When Roger McGuinn released his second solo album, Columbia promoted it by playing up McGuinn’s status as a rock & roll legend. It was a point that needed making after several mediocre Byrds albums and a solo record that somehow managed to fly under the radar of rock fans and radio stations. Peace on You isn’t a markedly better record than his first, again suffering from an identity crisis as McGuinn brings in material from other writers, although the production value has more oomph this time. It’s not a bad record and, in fact, grows on me the more I listen to it, but at no point do I have the sense that I’m listening to a rock & roll legend.
Of course, McGuinn wasn’t the only rock star to flounder in the mid Seventies: Neil Young rejected his rock-star status, John Lennon retired, Joni Mitchell was making jazz records. And Peace on You isn’t any worse than those Stephen Stills albums. Individually, the songs are interesting enough. In fact, the songwriting partnership with Jacques Levy was proving almost as fruitful as the Hunter-Garcia team. The Lady, Gate of Horn and Without You are all solid songs with good lyrics. Two songs from James “Donnie” Dacus, who would join Stills in the studio the following year, are also very good: Going to the Country and Do What You Want To.
The remaining songs come from very different quarters. Better Change from Dan Fogelberg is a nice match for McGuinn’s voice; (Please Not) One More Time, featuring Al Kooper, not so much. But the oddest choice is the decision to make a fairly straight cover of Charlie Rich’s Peace on You (from his award-winning Behind Closed Doors album of the previous year) the centerpiece of the album. It gets the album off to unsteady start from which it never really recovers.
As I said, this album grows on me the more I listen to it, and the quality of the individual songs make up for its inconsistencies. Bill Halverson (credited with wife Suzanne) provides plenty of production polish and the backing band (featuring past and future Stills collaborators) is a nice change of partners.
by Dave Connolly, October 4, 2022
Tracks
1. Peace On You (Charlie Rich) - 4:01
2. Without You (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 4:07
3. Going To The Country (Donnie Dacus) - 3:17
4. (Please Not) One More Time (Al Kooper) - 3:23
5. Same Old Sound (Roger McGuinn) - 3:30
6. Do What You Want To (Donnie Dacus) - 3:00
7. Together (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 3:38
8. Better Change (Dan Fogelberg) - 3:00
9. Gate Of Horn (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 2:45
10.The Lady (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 4:16
11.Rock And Roll Time (Bob Neuwirth, Kris Kristofferson, Roger McGuinn) - 3:17
Musicians
*Roger McGuinn - Lead Vocals, 12-String Rhythm, Lead Guitar
*Donnie Dacus - 6-String Rhythm, Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Hammersmith was the direct descendent of Painter, a Calgary-based hard rock band that had relocated to Seattle and produced one album in '74. Once Painter had played its last note in '74, Doran Beattie on lead vocals, guitarist Dan Lowe, Royden Morice on bass and keyboards and drummer Herb Ego moved back to Calgary and reinvented themselves.
They were still under contract to Mercury Records, and Bruce Allen, manager of BTO, agreed to manage them. Keeping the same harder edge to their music as their predecessor Painter, they added Jeff Boyne as a second guitarist and began touring western Canada while making stops in Sounds West Studios in Calgary and Timbre Sound in Vancouver to put some material they'd written onto tape. The bulk of these songs were written while the band was still Painter, but in the middle of the recording sessions, Ego left and was replaced behind the drum kit by James Llewellyn.
With Lowe producing, their self-titled debut came out in the summer of '75. "Late Night Lovin' Man" was released as a single, cracking the Top 40 at home. Before long "Funky As She Goes" followed suit, and they found themselves touring Canada for the rest of the year. Other noteable tracks included the cover of Rick Derringer's "Daybreak" and "Breakin' Down," the only original song Lowe didn't have a hand in writing.
By next spring Craig Blair had replaced Boyne on guitars and Llewellyn was gone and Cold Lake native Dale Buchner was the new drummer. They travelled to Sundown Recorders in Edmonton for their 1976 follow-up, IT'S FOR YOU. This time they relied on Jim Gaines, who'd worked with them when they were Painter to co-produce the album with Lowe. "Dancin' Fools" was released as a single, which failed to crack the Top 40. With the record failing to make much of an impression, Mercury had grown impatient with the band and they found themselves without a label.
