Happy And Artie Traum - Double Back (1971 us, wonderful country folk rock, korean remaster)

The Traums were of mixed bloodlines. On one side their grandparents were German Jews, while their other grandparents were of English and Dutch stock. Both sets of grandparents had arrived in the US as children. Artie was born in New York City and raised in a fairly middle-class neighbourhood in the Bronx. His brother, Happy, five years older, passed on to him his musical discoveries. In 1954, Happy attended a Pete Seeger concert and was drawn into the folk music web; Artie then joined him to become part of a clique of folkies that gravitated from the outer boroughs into Manhattan. The focal points were Washington Square and Greenwich Village, the clubs heaving with new discoveries and new friendships.

Both brothers took up the folk guitar, advancing to blues, listening to whatever they could. Artie in, particular, was moved by the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Jim Hall and the Modern Jazz Quartet, though he would not give full rein to his jazz interests until 1994 with the album Letters from Joubee, followed by The Last Romantic (2001) and Acoustic Jazz Guitar (2004).

Artie gravitated from session work to recording, making his debut with the True Endeavor Jug Band in 1963. He was also performing with the blues singer Judy Roderick, and he founded, with his brother, a rock group sometimes called Bear, sometimes the Children of Paradise. "It was very loud," Happy told Swing 51 magazine, "and we dressed up in polka-dot shirts, flower ties ..." Their historic footnote status was assured when the band, featuring Eric Kaz, Steve Soles (Happy's replacement) and Artie, provided the music for the movie Greetings (1968). Directed by Brian De Palma, who went on to make films such as The Bonfire of the Vanities and Mission: Impossible, it marked the official screen debut of Robert De Niro.

Woodstock, about 100 miles from New York, and long a stamping ground for artists, artisans and musicians, became home for Dylan, the Band, Van Morrison and Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band in the late 1960s. Happy had first played a small cafe there in the early 1960s, and moved there in 1967. Artie followed soon after as part of the exodus from the city and house-sat one of Dylan's two sizeable residences as a sideline. With the brothers in the same general locality, they joined forces increasingly from 1968. Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, took them on and they signed to Capitol, touring as support for Grossman's acts.

Happy, who had been editing Sing Out! magazine, had to resign in 1970 as the brothers' career took off on the back of their LPs Happy and Artie Traum (1969) and Double-Back (1971). Most satisfying was their Hard Times in The Country (1975) album for Rounder. Its liner notes were by Allen Ginsberg ("tricky Guitars, great Artie fingers"), another member of the circle.

During the early 1970s the brothers hosted a series of "and friends" concerts at the Woodstock Playhouse. This led to the formation of the Woodstock Mountains Revue, a loose collective including Pat Alger, Eric Andersen, Paul Butterfield, John Herald, Maria Muldaur and John Sebastian, formerly of the Lovin' Spoonful. Their finest hour came with their second album, More Music from Mud Acres (1977), which featured two defining Artie Traum compositions, Barbed Wire and Cold Front. They played at the 1979 Cambridge folk festival and toured Britain to great acclaim.

Artie is survived by Beverly, his wife of 28 years, and his brother. Arthur Roy Traum, guitarist, singer-songwriter and musical educationist, born April 3 1943; died July 20 2008

by Ken Hunt

Tracks
1. Scavengers (Artie Traum, S. Appleman) - 4:22
2. Confession (Tony Brown) - 2:24
3. Jacksboro (Artie Traum) - 3:52
4. The Ferryman (Happy Traum) - 3:19
5. The Seagull (Artie Traum) - 4:41
6. Handful Of Love (Artie Traum) - 2:40
7. Cross Examinator (Artie Traum) - 3:44
8. Mister Movie Man (W. Meshel, P. Barr) - 2:40
9. Brother Thomas (Happy Traum) - 4:09
10.Love Song To A Girl In An Old Photograph (Happy Traum) - 3:08

