Gone Digital: Jay Boy Adams, The Eric Gales Band, Kyuss, and Judee Sill

If it’s Tuesday, then it must be time for “Gone Digital,” our weekly look at five albums which may not even realize are part of Rhino’s digital catalog. As ever, the types of music we’ll be covering will be all over the place, but that’s Rhino for you: we’re all about variety!

• Jay Boy Adams, JAY BOY ADAMS (1977) / FORK IN THE ROAD (1978): Consider this one a 2-fer, since Adams only recorded two albums for Atlantic. If you aren’t familiar with this gentleman’s work, then  who better to tell you about it than... Well, actually, Adams himself would be the best person to tell you, but in lieu of him, here’s what his webmasters says on his official website: “Jay Boy Adams has always represented a resonant mixture of country, rock and blues, while remaining steeped in the tradition. A native of Colorado City, Texas, Adams grew up with the same sorts of influences that fueled the music of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Terry Allen and Butch Hancock, all of whom hailed from nearby Lubbock. In 1972, Adams was signed to a management contract by legendary Texas music manager Bill Ham, who put Adams on the road opening for ZZ Top as a solo act and to take care of Billy Gibbons’ guitars! After that apprenticeship, Ham signed Adams to Atlantic Records.” And the rest is history!

• Vern Gosdin, TILL THE END (1977): You probably know Gosdin’s name, given what a staple he’s been on the country charts, but what you may not know is that he actually started his career in the ‘60s, walked away from music for awhile and ran a glass company (!), and then returned to music in 1976. Signing to Elektra Records, he released this album in ’77 and scored a hit with a remake of “Hangin’ On” – the hit he’d had with his brother Rex as The Gosdin Brothers – featuring harmony vocals by Emmylou Harris. After that, he scored his first top-10 country hit with “Yesterday’s Gone,” another track featuring Harris, and after that he was off and running for the long haul.

• The Eric Gales Band, THE ERIC GALES BAND (1991): Gales first started playing guitar when he was four years old, and by age 11 he’d teamed with his bass-playing brother Eugene and had begun entering blues competitions. His acclaim built gradually over time, but within five years he and Eric had secured a record deal with Elektra, releasing this album – their debut – the following year. Guitar World promptly named him the year’s Best New Talent, and he’s been playing and releasing music ever since.

• Kyuss, AND THE CIRCUS LEAVES TOWN (1995): Kyuss only released four studio albums during the course of their existence, and this was the last of the bunch. Scoring comparisons to both Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth, the album earned critical praise – Metal Hammer gave it six freaking stars, which we didn’t even know was a thing – but it wasn’t enough to keep the band together, alas, and they broke up about a year after the LP’s release.

• Judee Sill, SONGS OF RAPTURE AND REDEMPTION: RARITIES & LIVE (2018): Sill, an L.A. singer/songwriter who died in 1979 at the far-too-young age of 35, released two studio albums in her lifetime and laid down demos for a third album that was never completed. The demos were eventually released in 2005 on the two-disc collection DREAMS COME TRUE, and in 2018 this compilation emerged, featuring seven tracks performed live at the Boston Music Hall and 12 outtakes and demos.