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Even though Billy Cowsill gave the Vancouver-based country-rock band some reasonable name recognition, Sony inexplicably decided against a US release of its 1993 debut, which led to a swift demise. Then again, maybe Sony figured that combining Everly Brothers vocals with originals in the Gram Parsons mold and a sound that could evoke early Byrds or Creedence was way too retro to sell. Seventeen years later, and , sadly, four years after Cowsill's death, the album of which he was reputed to be proudest has finally made it to America, in a 'DeLuxe Edition,' ie including a second, rather disposable, disc of outtakes and covers, where it meets, and lives up to, a legend as a lost classic. The Blue Shadows are often referred to as 'alternative country,' but this is a misnomer, even a slander, as the group had not one but two members who could actually sing, and not just adequately. The chemistry between the erratic Cowsill, who described the band as "Three vegetarians and a junkie," and straight arrow guitarist Jeffrey Hatcher, who sound, respectively, like Roy Orbison and Jimmie Dale Gilmore but mesh like Phil & Don, and who cowrote all 12 of the songs on the main album, is quite uncanny. If you're into any of the people referenced, ao far, this is an album that will sit comfortably alongside It's Everly Time, GP Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and Gilded Palace Of Sin - it's that good. Trivia: The Blue Shadows took their name from Blue Shadows On The Trail, sung by Roy Rogers & The Sons Of The Pioneers in the Pecos Bill segment of Disney's 1948 animated Melody Time. Not many people know that (or care).
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