If you wanted to buy a record in the 1970s and ’80s, you would trek to your neighborhood record store and make a beeline for your genre section of choice. Led Zeppelin? Rock section. Willie Nelson? Country. Sinatra? Adult contemporary. Donna Summer? Disco. But if you wanted to grab an album from the Southern California quartet Ambrosia, you likely wandered aimlessly around the store before eventually asking the clerk behind the counter to point you in the right direction. That’s because Ambrosia’s music never fit neatly into a specific category.
The band’s website defines its sound as a blend of “progressive, classical and world influences, yet rooted with the soul of the blues and R&B.” It’s also been described as blue-eyed soul, soft rook, smooth rock and yacht rock. Call it what you want, Ambrosia’s music resonated with FM radio programmers and listeners alike, with such Top 5 hits as “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me” leading to five Grammy nominations.
Although Ambrosia released the last of its five studio albums in 1982, it has consistently toured for the last quarter century. Now a sextet, the lineup still features three of four founding members— a fact that’s about as unique as Ambrosia’s genre-defying sound.
Golden Nugget, 8 p.m. Jan. 26, starting at $31.61 plus tax and fee. 866.946.5336
