Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Bighorn - Bighorn (1978)

Bighorn hailed from the Pacific Northwest believe it or not and like their unlikely stomping grounds, they came and went without much fanfare despite releasing two excellent albums, I Get High (1974) and Bighorn (1978). It's quite a surprise since this very distinct and talented quintet were solid writers and performers. Resembling fellow AOR acts, Kansas, Styx, and Starcastle, the band dabbled with light progressive rock and added a heap of pomp to their sound. The band's history goes all the way back to 1970 and for a number of years, members came and went until finally settling on the lineup featured here. The band's label deal crumbled shortly after the this album's poor sales figures, but the band continued slagging away on the club circuit until finally coming to rest in 1981. I'm not sure what happened to all of the members after the split, but a few of them went on to join AOR group, Aviary. Vocalist Bob Marcy passed away as well. I recommend lovers of smooth AOR to check this talented band out and see for yourself why Bighorn should've been destined for bigger things.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank for this post, been looking for this album for sometime now. Had it years ago, but got rid of it for some reason. Thank you once again for a very hard to find LP.

Anonymous said...

Need to correct some info here. "I Get High" was a single, not an album. That record was recorded by a mostly different group with a different style than the one that recorded the Bighorn album for Columbia in 1978. The only member I know of for sure that was on both records was Bob Marcy. In August 2008 guitarist Joe Shikany passed away also.

Anonymous said...

The first song is "A Penny for Your DREAMS", not "A Penny for Your Thoughts." Find more info about Bighorn here:
http://pnwbands.com/bighorn.html

Giovanni Loria said...

I can confirm (having both records in my collection)that the only common member between the 'I Get High' single and the 'Bighorn' lp is mr. Marcy.
quite interesting, on the single there's Rick Randle, later with STRIKER (together with Rick Ramirez of BOOMERANG).
the site about northwestern bands is VERY interesting, the only thing that could be improved is the lack of discographies.
congrats for your blog: I don't download records (I prefer having the real copy), but it's full of interesting informations.
regards