Once they were off the road, Beattie quit, though the band carried on without him while searching for a new singer and a new deal. Among the people trying out for the singer position was future Moxy and Loverboy frontman Mike Reno (still going by his real name Mike Rynoski), though he didn't last long. By the end of '77 Lowe pulled the plug and everyone went on to do their own thing.
Lowe started up a new project, 451 Degrees a couple of years later, and then Prototype. In addition to becoming a successful producer, he also invented a stereo enhancement process involving multiple microphones called Q Sound, which has been used by such artists as Madonna, Sting, and Pink Floyd, as well as in cell phone technology. Beattie did some session work and became a respected country artist.
The debut album by British free-festival favorites the Edgar Broughton Band almost literally re-created the spirit of their natural territory -- a muddy field full of sunbaked hippies -- with eight more or less epic tracks that, though their inspiration has long become the stuff of ancient history, remain essential listening to all but the most jaded ears. All maniacal cackle and frenzied riffing, the band's first single, "Evil," and the brutal bellowing of "Love in the Rain" are the most conventional numbers in that they were certainly written as crowd-pleasing stompers in the days before "Out Demons Out" established itself as the Edgar Broughton Band's all-consuming anthem.
More impressive, however, are the numbers which see the band stretching both their capabilities and their audience's expectations -- the lengthy opus "Dawn Crept Away," the evocatively titled "Death of an Electric Citizen," and, best of all, "American Boy Soldier." Ranking alongside Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" as British rock's finest contribution to the Vietnam War, it is a Mothers of Invention-esque piece that blends sneering spoken word with a delightfully doo wop-ish invocation of all that war really has to offer and all that its servants leave behind. "Shot down from my plane/Never be the same again/I was just 16 years old." As jaggedly metallic as it is theatrically ambitious, Wasa Wasa (an Eskimo phrase meaning "from far, far away") stands alongside early albums by the Fairies, the Deviants, and Hawkwind as a dramatic snapshot of a very special moment in time, as the whimsical hopefulness of the late '60s gave way to the chilled cynicism of the early '70s. And, while the band would certainly produce better songs over the next three years, they never again unleashed such a potent mood.
by Dave Thompson
Sing Brother Sing almost equals the psychedelic cohesiveness and insouciant air of the Edgar Broughton Band's debut album, but, even without doing so, it still stands as their second strongest release. All the songs on Sing Brother Sing wallow in a hippie-ish, kick-backed experimental blues-rock style, extenuated to perfection by Broughton's resonant grumble and vocal staunchness, and surrounded by chem lab mixtures of guitar and bass. The group's peculiar instrumental outputs give odd tracks such as "There's No Vibrations but Wait," "Momma's Reward," and the two parts of "Psychopath" progressive rock-type tendencies with a homemade wit, which would be the band's most daunting characteristic outside of Edgar Broughton's singing.
Although the Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa comparisons are unavoidable, the rest of Sing Brother Sing's facets and odd instrumental avenues emit a distinctness that remains the whole album through. The quaint but humorous English air that encircles "Officer Dan" and "Old Gopher" reflects Broughton's adept satirical approach, maybe without him even knowing it. Held together with elements of jazz, rock, and blues, the music on Sing Brother Sing is captivating because of its raw integrity, and in its refusal to adhere to structure, formula, or to travel a beaten path.
by Mike DeGagne
The most conventional of the Edgar Broughton Band's first (and best) three albums, 1971's Edgar Broughton Band finds the group dispensing with the no-holds-barred mania and theatricality responsible for such classics as "Out Demons Out," "Up Yours," and "Apache Drop Out" and concentrating instead on more musical endeavors. It's an approach that arguably captures the band at their very best at the same time as revealing them at their ugliest. The two-part epic "For Dr. Spock" conjures images of Gong, as it drifts closer to space rock than the Edgar Broughton Band had hitherto ventured, while "House of Turnabout" certainly restates the group's free-freak credentials with its rumbling percussion and scything guitars, a second cousin to the roars that punctuated Wasa Wasa and Sing Brother Sing.
