Flow were an American sax-rock/psych band from Ocala, Fla., that released a self-titled album on CTI Records in 1970. After graduation, Bill Ruff went on to become Road Manager for the Flow and co-authored the song “Chicken Farm”.
Flow formed by John Winter, keyboards, sax, flute, Mike Barnett, Drums (fellow members of Ocala High School Class of '66) Don Felder, guitar, and Chuck Newcomb, bass and vocals. They recorded this album on Creed Taylor Records.
Winter and Barnett were in The Incidentals, a British invasion cover band, and Felder was in The Continentals (with Stephen Stills, Bernie Leadon) and when Stills departed, they changed the name to the Maudy Quintet.
After the Maundy Quintet broke up, Felder went to Manhattan, New York City, were he improved his mastery of improvisation on the guitar and learned various styles, the rest is history. John Rogers Winter, died December 22, 2019 at the age of 71.
Tracks
1. Daddy (Chuck Newcomb) - 3:36
2. Here We Are Again (John Winter, Mike Barnett) - 6:51
3. Line'Em (Leadbelly) - 2:47
4. Gotta Get Behind Your Trip (Chuck Newcomb, John Winter) - 3:34
5. Chicken Farm (Bill Ruff, John Winter, Mike Barnett) - 2:55
6. No Lack Of Room (Chuck Newcomb) - 3:49
7. Summer's Gone (John Winter) - 5:50
8. Mr. Invisible (Chuck Newcomb, John Winter) - 3:59
White Chocolate were a Fairfield County, CT based band that played predominately throughout the East Coast. The original line-up was Charlie Karp on Guitar, David Hull on Bass and Jimmy Maher on Drums. The name was later changed to Dirty Angels and a change was made to the line-up, with the addition of George Maher on Rhythm Guitar.
Charlie Karp has an impressive musical background. Starting out as a young teen with Buddy Miles, he has also performed with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Meatloaf, Arthur Lee, Charlie Karp and the Namedroppers, Buster Poindexter and is now a member of Slo Leak along with Danny Kortchmar and Harvey Brooks. His is an example of the finest Blues guitar as well as Rock.
David Hull is equally an impresario of the Bass. He also started out as a youth with Buddy Miles. His credits include Arthur Lee, the Joe Perry Project, Ted Nugent, Farrenheit (he used the pseudonym of Dave Heit), and most recently Pete Droge and the Sinners. Jimmy Maher was an excellent drummer and his contribution to the band was sizeable.
Tracks
1. Getting Ready To Rock 'n' Roll (Charlie Karp) - 2:50
2. Midnight Flight - 3:03
3. I'm Crying - 3:37
4. Past History - 3:04
5. Make It Easy (Charlie Karp, David Hull, Richard Gordon) - 3:38
6. Let's Get Funked (Charlie Karp, David Hull, Jimmy Maher) - 3:28
7. Outcast - 4:12
8. Sad Eyes (Charlie Karp) - 3:36
9. Looking For Love - 3:54
10.I'm Alive - 4:35
Songs written by Charlie Karp, David Hull except where noted
Volume 19 contains artists only from USA, and it's another example of serious responsible work, an excellent release with an eight-page booklet containing information about the artists. Light ethereal sunny psychedelia.
Artists - Tracks
1. The Critters - You'd Better Slow Down - 2:14
2. Fragile Lime - Angie - 2:35
3. Shadow Casters - Cinnamon Snowflake - 2:39
4. Michael And The Trees - Nothing To Say - 2:28
5. His Majesty's Coachmen - Where Are You Bound - 2:20
Over Vol.18 installments the series is curated by leading experts on rare psych. Sometimes the volumes might dig into a specific country or theme, but mostly they're just a way to collect fine tunes. Busy Bee presents this 18th volume that includes gems from all over the world, including an unreleased song by Howling Wind (pre-Candle), an obscure Rhodesian 45 and a Danish cover of Keith West's 'On A Saturday' among other treats.
