Jim McCarty
b. 25 July 1943, Liverpool, England. This ex- Yardbird's musical career resumed after his departure from Renaissance when, in an unfamiliar role on lead vocals and keyboards, he recorded 1973's ON THE FRONTIER with Shoot before concentrating on writing for other artists such as Dave Clark and Dave Berry. Plans to reform the original Renaissance line-up were quashed by Keith Relf's death in 1976, but the survivors continued as Illusion. Lingering enthusiasm for this outfit culminated in 1990's posthumous ENCHANTED CARESS, which contained demos mostly composed and sung by McCarty, whose curriculum vitae by then included leadership of Ruthless Blues and later combos who, if popular club attractions, leaned heavily on the repertoires of the Yardbirds and their R&B contemporaries. This tendency also pervaded the British Invasion All-Stars which, financed by an American '60s fan, was a studio amalgam of McCarty and certain middle-aged peers. Earlier delvings into the past included 1981's AFTERNOON TEA, a spoken-word album of reminiscences with Chris Dreja (with whom McCarty also co-authored the Yardbirds’ biography), and a GUIDE TO YARDBIRDS DRUMMING video. Moreover, he was one of the Yardbirds who performed two UK concerts in 1983 and made an album under the guise of A Box Of Frogs. By the later '80s, the multi-talented McCarty emerged on yet another artistic front—as a colossus of new age music—when, as a mainstay of Stairway, his output was as strong in its way as anything in the Yardbirds/Renaissance canon.