Pesronnel
*Happy Traum - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Melodica
*Artie Traum - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
*Amos Garrett - Slide Guitar
*Eric Kaz - Piano, Harmonica
*Bill Keith - Pedal Steel
*Billy Mundi - Drums, Percussion
*Brad Campbell - Bass
*Clark Pierson - Drums
*Roy Markowitz - Drums
*Weldon Myrick - Pedal Steel
*Billy Sanford - Electric Guitar
*Buddy Spicher - Fiddle, Cello, Violins
*Andy McMahon - Piano, Organ
*Tim Drummond - Bass
*Jerry Carrigan - Drums
*Tracy Nelson - Vocal

Free Text
Text Host

Yellow Hand - Yellow Hand (1969 us, remarkable west coast rural psych)

For every ten albums I pick up, the vast majority prove to be disappointing, or even worse.  That makes an album like "Yellow Hand" an unexpected surprise.  Mind you, it's not a major classic that will change your life, but these guys exhibit good taste in their covers (lots of Stephen Stills and Neil Young) and they play with more enthusiasm than most of the competition.

Produced by Dallas Smith, the album was produced in L.A.'s Golden West Studios.  At least one well known reference draws a comparison to a lost Buffalo Springfield album.  That's actually not a bad description, though I'd say the album sounds more like Poco had Paul Cotton and Rusty Young decided they wanted to rock out, rather than pursue country-rock bliss.  There are also CS&N echoes (check out the vocals on Stills 'Neighbor Don't You Worry').  

As mentioned, the covers are all pretty good - two Neil Young efforts (their covers of 'Down To the Wire' and 'Sell Out' are two of the album highlights) and four previously unreleased (?) Stephen Stills songs.  I don't know enough about the Springfield to say this for sure, but I suspect the Young-Stills songs were all culled from non-released demos.  Bolstered by some nice harmony vocals and Pat Flynn's excellent lead guitar (which actually recalls Stills' own work), and you have a set that's worth a couple of spins.

Bad-cat

Tracks
1. Down To The Wire (Neil Young) - 4:17
2. Sell Out (Neil Young) - 3:39
3. Home (Jerry Tawney) - 3:23
4. Neighbor Don't You Worry (Stephen Stills) - 2:14
5. We'll See (Stephen Stills) - 2:56
6. Come On (Stephen Stills) - 2:41
7. God Knows I Love You  (Delaney Bramlett, Mac Davis) - 2:58
8. My World Needs You (Jerry Tawney) - 3:12
9. Hello I've Returned (Stephen Stills) - 3:02
10.Freedom Express (Jerry Tawney) - 2:50

Yellow Hand
*Mickey Armstrong - Bass, Vocals
*Joe Campese - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
*Pat Flynn - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Jerry Tawney - Vocals, Percussion
*Oscar Tessier - Drums, Percussion
*Kenny Trujillo - Keyboards

Free Text

Text Host

Autumn - Comes...Autumn (1970-72 aussie, marvelous smooth rock with prog shades, 2010 digi pack remaster)

Like their contemporaries The Executives, The Affair, New Dream and Zoot, Sydney band Autumn has been unfairly labelled as a lightweight pop band, mainly on the basis of their early recordings. They've also been tagged as 'one-hit wonders', although in fact they had four hits. Fronted by grievously underrated lead vocalist Tony Romeril, Autumn was a superb band with a strong following in their home city of Sydney, and they could tackle pop, country-rock and heavy/progressive rock with equal ease.

Like their close contemporaries The Flying Circus, Autumn formed at a time when rapid and significant changes were taking place in the music scene and the formerly homogeneous "pop" field was diversifying into several distinct genres. The trends that were drawing 'pop' musicians towards progressive music, "heavy rock" and country rock was counterbalanced by the popularity and commercial success of so-called "bubblegum" pop. This created to a situation where, as Glennn A. Baker has observed, being identified as a pop band "drew automatic derision and critical dismissal".

Autumn's chart success with straight-ahead pop material has obscured the fact that this was a highly competent group, with tastes and abilities which went well beyond the confines of the three-minute formula pop single. Their true talents were not really showcased on record until their last few recordings for the Warner label) and as Glennn Baker notes "... nobody, save those who caught them live, came to realise what a sturdy, musically adept and diverse unit they were." 

In April 1971 guitarist Allan Marshall (ex Hot Cottage) replaced Greg Jacques and soon after this, Autumn joined Tamam Shud and Band of Light as one of the first batch of local acts to be signed by Warner Music (WEA), the newly established Australian subsidiary of the famous American record company. Their first Warner single, the country-styled "Falling" (b/w "Miracles" (May 1971) became their fourth hit, reaching #10 in Sydney. To promote it, Autumn made a successful tour to Melbourne, where they had previously had difficulty getting airplay, since (as noted above) both their earlier hits had been covered by Melbourne bands. Their next single, the progressively-styled "Goblin's Gamble" / "Lady Anne" (July) and their last Warners single "Just Couldn't Believe It"/ "Bye Bye to You" (September) both failed to chart, although they remained a popular live draw.

During the second half of 1971 Autumn released an EP A Patch Of Autumn followed by their hugely underrated second album Comes Autumn. Although it is dismissed by Vernon Joyson as "unremarkable", it in fact contains some oustanding material. As Aussie music archivist "MidozTouch" has noted, Autumn's second album is so strikingly different in style and sound from their first LP that one could be forgiven for thinking they were recorded by two different groups. The included re-recordings of some of their Chart material, including Allan Marshall's riff-tastic psych-prog nugget "Get It Down" (one of several fine tracks he contributed), a re-recorded version of "Lady Anne", and the country-styled hits "Falling" and "Miracles". This excellent LP, which has never been reissued, is one of the genuine lost treasures of early 70s Australian rock. Like all the early '70s Australian Warner recordings, the original LP is now quite rare and has become a sought-after collector's item.

Autumn added a new keyboard player and vocalist Charlie Wright (ex-Harry Young and Sabbath), at the end of the year but they broke up during an ill-fated trip to the UK in early 1972, splitting within just six weeks of their arrival. McMurray, Beatson and Marshall formed Mecca, which moved to Canada and after that group split they joined Canadian band Wireless. That group issued three Albums of bluesy hard rock, Wireless (1976), Positively Human, Relatively Sane (1979) and No Static (1980) on the Anthem label. Tony Romeril worked in Italy for some time, recording under the pseudonym Andy Foxx. Romeril and Graham re-formed Autumn briefly in Sydney during 1976, with a new line-up filled out by Dave Hallard (guitar), James Caulfield (keyboards) and Con Westaberg (drums), but this new version, which played only new material and none of the Autumn songs, quickly fizzled out.

Miles-ago

Tracks
1. Falling (Glenn Beatson) - 3:22
2. Get It Down (Allan Marshall) - 3:57
3. It's Just A Thought (Allan Marshall) - 3:17
4. Miracles (Richard Graham) - 2:28
5. Lady Anne (Steve McMurray) - 3:13
6. Gomblin's Gamble (Allan Marshall) - 3:15
7. Sad Song  (Richard Graham) - 3:14
8. Lady Of Magic (Allan Marshall) - 3:51
9. I Want Her (Glenn Beatson) - 2:12
10.Kill My World (Allan Marshall) - 7:24
11.Just Couldn't Believe It (Allan Marshall) - 3:18
12.Bye Bye To You (Allan Marshall) - 3:37
13.Day Tripper (J. Lennon, P. McCartney) - 2:10
14.Don't Watch Me (Rick Graham) - 3:22
15.Drifting Far Behind (Rick Graham) - 2:46
Bonus Tracks 11-15

Autumn
*Tony Romeril - Vocals
*Glenn Beatson - Drums
*Rick Graham - Bass
*Steve McMurray - Guitar
*Greg Jacques - Organ (Tracks 13-15)
*Allan Marshall - Guitar (Tracks 1-12)

Free Text

The Zoo - Presents Chocolate Moose (1968 us, exciting blend of garage blues and psych)

Under the tutelage of Mike Cobb, 1968 found the band signed to Cobb's own Sunburst label. A single "Subset Strip" b/w "One Night Man" (catalog number )did little commercially, but attracted the attention of Bell Records which subsequently agreed to finance an LP. Produced by Cobb (who also contributed several songs), 1968's "The Zoo Presents Chocolate Moose" served as an interesting debut. 

With all five members contributing material, the set was musically pretty varied. Straddling genres,'Chocolate Moose' offered up a distinctive garage influence; 'Get Some Beads' and 'From a Camel's Hump' found the band taking a stab at lightweight psych, while 'Soul Drippin's' showcased a penchant for blue-eyed soul . While you couldn't really consider them artistic innovators, the collection was still enjoyable andl worth hearing. The collection sold poorly and the band subsequently calling it quits. 

Bad-cat

Tracks
1. Chocolate Moose (M. Carfagna, M. Flicker, T. Gottlieb, H. Leese, I. Welsley) - 2:42
2. Written On the Wind (Ed Cobb)- 2:21
3. I've Been Waiting Too Long (Mike Flicker, Howard Leese) - 2:23
4. Soul Drippin's (Dick Monda) - 1:56
5. Get Some Beads (Joey Levine, M. Bellack, E. Kahn) - 2:02
6. Ain't Nobody (Carolyn Franklin) - 2:11
7. Try Me (Joey Levine) - 2:25
8. Love Machine (J. Griffin, M. Gordon) - 2:14
9. Have You Been Sleepin' (Mike Flicker, Howard Leese) - 2:31
10.From a Camel's Hump (Mike Flicker, Howard Leese) - 3:00

The Zoo
*Murphy Carfagna - Rhythm Guitar
*Mike Flicker - Drums, Percussion
*Terry Gottlieb - Bass
*Howard Leese - Lead Guitar
*Ira Welsley - Vocals

Related Act
1969  Mad Dog - Dawn Of The Seventh Sun

Free Text
Text Host

Mad Dog - Dawn Of The Seventh Sun (1969 us, stunning garage psych blues rock)

Monstrous and unreleased at the time heavy/psychedelic/west coast  artifact of the highest order. This is one of the five best ever promo only releases to emerge from California. Only released in a quantity of a couple of copies to get a major record deal that never materialized. Three of the songs were used in a low-budget biker flick called "Black Angels". The original demo LP had only a plain black label with no kinds of credits. 

The band is related with “The Zoo” of "Presents Chocolate Moose" fame. 

The original producer said that a demo only LP was released by “The Zoo” after the “Chocolate Moose” album. The slightly different line-up had the name “Joyful Noise” (you can see a scan of the acetate in Hans Pokora’s 4001 record collector’s dream) but at this time they were looking for a tougher name to fit to the music and they found “Mad Dog”. Under this name a couple of test pressings were done. The album was amazing remastering straight from the mastertapes.

Tracks
1. Suite For Two Guitars (Howard M. Leese) - 1:45
2. Military Disgust (H. M. Leese, M. Cavett, T. Gottlieb) - 4:57
3. Ala Ala (H. M. Leese, T. Gottlieb) - 2:36
4. Fort Huachuca Blues (M. Cavett, G. Witkosky) - 4:41
5. Everything's Alright (H. M. Leese, M. Cavett, T. Gottlieb) - 2:38
6. Dawn Of The Seventh Sun (H. M. Leese,  T. Gottlieb) - 6:51
7. The Fast Song (M. Cavett, H. M. Leese,  T. Gottlieb) - 3:27
8. When It Touches You (H. M. Leese,  T. Gottlieb) - 3:37
9. Soulfull Bowlfull (H. M. Leese, T. Gottlieb, M. Cavett) - 4:51
10.Free Fall (M. Cavett, H. M. Leese) - 6:15

Mad Dog
*Howard M. Leese - Lead Guitar,  Vocals
*Terry Gottlieb - Bass,  Vocals
*Vincent "Murphy" Carfagna - Rhythm Guitar
*Steve Goldstein - Drums, Percussion
*Gary Witkosky - Lead Vocals,  Vocals, Tenor Saxophone, Flute

Free Text 
Text Host

Bobby Jameson - Color Him In (1967 us, fabulous orhestrated beat psychedelia, 2007 issue)

Cutting a long and quite confusing story short(er), Bobby started out as himself on the mid’60s folk-rock scene in L.A., winding up under the supervision of no less than Andrew Loog Oldham, and releasing an Oldham-produced/co-written, and therefore supposedly Rolling Stones-backed, Decca single in 1965 (featuring a rare Jagger/Richards b-side).

Then back to L.A., releasing his debut long player on Mira, confusingly enough, as Chris Lucey, before getting signed to “Our Productions”, which brings us this Curt Boettcher/Jim Bell/Steve Clark co-produced album, these days being regarded as another one of those late’60s pop coulda-beens, that got lost under the sun, no matter how sunshiny it may have sounded itself.

Expectedly enough, all “colored in” with the usual harmony-drenched Boettcher-ized vocal arrangements, the album ranges from loungey pop “trackaracks” such as Know Yourself, through a Love-ly reference or two as heard in The New Age and Right By My Side, with the latter also leaning towards The Byrds’ notorious transitional period, to different kinds of balladery, like the blue-eyed soulful opener Jamie, the more sophisticated jazzy-flavoured Jenny.

Or some Wilson-ian (and just as Love-ly once again) moments as well, heard in the pair of See Dawn and Candy Colored Dragon, while occasionally getting quite upbeat, be it the in the folk-rocking jangly way of Windows And Doors, an almost slightlydelic garagey-punk way of Who’s Putting Who On? or the straightforward pop of Do You Believe In Yesterday?.

For completists, in spite of it’s rawer, Diddley-beaten r’n’b approach, as well as the song’s topic itself, both having more in common with the preceding Songs Of Protest And Anti-protest album, also included as a bonus is Vietnam, recorded for the cult documentary Mondo Hollywood.

by Garwood Pickjon

On May 12, 2015, Jameson died in San Luis Obispo, aged 70, of an aneurysm in his descending aorta.

Tracks
1. Jamie - 3:12
2. Know Yourself - 3:21
3. Windows and Doors - 2:31
4. Right By My Side - 2:24
5. Who’s Putting Who On? - 2:28
6. The New Age - 2:18
7. Jenny - 2:47
8. Do You Believe In Yesterday? - 2:25
9. I Love You More Than You Know - 2:31
10.See Dawn - 3:02
11.Candy Colored Dragon - 2:51
12.Places, Times And The People - 2:31
13.Vietnam (Bonus track) - 2:57
All songs written by Robert Parker Jameson

*Bobby Jameson - Vocals

Free Text
Text Host

Thundertree - Thundertree (1970 us, magnificent groovy psych prog rock, Radioactive issue)

I've always been amazed at how many great (and often unknown) bands spring from Minnesota. Must have something to do with the long, cold winters that force folks into indoor activities ... That said, this is an album where the isolated reviews I'd read really didn't say much of note - the effort was described as likeable, but extremely rare. Not much to go on ...

In terms of biographical information I know very little about this outfit.  Drummer Rick LiaBraaten and keyboardist John Meisen had been members of the St.Paul-based The Good Idea (who survived long enough to record one obscure 1968 single - 'Inside, Outside' b/w 'Patterns In Life' (Good Idea catalog number 2889).  When the band called it quits in 1969, LiaBratten and Meisen formed The Final Assembly with guitarist Bill Halliquist.  The trio began reworking some Good Idea material, with one of their demos catching the attention of Roulette Records which promptly signed them to a recording contract.  The trio promptly added bass player Terry Tilley and vocalist Dervin Wallin to the line up.  I also know the album was recorded at UA Studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was produced by Meisen. 

Musically 1970's "Thundertree" was pretty impressive. Featuring all original material (several tracks co-written by former Good Idea singer Bob Blank), tracks such as 'Head Embers', 'Summertime Children' and 'In the Morning' (the latter including a great fuzz guitar solo), offered up an attractive mix of psych and more rock oriented moves. Admittedly it wasn't exactly an earth shattering set and Wallin wasn't any great shakes as lead singer, but his occasionally screechy voice was well suited to the band's guitar and keyboard propelled repertoire. 

It's also one of those records that grows on you with each spin.  Highlights included 'Dusty Road' (always liked the stabbing organ and church chorus) and the side long suite '1225' which powered by Hallquist's solo, started out like a ton of bricks before eventually settling down into an interesting concept piece with a religious theme (look at the title as a date 12/25). (By the way, it is a pretty rare LP. I've seen two copies in 20 years.)

Bad-cat

Tracks
1. Head Embers  (Thundertree, John Meisen) - 3:29
2. At the Top of the Stairs  (Thundertree, John Meisen) - 3:24
3. Summertime Children  (John Meisen) - 4:18
4. In the Morning  (Thundertree, John Meisen) - 2:45
5. Dusty Road  (Thundertree, John Meisen) - 4:10
6. 1225 Alone I Am  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 2:52
...i. Softly  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 3:31
...ii. I Travel Alone  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 3:23
...iii. Not Well Liked  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 1:52
...iv. With a Tailored Image  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 1:59
...v. The Sun Is Shinin' for Me  (John Meisen, Bob Blank) - 3:10

Personnel
*Bill Hallquist - Vocals, Guitar
*Rick Liabraaten - Drums
*John Meisen - Keyboards
*Terry Tilley - Bass
*Dervin Wallin - Vocals

Related Act
1972-73  Billy Hallquist - Persephone (2009 korean remaster)

Free Text
Text Host

The Glitterhouse - The Almost Complete Recordings (1966-74 us, beautiful mix of orchestrated psych, blue eyed soul and folk)

Glitterhouse was one of the most promising and ambitious psychedelic bands to come out of the New York area, a locale never really regarded as a spawning ground for great acts in that musical realm -- in fact, their failure to succeed only reinforces the New York area's hard-luck image in the psychedelic era, as opposed to the flourishing fields of psychedelic and psych-pop acts that were spawned in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The group originated in Great Neck, a distinctly upper-middle-class/upper-class enclave outside the New York City line, in Nassau County.

Mike Gayle was an African-American singer, guitarist, and composer raised in that environment, who had some serious music aspirations in 1965, when he met Hank Aberle (harmonica, guitar, violin) and Al Lax (vocals, bass), then members of a group called the Outsiders (no relation to the Cleveland band of that name), at a party. They ended up jamming together, liked what they heard, and formed an outfit called the Justice League, with Tommy Weiner on drums -- they initially rehearsed in the Greenwich Village apartment that Gayle shared with his roommate, then-aspiring photographer Bob Gruen. But their real base of operations was Great Neck, where all of their families came from and this afforded them lots of basement space in which to practice; it was also where the Justice League got most of their gigs. 

They were reasonably successful, and in 1966 -- with Gary Reems as their drummer -- they were signed to Epic Records, for which they cut their first single, "Rumpelstiltskin" b/w "Ode to an Unknown Girl"; strangely enough, that platter wasn't credited to the Justice League but, at the insistence of their manager, came out as the work of the "Pop Art" (it was 1966, after all, and they were trying to stay ahead of a musical wave that was breaking in all kinds of unexpected directions) -- a little later, they added keyboard player Moogy Klingman to the lineup, but not too long after that Gayle quit, and for the group's second record, in early 1967, they were called the "Dave Heenan Set," after their new lead singer. And then the group more or less disbanded, sort of -- what basically happened was that Aberle, Lax, Klingman, and Gayle got back together in the second half of the year, adding a friend of Klingman's, drummer Joel O'Brien -- late of a New York-based outfit called the Flying Machine -- to their lineup. And the Glitterhouse was born.

