Staehely’s Comet

Reissued in February on Freddie Steady Krc’s local Steady Boy Records, Al Staehely’s 10K Hrs. makes its bow both on CD and in the U.S. according to the bio. “10K Hrs. is the first step in Al’s long awaited and rockin’ return to stage and studio.” In fact Staehely played the Saxon Pub earlier this year.

 Last year, combing through an avalanche of Rockpalast DVDs – see “Nasty Dogs & Funky Kings” – I came across Staehely singing and playing bass for the John Cipollina/Nick Gravenites Band in 1982. Staehely stole the show even from Cipollina, jet engine guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Born in Austin, 1945, and receiving his law degree from UT in 1970, Houston has boasted Staehely's music-loving shingle since he put the rockin’ mostly on mothballs. This after famously leaving Texas to take command of 1960s/1970s California guitar psych act Spirit. And that’s California as in the group’s Hendrix-worshipping frontman, Randy California.

According to 10K Hrs. – noted by Randy Poe, who penned the long overdue Skydog: The Duane Allman Story – Staehely departed our nascent scene for the Left Coast once another formerly local bassist, Mark Andes, exited Spirit followed by its star guitarist. Staehely and his brother John helmed 1972’s Feedback, then disbanded the group the following year and formed their own band.

A decade later, Al Staehely joined the Cipollina/ Gravenites act having just cut the set that’s now 10K Hrs., with a band including local bass foundation Glen Fukanaga and a pair of Austin jazz institutions in Tomas Ramirez and John Mills. Released in 1982, it came out in Europe as Stahaley’s Comet (as opposed to Ace Frehley’s Comet in 1987), the titular spelling reflective of how to pronounce Staehely.

Better than average blues-rock, Staehely’s lively “Coastin’” ain’t exactly ZZ Top, but there’s plenty here calling for future releases. Staehely wrote seven of the album’s 10 tracks and co-wrote the remaining three. This new issue tacks on a bonus in star producer Andy Johns remixing “Ice On Fire.”

Cooker “Don’t Go Lookin’ for Love,” featuring the LP’s guitarist John Staehely, twang-banger “Hot Rods and Cool Women,” highlight of the Cipollina/Gravenites tour as witnessed by the rubber it lays down on the Rockpalast DVD, and tag-teaming Nashville rocker “Longshot” with Cowtown rockabilly in “Mr. X-Terminator” tap toes no problem. And when it’s just plain 1980s trash, it’s “Lovin’ Tuff” and the (clap-clap) of closing claptrap “Low Threshold for Pleasure.”

Either way, it’s high time for Al Staehely’s comet – old or new – to circle back round to our center of the musical universe.