Courtesy of the production line which is now converting my vinyl LP collection to CDs, here are some gems:

1. Joe Walsh "Barnstorm"
In 1974 I wandered into a record shop near my home and persuaded the shop to let me listen to Joe Walsh's new LP "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get". What came through the headphones was a sophisticated sound unlike anything I had previously heard, skillfully using synthesizers and Kenny Passarelli's fretless bass to create a very different soundscape. I was not so impressed by the songwriting as I was by the overall soundscape and production of the LP. My best friend and I agreed to disagree about Walsh's guitar playing; he opined that he played in cliches, I saw his guitar playing as merely a component of the overall sound.
I subsequently found that Walsh had recorded an earlier solo LP named "Barnstorm" so I bought that LP (which took some doing, since at the time it had never been properly released in the UK, so I had to hunt around for it).
After quitting the James Gang, Walsh had retreated to Northern Colorado in the winter of 1971 with Joe Vitale and Kenny Passarelli to write and record "Barnstorm". What emerged from this process was a collection of songs light years removed from the James Gang. Using a wide palette of sounds, including synthesizers, acoustic guitars, and flute from Vitale, "Barnstorm" is really a suite of contemplative songs, mostly ballads, with a number of linking instrumental passages. The soundscape from "Barnstorm" would be re-used with only minor modifications on the next two Walsh solo LPs, "The Smoker You Drink" and "So What". Effectively those LPs are more slick and focussed variants of "Barnstorm", but "Barnstorm" is where it all began. Later Walsh would join the Eagles just in time to participate in their best-selling LP "Hotel California" (still one of my least-favourite LPs of all time; to me it represents an excellent example of what happens when you spend too long working on music).

2. Lounge Lizards "Lounge Lizards"
This was the debut album by a band that immediately created a challenge for listeners and critics. What did you call this type of music, quirky yet memorable? Somebody coined the phrase "fake jazz" for it, which founder John Lurie probably wishes he had never heard...
This is the first of what would be an occasional series of releases from the band, which would change line-ups for every release. On this debut LP the band's members included the guitarist Arto Lindsay, who plays what can only be described as angular and fractured guitar - he manages to make Robert Fripp sound mellifluously melodic by comparison.
Founder John Lurie is something of a renaissance man - saxophonist, band leader, actor, film musician, record company owner, and artist, all while struggling with significant medical issues in recent years. Currently his medical issues have forced him to focus his energies on painting.

3. Bernie Leadon and Michael Georgiades "Natural Progressions"
When I first started listening seriously to LPs just before going to college, I rather quickly rejected the in-fashion bands of the time (Yes, Genesis, Moody Blues, ELP etc.) who seemed to me to be devoid of any soul,preferring instead to focus on music that was lyrically and structurally pompous. Instead I listened to jazz and acquired an interest in American country-rock, including the Eagles, who at the time had released 2 LPs ("Eagles" and "Desperado") that seemed to me to be authentic and organic, and different to listen to. My favorite Eagles member was Bernie Leadon , who I came to see as the heart of the band, since he was a fine multi-instrumentalist, playing guitars, mandolin, banjo and pedal steel (it is his pedal steel on "Best Of My Love") and also wrote great country-tinged songs like "21", "Bitter Creek" and "Train Leaves Here This Morning" (which he cro-wrote with Gene Clark).
After leaving the Eagles at the end of 1975 (after which time I lost interest in that band, as they morphed from an interesting country-rock band into a rather average rock-pop band), Bernie Leadon made the LP "Natural Progressions" in 1976 with his friend Michael Georgiades. As one would expect, the LP was primarily acoustic, with a mellow collection of mid-tempo songs and ballads. I found this interesting comment about the LP from an interview on Rocks Back Pages with Glyn Johns in 1981:

I enjoyed making the record very much, and when we'd finished it, Bernie went off in his little Volkswagen camper down to Mexico or somewhere, and when he came back, he called me and said "I've got to tell you that I've got a cassette player in my camper and it runs fast. I've been listening to the album fast for two weeks, and it sounds much better fast". I told him that was absolute rubbish and a figment of his imagination, but in fact, listening to it now, he's absolutely right – all the tempos are too slow, and the whole thing is so laid back it's ridiculous, like a big yawn. I think it must have been because we recorded it in his house and it was all very wonderful and beautiful, the view was great, and things got too laid back.

Slow tempos or not, some of the songs are great, and there are some great arrangements, especially the strings on "Glass Off".