It’s a legendary song covered by a legendary band – Firefall have been rocking for some fifty years, with a roster of musicians that have included some whose earlier careers had included bands such as The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Spirit to name a few. Not surprisinlgy it’s a big roster – Peter Frame would need a poster sized piece of paper to capture it all but the current line-up of Jock Bartley, John Bisaha, Sandy Ficca, Steve Weinmeister, Jim Waddell includes a founder member (Jock) and a drummer (Sandy) notching up over four decades in the band.
Still an active live and recording band, Firefall will be releasing their next album ‘Friends & Family 2’ on May 23rd. Like their last album, ‘Friends & Family‘ (and you may have guessed from the title), it’s a covers collection drawing on all the many links in the Firefall family tree. The full album listing shows the diversity of that with the following eleven songs:
- Love The One You’re With (Stephen Stills)
- Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac)
- Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield)
- Longer (Dan Fogelberg)
- Shakin’ (Eddie Money)
- I’m Alright (Kenny Loggins)
- I Need You (America)
- So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star (The Byrds)
- Let Me Love You Tonight (Pure Prairie League)
- Sail On Sailor (The Beach Boys)
- Christine’s Tune (Flying Burrito Brothers)Cool Change (Little River Band)
Speaking of today’s featured track Jock Bartley told Americana UK: “I was in high school in 1967 when the Buffalo Springfield Again album came out. It was an astounding album and it was one of my favorite albums then and my favorite track was Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul.” Less than a year ago when it was time to pick tracks for Firefall Friends & Family 2, I thought of Buffalo Springfield and immediately thought of “Mr. Soul” because I love that song and it would be so fun to respectfully recreate it. Having our friend Richie Furay, original member of Buffalo Springfield sing the exact same background vocal part as he had in 1968 with Neil Young, on our 2025 version of “Mr. Soul” was incredible and pretty historic.”
