Lighthouse - Sunny Days (1972 canada, magnificent jazz prog rock)

The title track to the Sunny Days album became one of Lighthouse's two Top 40 hits, peaking at number 34 in November of 1972. Sunny Days was the band's seventh album, yet their full-scale sound and spirited rock & roll style was still very much intact. The saxophone and trombone work that gave them the label as a poor man's Chicago can be found streaming through songs like "Silver Bird" and "Letter Home," while "Broken Guitar Blues" became one of their hardiest efforts, receiving quite a bit of air play on Canadian radio stations. 

But brighter melodies, like that found on "You Girl," and soulful, root-and-branch tunes like "You Give to Me" and "Letter Home" make this one of the last solid outings by Lighthouse, and the last by percussionist and singer Bobby McBride. That's not to say that the albums that followed (One Fine Light, Can You Feel It, Good Day) are poor, but Sunny Days contains a certain intangible quality that emerges from Skip Prokop especially, and from the accomplished, full-scale sound that arises from the brass and strings, which somehow doesn't penetrate as strongly on future albums. 

by Mike DeGagne

Tracks
1. Silver Bird (Ralph Cole) - 3:02
2. Sunny Days (Skip Prokop) - 4:19
3. You Girl (Skip Prokop) - 4:11
4. Beneath My Woman (Skip Prokop) - 7:03
5. Merlin (Bob McBrode, Skip Prokop) - 4:29
6. Broken Guitar Blues (Ralph Cole) - 4:30
7. Letter Home (Howard Shore) - 4:15
8. You Give To Me (Larry Smith) - 7:24
9. Lonely Places (Paul Hoffert) - 3:20

Lighthouse
*Dick Armin – Electric Cello
*Ralph Cole – Guitar, Vocals
*Don Dinovo – Electric Violina
*Paul Hoffert – Keyboards, vibes, congas, canary
*Bob McBrode – Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Vocals
*John Naslen – Trumpet
*Skip Prokop - Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Drums, Vocals
*Howard Shore – Flute, Alto, Tenor Sax, Vocals
*Larry Smith – Trombone, Mellophonium, Vocals
*Alan Wilmot – Bass
*Louis Yacknin - Bass

Lighthouse
1971  One Fine Morning
1973  Can You Feel It?  (2008 RDI issue)
Related Acts
1967  The Paupers - Magic People
1968  The Paupers · Ellis Island  (2008 remaster)
1969  The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield And Al Kooper
1969  Michael Bloomfield with Nick Gravenites & Friends - Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore West (2009 remaster and expanded) 

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