Producer, songwriter and guitarist Jay Graydon has a favorite idiom to describe a time in recorded music when studio musicians, songwriters and artists used craft, musicianship, engineering and high-quality production to yield audio magic: “Before there was Pro-Tools, there were pros.”
Back then, there was a revolving door of crack talent from Bernard Purdie and Chuck Rainey to members of Toto who migrated from massive L.A. recording studio to recording studio. They were basically the Wrecking Crew of that day. Indeed, there was a lane for R&B/pop/jazz fusion that existed for a period in the 1970s and early ’80s.
A lane with room for artists like Earth, Wind, and Fire, Al Jarreau, Bobby Caldwell, Kool & the Gang, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Shalamar, DeBarge, Michael McDonald, Quincy Jones, etc. that brought jazz and R&B sensibilities to pop music that was sharp, danceable, and laden with ear-worm hookery. Popularity for this lane of R&B peaked and faded by the mid-’80s as MTV-driven second British invasion synth rock and hair metal largely constricted exposure, and this method of recording slipped away from the mainstream music scene.
Young Gun Silver Fox is a duo founded by producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee with songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Andy Platts, who also fronts Mamas Gun. Young Gun Silver Fox sought to renew the production values of that time within the confines of their West End (London) studio.
Their first collaboration, West End Coast, celebrated those West Coast mid-’70s studio vibes and harmonies. The debut album featured breakout songs “You Can Feel It,” “Emilia” and the pensively brilliant “Long Way Back.” West End Coast was tagged as a Yacht Rock revisitation, but suspicions of a one-off nostalgia fest were countered by the progression and evolution of their oeuvre in AM Waves and Canyons.
Both follow-up albums featured consistently superior songwriting and expansion of the Young Gun Silver Fox trademark sound. For example, “Midnight in Richmond” and “Things We Left Unsaid” were compositions that are reflective of the inherent high-quality tunesmithery and production talents of Platts and Lee.
The fourth stop in the Young Gun Silver Fox journey is their new album Ticket to Shangri-La, where production bandwidth expands to the late-’70s and early-’80s R&B. It’s an album that should be experienced as a serious work on its merits and far more than a nostalgia act. Ticket to Shangri-La boasts intricate melodies, sophisticated horn charts and an expansive mood palate that leans party vibe or sometimes more weighty. There’s plenty of organic production values, recorded analog and dry with minimal reverb and maximal instrument separation.
A staccato piano riff and wickedly bright fanfare of horns usher in “Still Got it Going On.” This could have been produced by Jay Graydon, with those jazzy R&B chord progressions. Skin-tight, yet lush harmonies cement Andy Platt’s emerging mastery of bridges, transitions, modulations and middle-eights. “West Side Jet” is a hook-filled organic romp propelled by Platt’s Fender Rhodes and Lee’s acoustic guitar and a perfect debut single.
“Tip of the Flame” is a funkier R&B joint that could be a lost Quincy Jones produced number, yet it’s still idiosyncratic of the Young Gun Silver Fox sound. “Rolling Back” could have found a home on Canyons, with crisp harmonies and hooks. “Simple Imagination” begins as laid-back R&B ballasted by the Rhodes and a soundscape that – like DeBarge or a Tony LiPuma-produced track – appears deceptively simple, hiding a more complex structure. The song’s journey leads us an ear candy cane forest of sound and mood with more transitions, middle eights, sax solos and codas than a Donald Fagen solo song.
It’s fitting that the next track, “Sierra Nights,” sounds like a stellar cover of a lost Steely Dan track from their first three albums, with a notable exception: Young Gun Silver Fox enhances layers of mood and wonder instead of subversion. “Lodestar” also digs into that mid-’70s vibe. In contrast, “Winners/Call on Me” encompasses that 1979 Kool and the Gang, Boz Scaggs, Bobby Caldwell R&B land of smooth. “Winners” is another Andy Platts and Young Gun Silver Fox tune that takes on unexpected journeys and pathways, with a clever cascade of modulation, bridge and harmonica blues solo.
“Starting Wars” is a powerfully emotional, angst-filled ballad that’s R&B somehow alloyed with Todd Rundgren’s stellar pop stuff. There are a few Prefab Sprout chords thrown in, too – while still retaining Andy Platts’ and Shawn Lee’s sound. “Freak Flag” could have easily been a lost track from Michael McDonald’s solo debut.
Young Gun Silver Fox’s journey to Shangri-La is overflowing with hooks, twists and turns. My impression is that Ticket to Shangri-La is easily Platt and Lee’s finest and most imaginative album, and a culmination of their evolution in OG production values. The compositions, performances, production and engineering are consistently excellent, and there’s a depth of musicianship and emotion that rises high above nostalgia and the yacht-rock chatter.
Is it derivative to teleport a 1979 R&B attitude and build a new musical Disney theme park extravaganza with it? I don’t know – but don’t try this at home, kids! Leave it to the pros.
BONUS CONTENT: It’s telling, by the way, that Shawn Lee, Andy Platts and the rest of Young Gun Silver Fox can reproduce this hyper-engineered sound of million dollar-budgeted mega-L.A. studio recordings from the late ’70s in a live setting:
- The Unforgettable Mamas Gun Gem Tucked Away on Their ‘Room Service’ EP - November 5, 2022
- Young Gun Silver Fox – ‘Ticket to Shangri-La’ (2022) - October 24, 2022
- Mamas Gun – ‘Golden Days’ (2018): On Second Thought - August 31, 2022
