Interview: Craig Fuller, Pure Prairie League

When Pure Prairie League formed back in 1969 (in the unlikely birthplace of Columbus, Ohio) nobody else was doing rock music quite the way they did it. If you heard them on the radio, you couldn’t say, “They sound just like so-and-so” because they didn't. Their sound was, and still is, unique.

Ask a music historian what makes Pure Prairie League distinctive and you’re likely to get a dissertation on the blending of elements of rock and country and how influential the band was in defining the Country Rock genre, with a few random thoughts thrown in on what makes Country Rock different from Southern Rock. (In case you’re interested, it pretty much comes down to the use of acoustic guitars in Country Rock versus Southern Rock’s electrics.)

Ask PPL singer/songwriter/guitarist and founding member Craig Fuller to describe what makes the band distinctive, and you get a concise, no nonsense answer:

“Our music is an inept mixture of rock ‘n’ roll and country, just a mélange of those two genres -- kind of clumsy and thoughtless, actually. We just hope people are discerning enough to weed through it and take away what they like and leave the rest. We’ve never been too much involved in creation, we just stumble ahead.”

To be sure, there has been some stumbling along the way. Band members (including Fuller himself –- first to serve a two year hitch in a hospital as a conscientious objector to the draft, later to join Little Feat) came and went. Record deals flourished and fizzled, as did the success the group enjoyed throughout the ‘70s. In 1987, PPL disbanded, only to be reformed in 1998. Since then the band has been touring regularly, and in 2005 released its first new album in 24 years, the title of which – All in Good Time – is, according to Fuller, “a little jab at ourselves for taking so long to record a new album.”

Pure Prairie League is performing about 30 shows this spring and summer. The set list is “half old and half new,” says Fuller, “the old being mostly from our first two albums.” The crowds, he says, are mostly fans from the band’s glory days but, he adds with a chuckle, “they don’t look as old as I thought they would. They’re mostly in their fifties but look like they’re in their forties!”

Fuller doesn’t harbor any romantic notions about the band’s longevity and success:

“We just hit the Baby Boomers at the right time – while we still had hair. Right now we’re taking things year-to-year, taking stock. Probably as long as we can walk and stand and not fall down, we’ll still be out there.”

PPL’s 1977 Live – Takin’ the Stage is considered by many to be the quintessential live concert album. Their new album contains a “bonus” live track. The band is on the road a lot. Does 2+2 equal another live album in the future?

“It’s possible. With a laptop computer and the right software, anybody can do it. We’ll just have to see.”

And when the day comes that “Sad Luke” – the Norman Rockwell cowboy who adorns all of the band’s album covers – hangs up his chaps for good, how would Craig Fuller like for Pure Prairie League to be remembered?

“First for the songs, then for the singing, then for the playing.”

That shouldn’t be a problem. Songs like “Amie,” “Fallin’ In and Out Of Love” and “Let Me Love You Tonight” are forever stamped on the consciousness of a generation. Their distinctive harmony and combination of instruments makes them instantly identifiable. Craig Fuller is assured of a self-fulfilling epitaph.

Pure Prairie League Resources:

• Profile
• Discography
• Tour Schedule/Tickets
• Lyrics, Chords & Tabs
• Review: All In Good TIme

(Photos courtesy Rick Alter Management)