Furay Hillman Souther Trouble In Paradise CD

 It Really was "Trouble in Paradise"
Let me clear this out of the way first. Normally I would give almost anything Chris Hillman has played on four-five stars or better, but this second S-H-F band gets an average rating through no fault of Chris. Check out the cover of the album. J.D. Souther stares towards the ground, deep in thought(??), Richie Furay has his hands in his pockets, shrugging - and Chris has a no-nonsense stance, as if he was fed up with the proceedings. There was indeed "Trouble in Paradise". Why??? Simply because the S-H-F Band were three extremely talented musicians thrown together by Davey Geffen to get back at CSN and the Eagles. If Souther, Hillman and Furay had had time to coalesce, to jell, write songs together, be a band they would have knocked the Eagles on their asses. The first album showed great promise. But the fly in the ointment was ironically the one guy closest to Henley, Frey and Jackson Browne in this band - namely the "Heartbreaker" J.D. Souther. Souther did not want to be in a group, did not want to be a team player.And S-H-F fell apart at the seams. The title track is okay, although the solo version J.D. did four years later with Frey and Henley's harmonies where Furay and Hillman were is much stronger...the redeeming factors are the jazzy keyboards of Paul Harris. Souther is also okay and just that on "Mexico" the mediocre single that was the band's swan song. It is clearly obvious Souther preferred to fly solo. The guy is a gifted songwriter, but not much else - and his lacklustre performance on this record is sorry proof. A much more powerful and energetic singer now than he was then, Hillman nonetheless does a good job on "Love and Satisfy" and "Move Me Real Slow" with more than ample support from Harris and from Al Perkins on Guitar. Furay's two efforts are satisfying but nothing like "Falling in Love" or "Believe Me" (a song he originally recorded for Poco) off the first album. "Falling in Love" was Furay's apogee, he never came close to it on "Trouble"... A good choice to round out a Furay or Hillman collection, but nothing out of the ordinary, I'm afraid, especially with a group about to call it quits.
Submitted by alan.rockman (Upland, California) 
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 The SHF Band is great
Altough the first record of The SHF Band is better than this, it is good record with beautiful ballads, especially from Hillman. These three guys are great musicians and deserve the reputation they have. I recommend it.
Submitted by Carlos (Vitória,ES,Brazil) 
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