Cowboy - Boyer & Talton (1974)

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Formed in 1969 in Jacksonville, Florida, Cowboy was a band with many connections. They had Duane Allman playing on their '5'll Get You Ten' album, they accompanied Gregg Allman on his solo tours and halfway through the 70's they would basically become the Capricorn Rhythm Section, playing on quite a few Capricorn releases. This album, 'Boyer & Talton' (a bit like the Rolling Stones calling an album 'Jagger & Richards'), was their third. Musically it's on the Country side of Southern Rock, a lovely laid-back affair. No soaring rock vocals or endless jams, but a nice collection of Southern Country Rock songs. All played tastefully and easy on the ear, Cowboy provides us with the ideal soundtrack to a Sunday morning. Everyone Has A Chance To Feel...

31st Of February - 31st Of February (1968)

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Some origins of Southern Rock for you in this post. The 31st Of February (formerly Bitter Independents) is a 1968 effort by 3 guys from Jacksonville, FL., who went on to much more successful bands. Scott Boyer and David Brown to Cowboy and Butch Trucks to the Allman Brothers Band. In fact, following this album and after Hour Glass broke up (which followed Allman Joys), Duane and Gregg were in the studio with 31st of February members - so one half of the original ABB was in place a year before they formed. This is the folk rock branch of Southern Rock, with a taste of psychedelic pop. Butch includes some percussion instruments normally heard in a college recital. "Morning Dew" from the second 31st of February album, appears on CD 1 of Dreams, the 1989 ABB box set. Given the time frame, this album is a solid offering with a quality sound. Keyboards add variety to the standard trio of electric guitar, drums and bass. Give it a listen to hear the early days of players who established themselves in the near future. Starting down the path!

Cowboy - A Different Time (The Best Of Cowboy)

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Cowboy was a band lead by Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton, which put out records from 1970 up to 1977. In between they released the T. Talton, B. Stewart, J. Sandlin album "Happy To Be Alive", which was pretty much yet another Cowboy piece. The music Cowboy played is a lot less rocking than contemporaries like The Allman Brothers Band, Black Oak Arkansas or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Instead, Cowboy relied on a somewhat Folk/Hippie kind of laid back Southern Country Rock. If that makes any sense. Pretty good music, though. And some great guest players along for the fun. Like Duane Allman, Chuck Leavell, Randall Bramblett, Dru Lombar, Jaimoe and Toy Caldwell. Then again, Boyer and Talton have been playing along with quite a few good folks as well, like backing up Gregg Allman in the 70's on his solo tour. And lots more, you do the searching. They are still active musically. Some of my favorite songs, some of which you may know from being covered by others, are "All My Friends", "Living In The Country" (on The Alabama State Troupers), "Please Be With Me" and"It Might Be The Rain". And they're all on this out-of-print-best-of. Everything here..

T. Talton, B. Stewart, J. Sandlin - Happy To Be Alive (1976)

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Tommy Talton you might know from Cowboy. Johnny Sandlin used to play with Hour Glass (feat. Duane & Gregg Allman) and went on to become sessionplayer and producer at Capricorn studios. Bill Stewart has played for Capricorn as well. Basically they are the Capricorn Rhythm Section. A 'supergroup' that sounds, not surprisingly, an awful lot like Cowboy.
I got this album rip form Skynfan's blogspot. I cleaned up some bits, corrected the running order and supplied full tags for your MP3-player. Alas, it's only at 128 kbps. Still, check out some more "Capricorn history".