Review: The Immediate Family 'Live From Telefunken Soundstage'

The Immediate Family

By Mike O’Cull

West Coast classic rock supergroup The Immediate Family categorically throws down on their new EP Live from Telefunken Soundstage. Set to drop May 13th, 2022 on Quarto Valley Records, the six-song package features this collection of multi-platinum sidemen and songwriters showing what an amazing band they are on their own, with no famous bosses up front.

The show was recorded at Telefunken’s Connecticut headquarters in November of 2021 during a break in the Family’s touring schedule and was a benefit for AANE, the Asperger’s/AUTISM Network. Telefunken is highly respected for making some of the finest audio gear in the world and to have this crew of ultimate veterans recording and playing live on the company’s state-of-the-art soundstage is the sort of unicorn experience fans dream of witnessing.

The Immediate Family has backed up, recorded with, and co-written with some of the biggest names of the classic rock era and helped define the sound of some of the finest artists of the 70s and 80s. Together, guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, drummer Russ Kunkel, and bassist Leland Sklar have provided backup for Hall of Famers including James Taylor, Keith Richards, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Stevie Nicks, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With the addition of guitarist Steve Postell from Pure Prairie League, they’ve finally become their own band in the proper sense. This new EP done at Telefunken spotlights the band’s fresh original material plus a couple of the mega-hits they’ve been part of. Every player involved can still bring it and, as a unit, they’re as vital and alive as ever.

The show opens with perennial radio hit “Somebody’s Baby,” which guitarist Kortchmar co-wrote with the legendary Jackson Browne. From the jump, the group puts forth a smooth, hip-swaying performance that captures every nuance of the original recording and blends it with the joyful sound of these top-level musicians playing for a live crowd. They simply light up the room.

“Fair Warning” gets hard and heavy, demonstrating the power of The Immediate Family’s current material. The song has a modern urgency to it that will quickly grab your attention, the vocals slay, and the guitars grind and stretch. The track punches with a welcome snap and the assembled crowd loves every bit of it.

The slide guitar on the chugging, mid-speed rocker “Divorce” adds a suitable snarl to the song’s often-painful topic. The song is about Sally and Joe’s split, the human condition, and what happens when a marriage hits the skids. This would have been a perfect tune for Warren Zevon, were he still with us, and you can practically hear him growling it out if you listen closely enough. Zevon was one of the artists these cats worked with back in the day and he would have fit right in on this gig.

One of the best songs on this live set is TIF’s rendition of Kortchmar’s hit Don Henley co-write “Dirty Laundry.” Gone are the typewriter sounds and 80s production values, the absence of which allows the track to be the gravelly blues/rock gem it always was underneath. Kunkle and Sklar pound out a strong pocket that powers the arrangement and the song’s lyrics about questionable media practices are even more meaningful now than when they were written. Hearing this one stripped down and revved up like this will make you appreciate it all over again.

Live from Telefunken Soundstage is an outstanding listen from end to end and also serves as a lesson on what a band playing in support of the song should sound like. Each player uses their considerable skills to make the big picture of these tunes fly, never competing with the words and melodies that make them shine. There’s an entire generation of greatness contained within The Immediate Family and hearing them give it away onstage is a musical blessing. Highly recommended.

“Divorced”