![]() Its sales were disappointing, and the group left RCA and signed to Casablanca Records, a label better known for disco than country-rock. This quintet released Pure Prairie League's eighth album, Can't Hold Back, in the spring of 1979. They held extensive auditions that resulted in the hiring of Norman, Oklahoma's Vince Gill as lead singer and guitarist, followed by reeds player Patrick Bolin. The remaining trio of friends - Hinds, Connor, and Reilly - were left in possession of the band's name but in need of a new frontman. The Goshorn brothers decamped to form their own band, and Powell retired to spend more time with his family, depriving the group of its last original member. Pure Prairie League's seventh album, Just Fly, was released in the spring of 1978 and was another modest seller.Īt this point, the band fragmented again. After that album was released, Call left the band and was replaced by Goshorn's brother, Tim. A similar level of success greeted the two-LP concert recording Live!! Takin' the Stage, released in the summer of 1977. It was a disappointing seller, only getting into the Top 100 of the pop charts, though it became Pure Prairie League's first album to reach the country charts. ![]() Pure Prairie League's fourth album, If the Shoe Fits, was released in early 1976 and was another Top 40 hit, spawning a minor country chart entry in a cover of the Buddy Holly hit "That'll Be the Day." The band's fifth album, Dance, followed in the fall of 1976. The title track became a minor chart entry, and the album reached the Top 40. (He would resurface in 1976 in the band American Flyer.) Instead, the sextet of Call, Connor, Goshorn, Hinds, Powell, and Reilly made Pure Prairie League's third album, Two Lane Highway, joined by the country stars Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, and Johnny Gimble. Of course, the song had been written and sung by Fuller, who was no longer in the band. "Amie" charted in March 1975 and became a Top 40 hit. Bustin' Out entered the charts in February 1975, nearly two-and-a-half years after its release, and rose into the Top 40, eventually going gold. ![]() In late 1974, Pure Prairie League's touring began to pay off as radio stations started playing "Amie," a song from Bustin' Out, leading RCA to issue the song as a single, reissue the album, and re-sign the band. (He was later pardoned by President Ford.) This forced him to leave the group, and he was replaced by Larry Goshorn. During this period, Fuller encountered legal difficulties over his claim of conscientious objector status to avoid the draft, eventually serving two years in a hospital instead. But they added a second friend of Hinds', bassist Michael Reilly, and continued to play around the Midwest. Though later considered a landmark in country-rock, Bustin' Out initially suffered disappointing sales upon release in September 1972, and RCA dropped the group. Among the other session musicians on the album was David Bowie associate Mick Ronson, who played guitar and arranged the strings. Lanham, Caughlan, and Call left, and remaining members Fuller and Powell brought back Hinds, who in turn recruited a friend, keyboard player Michael Connor, to play on the second album, Bustin' Out, and subsequently become a full-fledged bandmember. Pure Prairie League did not sell well enough to reach the charts, and the group fragmented. ![]() Luke would turn up on all the band's subsequent album covers, giving them a distinctive visual conception. Adding steel guitar player John David Call, the group went into the studio and recorded its self-titled debut album, which was released in March 1972 with a cover depicting a Western character named Luke, an illustration drawn by famed American painter/illustrator Norman Rockwell that had first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1927. By that time, McGrail had left and been replaced by Jim Caughlan, though Billy Hinds had also drummed with the band for a time. Pure Prairie League built up a following in Ohio, playing around Cincinnati for a year before earning a record contract with RCA Victor. Pure Prairie League was formed in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Craig Fuller, bass player Jim Lanham, and drummer Tom McGrail, who named the band after a women's temperance group in the 1939 Errol Flynn movie Dodge City. Despite significant personnel changes, Pure Prairie League maintained itself as a successful country-rock band during the 1970s and early '80s, releasing ten albums and enjoying hits including "Amie" and "Let Me Love You Tonight" with different configurations of the group.
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