Plain and Fancy: Lazarus - Lazarus (1970 us, excellent brass psych rock)

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Lazarus - Lazarus (1970 us, excellent brass psych rock)

Released in 1970 in the U.S. by Amazon, a sublabel of Nashville's Shelby Singleton Corp. Formed in Nashville by Louisville, Kentucky bassist Steve McNicol, formerly of Oxfords and just out of the disbanded Rugbys, sometimes mistakenly identified with Billie Hughes' (formerly Shiloh) better-known Lazarus, authors of two Christian rock albums in the early 1970s. These Italian-Americans played rock with R&B influences and prominent horns, very close to that of Blood, Sweat and Tears; their main composer is one Raymond Cichon. The album was recorded at Singleton Sound Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and produced by Joe Venneri, an experienced producer and musician.

The band's style integrates elements of Iron Butterfly-esque psychedelic rock (excellent guitar in “Stay with me”), beautiful vocal harmonies still steeped in the sixties, marked pop soul inflections (in some cases very exuberant as in “In the beginning”) and in one episode even blues (“Message to the people”), also fueled by the use of brass in several episodes, some very vibrant episodes with slower rhythms and a late-psychedelic pop rock sound such as “Shades of winter,” enriched by a suave flute, all at times very close to the music of Blood, Sweat and Tears. McNicol's voice was attractive and the majority of the Raymond Cichon-penned material was catchy enough to warrant at least a quick spin. That didn't do anything for sales, the set quickly vanishing into cutout bins. Stephen William McNicol, passed away on April 8th, 2018, at the age of 68.