Bustin’ Out by Pure Prairie League (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Bustin’ Out

Group name: Pure Prairie League

Year: 1972

Number of discs: one

Label: RCA Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: My mother said that she owned this, but when I replied that it looked like the kind of thing my father would have owned, they both said that either of them might have owned it.

Buy it on Amazon: $24.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no familiarity at all with Pure Prairie League, but the album cover reminds me of Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. My parents said that Falling In and Out of Love and Amie were popular and that I might recognize them.

What I expected

My mother said that this would not fit any genre description, and my father described it as “light rock.” My guess would have been country rock.

What it was actually like

I don’t know about light rock, but there were parts of this record that I would have classified as soft rock, or folk rock: Angel and Call Me, Tell Me.

The predominant sound, however, was country rock, which was clear from the opening bars of Jazzman, with its steel guitar and country style vocals. Boulder Skies and Angel #9 were like that too, and I liked the latter’s guitar solo. Early Morning Riser was also a country rock with a strong guitar solo, and its up tempo drumming was great.

I definitely did recognize Amie, though I guess I had previously assumed that it was an Allman Brothers song. Ooops! It sounded like it fit together pretty neatly with Leave My Heart Alone, which preceded it, and it was a high point of the record, especially its memorable chorus (here is a cover, and here is another cover).

Leave My Heart Alone was the weirdest song on the record, someone packing a little bit of about ten musical styles into less than four and a half minutes – it was a hard rock song with folk rock vocals, soul backing vocals, funk guitar, a blues guitar riff, and more!

Grade

4/5: would listen again