Foamfoot (The Black Crowes and Others) - The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA, 1-8-1994

So who the heck was Foamfoot? This was a band made up of a couple key members of the Black Crowes, plus a key member of Jellyfish, plus others, that came together to play one concert entirely of cover songs back in 1994. The concert was professionally recorded for official release, but it never actually got released. But it makes for a great concert album because they guys really knew how to play classic rock. And, as a bonus, David Crosby joined in to sing a song.

The Black Crowes have mainly been led by the Robinson brothers, with Chris Robinson on lead vocals and Rich Robinson on vocals and guitar. But another key member in the 1990s was Marc Ford on lead guitar. The band was at the height of their popularity and creativity around 1994, with their first two albums selling millions in the U.S. 

Jimmy Ashurst, bass player from the Ju Ju Hounds, later explained what happened next. "There were several jams with Chris (Robinson), Marc (Ford), and Andy (Sturmer – drummer for Jellyfish). Chris was for the first time in his career living far from his brother Rich and I think he was interested in seeing what he was capable of doing without him. The live shows we did, Foamfoot and Big Toe, were more for fun and we did covers of other people’s songs."

So, as mentioned in that quote, in addition to this one show as Foamfoot, there was another show or two by the same band using the name "Big Toe," but that's mostly forgotten due to the lack of a high quality recording like this one. Furthermore, in late 1993, basically the same group of people plus a couple more did some recordings of songs written by Chris Robinson using the band name "Sweet Pickle Salad." Those have never been released, but exist on bootleg. 

In addition to the band members previously mentioned (Chris Robinson, Marc Ford, Jimmy Ashurst, and Andy Sturmer), Eric Bobo also played in the band on percussion. He'd previously played with Cypress Hill and the Beastie Boys. And note that while Sturmer was a key lead vocalist and songwriter for Jellyfish as well as being the band's drummer, in this band he just played drums. Furthermore, Gary Louris of the Jayhawks joined in to play guitar on one song in this concert. And David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash dropped in to help sing a song he wrote, "Long Time Gone."

This band seems to have been mainly led by Chris Robinson, and since he's the lead vocalist of the Black Crowes, it sounds a heck of a lot like the Black Crowes doing a bunch of cover songs. And although that band was most popular in the 1990s, they were heavily influenced by the classic rock of the early 1970s, especially bands like the Rolling Stones, the Faces, and Southern Rock bands like the Allman Brothers. In fact, in 2022, a reformed Black Crowes put out an EP called "1972" containing covers of songs from 1972 by those types of bands.

Given all that, it's not too surprising that the covers here are mostly from the early 1970s, plus a few from the 1960s. Here are the original artists for each song:

01 talk (Foamfoot)
02 Walk in My Shadow - Free
03 Bottle of Red Wine - Eric Clapton
05 Tin Soldier - Small Faces
07 Take the Highway - Marshall Tucker Band
08 Deal - Grateful Dead
10 Love Me Till the Sun Shines - Kinks
12 Long Time Gone - Crosby, Stills and Nash
14 Jemima Surrender - Band
15 One Way Out - Sonny Boy Williamson II / Allman Brothers Band
17 Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith

The sound quality is excellent. Note that this bootleg has gotten around a lot. There are rumors that the band members made it available as a bootleg after they couldn't get it officially released. But most of the versions had the last song, "Presence of the Lord," fade out before it ended. But a year or two ago (as I write this in 2023), a compete version of the song was posted on YouTube, so I used that version.

Even if you're not familiar with the Black Crowes, if you like classic rock from the early 1970s, you should enjoy this, because it's expertly sung and played by people who clearly love this kind of music.

Here's the usual song list:

01 talk (Foamfoot)
02 Walk in My Shadow (Foamfoot)
03 Bottle of Red Wine (Foamfoot)
04 talk (Foamfoot)
05 Tin Soldier (Foamfoot)
06 talk (Foamfoot)
07 Take the Highway (Foamfoot with Gary Lewis)
08 Deal (Foamfoot)
09 talk (Foamfoot)
10 Love Me Till the Sun Shines (Foamfoot)
11 talk (Foamfoot)
12 Long Time Gone (Foamfoot with David Crosby)
13 talk (Foamfoot)
14 Jemima Surrender (Foamfoot)
15 One Way Out (Foamfoot)
16 talk (Foamfoot)
17 Presence of the Lord (Foamfoot)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16055299/Foamfoot_1994_ThTroubdourLsAnglesCA__1-8-1994_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of Foamfoot. The popular bootleg of this concert just uses a drawing of a crow. So instead I used a photo of Chris Robinson, singing at a Black Crowes concert in 1993.