The last Mike Harrison album of the 70's is easily the best of the lot, even though it has the most embarrassing cover, and it managed that on two continents, with two different covers. But Mike was apparently inspired from his last experience at Muscle Shoals, and recorded this one in Nashville with their cream-of-the-crop session musicians, which was a wise move. Rainbow Rider is appropriately titled; a varied palette, indeed, ranging from dirty R&B gut-rockers to wistful ballads to remorseful roots music to even his wizened take on old-time standards. Yes, he covers "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and it sounds like classic Mike Harrison, just like everything else on this record. The album is also immaculately sequenced. If you're a Spooky Tooth or Brit blues fan, then the start of the album is right up your alley - "Maverick Woman Blues" is the perfect nut-cutting barroom rocker, suiting Mike's vocal perfectly - or does his vocal perfectly suit the song? And this is followed by a genuine slice of bass-bouncy, down-home funk - "You and Me" - which, if it ran any longer than three minutes would seem cartoonish, but Mike and the band wisely cut it before it runs too long.
The midsection of the album is his wheelhouse - a Dylan cover ("I'll Keep it With Mine"), a Beatles cover ("We Can Work it Out"), a really interesting call-and-response deal between him and the background singers which he and Luther Grosvenor are credited with (the weirdly titled "Okay Lay Lady Lay"), and the gospel-heavy "Easy", which is reminiscent of those older 'Tooth songs where he and Gary Wright used to "duel" each other vocally, but now it's Mike versus a whole compliment of background singers! The end of the album contains the aforementioned oddball cover of "Rainbow" followed by "Friend", whose laconic yet paranoid groove and vocal so reminds me of late-period Spooky Tooth circa Witness, an album which a lot of people seem to dislike but I think is underrated. The sad thing is, Harrison discovered his record company was using the royalties from this and his other solo albums to pay debts incurred by his old band, which pissed him off so much he left the recording business for the next 20 plus years. What a loss, and what a shame for pop music in general.
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