Your Saving Grace

Number 5 Exclusive Japanese Limited Edition reissue of this 1970 album packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. 2006.	Brave New World Exclusive Japanese Limited Edition reissue of this 1969 album packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. 2006.	Sailor Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.	Children of the Future Exclusive Japanese Limited Edition reissue of this 1968 album packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. 2006.	The Joker 1973 album on 180 gram vinyl.
Book of Dreams 24 bit digitally remastered 1998 reissue on Eagle of theirsmash album that reached #2 when first released on Capitolin 1977. Contains the original cover art, new sleeve notes &all 12 tracks, including the top 10 hit 'Jet Airliner', thetop 20 'Swingtown' a	Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971 From their earliest days as 12-string-wielding folk-rockers, to the thrilling psychedelic excursions of their raga-rock period to their 1968 birthing of country-rock, the Byrds were always accorded a hero's welcome in England. What better place to record founding Byrds member/gui...	Moby Grape '69 Moby Grape followed the expansiveness of 1968's Wow with an unadorned, back-to-basics sound on this, their fourth long-player. Bob Mosley's understated vocal makes the ballad "It's a Beautiful Day Today" one of the great Grape tracks, Peter Lewis' stately "I Am Not Willing" is st...	Fly Like an Eagle: 30th Anniversary This is the album that, in one eagle-sized swoop, propelled Steve Miller from a well-regarded but hardly widely known psychedelic San Francisco-based bluesman to a chart-topping, hit-single-generating pop star. Capitol Records, who helped sire that transition by keeping him on ...	Truly Fine Citizen Like many rock artists who trekked to Nashville in the late-'60s to lay down or pick up roots, Moby Grape emerged with an LP that stripped the band back to its core strengths to make music that was simple yet effective. Produced by Bob Johnston (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Simon & Ga...

Renewed but Not Remastered!
Your Saving Grace is the only one of the first five Steve Miller Band CD's to have gone out of print. It makes it's reentry into the CD market with this Japanese reissue. However, this is NOT REMASTERED! None of these Japanese pressings are. They sound identical to the domestic releases that have been available for over a decade.

NOW SUPERCEDED BY 2007 JAPAN-ONLY REMASTER
Inexplicably, "Your Saving Grace" has been unavailable in the domestic US Steve Miller catalog for some time. However, if you're about to spend big bucks on an OOP copy of this 1994 release, be advised: The audio has been supplanted on a new 2007 remastered Japanese mini-sleeve CD. The first five albums in the Steve Miller catalog were included in this new Japan issue. The '07 'sleeve audio has increased volume and better clarity, particularly in the percussion, where the high-hat and symbols are much more prevalent. The audio on the Japan editions are also superior to that on the Steve Miller box set. And, as always, the exact replica of the original LP album cover is great to have. As all 'sleeve releases are limited edition, do not delay in getting yours, as they will probably sell out quickly. However, be advised that Amazon's availability always trails the release dates in Japan by at least two weeks, so pre-ordering mini-sleeves on Amazon is never a guarantee you will actually receive them. Also, Amazon's mini-sleeve prices are nearly double the Japan street prices (before shipping, of course). Links to the 2007 Japan mini-sleeve remasters: Children Of The Future Sailor Brave New World Your Saving Grace Number 5 WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD? Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you. Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 13.5MM X 13.5MM cardboard-sleeve, precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, everything else packaged with the original LP is precisely replicated and included, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and die cuts. An English-language lyric sheet is also included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics. Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have Japan-dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2 or K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere. Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "OBI" ("oh-bee"), a Japan-language promotional strip. The OBI often also lists the original album's release date, the Japan street date of that particular disc, the catalog number, and mastering info. Bonus tracks are always only listed on the OBI, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake copies of Japan `sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs. Also, there are older Japan mini-sleeve releases that have been supplanted with newer ones, usually with updated audio (such as JVC-Japan replacing older K2-mastered titles with new K2HD mastered releases). All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common with some of the Japanese companies (but, again, not always). Mini-sleeve collecting can get expensive quickly, so, if you're a novice, it is highly advisable to seek the advice of an experienced `sleeve collector!

Why is this still out of print!?
This is Steve's magnum opus of space rock and soul. Feel so Glad and Baby's House are among his best ever. Tim Davis performs his best song, the title song. Why why why is it still out of print and there is a reason why it sells used for $94, it's that good.