Artists - Tracks - Origin
The Kool - Look At Me Look At Me (UK) - 2:20
The Teenmakers - On A Saturday (Denmark) - 3:23
The Pussyfoot - Mr Hyde (UK) - 2:31
The Jay Five - It’s Raining (Germany) - 2:27
Paul Osborne - Ice (UK) - 3:56
The Shanes - Without Your Love (Sweden) - 2:32
Ice - Memories (UK) - 3:19
Jon Mark - All Neat In Black Stockings (UK) - 3:03
Science Poption - Back In Town (Sweden) - 2:36
Maxwell And Nicholson - Virgin (UK) - 2:18
Unknown Artist - The Bedd (UK) - 2:40
Pamela - Je T’aime Un Peu...Beaucoup... Passion ment (Belgium) - 2:28
Howling Winds - Meditating (Sweden) - 3:31
I Fantoms - Katia (Italy) - 3:04
Jack Grunsky - Julie Knows (Austria) - 3:09
The Moonlighters - Mary Wilkins (Sweden) - 3:59
Ted Mulry - I Love You (Australia) - 2:32
The Maximillian King Trio - Indigo (Rhodesia) - 3:21
Volume 17 of the compilation series which have named an own genre of '60s styled sunshine psych pop called simply 'Fading Yellow'. This time including US and some Canadian 45's from 1965 to 1971. A magical smörgåsbord of songs with that special FY vibe. Among many highlights is the original version of 'Kites' made famous by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, The Rooftop Singers did the original version. Limited edition of 500 copies with 8 page booklet with info about the tracks and pictures.
Artists - Tracks
1. The Avant-Garde - Yellow Beads - 3:02
2. Alan Lorber - Congress Alley - 2:51
3. The Poppy Family - I'll See You There - 3:23
4. J.C. Cole - I Found Me Today - 2:27
5. The Rooftop Singers - Kites - 2:24
6. A Small World - I See You - 1:48
7. Space - Radio Song - 3:06
8. James, John And Francois - Carolina - 2:51
9. The Fifth Estate - Love Is All A Game - 2:27
10.The Celtics - Looking For You - 2:30
11.The Hobbits - Artificial Face - 2:32
12.The Surprise Package - The Other Me - 2:14
13.The Magpies - The Ballad Of Samuel Oscar Beasley - 3:37
14.The Looking Glass - Love Is Not Everything - 2:52
15.The Marshmellow Highway - I Don't Wanna Live This Way - 2:33
16.Bucky Wilkin - I Wanna Be Free - 2:11
17.Sound Carnival - I Wish I Could Tell You - 2:30
18.The Swiss Movement - Inside Of Me - 2:36
19.The In-Keepers - The Cobwebs Thread Of Autumn - 2:57
Few years since the last volume. This time it´s all LP tracks from the US, UK and one from down under. Starting off with the lovely "Man of many faces" by Gary And Stu, proceeding with more magic gems including tracks by West, Hudson-Farnsworth, Wings (not the Paul McCartney group), Saint Jacques, Alexander Rabbit and more
Artist - Title
1. Gary And Stu - Man Of Many Faces - 3¨09
2. West - Sad About The Times - 2:34
3. John Wonderling - Jessica Stone - 3:56
4. Hudson-Farnsworth - Come To See My Lady - 2:07
5. The Open Window - Jack And Jill - 2:17
6. Bruce Woodley - New England Lady - 3:19
7. Tranquility - Nice And Easy - 3:10
8. Hobo - Open Up - 3:02
9. Saint Jacques - Susan - 2:49
10.Wings - That’s Not Real - 3:26
11.Cross Country - Just A Thought - 3:20
12.Ed Welch - Clowns - 3:38
13.Yellowstone And Voice - Lady Rita - 3:38
14.Hudson-Farnsworth - Lay Down Sheep - 2:15
15.Puff - Changes - 3:37
16.Michael Konstan - Long Before - 2:26
17.Alexander Rabbit - My Woman - 4:20
18.Willow - Evening - 4:10
19.Kind Hearts And English - A Wish For All Seasons - 6:34
This self titled album by Randolph Marr presents mellow pop sike sounds with loads of strings and horns. A hidden treasure of the 70’s.
