No room around here for a guitar man

Here's another record that I knew nothing about when I got it. The major selling points were the cover and Felix Pappalardi producing the LP. Corky Laing and Dino Danelli played on the LP too.

Turns out that Rea had a long history before this record. He started out in the Canadian folk scene, playing on recordings by Judy Collins, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Gordon Lightfoot. Neil Young & Joni Mitchell talked Rea into giving songwriting a shot. Ian & Sylvia played Rea's songs (he played guitar for them too), Mountain who recorded three Rea songs including their biggest hit "Mississippi Queen".

So Pappalardi produced two Capitol LPs for David Rea - MAVERICK CHILD and BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

The one I've got is the second one. It's an excellent record. Several songs are from the same swamp as "Mississippi Queen". Rea had met Jerry Reed while working on Ian & Sylvia's NASHVILLE record. On this album he recorded a fine version of "Guitar Man" for GRACE OF GOD. Even better is the one song Rea did completely solo.

I really want to find a copy of the first LP, if only to hear a song called "Cannibal Christians.

Shortly after BY THE GRACE OF GOD was released, David Rea replaced Richard Thompson in Fairport Convention. That didn't work out and he left the band after a couple months. Rea is still playing and has been releasing new music on his own label.