The heart of Edgar Broughton Band, however, lies elsewhere. The lilting chant "Thinking About You," with its spectral reminders of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero," is certainly one of their most rancorous concoctions, while "Evening Over Rooftops" rides an acoustic guitar as pretty as its flowery lyric, but you know there's something rotten squirming just below the surface, even if you can never quite put your finger on it. The pure pop backing vocals, all "sha-la-la" and "doo-be-doo-be-doo," of course, only add to your unease. And, as that is merely the opening number, you can guess what you're in for over the rest of the album long before you actually get it.
The Broughtons' fifth album has never been as well-regarded as its predecessors, although that has more to do with timing than with the record itself -- by 1973, after all, the Broughtons' brand of post-hippie revolution was feeling just a little tired, particularly in the face of the glam scene that had emerged all around, and no matter how strong the songwriting and performances remained, there was still a sense of too little, too late. Which was colossally unfair. No, Oora isn't a patch on either Wasa Wasa or Sing Brother Sing. But it was an improvement on the previous year's Inside Out, and a handful of its contents -- notably "Exhibits from a New Museum/Green Lights" and "Roccococooler" -- could rub shoulders alongside any of the band's earlier, better-feted material. Indeed, the sheer diversity of Oora flies defiantly in the face of anybody hoping to pigeonhole the band with its past reputation, as Oora reveals a tight, concise, and extraordinarily melodic band whose members had clearly been listening to Neil Young as much as the Mothers of Invention, and weren't afraid to prove it.
by Dave Thompson
Tracks Disc 1 Wasa Wasa 1969
1. Death Of An Electric Citizen (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 6:09
2. American Boy Soldier (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 4:22
3. Why Can't Somebody Love Me? (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 5:05
4. Neptune (Steve Broughton) - 4:20
5. Evil (Edgar Broughton) - 2:36
6. Crying Band (Edgar Broughton) - 5:13
7. Love In The Rain (Edgar Broughton) - 3:47
8. Dawn Crept Away (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton) - 13:59
Disc 2 Sing Brother Sing 1970
1. There's No Vibrations, But Wait! (Edgar Broughton) - 4:13
2. The Moth (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 5:14
3. Momma's Reward (Keep Them Freaks A-Rollin) (Edgar Broughton) - 3:05
4. Refugee (Edgar Broughton) - 3:39
5. Officer Dan (Steve Broughton) - 1:38
6. Old Gopher (Steve Broughton) - 3:53
7. Aphrodite (Edgar Broughton) - 4:05
8. Granma (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 2:27
9. Psychopath (Edgar Broughton) - 6:51
10.It's Falling Away (Edgar Broughton) - 5:30
Disc 3 Edgar Broughton Band 1971
1. Evening Over Rooftops (Edgar Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 5:02
2. The Birth (Edgar Broughton) - 3:43
3. Piece Of My Own (Edgar Broughton) - 2:48
4. Poppy (Edgar Broughton) - 2:14
5. Don't Even Know Which Day It Is (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 4:21
6. House Of Turnabout (Edgar Broughton) - 3:08
7. Madhatter (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 6:16
8. GettingHard / What Is A Woman For? (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant, Victor Unitt) - 7:31
9. Thinking Of You (Steve Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 2:08
10.For Dr. Spock (Parts 1, 2) (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant, Victor Unitt) - 3:50
Disc 4 In Side Out 1972
