Final Wild Songs

The Long Ryders were formed by several American musicians influenced by Gram Parsons and the Byrds, with country and punk rock influences. The band featured Sid Griffin on guitar, autoharp, and bugle, Stephen McCarthy, guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, and banjo, Des Brewer, as bassist, (later replaced by Tom Stevens) and Greg Sowders, playing drums and percussion. With a sound reminiscent of Gram Parsons, Buffalo Springfield and The Flying Burrito Brothers, but with a harder edge, they anticipated the alternative country music of the 1990s by a decade. This 4-CD career overview has been compiled with both Sid Griffin and Tom Stevens from original tapes (where they exist) - Sid has contributed a track by track breakdown for the set. The set features all the original albums as well as demos, singles and rare live recordings. Re-mastered by Andy Pearce the recordings and in Sid's opinion have never sounded so good. A new booklet designed by Phil Smee contains many rare photos and memorabilia. The first three CDs feature the 10-5-60 EP, the three full LPs the band recorded, and eighteen rare tracks, eight of which are previously unreleased...including the audio of the band performing 'Looking For Lewis' and 'Clark' absolutely live on the BBC's Whistle Test program in 1985 and two unheard mixes of tunes from the 'State Of Our Union' sessions which are completely, completely different to the versions heard on that classic LP. The 4th disc a live CD from a radio broadcast in Benelux in March 1985 when the band was hot as a four dollar pistol on a Newark Saturday night. Broadcast twice thirty years ago it has not been heard since and its discovery is quite an event in the history of the founders of alt-country. And the track listing features rare Long Ryders songs like 'Time Keeps Travelling', 'As God Is My Witness' and 'Southside Of The Story'.