The 2nd Coming’s Lost 1969 Album ‘Evaluations’ Streams in Full
In late ’60s Florida, things were already moving. Bands were stretching blues and psychedelia into longer, heavier forms, with loud guitars, loose jams and players constantly crossing paths between Sarasota, Bradenton and Jacksonville.
It was the same scene that would soon feed into The Allman Brothers Band, but The 2nd Coming had their own part in the story.
The 2nd Coming came out of that world. Around the same scene, players like Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt, Reese Wynans, Richard “Hombre” Price, Berry Oakley and Dickey Betts were all beginning to find a new shape for American rock. The Allman Brothers Band would soon rise from that orbit, but ‘Evaluations’ tells another side of the story.
Recorded at Sound Laboratory in Jacksonville in April 1969, Evaluation caught a short-lived line-up of The 2nd Coming in full flight: Reinhardt on guitar, Wynans on organ, Price on bass, with Monty Young and John Meeks on drums. The sound is heavy, bluesy and wide open, with the band stretching out in a way that feels closer to a late-night jam than a standard club set.
The album should have appeared at the time. It didn’t. The band could not pay the studio bill, a trip to New York failed to secure a deal, and the tapes were left behind. For decades, the record sat unheard, while its members moved on. Reinhardt would join Iron Butterfly and co-found Captain Beyond. Wynans would later play with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Bonamassa. Price also carried on through a long working life in American roots music.
We are proud to present the full album stream exclusive below. An interview with an original member of The 2nd Coming will follow in the upcoming month, bringing more of this remarkable Florida story into the light.
This recording has now been restored and released by Guerssen Records, giving this powerful 1969 album its first real moment in the light. The album catches The 2nd Coming at a key point in American rock, just as heavy psychedelia, blues-rock, and the Southern jam sound were beginning to meet.
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