ARTIST: Goudreau, Barry ALBUM: Barry Goudreau LABEL: Epic SERIAL: NJR 36542 YEAR: 1980 CD REISSUE: 1996, Razor & Tie (USA), RE 2104-2 * 2010, Rock Candy Records (UK), CANDY076 SPONSOR: Rock Candy Records COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: LINEUP: Barry Goudreau - guitars * Bradley Delp - vocals * Fran Cosmo - vocals * Sib Hashian - drums TRACK LISTING: 01 Hard Luck * 02 Nothing To Lose * 03 Whats A Fella To Do? * 04 Mean Woman Blues * 05 Leavin' Tonight * 06 Dreams * 07 Life Is What We Make It * 08 Sailin' Away * 09 Cold Cold World WEBLINKS: www.barrygoudreau.com

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Background
By the time 1980 came around, guitarist Barry Goudreau was a name player without a band. Tied at the hip to seventies heroes Boston, he unfortunately suffered at the hands of band-mate Tom Scholz, who through his ongoing legal battles, decided to put the band on hold. Goudreau, having written a handful of tunes in the hope that these could be used for the third Boston release, was told by Scholz that he had no interest in using them. Unperturbed, Goudreau set about furnishing a solo career, which eventuated in a contract with Epic, the same label Scholz was having his own legal problems with! Turning up to join Goudreau was long time pal Brad Delp, plus fellow Boston-ite, drummer Sib Hashian. To complete the picture, another Massachusetts vocal star Fran Cosmo added his talent to the mix. Cosmo would of course team up with Goudreau for the amazing one-off wonderment of Orion The Hunter four years later. One punter not amused by all this was Scholz, who put pressure on Epic (CBS) to minimise support for the Goudreau solo LP, threatening a delay to the third Boston album.. something which the label appeared to adhere to stupidly enough, because 'Third Stage' didn't appear until six years later and on a different label (MCA). Epic - the silly buggers!

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The Songs
Despite the politics, the music wasn't the sort of fare that hardened Boston supporters would've taken an immediate shine to. The Mike Chapman production watering down any overblown tendencies heard on Goudreau's last two appearances, being the two Boston albums. As a consequence, the album didn't do a lot sales wise, despite the name players onboard. Two tracks took a minor liking to 1980 radio airwaves: 'Dreams' and 'Mean Woman Blues', but apart from a couple of other interesting tracks such as the opener 'Hard Luck' and 'Leavin' Tonight', the album sank like a stone.

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In Summary
At the time, the thought of a solo album was a good move for Goudreau to make. Unfortunately, the quality of the songs didn't quite hit the mark. Unlike four years later when Orion The Hunter was released. Every track a winner, the album easily ranking in my top 10 albums of the decade. Beyond Orion... Return To Zero (RTZ) was another worthy contender with some good material, but label Reprise thought otherwise, and dropped the band despite that album containing a Top 10 hit single with 'Until Your Love Comes Back Around'. Oh how fickle can record labels be.. Into 2003, Goudreau turned up with an indie effort with Brad Delp, entitled Goudreau/Delp, and a few years on from that, we witnessed the passing of Brad Delp to suicide, but at least he wouldv'e been proud to see this one get a re-release (with the whole Goudreau/Scholz story to go with it) on Rock Candy Records.

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