employed a new singer and guitarist in the form of Larry Goshorn, and finally scored a hit in the form of the 1974 single “Amie”. The band spent the rest of the seventies as one of the most consistent bands around, but their fortunes faded at the dawn of the 1980’s, as they were dropped from RCA again, picked up by Casablanca records, who then went bankrupt, and the band were left without a record label by 1982. The band remained an in demand live act, however, and were able to support themselves by playing club gigs to their devoted fanbase until 1988, when they finally split.
However, the band came back together in 1998 with as much of their classic line-up as they could find and some newer faces on the country and rock scenes, including future Jack White sideman Fats Kaplin. Ever since then, their live shows have taken them all over the world and their 2005 studio album “All In Good Time” has been hailed as one of the best records of their career. It’s a stunning comeback that any band of their time would kill to have, and for that, along with a back catalogue to make anyone green with envy, Pure Prairie League come highly recommended.
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