who owns the Longbranch Pennywhistle masters?

[Scarlet Sun]

I think it's a pretty good album. Not great, but certainly above-average. Shiloh is more mediocre. I wonder if they'll ever see a re-release

[sodascouts]

I get the impression that the guys aren't too proud of that, so I doubt we'll see it in re-release.

If it's the same deal as Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and their first album (now out of print) called Buckingham Nicks, the masters are jointly owned by the two of them and both must consent before a re-release. While Stevie has said that she wants to re-release it on CD, Lindsey has resisted... and so it rots on the shelf. I imagine Longbranch Pennywhistle might meet the same fate.

[thelongrun]

I get the impression that the guys aren't too proud of that, so I doubt we'll see it in re-release.

If it's the same deal as Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and their first album (now out of print) called Buckingham Nicks, the masters are jointly owned by the two of them and both must consent before a re-release. While Stevie has said that she wants to re-release it on CD, Lindsey has resisted... and so it rots on the shelf. I image Longbranch Pennywhistle might meet the same fate.

IMO LBPW has nothing not to be proud of, may not be a masterpiece but is a very very good Album, by the way I just downloaded it full

[Freypower]

I think it's pretty ordinary. I have to say this is because Glenn doesn't feature on it very prominently. My favourite track is (unsurprisingly) Rebecca.

[UndertheWire]

I've been reading Jimmy Bowen's 1997 book "Rough Mix". It's a good read.
There's only a small amount on Longbranch Pennywhistle and Shiloh and when he talks about the Eagles, he seems to think Geffen is Azoff. I haven't got through all of the Amos section, but Bowen seems to have been a bit of a wheeler-dealer and he was worried that one of his other ventures under the Amos umbrella would bankrupt him.

By the beginning of the seventies a new, post-Beatles rock scene was emerging in L.A. The “LA sound” was a fusion of folk, country and rock. One talented duo in that vein called itself Longbranch and Pennywhistle – formed by two kids named Glenn Frey and J. D. Souther. They got to me through Tom Thacker, my pal from Dumas High and bachelor-pad roommate.

Tom had signed Frey and Souther for publishing and recording with his own company. But when Don Lanier heard their demo, he urged me to bring Thacker in to Amos to get Glenn and J. D, on the label. When Tom brought them in to song some songs, I thought they were just wonderful.
J.D. who was from Amarillo, was a bit on the surly, rebellious side. Glenn was an easygoing sweetheart. Their songs were squarely in that acoustic folk-country groove and it was fresh and upbeat, with just enough country to make me think back to the early Everlys. I really dug their stuff.

They were struggling young musicians, so Dirt [Don Lanier] pulled strings to get Frey and Souther into an apartment building in North Hollywood. They had no money, but I thought I’d give them a shot.

I made Tom a GM at Amos. He then brought me another terrific kid named Don Henley. He had his own country-rock-style gig called Shiloh with Jim Ed Norman, Tom and I made a stock swap between our companies: I gave him a piece of Amos’s publishing and let him produce Longbranch and Pennywhistle’s debut album.

Presumably this is where Geffen stepped in:

I released Souther and Frey from their recording and publishing contracts to a young record-business hotshot named Irving Azoff. The price to buy their publishing contracts back was $7,500 each, whenever they had the money.

[sodascouts]

Interesting read. Thanks!