Straight Shooter is the fourth studio album by
James Gang, which was released in July 1972 on
ABC Records in the US and
Probe Records in the UK. This is the first James Gang album recorded after their guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist
Joe Walsh left the band and went on to form the band
Barnstorm. The remaining members, Dale Peters (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Jim Fox (drums and organ) were joined on this album by ex-
Bush singer
Roy Kenner and guitarist
Domenic Troiano. Bush, whose lone album was released in the United States by ABC's subsidiary label
Dunhill Records, had broken up at about the same time as Walsh left the James Gang, so Kenner's and Troiano's joining Peters and Fox effectively merged the remnants of the two bands.
Reviewing for
Allmusic, critic
Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album "the band was saddled by a noticeable lack of strong material, since none of the members could write songs with memorable hooks."[2]