Recording sessions began in 1969 with Nilsson at the helm. He produced backing tracks for two of the songs that would eventually appear on the record: a cover of his own “1941” and Marr’s haunting “Pity the Man.” But when trying to get vocal performances out of Marr, Nilsson became frustrated and gave Gary Osborn a shot. Pleased with the results, Nilsson passed the project on to Osborn who produced the remaining ten tracks with Hank Cicalo on board as engineer. The album was released on the Warner Brothers label in 1970 with album design by Dean Torrence (of Jan and Dean)”
Harry Nilsson was originally set up to produce this album but passed the baton to Gary Osbome to finish the job after being impressed with some of his results. Other than that the only thing about this record I can gather is that there was a promp single released (Hallelujah b/w 1 Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now) at an undisclosed date
The album itself is a mix of various styles most often accompanied by orchestral arrangements with occasional electric guitar and gospel backing vocals. Nicely produced. It really is one of those songs that wraps self around your senses and removes you from your surroundings if you have the ear for this type of thing Lush strings, distinct acoustic fingerpicking and prominent harpsichord provide a perfect backdrop to Marr's haunting and mysterious lyrics
Tracks
1. Hallelujah (Dave White, Johnny Caswell) - 2:40
2. 1941 (Harry Nilsson) - 2:42
3. I Wonder Who`s Kissing Her Now (Frank R. Adams, Joseph E. Howard, Will M. Hough) - 2:59
1975 marked the return to the recording scene for Steve Young. Honky Tonk Man, released on Wisconsin's tiny Mountain Railroad Records, was his first recording since Seven Bridges Road in 1971 (which had been reissued in 1973). This is the most straight-up country record Young ever cut. He handles both lead and rhythm guitar chores with a band of fine session players, including Kamau Gravatt, who did double duty with Weather Report. Other than redos of Utah Phillips' "Rock, Salt & Nails" and his own "White Trash Song," Young sticks somewhat close to the canon of classic country with a few surprises -- at least on side one; side two is mostly his own material.
The deep blues read of Bob Wills' "Brain Cloudy Blues" is radical and as far from Western swing as it gets, but it also showcases Wills' own roots in the blues. The title cut is a version of the Johnny Horton classic with swinging fiddles by Craig Ruble and Cal Hand's warbling pedal steel kept in line by Bill Petersen's electric bass. Young's vocal is a reedy baritone that gets to the heart of matter -- that this is a drinking playboy's anthem. Side one eclipses with a high, lonesome take on Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man" that is as cur-dog low as it is restless and a cover of Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Young's version is pastoral and slow; it's as mournful as a funeral song and comes across as a folk elegy for the Deep South at the end of the Civil War.
Side two is marked by Young's own stunner, "We've Been Together on This Earth Before," "Vision of a Child," and two live cuts done with Doc Watson of the traditional "Sally Goodin'" and the spooky country of "Travelin' Kind." Like Seven Bridges Road, Honky Tonk Man is a fine outing from Young, though it is hampered a bit by somewhat shoddy recording. But the material and his performance of it are top-notch.
by Thom Jurek
Tracks
1. Honky Tonk Man (Johnny Horton, Howard Hausey, Tilman Franks) - 2:23
2. Brain Cloudy Blues (Bob Wills, Tommy Duncan) - 4:48
Warren Schatz is a music industry veteran who details his life in the music business as an artist, engineer, producer, arranger and more. Warren has produced classic records like Turn The Beat Around and Express Yourself, Memories, To Sir With Love and many more, Executive Produced Evelyn "Champagne" King's hit "Shame." He arranged "Our Day Will Come" for Frankie Valli and Tony Orlando as well as signing some of the biggest acts in the recorded music business including like Bonnie Tyler, Triumph, Krokus and more.
Warren Schatz, at 25, brings to his debut solo album a sense of honesty and the focused personal awareness that are the framework of his generation. He is, in his life and in the songs that surround him, something akin to the magician's cup that never empties, always expressive of open joy in life and the sunshine of a lover's heart. There is beauty in his songs, just shaded with a Scorpionic acceptance of ultimate nightfall.
The Warren Schatz of today, bushy, mustached, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 3, 1945. His father was an early sound enthusiast who stood in front of blasting professional speakers at home conducting recordings from an orchestral score.
Warren was started on a song repertoire for entertaining guests at two, and really hasn't stopped since. In his mid-teens he booked himself as "Ritchie Dean," a singer-guitarist for fraternity dances in and around New York, and organized a succession of groups for both live dates and recordings. New York area audiences saw him as part of The Pendants, The Petrified Forest, The Warmest Spring, The Shapes of Things and The Whispers.
