Michael Stanley Band - Heartland (Reissue) (1980/2014)

Cleveland's Michael Stanley Band were a phenomenon in Northeast Ohio in the late '70s and early '80s and set attendance records at several concert halls, but MSB only achieved modest success nationwide. Heartland, a superb slice of meat-and-potatoes, Midwestern rock & roll, is their best album; Stanley himself says as much in the liner notes of their Razor & Tie reissue. MSB had been dropped by Arista Records after 1979' s Greatest Hints and were having trouble finding a new label, so the bandmembers decided to produce an album completely on their own terms with no outside meddling. If they couldn't find a label, they planned on releasing the album independently. Luckily, EMI America picked up Heartland and the Michael Stanley Band spent their four most prosperous years with the company.