Product Description
2009 archive live release from the acclaimed singer/songwriter, recorded live in 1977. Dan Fogelberg started his musical career at the young age of 14. He was brought up around music, with a mother trained in classical piano, and a father who directed high school bands. After graduating from high school, Fogelberg sang mainly as a soloist, in small caf‚'s and coffee shops. This is where his talent was discovered by Irving Azoff, who went on to manage Fogelberg. Dan went on to release gold and platinum albums, and won acclaim for his brilliant live performances. For any Fogelberg fan this album is a must. 11 tracks including 'Long Way Home', 'Changing Horses' and more. Store For Music.

01 Now The Show Begins
02 Stars
03 Next Time
04 Morning Sky
05 Changing Horses
06 Part Of The Plan
07 Anyway I Love You
08 Long Way Home
09 As The Raven Flies
10 (Someone's Been) Telling You Stories
11 To The Morning

Updated by Linda -- the album has been pulled from American shelves due to legal issues, and is currently only available from Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001RTPCN8/?tag=imwan-21

Though I am sure this will be a worthy release, a lot of great songs from later albums will be missing.

I know what you mean. It's great to get vintage live recordings on CD, but the obsessive fan concentrates on the stuff that won't be on there.

i'm sure i will be buying this, but i sure hope it doesn't start a run of posthumous repetitive live CD's like other artist have done.

renny

Found a track list on play.com:

Now The Show Begins
Stars
Next Time
Morning Sky
Changing Horses
Part Of The Plan
Anyway I Love You
Long Way Home
As The Raven Flies
(Someone's Been) Telling You Stories
To The Morning

All are from his first two albums, except "Next Time," which was on Captured Angel, and "Now The Show Begins."

Bump: added cover image to the first post.

Looks like an inexpensive Yamaha guitar on the cover. Nothing against Yamahas (I own one) but that's pretty lame. Fogelberg was a big Martin guy, from what I've read.

I wonder if this is anything like the incredibly weak Firefall "Live In Colorado" release, which was very poor quality. That cover just doesn't seem like a cover that does his legacy justice. Any word as to whether his estate has approved this release?

I WILL be buying this, I think his first 4 albums are by far the best. I have his entire catalog. By quality I'd rate
Home Free - Netherlands the 1st 4 are to die for - Best
Twin Sons & Phoenix Just a bit below the 1st 4
Innocent Age 1/2 real good, 1/2 begins DF's slide into Schmaltz
Everything Else after IA - has moments but a huge drop off in songwriting.

I suspect it's from the same series. it appears that a number of shows were recorded in Denver from 76-77. Not all are as bad as the Firefall. The Roxy Music is excellent, & the Jack Bruce is very good to name a couple.

i saw fogelberg twice and never once remember him playing a 12-string.

renny

High Country Snows was a fine album to my ears.

I love the 2 covers on it (Go Down Easy & The Outlaw) but the rest is a bit country for my taste.

My point wasn't so much to criticize DF's later work as much as to say that the 1st 4 albums are phenomenal; very few singer songwriters have ever done a series of albums that good. Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne & CSNY are about all that quickly come to mind.

Agreed- Netherlands is one of the most beautiful albums ever, in my humble opinion.

High Country Snows is both a blugrass album and Dan's tribute to Colorado, where he lived at the time.

My two cents: High Country Snows is one of the most enjoyable albums I own.

Couldn't agree more with everything stated here (although I really enjoy "The First Christmas Morning" and "High Country Snows" too). Being a Colorado kid, I first heard Nether Lands and then of course had to buy all the earlier albums. My first Fogelberg show was a solo acoustic one in Boulder in '77 just after Nether Lands had been released. His solo acoustic sets were always superb.

What seems very strange about this supposed '77 show is 0 tracks from Nether Lands and only one track from Captured Angel. I have a sneaking, unsubstantiated suspicion that this is really a show from Ebbets Field, a small downtown Denver extinct club, recorded in '74 (with 'Next Time' being a new song but not yet recorded), or a show from around that same time period. My reasoning is that I used to have a cassette (maybe still do somewhere?) that I'd made of a radio rebroadcast of that Ebbets Field show, with an eerily similar set list as I recall. Sound quality was a little iffy, but still great to hear (although I can't remember if it was just him or with a band). I do recall the song I believe would be the opener on this set, 'Now The Show Begins', as a stark piano ballad that was the opening of that show as well, and I'd never heard it again anytime I'd seen him play. I could be 100% wrong, but if I'm right will be great to hear again after all these years - same is true whenever this was really recorded.

BTW - don't know if they're still available, but if you can get your hands on the Japan miniLP sleeve releases from last year (or maybe '07?), they sound great. To my ears, no question they were remastered, however nothing on the sleeves (in English anyhow) indicate that. See if Roxanne can order them for you!

Also of interest for Fogelberg fans is the band "Fools Gold". They backed up Fogelberg in the early days & on their self-titled album, I believe Fogelberg and some of the Eagles help out, as well as having a cover of "Old Tennessee". It's a decent album, but a bit country for me (to me "High Country Snows" leans more bluegrass, which I love).

I have the mini sleeves of CA, Netherlands, Phoenix, Twin Sons & IA. There is no question to my ears that they're remastered. I could swear it did state remastered somewhere, but at the moment I'm too lazy to go upstairs to find out for sure!

I loved the sound on all EXCEPT Innocent Age, I found the Mini LP of IA to be bright & screechy; in fact to me the Japan IA sounded almost identical sonically to the US box set which I also found horribly bright. The others sound great to me, though. I have the BGO of Home Free & Souvenirs, & I'm also very happy with that.

This is from a 2004 article in vintage guitar:

Let's talk about some of the instruments you're using in concert these days.
About all I use it a D-41 with a Sunrise pickup in the soundhole. I have some D-45s, but I don't take them out -- those are only for recording. I've always used Sunrise pickups, and I don't use any pre-amp;it goes straight into a direct box, then the board.

There's a 12-string on "The Reach."
That's a Guild. Also with a Sunrise pickup. I use the Guild on "The Reach" and "Nexus," and an Ibanez for "Part of the Plan."

The encore on the 2002 tour was George Harrison's "If I Needed Someone," and you played a Fireglo Rickenbacker 12-string, capo'ed on the seventh fret just like Harrison.
I've had that a long time; it's an original 60's Ricky. Sometimes I forget about where I got some of the guitars I have, but I've got some other Beatles guitars, like a Höfner bass. And I got those before that Broadway show (Beatlemania) premiered. After that, you couldn't get 'em. I wanted a blond one, like a (Roger) McGuinn model, but I couldn't find one. It's really fun to play on-stage.

I have a boot of a Fogelberg show from 3/7/76 at the Santa Monica Civic Center. It opens up with Fools Gold playing "Coming Out Of Hiding" & "Rain Oh Rain". Dan then does about 20 songs from his first three albums. At the end he does "As The Raven Flies" with Joe Walsh and it finishes up with "There's A Place In The World For A Gambler" that has Walsh, Don Henley & Deon Felder playing on it.

I think you may be right. I have a bootleg CDR that I downloaded from somewhere. It's labeled Ebbet's Field, Denver, 12/31/75, don't know how accurate that is though. It contains the exact same song listing as the new live CD (except that it also contains "Long Way Home (Live In The Country)" after "Anyway I Love You" and before "As The Raven Flies." I suspect it's the same show.

Backpages, how is the show?

Been awhile since I listened to it, but I remember it being quite good. Let me give it another quick listen today and I'll get back to you.