Happy Trails - QSM

If you were a kid growing up in the Bay Area in the late 60’s, you were likely listening to the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, early Steve Miller, Santana, the Youngbloods, Moby Grape, and others. When I first heard Quicksilver Messenger Service eponymous first studio release in ‘68, I was an immediate fan. When Happy Trails was released in early ‘69 and I listened to side 1 with my headphones on, my mind was officially blown.

This is the guitar player’s electric guitar album. You’d be hard pressed to find two other guitarists of the era, as talented as Gary Duncan and John Cipollina. Certainly Garcia/Weir & Allman/Betts are in that category. But Duncan and Cipollina shine so bright on this album, they get my vote.

We have four of QSM’s subsequent studio albums, but in my opinion they never reached these heights again. I did see them once in ‘73 at Winterland, but I was never a big fan of Dino Valenti’s influence on the band, or his lead vocals. For me it was, and always will be, Duncan and Cipollina.