Rayburn was an amazing hard rock
band from Little Rock, Arkansas that formed in 1970 and played in a
moody and technical style with inventive songwriting. Their unreleased
recordings are must for fans of underground psych and prog sounds. They
recorded for Mega Records, an RCA records subsidiary, and got signed
to the label. However, their success was cut short when the father
of keyboardist/songwriter Steve Stephens (not to be confused with Steve
Stephens of local television fame), bought out the band's contract with
the label to derail his son's music career. Over
the next two years, the band recorded at Jaggars Studio in Little Rock
and for Steve Cropper's TMI studio in Memphis, but the band's second
chance at fame continued to elude them. In 1974, guitarist Jimmy Roberts'
life was cut short when he developed cancer at the age of 21. Three
years later in 1977, the band reunited to record more songs from their
early 70s era that they never got a chance to record with Roberts. For
the first time in over 30 years, Rayburn reunited for a live concert
in their hometown of Little Rock, AR in July of 2009. With the help
of the band member's musical children, the 2009 version of Rayburn was
a tribute and reboot of the original group with the meeting of two generations
to celebrate the music of the past. At the concert, their reel to reel
demos from 1972-1977 were released on CD, featuring a full color 12
page book compiled and researched by Harold Ott. This was a supremely
talented group that was gone too fast and held back from the world.
With this release, Psych of the South attempts to correct that injustice
with a CD of 14 of Rayburn's original compositions heard here for the
first time.
Reviews:
Hail Arkansas’ unluckiest prog-rockers
***(3 stars)
It wasn’t easy being a prog-rockin’ beardie longhair in
early 70s Arkansas. It’s interesting to see how this young, pre-college
band presented themselves officially – hair neatly parted, sporting
smart jackets and ties. In private, they were more dangerously casual;
but getting lynched by rednecks was the least of this talented combo’s
problems.
Signed to RCA offshoot Mega, Rayburn were mysteriously dumped. Only
years later did it emerge that Steve Stephens’ father had bought
out their contract to steer his son into the family banking business.
Then Jimmy Roberts – married to future model/recording star Rosie
Vela – died of cancer, aged just 21. It lends Got To Get Ready
To Die an ominous weight.
Musically, there’s a unique stripe of traditional Americana running
through these prog grooves and, as the voices carry an unselfconscious
spirituality, the whole can occasionally chime with the contemporary
sound of young America’s questing souls. Stephens’ vast
Hammond and some horizon-gazing vocals lift the effect way above jazzed-up
DIY prog – at best echoing 70s Love and Mu, as well as Roberts’
and bassist Mack Price’s formative folk choir. -Record
Collector - Derek Hammond
I’d like you to set your the time machine to the
early seventies…maybe even the late sixties so that you can check
out a band from Arkansas calledRayburn. Imagine the time where prog
was just morphing out from its psychedelic cocoon. Groups of all stripes
were excited about experimenting with new instruments and incorporating
new styles of music and all the while getting away from the standard
3-minute pop song. Rayburn was one of those bands that never got their
fair share of attention, until now that is. The quartet consisted of
Mack Price (bass, vocals), Jimmy Roberts (guitar, vocals, piano), Robbie
Carder (drums, vocals) and Steve Stephens (Hammond B3, piano, Moog,
vocals).
The Rayburn CD has been lovingly assembled by the good folks at Psych
of the South and is made up of 14 tracks that cover the full range of
music produced by the band. Call it Proto-prog if you like but it’s
prog that in many respects resembles the music of early Yes, both in
terms of guitar style, organ sounds and arrangements. Still Rayburn
were able to inject a lot of their own feel into these compositions
and some of the material has more in common with the fading psychedelic
era especially some of the guitar and vocal styles. Length of songs
here is all over the map. While the band could write a 2 or 3 minute
pop tune, they weren’t afraid to stretch out and some of the songs
are over six or eight minutes. The Yes influence is most obvious on
track one “Your Mind” [3:13] in particular the way the guitar
is played and also how the song is arranged. However it’s the
vocals that confirm the song as part of Rayburn’s repertoire as
they sound nothing like Yes. This track even appears three times here
in slightly different versions. The band was not shy about experimenting
with adventurous arrangements and song structure. Even some of the shorter
tracks provide numerous musical change-ups. Most of these tracks were
written and recorded in the very early seventies and feature that distinctive
bass, guitar and organ as the up-front musical sounds that will certainly
take you back to the early days of the progressive rock movement.
