The tenth album from Nils Lofgren and his first for Columbia is a very polished affair with excellent production from Lofgren and Lance Quinn. The material is written by Lofgren, and it is all strong to very strong, with lyrics bordering on lecturing the listener. "Flip Ya Flip," the title track, and "Big Tears Fall" are the most commercial songs here, "Flip Ya Flip" a real odd one, though. Lofgren calls the guys "buddy," telling them to "lift your pretty head, hold it high" and the gals he calls "sister," terms of endearment for sure from a macho figure who has full-fledged membership in the "E Street" gang. Is the title track about an off-color gesture or life on a trampoline or indiscernible sexuality?

Spectrum Music, a British division of PolyGram devoted to budget-priced compilations of material from the major label's vaults, is responsible for this CD-length collection drawn from the fourth Grin album, 1973's Gone Crazy (the other three were on Spindizzy and now are owned by Sony), and bandleader Nils Lofgren's first five solo albums: Nils Lofgren (1975), Cry Tough (1976), I Came to Dance (1977), the live Night After Night (1977), and Nils (1979), all of which were released originally on A&M Records. Since no chart singles emerged from these LPs, there isn't any objective criterion for what might constitute the best of them, though a subjective consensus of Grin/Lofgren fans no doubt would agree with the inclusion of the Keith Richards tribute "Keith Don't Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin)," "Back It Up," and "The Sun Hasn't Set on This Boy Yet," all from Nils Lofgren.

"Along the way of the past 55 years, songs holding a wide range of emotional pieces of me wound up getting left behind. Basement demos never recorded, not quite right for the project, various reasons. Now these songs, "Spares," cover decades of writing and circumstance, in various periods of my musical and personal life are here, together to share."

It's been a busy couple of years for rocker Nils Lofgren: between recording albums for Neil Young alongside Rick Rubin, and finishing his own new effort – Mountains – Nils recently joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street on an extensive world tour. While his own tour to promote Mountains has been put on hold, fans won’t have to wait long to hear the new album. On Mountains, Nils moves seamlessly between bluesy and straight-ahead rockers and tender ballads as only he can, all treated with his trademark attention to sonic detail, and unmistakable vocals and guitar. Mountains contains Nils' adept story telling at its finest, with 9 brand new originals and a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Back In Your Arms’.

Crazy Horse by another name is Molina, Talbot, Lofgren & Young, the group who released their debut All Roads Lead Home in 2023. The genesis of the album lies in the COVID-19 pandemic: isolated at home, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, and Nils Lofgren all wrote new material, eventually getting a chance to bring these sessions to life around the same time they supported Neil Young on his 2021 album Barn. Young is a presence on All Roads Lead Home - he contributes a live solo version of "Song of the Seasons," which debuted on Barn - but the focus is squarely on the other three members of Crazy Horse, who all contribute three songs apiece. Where other, earlier Crazy Horse albums tend to lumber as the group shoulders the burden of heavy volume, All Roads Lead Home is relatively light on its feet, relying on interplay over amplification…

Ex Grin member Lofgren’s 1977 double live album for A&M Records. Lofgren’s stage shows were always a high point and this recording captured the moment well, featuring such favourites as ‘Keith Don’t Go’ and ‘I Came To Dance’. The album charted on both sides of the Atlantic. Up until the Covid lockdowns, Lofgren had been busy gigging and recording. Digitally remastered.

Ever since the Beatles first gave folks the idea that a rock star is supposed to be able to sing, play, and write songs with equal skill, fans have expected musicians to be all-purpose point men (or women), but the sad truth is that not every talented person in rock & roll was cut out to be a bandleader. Nils Lofgren is a good example of this notion in action; Lofgren is a demon guitar player and he can knock out a good song every once in a while, but his singing is OK though not great and a long, hard look at his body of work confirms that he's always shone brighter backing up the likes of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen than he has by his lonesome. Favorites 1990-2005 is primarily drawn from Lofgren's two studio albums for Rykodisc, 1991's Silver Lining and 1992's Crooked Line, with some live tracks and unreleased demos…

Nils Lofgren has a story unlike any other in rock & roll. Something of a teenage rock & roll prodigy, he first made waves when he played on Neil Young's After the Gold Rush at the tender age of 17, just around the time his D.C.-based band Grin relocated to Los Angeles in hopes of hitting the big time. Grin never became stars, but Lofgren did. His association with Young provided a launch pad for a solo career that was acclaimed and fitfully commercially successful, with the late-'70s albums Cry Tough, I Came to Dance, and Night After Night all making waves in album rock…

After releasing a solo debut that made a great case for his talent but didn't deliver the rock & roll goods as expected, Nils Lofgren turned up the guitar heroics on his 1976 album Cry Tough and the results were a lot closer to what fans had hoped for from the whiz kid from Grin…

"I'm not Bob Dylan, but I never miss a beat" sings Nils Lofgren on 1977's I Came to Dance, a very polished collection of nine songs produced by the guitar virtuoso and drummer Andy Newmark…

"No Mercy," with special effects recorded at Madison Square Garden, has the sentiment of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer." The double entendre being the rock musician oftentimes works on the same stage as the fighter, of course, punching away in the ring of life. Nils Lofgren is a veteran who has performed with Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and so many others, working here with producer Bob Ezrin who helped create Pink Floyd's The Wall. As with any great artist, Ezrin brings in his various contacts which color the recordings he makes, insuring a product that is as much the producer's as it is Nils Lofgren's. Dick Wagner co-wrote the hits "Only Women Bleed" and "You And Me" with Alice Cooper…

Though not an inspired effort, this double-live album does have its moments. Lofgren's muscular guitar playing is particularly evident on tracks such as "Keith Don't Go" (an ode to Rolling Stone Keith Richards) and "Cry Tough." Lofgren has long been underrated as a guitar player and songwriter, and although this album does not have the dynamic energy that some of his live shows of the '70s had, it does catch the former E Street guitarist playing some fine lead guitar.

When Nils Lofgren released his first solo album in 1975, most fans were expecting a set confirming his guitar hero status, and more than a few listeners were vocally disappointed with the more laid-back and song-oriented disc Lofgren delivered. However, with the passage of time Nils Lofgren has come to be regarded as an overlooked classic, and with good reason – Lofgren has rarely been in better form on record as a songwriter, vocalist, musician, and bandleader…