Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Shotgun Ltd.

From the desk of Joe Gutierrez, singer of the band:

"We all grew up in the Culver City, Mar Vista area of Los Angeles. The band was originally a 5 piece surf instrumental band called The Twilighters. I joined them about 1967 when they wanted a little more singing. I would eventually be the Mick Jagger Model Front Man. The band then was renamed The Ash and we got pretty popular on the West Side in my high school years, making pretty good money on the weekends, and becoming more of a progressive rock cover band. We even managed to play at The Galaxy on the Sunset Strip where The Doors had been regulars. We also did a month at Gazzari's up the street. Things got a little serious about 1969, when the drummer suggested we start composing our own music. We had been doing a semi residency at a local Teen Club and we actually stopped playing there about a year later for about 3 months to write songs. We came back and got a positive reaction to our own music and decided to pursue 'the dream' of a recording contract. My girlfriend's father got us hooked up to Rick Jarrad who produced Jefferson Airplane to record a single on ABC Probe that went no where. Our bass player decided to leave soon after, and suggested if we were serious, to also replace the drummer. We did. We auditioned a few bass players, and then our rhythm guitarist offered to play bass. We stuck with him. One night we met a guy named Jim Loppnow who was managing another band. He eventually became our manager, and he got us, about a year later, the open door to Prophesy Records, a label started by Mickey Shapiro, future lawyer for Fleetwood Mac. Shapiro decided stronger management was needed so we got hooked up with Alan Pariser who was handling Delaney & Bonnie and Dave Mason at the time. Loppnow was still in the fold, helping out at gigs and representing us dealing with the label and such. Delaney Bramlett listened to us Showcase one night and decided to have his keyboardist Jim 'Jaime' Gordon produce our album. We recorded it at The Sound Factory (where many famous recordings were made) in Hollywood. Dave Hassinger engineered. I think we did the album in about 3 months time in 1970, but things started going sour with the label not long after. With Pariser having trouble with his artists, it took until the next year to finally release the album. By then we were already writing better (we felt) songs. We had decided to fire Loppnow due to him taking liberties without consulting us, and looking back, that was probably a bad decision on our part. Prophesy decided not to record a second album, and with no real management left, we lasted another year and that was that.

I listen to the album now, and it's not bad for young guys. I think it's as good even better than some of the similar style stuff that came later. None of us were older than 20 when it came out. At the time James Taylor and Carol King were the most popular artists and Heavy Rock was not in style. Later on in the late 70s, it would come roaring back. Who knows? Maybe we should have hung in there, but that's life."

Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Shotgun Ltd.



Shotgun Ltd. (Prophecy)
1. Bad Road
2. Against The Wall
3. Number Two
4. Remedy For A Hazy Day
5. I Don't Mind
6. On Top Of You
7. River Of Hope
8. Trials
9. Feelin' Bad
10. Mixed Nuts






5 comments:

Unknown said...

Howdy, I'm Joe Gutierrez, the lead vocalist of Shotgun LTD. Thanks for posting the LP! I can hear the vinyl loud and clear! Whew, that was a LONG time ago,... but we're all fine and well and living our lives. The band broke up in 1972 (don't confuse us with that French band you see on YouTube), but I've been thinking about a reunion for a while, and we all still play, so we'll see. Thanks for keeping us alive.

panzan said...

this is hot shit, glad you shared.

El Isabelino said...

Thanks a lot for sharing it. Saludos.

txmuziknut said...

This is to Joe. I got a copy of your album back in the early 70's. It is still one of my fav.s. I got a second copy of it about 5 years ago and had a recording studio make a perfect copy for me on cd along with the artwork. My email address is txmuziknut@yahoo.com I hope to hear from you. Kenny.

joegut said...

This is to Kenny. I've e-mailed you at your Yahoo address. Please check it out.