Joe Walsh Rocky Mountain Way

A career crossroads, snow-capped mountains and a runaway lawnmower all played a part in the creation of Joe Walsh's signature hit, recorded more than 50 years ago.

- Bill DeMain

The novelist Peter Mathiesen wrote: “Mountains have no meaning; they are the meaning.” Joe Walsh was struck by similar poetic thoughts when he wrote what would become his breakthrough solo hit, Rocky Mountain Way.

It was spring 1972, and the then 24-year old Walsh was in a period of serious career transition. After four years and three albums with the James Gang, he left the band. At the same time, he turned down an invitation from Steve Marriott to join Humble Pie, taking Peter Frampton’s place. Walsh’s manager had advised against it. But really, Walsh didn’t want to relocate to the UK with his wife and two-year-old baby (tragically, the couple’s infant daughter Emma would die two years later in a car accident). Instead the family upped sticks, left the blue-collar industrial Cleveland, and headed west to the idyllic town of Boulder, Colorado. It was a risky move, but one that would change Walsh’s musical fortunes.

With drummer Joe Vitale and bassist Kenny Passarelli, he formed a new band, called Barnstorm. Their self-titled debut, recorded at Caribou Ranch Studio in the Rocky Mountains (Elton John, Rick Derringer and Chicago all famously recorded there), was influenced by the acoustic sounds of Crosby, Stills & Nash and James Taylor. The album made a moderate splash. But, wanting to toughen up their sound to better suit their name, Barnstorm wasted no time in recording a harder-edged follow-up. Walsh told Rolling Stone: “I'd gone to Colorado because Bill Szymezyk [James Gang producer] was there, and so were a whole bunch of other people I knew. We had the album