As her husband--40-year-old Marin-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jim McPherson--lay on his deathbed in 1985, Evy McPherson vowed to release his unfinished debut solo album. Twenty-four years later, the result is the newly issued A Promise Kept, an engaging and stylistically diverse set that showcases McPherson's gift for song.

"He was upset because, in his eyes, he felt he didn't have a legacy to leave behind--he was dying," says Evy, who chokes up when she speaks of her late husband. "So I made a silent promise that I would finish this for him--I just didn't realize that it would take 24 years to do this."

The credits to the album, which was recorded at Mickey Hart's Novato ranch and mastered by studio wiz Tom Size, reads like a Who's Who of the Bay Area music scene, circa 1970s. The 11 tracks feature an all-star lineup that includes Hart, Merl Saunders, Pete Sears of Starship, John McFee of the Doobie Brothers, Norton Buffalo, Bobby Vega of Zero, and Mario Cipollina of Huey Lewis & the News.

The tracks range from pop to country, blues to funk.

One of the highlights, the country-inflected outlaw ballad "Joaquin Murrieta (AKA Dusty Rider)," an ode to the Gold Rush bandit and folk hero, fits comfortably with the progressive country of the New Riders of the Purple Sage and would have made even country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons proud.

Friends of McPherson's--including David Freiberg, Nick Gravenites, Prairie Prince, Michael Hinton, Kathi McDonald, Tom Bryant, and Snooky Flowers, among others--will celebrate McPherson at an Oct. 1 concert in Mill Valley.

McPherson grew up on Chicago's West Side, absorbing the Windy City's blues. He trained as a classical violinist, but later took up drums, bass, keyboards and guitar. In 1964, he enrolled at San Jose State College, where he met many of the players who would form the core of his music.

His first band, Stained Glass, released several singles on the RCA label and two albums on Capitol.

In 1971, he moved to Marin, meeting legendary Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina and joining the post-QSM band Copperhead.

Over the years, he played and recorded with numerous bands, developing close ties with the Grateful Dead family and joining Hart, Saunders, Vega, Buffalo, guitarist Michael Hinton and percussionist Vicki Randle in the short-lived 1980s band High Noon.

He co-wrote the Starship hit "Jane" and also worked closely with Saunders, co-writing songs that appeared on the soundtracks of the network TV shows Simon and Simon and Nash Bridges.

And he tirelessly recorded the solo tracks that found their way onto A Promise Kept.

"Micky Hart used to joke that Jim ate, slept and breathed music--he was music," Evy says. "We used to say that he had the fever and he did. He just had to play music--new songs would come over him in waves.

"Musically, he knew exactly what he wanted. He definitely had the muse with him. I just hope people will be touched by the magic of his soul."

***
SPIN OF THE WEEK

Manassas
"Pieces" (Rhino)

Last fall, Stephen Stills performed a career-spanning concert at Shepherd's Bush that included the performance of an unreleased song ("High and Dry") from his often overlooked post-Buffalo Springfield band Manassas. On Oct. 27, Rhino will release a CD/DVD set of that concert, but for now there is this new disc of 15 unreleased Manassas studio tracks (including "High and Dry"). Such songs as "Witching Hour" and "Sugar Babe" serve as the missing link between Buffalo Springfield and his later work with Crosby, Stills & Nash and makes you realize just how important his influence was on that groundbreaking band.

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.