James Gang

As Cleveland, OH's premier classic-rock act, James Gang was a versatile, funky band best known for the two star guitarists who passed through the ever-revolving door on their way up, Joe Walsh and Tommy Bolin, and two rock radio staples, "Funk #49" and "Walk Away." Kent State University buddies Jim Fox (drums), Tom Kriss (bass), and Glenn Schwartz (guitar) formed the band in 1966, before Schwartz headed to San Francisco for the Summer of Love and joined Pacific Gas & Electric (whose 1970 album Are You Ready is tremendous). Schwartz was replaced by Joe Walsh in time for James Gang's 1969 debut, Yer' Album, on which Walsh's yearning vocals nicely complement the band's power-trio setup. Sophomore album Rides Again is even better: Recorded at L.A.'s legendary Record Plant (then brand-new), it includes top-down rocker "Funk #49," seven-minute crunchy-rock head trip "The Bomber," and a Cat Stevens-style acoustic send-off "Ashes, the Rain and I" (the cover photo of the band riding motorcycles in the snow is pretty cool, too). Thirds, more easygoing and at times even jazzy, was not accurately represented by its classic-rock radio staple "Walk Away." The extended jamming (particularly from a wah-wah-riding Walsh) gave Live in Concert a prog-rock feel. Walsh left to go solo (before raking in millions with the Eagles), and 1972's Straight Shooter sounds like tired Grand Funk Railroad (notable only for the comedic country number "Hairy Hypochondriac").

When replacement guitarist Dominic Troiano left to join the Guess Who, Tommy Bolin stepped into the fold, and the band was reborn. Bang and Miami are generally underrated by those who assume Walsh was the heart of the band. Bolin then went solo himself (he died from a drug overdose in 1976), and although the James Gang limped through another incarnation, it wasn't until Walsh began gigging sporadically with the band, around MCA's millennium release of remastered versions of its classic albums, that the James Gang rode one more time. Any '70s rock fan should have at least the pared-down Greatest Hits. Worth seeing are original guitarist Glenn Schwartz's obsessed sets of suffering electric blues at his long-running Thursday-night residency at Hoopple's, a bar in Cleveland. (PETER RELIC)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide