Untitled Album (Robert Hunter)

A studio recording by Robert Hunter that was never released. I've listed the titles under which the tracks usually circlate:

Boys In The Barroom

Reelin' And A-Pitching

Praise His Name

Elijah

Rum Runners

It Must Have Been The Roses

Roadhog

On Our Way Back Home

Children's Lament

Lady Simplicity

Southern Fried Shuffle

Ballad Of Buddy Holly

Who'll Be Left To Sing This Song

Wondering

Keys To The Rain

This is a confusing mixture. Many of the tracks sound like outtakes from Tales Of The Great Rum Runners. Six of the tracks were included on that album, released in 1974 - and indeed the versions sound almost identical. But "Roadhog" was the signature song of the band Roadhog, who (so far as is known) didn't tour until 1976 - when their setlists included "Boys In The Barroom", "Praise His Name", "Ballad Of Buddy Holly", "Lady Simplicity", "Keys To The Rain", "It Must Have Been The Roses", "Tales Of The Great Rum Runners" as well as "Roadhog".

Some interesting light on these songs is shed by Hunter's copyright registrations. He registered a bunch of songs in 1973 (with the rest of the songs on Tales Of The Great Rum Runners being registered separately in 1974):

Title	Ref	Date	Possible alternative
Rose	EU0000420097	1973-07-19	It Must Have Been The Roses
Reelin' and a Pitchin'	EU0000420098	1973-07-19
Southern fried shuffle	EU0000420099	1973-07-19
George Buck's choice	EU0000420100	1973-07-19	Who'll Be Left To Sing This Song
Lady simplicity	EU0000420101	1973-07-19
Boys in the bar room	EU0000420102	1973-07-19
Elijah	EU0000420103	1973-07-19
Boats	EU0000420104	1973-07-19	Wondering
Children's lament	EU0000420105	1973-07-19
W. VA steel guitar	EU0000420106	1973-07-19	Ballad Of Buddy Holly
Lullaby	EU0000420107	1973-07-19	On Our Way Back Home
Road hog	EU0000420108	1973-07-19
Rum runners	EU0000420109	1973-07-19
Word	EU0000420110	1973-07-19	Praise His Name
Keys to the rain	EU0000425570	1973-08-22

It's possible to match the registered titles with the songs on the album above:

"Boys In The Barroom", "Rum Runners", "Childhood's Lament", "Lady Simplicity" and "Keys To The Rain" are all on "Tales Of The Great Rum Runners"
"Rose" is clearly "It Must Have Been The Roses" - Hunter never made a separate copyright registration under the latter title.
"Reelin' And A-Pitching", "Roadhog" and "Elijah" are all lyrics in Hunter's "Box Of Rain"
"Southern Fried Shuffle" is announced as the title at the start of the song
"Who'll Be Left To Sing This Song" is clearly "George Buck's Choice" - the lyrics include "When old George Buck is dead and gone"
"Ballad Of Buddy Holly" is clearly "W VA Steel Guitar". The lyrics include "In the hills of West Virginia" and "a pedal steel guitar". It was only later that Hunter modified the lyrics to refer to Buddy Holly.
That leaves "Word", "Boats" and "Lullaby". This is more speculative, but "Word" could be "Praise His Name" ("Talk about John and the Word begin, you know the Word it still remains"). "Boats" could be "Wondering" ("The wheel turns, the boats drift far away"). And "On Our Way Back Home" could be "Lullaby" ("Hush little darling, don't you cry, you'll be winging by and by").

So the most likely possibility seems to me to be that the tracks were all recorded in 1973 for an album that was never issued. Six were subsequently used on Tales Of The Great Rum Runners, with another seven songs added later. It's possible that the band that recorded the album above was known as "Roadhog", even though that band (possibly with some different members) did not tour until 1976. The credits for Tales of the Great Rum Runners include thanks to "Jeff of 'Roadhog'". And two of the members of Roadhog, Rodney Albin and T. Will Claire (Ted Claire) are credited as "A Capella Vocal Group" - which would square with their singing on eg "Lady Simplicity". In addition, I strongly suspect it's Ted Claire singing lead on the song "Roadhog" - it sounds like Hunter's description "Ted Clare's [sic] croaking voice claimed lead honors on this tune".

The other possibility, that this album is spliced together from songs recorded for Tales of the Great Rum Runners with songs recorded later by Roadhog, seems contradicted by the Hunter copyright registrations. But I'd be grateful for comments/views.

Finally, it's possible that these are just out-takes from "Tales Of The Great Rum Runners" with songs that were left off the eventual release. In a 1977 concert with Comfort, Robert Hunter introduced "W. VA Steel Guitar" by saying Rodney Albin was going to "play a tune that never made it onto my Rum Runners record, but we've been doing it a long time."

Boys In The Barroom
Reelin' And A-Pitching
Praise His Name
Elijah
Rum Runners
It Must Have Been The Roses
Roadhog
On Our Way Back Home
Children's Lament
Lady Simplicity
Southern Fried Shuffle
Ballad Of Buddy Holly
Who'll Be Left To Sing This Song
Wondering
Keys To The Rain