1. Get Out Of Bed / There's Nobody There / Side By Side (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton) - 3:42
2. Sister Angela (Edgar Broughton) - 0:42
3. I Got Mad (Edgar Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 3:46
4. They Took It Away (Steve Broughton) - 2:27
5. Homes Fit For Heroes (Edgar Broughton) - 4:19
6. Gone Blue (Edgar Broughton, Arthur Grant) - 3:14
7. Chilly Morning Mama (Edgar Broughton) - 4:33
8. The Rake (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton) - 2:43
9. Totin' This Guitar (Edgar Broughton) - 1:47
10.Double Agent (Edgar Broughton) - 2:55
11.It's Not You (Edgar Broughton, Arthur Grant, Victor Unitt) - 11:13
12.Rock 'N' Roll (Edgar Broughton, Victor Unitt) - 2:56
Disc 5 Oora 1973
1. Hurricane Man / Rock 'N' Roller (Edgar Broughton) - 6:15
2. Roccococooler (Edgar Broughton) - 3:11
3. Eviction (Steve Broughton) - 3:01
4. Oh You Crazy Boy! (Victor Unitt) - 2:44
5. Things On My Mind (Steve Broughton) - 3:41
6. Exhibits From A New Museum / Green Lights (Edgar Broughton) - 8:01
7. Face From A Window / Pretty / Hi-Jack Boogie / Slow Down (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant, Victor Unitt) - 10:29
8. Capers (Edgar Broughton, Steve Broughton, Arthur Grant, Victor Unitt) - 1:37
The Edgar Broughton Band
*Edgar Broughton - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
*Arthur Grant - Bass Guitar, Vocals
*Steve Broughton - Drums, Vocals
*Victor Unitt - Guitars, Vocals (On Discs 1, 3, 4 And 5) Guest Personnel (Only on Disc 5 "Oora" 1973)
*Madeline Bell – Backing Vocals
*Doris Troy – Backing Vocals
*Lisa Strike – Backing Vocals
*Maggie Thomas – Backing Vocals
*David Bedford – Piano
In 1966, having just left Autumn Records, the Mojo Men recorded a batch of songs for their new label Warner Brothers, intended both as potential singles and a possible long-player. The San Francisco-based band had recently recruited drummer and lead singer Jan Errico from the neighbouring Vejtables into the fold, which brought about a change of direction. Originally a raunchy rhythm and blues based combo, the Mojo Men were now transformed into an assured folk rock and baroque pop band that drew comparisons to the Beau Brummels, the Byrds and the Mamas & The Papas.
Sad to say, this album’s worth of mostly original material was eventually shoved under the rug, leaving these sessions to gather dust in the vaults, although some of the tunes would be re-recorded later. But thanks to the recent discovery of the master tapes, here’s “Not Too Old To Start Cryin’” in all its shimmering glory. While a handful of cuts, particularly the Bo Diddley-influenced shuffle beat of ‘Til I Find You’, the fuzztone-spiked ‘Give Me One More Chance’ and the rebel snarl of ‘They May Be Right’ retain the band’s initial garage punk pose, the remainder of the material on the disc emphasizes polish and precision. ‘Don’t Let It Happen To Me’, ‘Look Into My Eyes’, ‘Don’t Leave Me Crying Like Before’, ‘Happiness Is You’ and the title track of the collection – which is heard in two differing arrangements - place a strong emphasis upon the band’s new found repertoire of blissed-out harmonies and flowery melody, complemented by heaps of jangly guitars, twinkling keyboards and smart and tight arrangements.
Alive with colour and light, “Not Too Old To Start Cryin’” examines the Mojo Men at the peak of their powers, resulting in a genuine pop rock masterpiece. Despite the fact these stunning songs were shelved, the band soldiered on and it wasn’t long before fame arrived. In early 1967 they netted a nationwide Top 40 hit single with a gorgeous cover of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘Sit Down Think I Love You’ - but that’s another story altogether.
