Artist: Garnett Ford, Album: Under The Influence, Song: Hustler

"Ooooooooh gotta get up pretty baby!"  Garnett Ford was a Toronto artist that released his debut album, Under The Influence, with Warner Records in 1978.  He was in a band called Pinball previous to this album, in the early seventies, with guitarist Dave Cooper.  Dave has a long history in Canadian music playing with the likes of Tom Cochrane, Edward Bear and Klaatu (see blog 11/27/10) just to name a few.  Dave also contributed guitar to this release as well.  Garnett's album was produced by Ian Thomas and you can really hear his influence on this particular release.  I really enjoy the song, Hustler, off this album.  It's a deep album track, buried on the B-side and was likely never a single.  It's got a great groove to it.  If you are a fan of Ian Thomas' work in the seventies, you should really enjoy this track.  Garnett would release one more album in 1982.  That release featured everyone from Kim Mitchell to the late B.B. Gabor (see blog 1/23/11).  It was also re-issued by a label out of Germany called Long Island Records.  His debut however, hasn't received the same treatment.  The album is only available on the second hand market in vinyl form.  At the time of this blog, there were copies trading on Ebay and Amazon between $10 and $15.  Not much has been written about Garnett since his last release in the early eighties.  He did start a company with fellow musician, Bob Kellermann, called 2ndFloorView, composing music for movies and television.  You can hear the song, Hustler, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apB5EucGfkU).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!