Al Staehely is the only person on the planet who has both played Carnegie Hall and provided legal services for Stevie Ray Vaughan.
โI was in a band at the University of Texas with two law students who were older than I,โ says Staehely. โWe played good-paying gigs every weekend, and when it was time for me to graduate and go to med school at a college in another city, the two law students in the band said, โYou canโt do that! Youโre our lead singer and bass player. So, I started law school to keep a rock band together. I had no intention of becoming a lawyer, so when I graduated, I put the law degree in a drawer and headed to California to pursue my musical dreams.โ
It didnโt take long for Staehely to begin making those dreams a reality. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1971, and a few months later he and his brother John were asked to join the critically-acclaimed band, Spirit. With Al as the bandโs new lead vocalist, bass player, and chief songwriter โ and with brother John taking over lead guitar duties from Randy California โ Spirit recorded their fifth album, โFeedback,โ in November of 1971.
โJohn and I brought a little Texas flavor to the band that didnโt exist before,โ Al told the Houston Chronicleโs Andrew Dansby. โIt wasnโt anything we tried to do. Itโs just the way we were. The way we were writing, the way he played, and the way I sang.โ Critic Joe Viglione defined the bandโs new sound as โa fusion of pop/jazz/rock with a dab of country.โ He also called โFeedbackโ โa phenomenal reinvention of Spirit.โ
When Spirit splintered (but not before a successful tour that included the aforementioned performance at Carnegie Hall), Al and John formed a group appropriately named the Staehely Brothers, releasing the album โSta-Hay-Leeโ on Epic Records in 1973.
It was another album that received good reviews, but the act was short-lived. When his brother John got an offer to join Elektra Records act Jo Jo Gunne โ a band whose albums had consistently hit the charts โ Al decided it was time to go it alone.
Having written the majority of the songs on both โFeedbackโ and โSta-Hay-Lee,โ Al began focusing on his writing talents, getting cuts by Bobbie Gentry, Marty Balin and Keith Moon, among others.
Not giving up on his dreams of releasing an album under his own name, Staehely recorded many tracks in LA between 1974 and 1978, working with a collection of first-rate musicians that included Steve Cropper, Jim Horn, Snuffy Walden, and Pete Sears.
Between sessions, Staehely headlined clubs in L.A. and NYC, opened concerts for The Moody Blues and Hot Tuna, did sessions for Keith Moonโs solo LP, and toured with Chris Hillman.
In 1980, Staehely returned to Texas and pulled his law degree out of the drawer Lawyer by day- musician by night, Al did shows with Roy Orbison, Jefferson Starship, Emmy Lou Harris โtwo European tours with John Cipollina and Nick Gravenitis (of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Electric Flag, respectively) documented by the LP, โMonkey Medicine,โ recorded in Hamburg which featured three of Alโs songs. Back in Texas, he even played a show with Rodney Dangerfield! Just as he was beginning to build his practice, Polydor Records came calling, and in 1982 โStahaleyโs Comet,โ Alโs long-awaited solo record, was released โ but only in Europe.
His impressive array of music industry clients and fatherhood kept him busy for a couple of decades, but the urge to make music has never left.
In 2011, SteadyBoy Records oversaw the first US release of the Polydor LP, with the new title, โAl Staehely and 10k Hours.โ In 2013, โCadillac Cowboys,โ an EP by Al Staehely and the Explosives, was also released on SteadyBoy. In more recent years, he has returned to the studio, as well as playing live โ frequently with his brother John, Freddie Steady Krc, keyboardist Mike Rosenbaum. and sax player Evelyn Rubio. At long last, Al Staehely the lawyer is once again Al Staehely the singer/songwriter/bass player โ back to give the world his music from the past, as well as the music he continues to make today, including a new album recorded in Marfa with Fran Christina (drums), Scrappy Jud Newcomb (guitar), and Chris Maresh (bass)
This fall, Al will release solo recordings from his days in Los Angeles descriptively titled โPost Spirit 1974-1978 Vol. 1.โ The initial focus track is the recently unearthed gem โWide Eyed and Innocentโ, along with a new version of the song- a sneak preview from the Marfa sessions.
The Song Will Be Featured On Upcoming Release Of Rare Solo Recordings ‘Post Spirit 1974-1978 Vol. 1.
While being known as the primary songwriter and singer of the rock act Spirit and The Staehely Brothers, Staehely had a lengthy career writing songs for acts such as Keith Moon, Bobbie Gentry, Patti Dahlstrom, Nick Gravenites, John Cipollina, Marty Balin, Peter Cox and Hodges, James & Smith and many others. And of course, Staehely is still writing and performing music to this day and looking forward to touring.