by Beverly Paterson
Tracks
1. Not Too Old To Start Cryin' (Second Version) (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 2:34
2. 'Til I Find You - 2:07
3. Is Our Love Gone (Second Version) - 2:05
4. Sure Of Your Love - 2:02
5. Don't Leave Me Crying Like Before (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 3:34
6. You Didn't Even Say Goodbye - 2:47
7. What Kind Of Man (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 2:08
8. Happiness Is You - 2:18
9. Look Into My Eyes (Paul Curcio) - 2:46
10.What's The Answer - 2:58
11.Free Ride (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 2:26
12.Times Like These (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 2:41
13.Another World (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 3:07
14.Give Me One More Chance (Paul Curcio) - 3:08
15.Don't Let It Happen To Me - 1:53
16.Remember Me (Jim Alaimo, Paul Curcio, Jan Errico) - 2:41
17.Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson) - 3:39
18.Not For Me (Jim Alaimo, Paul Curcio, Jan Errico) - 2:44
19.They May Be Right - 2:49
20.She Cried (Ted Daryll, Greg Richards) - 2:54
21.I've Had It (Raymond Ceroni, Carl Bonura) - 2:50
22.Is Our Love Gone (First Version) - 2:21
23.Not Too Old To Start Cryin' (First Version) (Jim Alaimo, Jan Errico) - 2:41
24.There Goes My Mind (Paul Curcio) - 2:35
All songs by Jim Alaimo, Paul Curcio except where stated
So declares Nancy Jeffries, shareholder of the Insect Trust, which congealed in Memphis circa 1966 and melted away in Hoboken by 1971. Strictly speaking, "everybody" was a quintet. Jersey-born Jeffries was the singer, sucked into the Memphis scene after her first band secured a residency in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and abandoned their trek to San Francisco. There she met reed player/rock critic Robert Palmer and fell for Skip James rediscoverer and guitar acolyte Bill Barth. Soon Barth and Jeffries visited New York and wound up renting a place in the same cheap old Hoboken building occupied by Luke Faust, who joined them on banjo, fiddle, and harmonica after they all shared a brief fling with Peter Stampfel's Holy Modal Rounders. Back in came Palmer, who had moved north after college and was writing for a radio-financed freebie masterminded by the guy who later gave the world Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. New Orleans-born saxophonist Trevor Koehler hooked up via a crazed Memphis beatnik they knew.
The quintet included at least two superb musicians: Barth, ranked by James biographer Stephen Calt with the devil man himself, and Gil Evans regular Koehler. But it did not include a rhythm section. This made it hard for them to play out, as did their tendency to traipse off to Tennessee. But it also threw them in with some unlikely sidemen. Drummer Buddy Saltzman, superbassist Chuck Rainey and rhythm guitarist Hugh McCracken, the hired hands on Capitol's 1968 The Insect Trust, were renowned studio cats who also backed, for instance, the Archies--which is less surprising when you learn that manager Steve Dubow came aboard straight from the Cowsills.
The long-lost 1970 masterwork you've purchased is more ragtag; Joseph Macho and Charlie Macey, for instance, have passed into obscurity. But in addition to nonpareil r&b drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (who's on the debut too), Atco reimbursed contributors including avant bassist William Folwell (Albert Ayler, Buddy Guy), pro bassist Bob Bushnell (Mickey & Silvia, Ian & Sylvia) and, on two tracks, Elvin Jones, the premier jazz drummer of our time.
In 1998 interviews posted by the Perfect Sound Forever netzine, Barth--amid claims that he was "never really a big Insect Trust fan" and that the project must have been a failure because its sole purpose was "making plenty of money"--hits paydirt: "I consciously tried to keep the musical ideas separate and distinct. Fusion music was beginning to happen in those days, and I personally regarded it as mush." Note that Barth assumes leadership of this band he didn't like, the one Jeffries just called "everybody's." Note that Jeffries has also recalled, "Bill was the leader because he was the biggest asshole." Compare Faust's analysis: "The band was a democracy--Bill was the leader but he was laid back." Then return to Barth's point.
The Insect Trust did not make fusion music. They encompassed blues and old-timey and what was called folk-rock and plenty of jazz and, quiet as it's kept, bubblegum, too. But except for the bubblegum, submerged in the unobtrusive competence that underpins The Insect Trust and the quickened tune sense that sparks Hoboken Saturday Night, the ingredients didn't fuse into mush. They coexisted, strikingly in many of the best cases but always easily and naturally. This was pluralistic tolerance in action, at once traditionalist, futuristic and entranced with the here-and-now.
