Rant #2,196: Silver Moon

Let me tell you about a new CD/record release on the market that you might not know about, but that you just might be interested in.

Earlier this year, Michael Nesmith--yes, that Michael Nesmith, most famous as being one of the Monkees--assembled a group of musicians--including his two sons--and put back together, piece by piece, the other band that he was in and that he had some level of success with apart from the TV show group.

No, this wasn't a Paul McCartney Beatles/Wings type of thing, but let me back up a bit.

Nesmith, always thought to be the most talented Monkee musically, had written and produced numerous songs during his tenure with that act, many of which only saw the light of day years later on various Monkees-related compilations.

In fact, he released a set of orchestral versions of his tunes, "The Wichita Train Whistle Sings," during his tenure with the Monkees, and during various writing splurges, he had played and recorded with the cream of the crop of Nashville musicians, and again, with just a handful of recordings being released during the Monkees period and dozens more in the vaults.

When his time with the Monkees was coming to an end, Nesmith decided that his next musical adventure would be with another band, featuring members of his choosing, top Nashville musicians who bought into his musical vision of pop-rock with a country feel, which was still a pretty new concept back in 1969-1970, even though he--and several other musicians, including Ray Charles and Glen Campbell--had the same vision in many of their own recordings.

So when the Monkees thing ended, Nesmith assembled a top-notch backing band, and so the First National Band was born.

The music of the band was just what Nesmith wanted it to be--pop-rock with a country feel--and right out of the gate, he had an immediate hit with "Joanne," a dreamy ballad that hit No. 21 on the charts and established the sound he had envisioned.

Again, this was 1970, and although the act had success early on, that success was pretty short lived. They placed a couple of other singles on the charts, including "Silver Moon," but their LPs stiffed and after a few years, the First National Band was history ...

But whatever success it had and whatever the vision Nesmith had, perhaps it was too early for him, but it certainly opened the door for an act like the Eagles, which hit it big just right after Nesmith closed shop on the First National Band.

Evidently, the public wasn't ready for such a musical vision in 1970, but by 1973 or 1974, it was.

Nesmith, as he said in his recent biography, took the failure of the First National Band's albums personally. He felt he was putting out the finest product he could, but since few bought the albums, no one knew about what his vision was, and he had failed to bring his vision to the public.

The albums languished in cut-out bins for years, if you could even find them at all, and by the 1980s and 1990s, the First National Band was but a memory for some, and for most people, Nesmith was a Monkee and that was pretty much it.

However, with all the Monkees reunions over the last 30 some odd years or so, interest was picking up slowly on Nesmith's other band, and with CD reissues over the years, the time seemed right earlier this year to finally do something about the legacy of the First National Band.

Nesmith, who was in and out of the Monkees reunions during the past three decades, once again proved to himself that he could play live with his participation in a couple of the Monkees' reunions.

Fresh off the latest Monkees reunion to promote "Good Times!" and prior to that, a short solo tour, Nesmith decided to reconstruct the First National Band and play a limited concert schedule.

And thus, out of those concerts came the brand new "Michael Nesmith and the First National Band Redux: Live at the Troubador," a new collection of the best of those concerts put out by 7A Records, the small British-based record company which puts out Monkees-related releases, including those from Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Nesmith (Peter Tork has declined to participate for some unknown reason).

This is an exquisite release, both inside and outside. The cover features what I call a wreath of some kind, signifying the short-lived act, the back cover features some in-concert photos and the song lineup, and the inside of the LP features a gatefold, including the story of the band.

The two-record set--also on CD, of course--includes Nesmith's vision of his musical odyssey with this band, or this reconstituted band with new players. The album feaures "Joanne" and "Silver Moon" and many other songs that fit that vision, including songs that he originally recorded and worked on as a member of the Monkees, such as "Nine Times Blue" and "The Crippled Lion."

Nesmith--who is recovering from quadruple bypass surgery, which postponed the latest Monkees reunion--has acknowledged that this is his finest recording, a recording which brings to life that vision he had years and years ago of melding rock, pop and country into something new and different--although Nesmith never acknowledged how revolutionary this was at the time, simply saying that this is how he saw and heard music, so he didn't create anything new, it was just his own vision of the music.

Yes, he has come a long, long way from "Papa Gene's Blues," which, by the way, is on this album as sort of a "beginning point" of his musical odyssey.

Honestly, for discriminating listeners, this might be the release of the year, and has certainly made people scramble to their record collections to sift through what they have, and perhaps find a Nesmith First National Band recording or two (yes, I have the three albums they put out, and yes, I thoroughly got it at the time, although I didn't necessarily share Nesmith's vision fully--I really liked some songs but pretty much didn't like the rest).

But whatever the case, I highly recommend this recording to anyone who wants to hear what pretty much became the next step in pop music in the early 1970s, and hear it in its nascent form.

The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and others picked up the ball from Nesmith, and helped turn this musical meld into the popular music at the time.

Hear it in its very beginnings with this excellent new release.