At the same time he was beginning to handle recording sessions as a recording engineer at Associated Recording Studios in New York. To this ten years of direct and continuous experience both as a performer and as an engineer he has added his most immediately apparent quality, the dynamism and electricity of a charismatic human being. At last year's International Popular Song Festival in Tokyo he galvanized a usually-restrained audience of more than 30,000 to an uproarious ovation.
Warren credits his drive and energy to early encouragement from his teacher, Ruth Roberts, a loving and open person whose advice he often credits.
The songs on this album, like Warren himself, reveal a gentle, open person, joyful, loving, perceptive, often softly saddened, suddenly angry, honest and unashamed always. His message is a good one.
by Marshall Phillips (liner notes)
Tracks
1. Give A Little Love - 4:56
2. Sorrow (Warren Schatz, Robert Norval Langworthy) - 4:09
3. The Sky Keeps Fallin' Down - 3:22
4. Ain't That What Love's All About - 3:43
5. If I Could Find A Way - 6:04
6. The Ride Has Just Begun - 2:12
7. Good Morning - 2:09
8. Free My Mind - 5:29
9. Willow Song - 3:22
10.I Always Sang For My Father - 2:31
11.Happy Man - 3:29
Words and Music by Warren Schatz except where noted
Within about a minute of the start of “Wherefore & Why,” the opening track on Gordon Lightfoot’s Did She Mention My Name?, you knew something was a little different. This third album, released in April 1968, featured the fast-rising Canadian troubadour’s first use of strings, to elegant effect. But the essence was the same: Lightfoot, 29 at the time of the LP’s release, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of top-drawer compositions to call upon. By the time it emerged, he had already written more than 200 songs.
The new batch was arranged by John Simon, who took over as Lightfoot’s producer, for this album only, at a time when he was becoming one of America’s hottest studio properties. He had just overseen the Songs of Leonard Cohen album, released a few weeks earlier, and as 1968 went on, Simon would also produce the equally hallowed Music From Big Pink by The Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears‘ Child Is Father To The Man, and Big Brother & the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills.
Lightfoot’s new set contained some of the most memorable songs of his early years, including the intense “Black Day In July,” written about the Detroit riots (“pulsating rhythm item with compelling lyric content,” said Billboard) and the gorgeous, heartbreaking “The Last Time I Saw Her,” which would attract a hit country cover by Glen Campbell. Its words eloquently described the end of an affair: “The last time I saw her face/Her eyes were bathed in starlight/And her hair hung long/The last time she spoke to me/Her lips were like the scented flowers/Inside a rain-drenched forest.”
“It’s about the breakup of a marriage,” wrote Lightfoot in the liner notes to 1999’s Songbook. “In a way, you’re predicting what’s going to take place, and then it happens. In some sense you play the scene out in your mind, and after the fact, it hits you how close you were to the mark. It makes it a little tough to perform sometimes, but not tough enough to keep a great song down. In a way, it covers the same ground as ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ did years later.”
The album also featured the whimsical “May I,” the much-played “Pussywillows, Cat-Tails,” the unusually brassy “I Want To Hear It From You,” and the more folk-based title track, of which Lightfoot said: “It goes back to your high school sweetheart. You know you’re never going to date her again, but you meet up with a friend from the home town and you ask after her, and about all the other things you’ve missed since you moved away. You want to reconnect with your roots.”
Like its predecessor The Way I Feel, released 12 months earlier, the new LP featured lead acoustic guitar by Red Shea and bass by John Stockfish. Joining the team were widely-traveled drummer Herbie Lovelle and another hugely in-demand studio man, lead guitarist Hugh McCracken.
Lightfoot’s achievements in his home country were recognized at the MIDEM music industry fair in Cannes. He was given the MIDEM International Trophy Award as “bestselling Canadian male singer” in the year between July 1966 and June 1967. Did She Mention My Name? achieved a Canadian chart position, at No.21, and his live engagements included folk festivals in San Diego and San Francisco – the latter his West Coast debut – and a residency at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in April.
In March, he was also the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) Show of the Week TV special called Wherefore & Why, after the LP’s opening song, in which he featured with Toronto scenester “Rompin’” Ronnie Hawkins and folk singer Bonnie Dobson, all signing Gordon’s songs. Hawkins had recently released a single of his countryman’s “Home From The Forest,” a track from The Way I Feel.
