Crate Digger’s Gold: Boz Scaggs – Boz Scaggs & Band 

About 15 years ago a guy at work turned me on to this album. It was his favorite album and it was not available on CD and so he had a Japanese important.  He lent it to me and I dubbed a copy for my collection. To this day it is still not available except as a Japanese import on CD (fortunately it is on Spotify).

I was on East Lake Street (Minneapolis) this past weekend so I stopped into Hymie’s and found a nice vinyl copy for $3.  The LP was issued in 1971 long before Scaggs became a big star (but he was a cult favorite at the time).

Scaggs hit the big time in 1976 with the LP Silk Degrees. That album rode a thin line between disco and R&B. Scaggs was enough of a rocker to keep it real.  I assume, by the center label, the $3 LP I found in the Hymie’s crates was a post Silk Degrees  reissue – but it is still a nice piece of wax.

When we backtrack to an album like Boz Scaggs & Band we can see he where this white boy got so much soul.  The album features a nice large band with horns. It features blues, R&B, soulful country and at times foreshadows the slick sound of Silk Degrees. It is slick and raw at the same time – like a well mixed cocktail (I assume the great engineer/producer Glyn Johns had something to do with that).

Scaggs penned or co-wrote every cut on the album. Scaggs greatest feature is that he has such a unique voice – which is instantly recognizable. He makes every song his own. It’s an easy voice that has just a bit of a smirk.

The album is a great taste of the 70s when a skilled singer songwriter could throw down a diverse set of cuts in a great studio with a top-notch band. This album will appeal to baby boomers and retro R&B loving millennials – something Mark Ronson would have created if he was sent in a time machine to the 70s.