BOZ SCAGGS - Silk Degrees 1976

Last year the digital radio service we subscribe to ran a new channel for the summer.

'Yacht Rock'.

I'm not sure why but we'd not heard that term before. 

We particularly liked the unassuming jingle that Sirius XM used to promote the channel.

"Listen to your 4th or 5th favourite song .."

Turns out it's been around for a while - quote -

"In 2006, a group of buddies produced a series of short videos called “Yacht Rock.” The videos defined yacht rock as a genre of smooth music, born out of Southern California between 1976 and 1984, and featuring exceptional musicianship with roots in R&B, jazz and folk rock." 

Major artists included on the channel were The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts, Jackson Browne etc., and high on the list - Boz Scaggs, with most of the songs from this album.

Boz went to school with Steve Miller and later was part of The Steve Miller Band for a couple of their albums. Some of the Steve Miller songs appear on Yacht Rock radio.

He then used a variety of musicians on this album, three of whom, David Paitch, Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate went on to become members of Toto - another popular Yacht Rock group - so the sound stayed in the family !!

The album, and indeed Boz himself, was described as 'white soul with a sense of humour', 'blue-eyed soul', soft rock' and 'blues' - or as one reviewer put it - "If yacht rock is a marriage of jazz, R&B and singer-songwriter folk rock, Boz Scaggs’ breakout Silk Degrees is one of the earliest attempts at matrimony."

Wherever you place it, Silk Degrees was and is his most popular album - 5 times platinum and 4 hit singles - 'Lido Shuffle', 'Lowdown', 'What Can I Say' and 'It's Over' all charting.

To refer back to the radio jingle, Silk Degrees probably contains one of 'your 4th or 5th favourite songs' !!

Lido Shuffle - YouTube