Michael Nesmith 7A Records
Pretty Much Your Standard
Ranch Stash (50th Anniv. Edition)

Released on March 31, 2023

7A052
CD Digipak Case
$34.99

 

CD Case

 

Liner Notes

 

7A053LP
Grey 180g Vinyl
$41.99

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

7A Records are proud to announce the 50th Anniversary Edition of Michael Nesmith’s “Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash” album. Released on CD & Vinyl on April 7, the album includes a bonus track, extensive liner notes and session details by Andrew Sandoval, as well as lyrics to all of the songs.

The Album

By 1972 both Nesmith and his then record company RCA were dismayed at Nesmith’s lack of commercial success, following his early 1970 departure from The Monkees. Nesmith took the opportunity to blatantly poke fun at the situation he found himself in, titling his new album – that certainly would not yield a Top 40 hit – ‘And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’. The album was a departure from his previous solo records, as it featured just Nesmith on acoustic 12-string guitar and the excellent Red Rhodes on pedal steel guitar, no other musicians were involved. The approach was simple, but it exposed a beauty in the poetry of Nesmith’s lyrics which was matched perfectly by Rhodes’ inspired playing. ‘And The Hits Just Keep On Comin’’ became Nesmith’s most critically acclaimed album and it is today generally viewed as an iconic a ground-breaking marvel in the annals of country-rock music. To mark the album’s 50th anniversary, 7A Records have remastered the album and included four bonus track that will see their first ever release on vinyl. The album is released on CD with a 28 page colour booklet featuring extensive liner notes and previously unseen photos, as well as on 180g coloured vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
Nesmith’s time with the Monkees was well and truly in the rear-view mirror and he needed a new place to live and work. He caught the ear of Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, and a path forward miraculously appeared. Realising that most of the record companies at the time didn’t understand Country Rock, Nesmith convinced Holzman to start a new label, Countryside. Nesmith would run the label, put together a ‘house band’ and produce albums by various up and coming country artists. Unfortunately, most of the new label’s releases didn’t make much of an impression and Nesmith soon started to contemplate his own music again. Aided by the power of his Countryside house band, he quickly crafted Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash, a full and final RCA album. Despite its commercial sheen, Ranch Stash wasn’t a success sales-wise and it became the closing remark to a heavy chapter in Nesmith’s life, a final “adios” to Monkee Mike, to the cosmic cowboy, and to his family, as he moved further on up the trail.

Included on our 50th Anniversary Edition is the 1973 alternate version of “Marie’s Theme”. The Vinyl version is in a gatefold sleeve and printed on 180g grey vinyl. The CD comes with a 36 page color booklet. Both the vinyl and CD include extensive liner notes and session info by Andrew Sandoval, as well as lyrics to the songs.