It was something else too--bohemian. Why else begin with a 35-second opening snatch composed by blind Manhattan street musician Louis "Moondog" Hardin, for decades a fixture in his Viking or Native American leathers at Sixth Avenue and 54th Street? "Be a hobo and go with me/From Hoboken to the sea," quaver Faust and Barth over Palmer's recorder obligato and somebody's bongos. Then Jeffries belts, drawls, swallows and surrounds the title credo about having fun because there's nothing better to do. The groove is solid if not quite in the pocket, with mild mayhem all around including more recorder.
By the time her three minutes are up, Jeffreys is talking gibberish or speaking in tongues, only to right herself on the lovely lope of "Eyes of a New York Woman"--Bushnell-sounding bass line that never stumbles, harmonizing horns, wearily wistful recorder solo, literary lyric lifted from Thomas Pynchon's V. As a traveling man promises escape on the Barth-Jeffries "Ragtime Millionaire," the horns say hello New Orleans-style, with Palmer picking up his clarinet and Folwell and/or kibitzing beatnik buddy Warren Gardner tootling trumpet.
But the horns don't fully assert themselves till Koehler's "Somedays." An infectious Diddleybeat drives a garbled lyric that kind of begins "I can't ask why who knows when/Because it is and then again" and may or may not wonder whether "we're crazy." But it's the unison reeds that define the track's freneticism. Which--more yin and yang--is immediately corrected by William and Arloha Folwell's pastoral love song "Our Sister the Sun," where Jones's bish-bashing waltz time and bassist Folwell's spirit quest gently tether a clarinet-dominated outro that carries the tune past seven minutes on an album where only one other track exceeds 3:23. In 1970, that seemed a suitable farewell to side one, but on CD it leads to another gear switch: Faust's "Reciprocity," the catchiest, liveliest, silliest and nicest song on the record: "Woke up with this tune in my head/It said, 'You're dead.'" Faust disagrees, with horns and a second-line march to back him up.
The middle of the second side is where vinyl albums used to let up, and there is one dip, Jeffries' breathy rendition of a pretty Koehler tune that doesn't justify the grand title "Reincarnations." But before then, she has her proudest moment, the preemptively feminist/womanist "Trip on Me," where she unlooses her assertive voice, a loud mix of booze, smoke, brass and Middle Eastern scales, on lines like "Understand you're just another man/Everything you touch you don't have to own." "I've done all I can, I'm only human, I'm me," she abruptly concludes--only then once again there's a switch.
Sprightly banjo-and-recorder that recalls Othar Turner's panpipe blues leads into Jeffries's sweet voice, the murmured lyric something about a train that ends with a reassuring, "Hold me tight, Daddy, everything is OK/I'll stay"--which segues immediately on the same track, into a Faust folk song about the assassination of James Garfield. Then the dip, and then, incredibly, the peak: a fully orchestrated version of a ditty about a play date involving spaceships written and initially sung by Koehler's six-ish son Glade. Banjo, hand drums, grownup duet, crazy unison horn section and Elvin Jones all work and play well with others to climax this joyously eccentric and intensely humanistic album. Yes, the literal ending is nearly six minutes of Koehler and Gardner's wonderful instrumental-plus-scat "Ducks." But it's a coda--a prequel to a sequel, a glimpse of a next that never came.
Anyone who wonders what the hippie '60s were like--or could be like, with the arrant nonsense and obsessive back-biting avoided or suppressed--can find out from this true collective. Not the Beatles or the Stones--they were different, bigger and often better, mass culture. Hoboken Saturday Night--like Have Moicy!, the later and smaller and more pastoral and perfect album Peter Stampfel helped actualize, and maybe the Dead's Aoxomoxoa or even Dylan's Basement Tapes--is subcultural. All involve folkies untouched by self-righteous sentimentality.
Three of the Insect Trust are not gone. Koehler--responsible for Moondog and Jones and "Glade Song," all decisive touches--committed suicide in 1976, a genius misfit to his unnecessary end. Palmer died of liver failure in 1997, a former New York Times staffer who left behind two important books (Deep Blues and Rock & Roll: An Unruly History) and much uncollected journalism and scholarship. Barth was painting in Amsterdam when a heart attack got him in 2000.
