Before they recorded Dreamin’ Wild, Donnie and Joe Emerson took [their music teacher] Mr. T’s advice and traveled to Spokane to cut a 7-inch 45 in a professional studio called Sound Recording Company in 1977. Credited to Donnie, Joe, Eldon (guitar), and Dion Bischoff (bass), “Take It” is an ambling, wistful country rocker somewhat akin to Gordon Lightfoot’s output. The flipside, “Thoughts in My Mind,” is a dewy, melancholy ballad. It’s pleasant, but it doesn’t hint at the exceptional songcraft that would come.

“Not much creativity was going into it,” Donnie admits. “[Recording in that studio is] what changed us. We had to have our own place after we saw it. [We decided that we had to] do our own thing.”

—Excerpt from the Dreamin’ Wild liner notes by Dave Segal