Covers of Lightfoot’s expanding catalog were coming from all angles: his friend George Hamilton IV recorded another track from that set, “Song For A Winter’s Night,” while 20th Century Fox signings the Raftsmen cut “Hands I Love,” as had Harry Belafonte a few months earlier. The singer-songwriter’s success was spreading to the big screen, too: he wrote and sang the theme tune for the 1968 movie Fade In, starring Burt Reynolds.
Canadian trade magazine RPM was sounding justifiably proud of the artist’s ever greater profile in a January 1968 report, just before he won Top Male Vocalist in the publication’s annual music poll. “The Lightfoot explosion is just about the most exciting thing that has happened to the Canadian music scene,” they wrote. “He has an over-abundance of talent as a composer and artist and the world is just beginning to realise it.”
As 1968 came to an end, Gordon Lightfoot would celebrate his 30th birthday with a great sense of satisfaction. His busy year, and an intense period of creative and commercial growth, culminated in a fourth studio album, Back Here On Earth, that would prove to be his last studio set for United Artists. The name of the gifted singer-songwriter was now on lips far beyond just his native Canada.
Another album meant another change of producer, as Lightfoot, again recording in Nashville, now worked with New Yorker Elliot Mazer. Like John Simon, who oversaw Did She Mention My Name?, released at the beginning of the year, Mazer would count The Band among his credits, as well as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Neil Young. As earlier, the new set included songs that the artist would revisit when his profile was even higher, notably the sorrowful and elegant “The Circle Is Small,” which he revived for Endless Wire almost a decade later.
The LP had a more simple, acoustic feel, with support only from guitarist Red Shea and bassist John Stockfish, but given extra depth by Lightfoot’s own accompaniment on both six and 12-string guitars. Another track, the haunting “Affair On 8th Avenue,” drew on his frequent visits to the US, where he was now playing clubs such as the Bitter End in New York and the Cellar Door in Washington.
“Cold Hands From New York” was another diary entry by a stranger in Manhattan. “I came down through Albany to New York to find what I’d been missin’,” he wrote, in a travelog with references to such landmarks as the Lincoln Tunnel and Central Park. “I came down to live alone in New York, the city of the living/There were fortunes at my feet but most of men were taking, none were giving, or forgiving.”
No fewer than eight of the LP’s 11 tracks attracted covers, including one the following year by Waylon Jennings, who gave it an attractive, slowed down country ballad treatment with vocal accompaniment from the Kimberleys. Another cut from Back Here On Earth, “Gypsy,” gained a 1974 rendition by Petula Clark.
Lightfoot’s touring in support of the album included a show at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, where Robert Hilburn of the L.A. Times wrote: “He weaves folk, country and mainstream pop influences into a distinctly contemporary style of his own. His lyrics, melodies and delivery share a common honesty and intensity.” Time magazine afforded Lightfoot prestigious coverage as the record emerged, and early in 1969, his preeminence was underlined as he won RPM’s Best Folk Singer title, keeping Joni Mitchell in second place and Leonard Cohen in third.
by Paul Sexton, January 1, 2024 and November 1, 2023
Tracks
1. Wherefore And Why - 2:54
2. The Last Time I Saw Her - 5:11
3. Black Day In July - 4:13
4. May I - 2:17
5. Magnificent Outpouring - 2:28
6. Does Your Mother Know - 3:36
7. The Mountains And Maryann - 3:35
8. Pussywillows Cat Tails - 2:49
9. I Want To Hear It From You - 2:21
10. Something Very Special - 3:17
11. Boss Man - 2:05
12. Did She Mention My Name - 2:26
13. Long Way Back Home - 3:05
14. Unsettled Ways - 1:52
15. Long Thin Dawn - 2:59
16. Bitter Green - 2:43
17. The Circle Is Small - 3:26
18. Marie Christine - 2:52
19. Cold Hands From New York - 4:17
20. Affair On 8th Avenue - 3:26
21. Don't Beat Me Down - 3:14
22. The Gypsy - 2:46
23. If I Could - 4:11
All Music and Lyrics by Gordon Lightfoot
Tracks 1-12 from 1968 LP "Did She Mention My Name?"