Faust still lives in Hoboken, where he co-directs the Monroe Street Movement Space and teaches tai chi. "Surprised that in later life I was able to function," Jeffries became an a&r luminary, signing the likes of Suzanne Vega and Ziggy Marley before she lost her Elektra vice-presidency in 2000. Understandably, she's feeling disaffected. She thinks bands aren't in it for the music anymore. She's wrong--there are many more such now than in the '60s. But if any of them have a Hoboken Saturday Night in them, I wish they'd tell me about it.
by Robert Christgau
Tracks
1. Be A Hobo (Louis "Moondog" Hardin) - 0:35
2. Hoboken Saturday Night (Nancy Jeffries , Robert Palmer, Bill Barth) - 3:00
3. The Eyes Of A New York Woman (Jeff Ogden, Thomas Pynchon) - 3:08
4. Ragtime Millionaire (Nancy Jeffries, Bill Barth) - 3:20
5. Somedays (Trevor Koehler) - 2:47
6. Our Sister The Sun (Arloha Folwell, William Folwell) - 7:20
7. Reciprocity (Luke Faust) - 3:23
8. Trip On Me (Nancy Jeffries, Robert Palmer, Bill Barth) - 2:45
9.a. Now Then Sweet Man (Trevor Koehler)
b. Mr Garfield (Traditional arr. by Luke Faust) - 3:07
10.Reincarnations (Trevor Koehler) - 3:15
11.Glade Song (Luke Faust, Trevor Koehler) - 3:00
12.Ducks (Trevor Koehler, Warren Gardner) - 5:40
Chicken Shack was the product of eccentric guitarist Stan Webb, vetera of several R 'n' B outfits including the Blue 4, Sound Five and The Shades Of Blue. The latter active between 1964 and 1965 included Webb, Christin Perfect (Piano, Vocals) and Andy Silvester (Bass), as well the future Traffic saxophonost Chris Wood. Webb and Silvester formed the core of the original Chicken Shack, who enjoyed a lond residency at Hamburg's famed Star Club before returning to England in 1967.
Perfect then rejoined the line-up which was augmented by several drummers until the arrival of Londoner Dave Bidwell. Producer Mike Vernon then signed the quartet to his Blue Horizon Records label.
Their fourth and last album with Blue Horizon, and the last with Paul Raymond, Andy Silvester and Dave Bidwell was Accept, released in July 1970. It certainly showed a further marked change in style, probably reflecting the fact that quite a few of the tracks were joint Webb/Raymond compositions. Interestingly Blue Horizon publicity material for Accept ran the slogan "If you think Chicken Shack just plays the blues you haven't been paying attention."
Tracks
1. Diary Of Your Life - 3:06
2. Pocket (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 3:24
3. Never Ever (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 2:43
4. Sad Clown (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 2:44
5. Maudie (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 2:53
6. Telling Your Fortune - 4:25
7. Tired Eyes - 2:11
8. Some Other Time - 3:04
9. Going Round (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 2:36
10.Andalucian Blues (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 2:19
11.You Know You Did You Did - 6:32
12.She Didn t Use Her Loaf (Stan Webb, Paul Raymond) - 4:07
13.Apple Tart - 3:08
14.Hideaway (Freddie King, Sonny Thompson) - 5:07
All material written by Stan Webb except where indicated
The Blend was a '70s rock quintet from Maine led by singer/guitarist Jim Drown .Signed to MCA and accomplished two albums. and had combined sales of nearly 130,000 records. They even got on Billboard's top 100 at #74 with a bullet.
The Blend had it all. All five were lead singers and songwriters, and every show was an addictive train ride that led to a climactic explosion several times.
The Blend gained the experience of touring and opening huge shows for a long list of great rock and roll acts (The Who, ZZ Top, Hall and Oates, Charlie Daniels, etc). Their second album under the title "Anytime Delight" released in 1979 and it’s a pleasant hard rockin with some smokin southern blasts.
