Valerie Carter - Wild Child (1978)

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Possessing a voice at once adept at soul, rock, pop, and folk, Valerie Carter has had a successful career as a solo artist and in-demand backup singer. Beginning her career singing in coffee houses as a teenager, she eventually became one third of the short-lived country-folk band Howdy Moon. Though they debuted at the legendary Troubador in Los Angeles in 1974, their one album is now fairly obscure. It is notable, however, for the Carter-penned song "Cook With Honey," later a minor hit for Judy Collins, and for the introduction of Carter to Lowell George, who produced the album. He would be a mentor to her till his death in 1979 and introduce her to Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and many other artists she would work with throughout her career. Her first solo album, Just a Stone's Throw Away, featured an impressive array of guest artists from the 1970s Southern California music scene. The album was well-received and garnered favorable reviews, plus an opening slot for the Eagles tour in Europe. Though she released another album, Wild Child, two years later, she had all but dropped out of the music business by the early '80s. By the end of the decade she had returned, focusing primarily on singing backup on a wide variety of albums by other artists. In addition, she spent most of the 1990s touring in Browne's and Taylor's bands. With the momentum afforded her by this re-entry to the music business, Carter released her first solo album in 17 years, The Way It Is, in 1996. The excellent EP Find a River followed two years later. Wild Child, Valerie Carter's 1978 follow-up to her debut Just a Stone Throw's Away, was clearly designed to broaden whatever audience she may have had gained in the prior year. Really, she didn't make that big of an impact in 1978 -- the debut peaked at 1982 and spent five weeks on the chart without generating a single hit -- but it was enough to hold out the possibility that she could go further. So James Newton Howard signed on as the producer, bringing in top-flight studio musicians like Jeffrey Porcaro and Jay Graydon to perform a set of songs from various sources -- ranging from songs Carter co-wrote with Newton Howard to covers of Andy Fairweather Low and Eugene Record.

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Tracks:
Crazy (V. Carter, J.N. Howard, R. Bell)
Da Doo Rendezvous (A. Fairweather Love)
What’s Become Of Us (V. Carter, R. Bell)
Taking the Long Way Home (V. Carter, J.N. Howard)
Lady in the Dark (V. Carter, J.N. Howard, S. Lukather)
The Story of Love (V. Carter, R. Bell
The Blue Side (D. Lasley, A. Willis)
Change in Luck (T. Snow)
Trying to Get To You (E. Record)
Wild Child (D. Batteau)

Musicians:
Valerie Carter - vocals
Steve Lukather - guitars (1) (2) (4) (5) (6) (8) (9) (10)
Lenny Castro - percussion
Victor Feldman - Percussion, piano (electric)
Chuck Findley - horn Jay Graydon - guitars
Wendy Haas - vocals
Jim Horn - Horn
David Hungate - bass
Davey Johnstone - guitar
David Lasley - vocals
Steve Madaio - horn
Don Myrick - saxophone
James Newton-Howard - keyboards
Ray Parker, Jr. - guitar
Vini Poncia - vocals
Jeff Porcaro - drums
Steve Porcaro - synthesizer
Chuck Rainey - bass
Tom Saviano - saxophone
Fred Tackett - guitars
Mike Utley - keyboards
Verdine White - bass