Given the careerist bent of Steve Miller around the time of Live! Breaking Ground: August 3, 1977, not to mention the popularity of concert releases in the wake of Frampton Comes Alive! (A&M,1976), it is altogether surprising the Space Cowboy did not issue a formal concert album until 1983. Miller came back from a self-imposed hiatus following the surprise (and widespread) popularity of The Joker (Capitol, 1973) with two smash albums in successive years, Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol, 1976) and Book of Dreams (Capitol, 1977), so the logical follow-up to those records would've been a document of his stage show during this same era to capitalize on his popularity.

But the guitarist/songwriter/bandleader's shows of the period nevertheless presented the first inklings of his offerings in later years, after his star had peaked and fallen, when he relegated his roadwork to summer tours of the open-air sheds and proffered all his hits and virtually nothing but the hits. Streamlined and polished to a fault, there remained at that point little room for spontaneity the likes of which made his setlists and performances thereof so true to his roots when he was supporting his aforementioned mainstream breakthrough in mid-decade.

As a result, there was/is little difference between live and studio culls in the late Seventies except for their running order, thereby rendering a live album a de facto 'Greatest Hits' package (the many likes of which were substitutes for new releases in the early days of nostalgia shows). Nearly a half-century later, however, with a vinyl resurgence in full flower, it only makes sense for Miller to hearken back to this period with Breaking Ground, even if its availability carries some contradictions.

A variety of formats are available, including digital, CD and 2xLP black vinyl, while the accompanying concert video will be available for streaming. Yet even as the latter is posited as 'featuring the full performance,' the audio-only configurations include only seventeen selections from a total of twenty-three played this late summer evening. Fans of the man may or may not be dyed-in-the-wool completists, but even that demographic may carp at the cross-marketing, de rigueur as it is these days, at least before hearing the music played by a lineup fully-invested in its bond as a band by previous history in the studio as well as the road.

Befitting the title, the