Meal Ticket - The Albums (1977-78 uk / canada, beautiful country soft rock, 2017 three disc box set)

Meal Ticket’s first album “Code Of The Road” was released in 1977, possibly the worst possible timing ever as the pub-rock movement into which they could have fitted had dissipated in 1976 to give way to punk-rock, a real shame as that first LP is a cracking record that will satisfy every fan of American country-rock. This first album firmly dominated by the writing partnership between keyboard player Rick Jones and lyricist Dave Pierce (which Steve Simpson describes as an integral part of the band in the liner notes) and sees lead vocals spread between Willy Finlayson and Rick Jones. “Code Of The Road” is probably the mellowest of the three LP’s with a feel not too far removed from what band like Poco were doing on the other side of the Atlantic at the same time. The guitar work courtesy of Ray Flacke and Steve Simpson is fabulous throughout. To sum things up: a great debut album.

During the Watford gig, great covers of  tracks by Boz Scaggs, Tony Joe White, Randy Newman proved  that Meal Ticket’s main influences came from the US. The band opened for several American artists on their UK tours but never toured Uncle Sam’s country. Their follow-up album “Three Times A Day” (also released in 1977) is often considered a lesser effort which is untrue but turns out to have a  more spontaneous feel than its predecessor. Opening track “This Could Be The Town” (a song from Willy’s days in “Bees Make Honey” penned by Barry Richardson) has turned out to be the band’s most famous song due to an appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Finlayson’s vocals on the excellent version of “Yesterday’s Music” prove that he was a more than worthy competitor to Glen Frey and Bob Seger.

by Craig Chaligne, 1 February 2017 

Their third and last album "Take Away" from 1978, is splendid and fully demonstrates their unique characteristics of being pop and catchy despite their extremely earthy sound. They play The Band's famous song "Shape I'm In." and Mike Heron's, "Down On My Knees", is a little mellow and a great piece.