It’s ’70s guitar-rock heaven as Foghat and the Outlaws head to Vancouver for a Commodore gig

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 27, 1987

By Steve Newton

Aerosmith. Kiss. Alice Cooper. Jethro Tull. Do those bands sound familiar? If you heard any music at all back in the ’70s they must, because they were awful big back then. The thing is, there’s a serious revival of ’70s rock happening at the moment, and groups like these have come back to wrestle sales figures away from the likes of such ’80s stars as Mick Jagger, Donna Summer, Loverboy, Mr. Mister, and (laugh if you dare) Kenny Rogers.

Although loud and heavy guitar-rock is often, nowadays, tossed under the heavy-metal banner, back in the mid-’70s it was just hard rock. And two of the finest guitar-heavy bands to come out of that era were Britain’s Foghat and Florida’s Outlaws. Although these groups have yet to make the comeback, in terms of albums sales, that such acts as Aerosmith and Alice Cooper have achieved, they’re still pluggin’ away with an original member or two.

Local hard rock fans will have an opportunity to see how how well they’re doing when they play two double-bills at the Commodore this Friday and Saturday (November 27 and 28).

A blues-based band formed out of Savoy Brown (which plays the Town Pump December 3, by the way), Foghat came to prominence in 1977 with the hit single “Slow Ride”, which stayed on the Billboard top 10 for 12 weeks. At that point the group was comprised of singer/guitarist Dave Peverett, lead guitarist Rod Price, bassist Craig MacGregor, and drummer Roger Earl.

Earl is the sole original member in the current group, joined by guitarist Erik Cartwright (who played on the latest Foghat albums), his brother Brett Cartwright (Joan Jett, Buster Poindexter) on bass, and second guitarist/lead vocalist E.J. Burgeson.

But Earl claims that Foghat is still “very much a rock ‘n’ roll band”, and if their show last year at the Commodore with Wishbone Ash was any indication, he’s not lying. Earl, on the line from San Jose last week, explained that the band’s set is about one-third new material, and the rest old faves like “Slow Ride”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, “Fool for the City”, and “Honey Hush”.

“We play all that good stuff,” he quips.

Foghat plans to go into the studio in December, and Earl says their next album should be out in March. The tentative title? How does We Don’t Play No Stinkin’ Ballads grab you?

Jacksonville, Florida’s Outlaws are one of this scribbler’s all-time favourite bands, because in their heyday they were one of the few groups that could match Lynyrd Skynyrd for gutsy, uplighting southern rock. And they had three guitarists too!

The Outlaws came on the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1975. It sported the country-ish hit single “There Goes Another Love Song”, as well as a smashing 10-minute guitar blast titled “Green Grass and High Tides” that was as close as anyone ever go to duplicating the feel of Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”. (Molly Hatchet made a good attempt later on with “Fall of the Peacemakers”).

The Outlaws lineup you’ll see playing with Foghat features two founding members, singer/guitarists Hughie Thomasson and Henry Paul. Together they made two more studio albums after the debut (Lady in Waiting and the superb Hurry Sundown) before Paul went on to form his own band and put out some fine albums (Grey Ghost, Feel the Heat) and some forgettable ones (which I can’t remember). Thomasson kept the Outlaws together, recruiting Freddie Salem to take Paul’s place, and they continued to put out totally decent records like Playin’ to Win (1978) and In the Eye of the Storm (’79). All in all the group sold more than seven million albums worldwide.

Here’s hoping that the Outlaws still have the spark that made them rock heroes in the ’70s. Didn’t somebody say that the south would rise again?