If you enjoy digging into the past and listening to music that never
had the chance to be heard when it was originally made, this is definitely
a disc you need to get your hands on. To my ears Rayburn was yet another
band who never had the opportunity to reach a wider audience which is
too bad because the music for its day was really good. The musicianship
was quite accomplished, even adventurous and certainly deserves our
attention now that it’s available on CD. This is early styled
prog at its best; with no pretense other than the desire to create music
that was out of the mainstream. And on that score Rayburn is 100% successful!
This is a great disc. - Review by Jerry Lucky
Background magazine:
Talk about misfortune! You form a band which plays rock with an emphasis
on nice riffing, good vocals and the organ and you are just about to
get some fame, and then the father of one of the band members pulls
the rug from underneath you, thank you very much! This father was the
co-owner of one of the biggest investment bankers in the country and
bought the record label of Rayburn from the recording company and then
stiffed the upcoming release of the new LP. With such family, who needs
enemies? And then, when you go on undaunted, your guitarist dies of
cancer, only 24 years old. No wonder Rayburn never made it big. But
they could have, listening to this collection of demos made by the remaining
band members on the basis of material written by their deceased guitarist.
The organ playing especially makes this band stand out from the pack
(listen to the Steam Shuffle, I bet your feet will start shuffling)
and their compositions were also quite interesting, with a light psychedelic
and melancholic feel over them (nice example is the eight minutes of
Said, I Love Only You). This release is a kind of redemption for those
who could and maybe should have been more famous. ***André de
Waal (edited by Robert James Pashman)
RAYBURN was a band from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. They
were formed in 1970 (!) and recorded several demos during the 1970s,
but eventually quit in 1974 when guitarist JIMMY ROBERTS died of cancer
at the very young age of 21. They did reform in 1977 briefly, but it
wasn’t until 2009 before a real reunion (yet without their original
guitarist of course) took place and the band played a live concert,
which leads to this CD ‘Rayburn’. Included are 14 original
RAYBURN compositions and actually not only the sound quality is very
good, but also the songs are sounding very strong and it is a miracle
this band did not had a breakthrough 35 years ago. RAYBURN played a
sort of Psychedelic Progressive Rockstyle that sounded like a mix between
STEELY DAN, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE MOODY BLUES and IRON BUTTERFLY.
The vocals were spot-on and very clean/melodic, the Hammond was clearly
at the forefront and the guitarwork made it rock like a typical 70s
Classic Rockband. Definitely a must-have for fans of Classic 70s Rock!
(Points: 8.2 out of 10) - Strutterzine
Gotta love when little labels like Psych of the South
unearth from the vaults gems like the unreleased recordings from Rayburn,
a practically unknown prog/hard rock band from Little Rock, Arkansas
in the early 1970's. Rayburn's tale is one that will sound familiar
to anyone who has had a band who came 'this close' to getting signed
by a major label, only to have it fall through, leaving the band to
fall into obscurity before the world could hear their music. Fast forward
more than 30 years to 2009, when Psych of the South got a hold of the
Rayburn recordings after the band played a reunion concert, and the
resulting CD is now available to the public. While the music of Rayburn
is not the most original you will ever hear, if you like acts such as
Deep Purple, Gentle Giant, Yes, Iron Butterfly, Starcastle, Mirthrander,
Happy the Man, and Vanilla Fudge, chances are you will really enjoy
this talented group.
Plenty of Hammond B3 and electric guitar jams going on here, especially
on tunes such as "Your Mind", "Got to Get Ready to Die",
and "Steam Shuffle", courtesy of Steve Stephens and Jimmy
Roberts, who really scratch your itch for the pairings of Lord/Blackmore,
Howe/Wakeman, or Minnear/Green.Though none of the tracks are overly
heavy, many of them do rock quite a bit, and they are interspersed with
the more melodic, atmospheric numbers like "Said, I Love Only You",
and "Righteous Man", which have just enough symphonic and
folk elements to please the prog rock fans. There's no shortage of jangly,
intricate guitar patterns (hence the Yes & Gentle Giant reference),
and Stephens also pulls out his piano and Moog a bit as well. Lead vocals
are very well done, and shared by the band, and the talented bassist
Mack Price and drummer Robbie Carder round out the group. When the band
is really on and firing on all cylinders, as they are on the bluesy
hard rock of "The Trail is Gone", the Hammond freak out "Saltless
Tears", or the psych/prog ramblings of "America", the
results are quite fun, and really make you wish the band scored that
record deal way back in the day. - Sea of Tranquility