I had never heard of them, but Santa Barbara Machine Head were a blues group who formed and disbanded in 1967. They recorded a total of three instrumentals and the line-up featured Ronnie on guitar, Kim Gardner on bass and Jon Lord on keyboards. Their recordings were released in the late-60's on the Immediate compilation, Blues Any Time Volume 3.

I actually quite enjoy this recording. Lord's keyboards, IMO, give it a dated sound, but Ronnie's tone is lovely; really raunchy.

Wew...never knew Ron Wood was involved! Got the tracks on a cheapo bluescd back in the eighties. Now I read that drummer Twink (Pretty Things/Tomorrow) was also a member.

And i won't call Lord's sound dated, it's just this hammond sound (B3?). You can't call a tenorsax dated, would you? Very nice and heavy (drums)sound, it doesn't sound 1967, I always thought this was recorded in 1968/1969.

No interest in this? Perhaps I should retitle the threadanta Barbara Machine Head - Mick Taylor Involvement

I've tried this topic already, eight months ago, without any success:
Ronnie's shortlived supergroup: Santa Barbara Machine Head

So I guess you're lucky with getting at least some response.
I personally like these recordings quite a bit, organ included!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011-06-19 23:29 by Greenblues.