TOMMY BOLIN — The Lost Sessions

The American rock guitarist Tommy Bolin died December 4, 1976 aged just 25, neither the first nor the last time-serving musician to fall to heroin. In spite of his youth, he left an impressive body of work. Although he died long before the inception of the WorldWideWeb, a domain for an official website was registered on November 14, 1995; the domain is currently parked, but an archived version of the website can be found here.

Bolin began his career as a teenager with Zephyr. In addition to session work he recorded with The James Gang and as a solo artist. In 1975, when Ritchie Blackmore decided to leave Deep Purple the first time for even bigger and greater things, he was replaced by Bolin. Okay, nobody can replace The Black Knight, but the resulting Come Taste The Band album recorded over the summer and released October 10 wasn’t a bad effort. Sadly, it was to be the only studio album he recorded with the band.

To celebrate the fifty-fifth anniversary of his death, Cleopatra Records is releasing Shake The Devil – The Lost Sessions on February 12.

The new album is licensed directly from Bolin’s estate, and, to quote from a press release: has “informative liner notes from rock journalist Dave Thompson, these recordings offer both acoustic, instrumental and alternate versions of some of Bolin’s best known tunes including his most popular song, Bustin’ Out For Rosey”.

That track can be previewed on Spotify. The collector’s piece album will be available as a CD, and on vinyl with a gatefold sleeve in white, purple or red.