Trademark Of Quality: Nils Lofgren

Nils Lofgren would first come to the attention of the rock 'n' roll world when he was offered a position with Neil Young's band as a guitarist and keyboard player at the tender age of 17 years. Playing and touring in Young's band with the members of Crazy Horse, Lofgren would appear on Young's After The Goldrush and Tonight's The Night albums, and would also record with Crazy Horse for their solo debut. During this same time period, circa 1969-1973, Lofgren also fronted his own band in Grin, recording four albums before breaking up the band and launching his solo career in 1974.

While Nils Lofgren's self-titled 1975 solo debut would become the stuff of legend, sending the guitarist and songwriter's career into the stratosphere, Lofgren's second effort, 1976's Cry Tough, stands tall as an accomplished work in its own right. Partially produced by rock 'n' roll wunderkind Al Kooper – no slouch in the musical genius department himself – and Neil Young cohort David Briggs, Lofgren was backed by his brother and former Grin bandmate Tom, and a band of session pros, including drummers Jim Gordon and Aynsley Dunbar and bassists Paul Stallworth, Wornell Jones, and Chuck Rainey. As such, Cry Tough would serve as a fine follow-up to the guitarist's debut.

The album-opening title track would become one of Lofgren's long-time fan favorites. The fretwork on "Cry Tough" is wiry and just a little dirty, with a bit of blues falling in between the lines, and Kooper smartly segregates Lofgren's best solo to a spotlight of its own. The song's lyrical rock 'n' aesthetic didn't hurt, either, and it would become a live staple of Lofgren's performances for years.

Although Briggs would often feature Lofgren's guitar high in the mix, Kooper would make the best use of Lofgren's guitar hero status and six-string acumen. Take, for instance, the mostly mid-tempo, near-ballad "It's Not A Crime"…although Lofgren's vocals struggle at times to be heard above the mix, and the song's lush orchestration and backing vocals threaten to bury the frontman altogether, Kooper amps it up for Lofgren's roof-raising solos, which provide the song with an athlete's heartbeat.

On the other hand, the Briggs-produced "Incidentally…It's Over" is one of Lofgren's best tunes in a catalog deep with such, a taut guitar showcase with Lofgren's ever-present fretwork threaded throughout, but with plenty of room left for a couple of scorched-earth solos, a fine vocal performance, and real piss-off lyrics. Kooper has Lofgren try his hand at the old Yardbirds' gem "For Your Love," the early-60s blues-rock number transformed into a galloping rock 'n' roll leviathan with bluesy vocals, rapidfire drumbeats, steely bass lines, and a display of six-string proficiency that would light the sky like the fourth of July. Lofgren's solos are all over the place, from psychedelic squiggles to fierce, semi-metallic razorblades cutting straight through the mix.

Lofgren follows the inspired performance of "For Your Love" with the equally devastating "Share A Little." A muscular rocker with blistering, molten fretwork and staggered, syncopated rhythms, Wornell Jones' bass provides a foundation on which Lofgren goes nuts with his flamethrower solos. The song includes backing vocals from his former Crazy Horse bandmates Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot. With only sparse accompaniment…just Scott Ball's spry upright bass lines and Holden Raphael's fast-paced percussion…Lofgren's "Mud In Your Eye" is a departure, the song depending mostly on his lively vocals and a bit of acoustic guitar strum and piano. Lyrically clever, its words delivered with no little spite, it's an odd little romantic passion-play and quite entertaining.

Another bittersweet romantic rocker, "You Lit A Fire" is complimented by Kooper's thick orchestral arrangement and Lofgren's inventive, fluid guitarplay, which sounds a lot like he'd been listening to a little Ernie Isley at the time. Lofgren's vocals are fine, and the slightly-funky backbeat provided by the Rainey/Gordon rhythm section could have easily played into the strengths of AM radio circa 1976, sliding in right beside the Isley Brothers on the charts. Cry Tough closes with a funky rocker, "Jailbait" a story of illicit love delivered amidst a flurry of rampaging rhythms and a fat rhythmic groove, Lofgren's guitar taking on a Southern rock feel similar to what Kooper accomplished with Gary Rossington a year earlier on Lynyrd Skynyrd's Nothin' Fancy album.

Cry Tough would become the best-selling album of Lofgren's solo career, rising as high as #32 on the Billboard charts and ensuring the guitarist the opportunity to follow up with albums like 1978's I Came To Dance, 1979's Nils, and the acclaimed 1983 set Wonderland. Lofgren would put his solo aspirations on hold for a decade when he joined Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984, and although he has released only a handful of well-received studio albums in the years since, Lofgren has kept the fires burning for his beloved early material through archival releases and a string of live albums. Cry Tough is the album that cemented Lofgren's musical reputation, however, and it sounds as electric and vital today as it did in 1976. (Hip-O Select Records)