Steve & his band enter a truly brave new world on here
For his first three albums, Steve Miller & his band provided some of the most psychedelic (yet least druggy) blues-rock of the time without making so much as a dent into the mainstream. After 1968's SAILOR though, the band went through the first of what would be many personnel changes with guitarist Boz Scaggs departing to go solo (and thus leaving most of the guitar work to Steve himself), and taking keyboardist Jim Peterman with him. Peterman had to have been rather aghast to see himself replaced by, not one, but two keyboard players in the form of another future soloist Ben Sidran and legendary sessionman Nicky Hopkins. The latter two made their debut on 1969's BRAVE NEW WORLD, which was just as trippy as its two predecessors, but by now, the psychedelia was bordering on parody, and thus indicative that perhaps the blues-happy Boz knew when to abandon a potentially sinking ship. Maybe Steve recognized this as well, and decided to make his second album of the year YOUR SAVING GRACE a little more earthbound and bluesy. For the most part, it succeeds, but does not quite match the rarefied greatness of 1968's CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE and SAILOR. "Little Girl" continues the tradition of Steve Miller album openers that could have made it as singles in a more perfect music world. Power pop had not been officially invented per se, but this song was as close to perfect both in melody and lyric as one could get. Again, if Capitol Records had taken a short break from promoting the Beatles in this era, they could have devoted some elbow grease towards Steve & his group, with this being their true breakthrough. "Just A Passin' Fancy In A Midnite Dream" is a little inscrutable, but perhaps that can be attributed to the fact that it is co-written by Ben Sidran, who was more influenced by Van Morrison and Mose Allison, especially by their idiosyncratic songwriting styles. Maybe one can call this psychedelia without the phasers and Leslie cabinets, but that does not make the song any less hallucinogenic, if not as trippy as, say, the side one suite of CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE. "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around" is another song that could have helped get Steve some long overdue commercial attention, but it would take 5 more years of grunt work for that to happen. As for the song, it is his attempt at creating a Delta blues tune for the modern era, for it sounds like it is coming straight out of the South, but its subject (speaking out against racism and inequality) is one that still haunted the region & continues to this day. The fact that the song comes from a White musician makes it even more potent. "Baby's House" closes out side one with a 9-minute trip to dreamland that is again rather light on the psychedelics, but has enough of them in smaller doses to give the listener a relaxing, woozy feeling. Co-written by Nicky Hopkins, his fingerprints are all over this song with him inserting some subtle classical measures into his piano work. He may have preferred the comforts of the studio to the stage, but I can guess that songs like this made fellow San Franciscans Quicksilver Messenger Service want to snare Hopkins up for their band, and they did. "Motherless Children" is a return to traditional blues standards after an absence of them on BRAVE NEW WORLD. After 9 minutes of music that kept the listener occupied, the subsequent 6 minutes of near-flatlining stripped-down blues actually borders on the somnambulant. Eric Clapton would tackle this song 5 years later, and give it a much-needed dose of testosterone. Until then, Steve slipped up by giving his version an overdose of Dramamine. "The Last Wombat In Mecca" brings things back to life slightly with bassist Lonnie Turner's second volume in his combination of acoustic blues with psychedelic lyrical imagery. Sounding like it was recorded live in the studio in one take (listen to the studio chatter at the beginning), it is mindless fun if anything else, although maybe someone other than Steve could have handled the vocals (it was Lonnie's song after all). "Feel So Glad" is another blues- and jazz-soaked slow-burn with more excellent piano playing by Hopkins (a session musician who deserved to go headliner, if ever there was one). It is amazing that on this album the original material with a blues bent was more successful than the one that came straight from the source (an anonymous one). But that just indicates how good Steve was at appropriating blues influences and tailoring them to his own ideas, rather than become a slave to them like most other musicians of the time did. It all closes out with the title track that comes from drummer Tim Davis, who tends to be the lowest-key member of the band in this time. After the slightly pedestrian "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat" on BRAVE NEW WORLD, Davis had improved as a writer to be allowed the title track on the band's next album, and although it may be just me, I hear a small bit of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" in the arrangment of this sociopolitical song (or at least, the sound of what was to come). One can wonder if Marvin had indeed given this song a listen while creating that magnum opus. He would depart shortly after this album's follow-up, but it is clear that Davis was the rare sign of stability for Steve early on as his band went through more personnel shuffles than a fast-food chain. It was perhaps inevitable that after two wonderful first albums, Steve Miller would hit a rough patch on the next two. Even with a master producer like Glyn Johns at the helm, BRAVE NEW WORLD and YOUR SAVING GRACE cannot be considered as finely-crafted and timeless (even while remaining of its time) as CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE and SAILOR. It could be because of the game of musical band members or the fact that psychedelia was on the way out in a post-Woodstock world. Nevertheless, YOUR SAVING GRACE has its own place in Steve Miller's catalog as both a time-marker and an instance that, when the right occasion arose, they could scale back the hallucinogens and simply rock out as best they could.

Just plain good music
Gave this album to an associate who was familiar with Fly Like an Eagle, and he was really surprised that it sounded so different, and that it was good "I mean, REALLY GOOD!" This band was putting out something like two or three albums a year at this time, yet the writing is really good. A really solid album.