Tracks
1. Feel Like I'm Crazy - 3:49
2. Money (Steven Dore) - 5:09
3. Anytime Delight (Steven Dore) - 3:09
4. I'm Not Losin' - 3:15
5. Sky High (Steven Dore, Jeff Joseph) - 4:18
6. Misty Blue (Donnie "D.P." Pomber) - 4:01
7. She Can Take Me - 3:26
8. Will You Be Mine (Steven Dore) - 3:15
9. For Crying Out Loud - 1:58
10.The Prize - 7:03
All songs by Jim "J.D." Drown except where stated
The Blend
*Steven Dore - Guitar, Piano
*Jim "J.D." Drown - Guitar
*Ken Holt - Bass, Vocals
*Donnie "D.P." Pomber - Guitar, Piano
*Skip Smith - Drums
Moonstone members lived in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and released a completely left unnoticed LP on the private Canadian label Kot’Ai, recorded in Montreal somewhere in the early ‘70’s, and, like the label says, what a great discovery this is indeed. On the first track, female singer Carolyn MacLeod sounds like a cross between Vasthi Bunyan and perhaps Linda Perhacs.
All tracks have delicate and gentle fingerpicking guitar. There’s one short instrumental based upon guitars only, “Fina’s Birthday Song”. Often the male vocals lead and there are nicely worked out vocal harmonies. “In Case”, “Cointreau” and “Relative Hoak” and the melancholic “Said Gently” (with piano only) does this with a definite West Coast feeling and harmony, at times close to Crosby,Stills, Nash & Young, performed with a similar gentleness as the other tracks. “Black Blind Light” is a bit more psychedelic, with flute and guitars improvisations.
Last track, “Hope you can see” is the most melancholic song of the album, a track which can stand well against another favourite folkpsych track favourite of mine which I mentioned before in another review (of The Search Party, mentioning the similar track "All but this”), namely Jefferson Airplain’s "Coming back to me"
Psych-folk
Tracks
1. Focus (Carolyn MacLeod) - 4:44
2. In Case (Michael Heath, Randy Price) - 4:32
3. Top Heavy - 2:42
4. Fina's Birthday Song (Randy Price) - 0:51
5. Cointreau - 3:33
6. Relative Hoak - 2:31
7. Black Blind Light (Michael Heath, Randy Price) - 4:27
Wigwam were the number one progressive rock band out of Finland in the 70's golden era of prog rock. Wigwam's Dark Album (1977) has a tumultuous production history. The original edition did not go past test pressing stage as the band's UK label Virgin rejected it. The band returned to the studio to create the final Dark Album which eventually was released only in Finland on Love Records, as Virgin were no longer interested.
Tracks
1. Oh Marlene! (Jim Pembroke) - 4:52
2. Cheap Evening Return (Pekka Rechardt, Jim Pembroke) - 5:29
3. The Item Is The Totem (Pekka Rechardt, Mats Huldén) - 4:49
‘Live in Europe’ was compiled from live performance recorded throughout Europe during February and March 1972. It has gone on to become one of the best live albums of all time, serving as a massive influence on budding musicians such as The Edge and Adam Clayton of U2, who both cite this album as the recording that made them want to learn guitar and play in a band.
For some Rory had wanted to capture the adrenaline and excitement of his live performance. Whilst touring extensively in Europe he decided to record his shows, the results were little short of phenomenal and Live In Europe earned Rory much acclaim, including his first solo Top Ten album and 1972’s Melody Maker ‘Top Musician Of The Year’ award.
Tracks
1. Messin' With The Kid (London) - 6:25
2. Laundromat (Gallagher) - 5:12
3. I Could've Had Religion (Traditional arr. by Gallagher) - 8:35
4. Pistol Slapper Blues (Fulton Allen) - 2:54
5. Going To My Hometown (Gallagher) - 5:46
6. In Your Town (Gallagher) - 10:03
7. What In The World (Traditional arr. by Gallagher) - 7:57
8. Hoodoo Man (Traditional arr. by Gallagher) - 5:56
9. Bullfrog Blues (Traditional arr. by Gallagher) - 6:47
