Alvin Lee & Ten Years Later “Ride on Cowboy”

“Ride on Cowboy”

Last week on March 6th marked the 5th anniversary of Alvin Lee’s death. I thought since not many people have written anything about his two records playing with Tom Compton and Mick Hawksworth that I would pick one of my favorites off of the album Alvin Lee & Ten Years Later “Ride On” to write about. Ride On was released in 1979 and was the 2nd album that they released, during the tour that followed they made a stop out here and I was able to go see them with a couple buddies. After hearing many of the songs live I just fell in love with the album that much more.

While trying to do some research on the band I found it really hard to find much information. Everything was Alvin this Alvin that which is a shame because Tom and Mick were very accomplished musicians in their own right. Mick played the bass and got his feet wet back in 69 with a English called Andromeda and played with a few other bands through out his life. Mick left this world back on January 28th. Here is a great article that his friend Mick Clarke wrote after his death. Mick Hawksworth. Drummer Tom on the other hand played with Alvin for awhile then joined up with Johnny Winter. Tom was Johnny’s drummer for a long time then went and did a stint with Kim Simmonds.

Ride on Cowboy is a slow song for Alvin but it still allows him to show off a little of his guitar skills. It almost was a preview for his later years when he began to play much more blues music. If you are one of those people that never really enjoyed Ten Years After music you might want to give this tune a chance. If you are a big Alvin Lee fan and have never heard this classic before I think that you will really enjoy it too.
“Ride on cowboy, keep on ridin’ cowboy,
Keep on, keep on
Keep ridin’ cowboy, keep ridin’ cowboy,
Ride on cowboy, keep ridin’…