Friday, August 17, 2007

Alias- Contraband w/Bonus Tracks (Skynyrd, A.C.B.)

ALIAS
CONTRABAND 1979

SONGS

1. STREETFIGHTER
2. DAGGER IN THE NIGHT
3. HOLIDAY
4. TRUE LOVE
5. DEVIL'S BRIDE
6. CAN'T DRY UP
7. CAFE DELUXE
8. DEAD GIVEAWAY
9. CHILD OF FORTUNE
10. I'm Not the Bad Man*
11. Gator Bait*


*Bonus Tracks That Me and DSOTG got off of Mp3.com somewhere around 2000. It came as bonus tracks and for the life of me I can't find any info on them. They are two great songs and For sure has Jimmy Dougherty singing and for sure sounds like Alias. I can't remember if they were unreleased from this Album or if they put another form of the band back together. Anyway you look at it these are some killer tracks. Hope you enjoy. -Skynfan

PLAYERS

DORMAN COGBURN - GUITAR
JIMMY DOUGHERTY - VOCALS
JOJO BILLINGSLEY - VOCALS

ACCOMPLICES

LEON WILKESON - BASS
BILLY POWELL - KEYBOARDS
BARRY HARWOOD - GUITAR
RICKY POWELL - BASS
ARTIMUS PYLE - DRUMS

AOR act with an illustrious pedigree. Former RUNNING EASY guitarist Barry Lee Harwood had joined ex LYNYRD SKYNYRD guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington in their ROSSINGTON COLLINS band and subsequently the ALLEN COLLINS BAND. The ALLEN COLLINS BAND was fronted by former MOODY BROTHERS singer Jimmy Daugherty.

The rhythm section comes courtesy of LYNYRD SKYNYRD's Leon Wilkeson on bass, keyboard player Bill Powell and Artimus Pyle on drums.

The late 90's found Daugherty fronting the RANDALL HALL BAND led by his ex RUNNING EASY colleagues and LYNYRD SKYNYRD refugees guitarist Randall Hall and bassist Tim Lindsey.


The first two Skynyrd men to re-emerge were Billy and Artimus. Billy played as guest pianist on 38 Special's 1978 album "Special Delivery". Billy and Artimus then both performed on a recording by El Paso singer/ songwriter Leon LeBront.

Playing again felt good to the guys, even if it wasn't Skynyrd. In 1979, Billy, Artimus, Leon, Gary and Allen played along as session men for the new Jacksonville band "Alias" on their first (and only) album "Contraband". The Alias band consisted of many guys who were Jacksonville legends themselves; Dorman Cogburn (guitars), Jimmy Dougherty (vocals), Ricky Powell, Billy's brother (bass), and Jo Jo Billingsley. Also involved were local legends Randall Hall and Barrylee Harwood (guitars) and Derek Hess on drums.

Leon Wilkeson had suffered horrific injuries in the plane crash (even "dying" at one stage), which meant he joined the "Contraband" sessions later than the the others. In fact, when Leon came in, Gary and Allen were backing out. Leon believed that they had a disagreement with the director of the project. Someone then came up to Leon at the sessions and said

'What are we doing here? We ought to be making our own album.'"

Toward the end of 1979, Gary and Allen met in Jacksonville to discuss their options concerning the future. As they talked, Gary absent-mindedly picked up Steve Gaines' gold-top Les Paul guitar -- Steve's widow, Teresa, gave him the instrument in early 1978. Sitting in a chair strumming the guitar, Gary noticed an old platinum dobro and thought, "Wow! Gold and platinum. At the time, Allen was talking about the need for a Skynyrd greatest hits album. Gary remembered, "Allen said, 'Let's get all the best songs and them out on a record.' So that's what we did. We came up with the cover, but it was kind of simple."


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice addition, many thanks for this.

Anonymous said...

This is a great record!

Anonymous said...

hey ya'll, jimmy dougherty was the best singer - songwriter God ever put here!I'll Love and miss him forever!I'll miss his talking voice his singing only to me!!! God took the very best and left the rest!! except our kids of course they are the best of us both! I'll LOVE you always Dougherty!!!!!!! Love,Me

Concentrated Efforts Familia said...

Just an interesting personal side note to this. My dad was the Program Director of WKLS/96 Rock in Atlanta during this time period and was quite good friends with the band. If you look on the thanks you's to the album...the first one is Joshua Dylan Cunningham, which is me...back when I was a snotnosed baby!

Anonymous said...

WHEN I WAS A LIL,SKYN-HEAD MY MOM ALLEN & RONNIES MOM CAR POOLED TO WORK TO THE CIGAR FACTORY TOGEHER. GUESS HOW I OBTAINED MY VINYL?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this blog and for share your music collection. You can't image how many people you are making happy sharing this.Thanks again from heart and in the name of my old-time-rock-and-roll Cuban friends.

Anonymous said...

The unfortunate thing is that the two unreleased tracks are absolute raw standouts. Thanks for your information on this classic.