Bob Welch - His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond Two

This album is one that annoys me. Not because of the album itself, or even Bob's take on Rhiannon, but the fact that only two years after its release it is impossible to find.

For Christmas I asked everyone for money rather than presents because then I can go onto the internet and spend money on CDs. Armed with my $$$ I went off to buy the three Bob Welch albums that I was missing - Live From The Roxy, Greatest Hits And More (also known as His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond) and His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond Vol 2.

The first two were easy to find and hopefully should be in my mailbox in a few weeks. The latter however proved very hard to come by - it was deleted almost as soon as it came out. I tried all the usual CD places on the net, looked around for a second-hand copy, googled, searched rapidshare and in the end gave up.

Next step was to send an email to the man himself, hoping that he might be able to sell me a copy or direct me to someone who would. Bob replied back saying that he too didn't have a copy and the company that released it was no more.

So, in frustration I turned to my friend John who has provided a few albums to this blog and knew that he would undoubtedly have a copy. Sure enough he did, and nice guy that he is he uploaded it for me.

I don't mind uploading albums that are long since deleted or hard to find after so many years, but it does really annoy me that an album released in 2006 is nearly impossible to find.

I also do believe in supporting the artists and where possible I recommend that people buy the album so that the artist gets the royalties. This is especially true for people like Bob Welch who have had a pretty raw deal from the likes of Fleetwood Mac. Don't even get me started on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, Fleetwood Mac and the omission of Bob and Billy Burnette among others.

Anyway, in the interests of helping the FM community at large listen to these albums, I have added it to the blog for you.

I have to be honest here and say that I'm not overly sure about Bob covering songs such as Rhiannon, it was a classic and probably should have been left as such. Then again there are such great songs on here too. I really like "Ray" and I've always been a fan of 'Rebel Rouser' and 'The Girl Can't Stop'.

Source: Emailed to me by my friend John
Bitrate: 320kbps
Further Info: http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/discog.php?pid=1162

http://rapidshare.com/files/178094372/His_Fleetwood_Mac_Years_and_Beyond_Two.rar

Sandy Stewart - Cat Dancer & Blue Yonder

Occasionally there are albums that are so hard to come by that they need to be uploaded onto this blog, even if the link to Fleetwood Mac is minimal.

Sandy Stewart was a friend (at least some of the time) of Stevie Nicks', and Stevie even appears doing backing vocals on Sandy's first album Cat Dancer (from 1984). Plus, Sandy did write most of the lyrics to Seven Wonders and contributed to songs on Stevie Nicks albums. The link to Cat Dancer was posted by a couple of people on the Ledge.

The second album by Sandy - Blue Yonder from 1987- is almost impossible to find as it is long out of print. This copy came from John (jrpjr) off the Ledge (no not the usual John who has contributed before).

I personally think that Sandy sounds like Pat Benatar, but others have said she sounds like Martha Davis. You can make up your own mind on this and feel free to drop me a line to let me know what you think.

It is fair to say that this music has dated a little bit since the 1980's but it is still very listenable and enjoyable. It is a sad reflection on the 80's that music from that period is instantly recognisable as such. You can hear stuff from the 1970's or even the 1960's and it can sound as fresh today as it did then.

Don't take this as a criticism of these albums though, dated they may be, but I like them and maybe you will too!

Thanks to everyone who provided links and hopefully putting it up here on the blog will enable more people to hear it.

CAT DANCER
Source: Posted on the Ledge
Bitrate: weird - varies between 128kbps to 205kbps depending on the track
Further Info: http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/discog.php?pid=283

BLUE YONDER
Source: Emailed to me by Jrpjr from the Ledge (Thanks!!!)
Bitrate: 192kbps (was a .wma file - I converted it to MP3 @ 192kbps)
Further Info: http://www.aor-fm.com/bands/1370_BLUE_YONDER.aspx

http://rapidshare.com/files/177730316/Cat_Dancer.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/177730317/Blue_Yonder.rar