This group's sound, in keeping with the times and their name, did indeed glitter in bright, poppy psychedelic colors, interweaving equal elements of folk, pop, blues, soul, and jazz into a kind of spacy mix that was accessible yet deceptively complex. Based on the recorded evidence and accounts of the time, they were of a piece with the likes of both the Lovin' Spoonful and the Blues Project, and other hybrid bands, freely rewriting the book on composition and arrangements, and making a compelling sound in the process. In fact, they were going into some of the same experimental directions that the Rascals were headed in their progressive period, but without the same ponderous heaviness of the latter group's efforts; but they also had a lean, roots rock element to their sound, similar to the Band. 

Ideally, a group like that might have been tailor-made for a label like Elektra Records -- which was even based in New York, and had already started signing up outfits like Love and the Doors (and would soon be recording U.K. progressive bands like Methuselah and Renaissance) -- but somehow they never did get Elektra's attention, despite being based very close to home, and eliciting some interest from producer Paul A. Rothchild.

But their music was enough, coming out of a book publication party gig (arranged by Klingman's father) to attract the attention of Bob Crewe, the renowned East Coast producer, whose work had helped put the Four Seasons, after years of struggling, on the international map, and had done great things for Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels as well. He heard them at the party and approached them, and the result was a contract with Crewe as producer and manager. All five were placed on a salary ($100 a week each, which was decent money in 1968, for musicians in their late teens and early twenties still trying to achieve success), to keep them fed and housed, and essentially paid not to play in public, as Crewe worked out how he would record them and present them, as a fully formed band, when the moment was right. They had a room at his studio to rehearse in, enough pay to keep them all happy, and eventually not one, but two recording projects emanated from their efforts with Crewe.

The more visible of the two efforts was the soundtrack to the Roger Vadim-directed science fiction parody Barbarella, for which they sang on several tracks, but didn't play, leaving that to Crewe's select studio musicians. But amid the publicity surrounding the movie's star, Vadim's then wife Jane Fonda, in her various states of undress in the film, and the offbeat, Gallic tone of the resulting film, relatively little notice was paid to the music -- the soundtrack album never sold in the numbers anticipated, and languished in dollar bins and cut-out lots for many years after its release, and did the group singularly little good. The less visible result was Color Blind, the official Glitterhouse debut LP on Crewe's Dynovoice label, which was released and disappeared without a trace in 1968. The single "Tinkerbell's Mind" charted briefly in New York, but was otherwise similarly neglected.

The group's fortunes turned downward at this point, as Crewe canceled their salaries soon after and essentially cut them loose from his operation. They'd lost almost a year from their association with him, and felt they had little to show for it, apart from being a year older. Crewe had effectively kept them under wraps, so they'd hardly been seen or talked about until the abortive album and single release -- additionally, the album was really as much Crewe's sound as their own, reflecting his own re-arrangements of their music and sound in many instances often in what they regarded as predictable, already hackneyed takes on psychedelic sound; often done on the fly, in the middle of the sessions, there'd been little time to discuss, develop, or evolve his ideas into something of their own, and now -- because of the collapse of their deal -- this was the way their sound was represented on the only album to carry their name. 

But those considerations became academic, owing to another key issue threatening the group's future -- in the course of that year, Gayle became interested in pursuing other sounds, in different contexts, and the result was the breakup of the band. O'Brien rejoined James Taylor and passed through Jo Mama, through which he became part of Carole King's backing band, and spent some time as a session drummer before moving to Woodstock, and becoming an artist, struggling at various times with heroin addiction before succumbing to liver cancer in 2007. Lax left the music business, while Aberle became a producer, and Klingman, after entering the orbit of Todd Rundgren, went on to a decades-long career in music, and even reunited most of the Glitterhouse members for a short time in 1974. And a 2002 reunion of the original members yielded a remake of their album and their Barbarella sides, all of them sounding far better and a good deal fresher than such re-enactments normally yield.

by Bruce Eder

Tracks
1. Tinkerbell's Mind - 4:46
2. Princess Of The Gingerland - 4:23
3. Sassafrass And Cinnamon - 4:12
4. Child Of Darkness - 4:23
5. I Lost Me A Friend - 4:17
6. Times Are Getting Hard - 3:50
7. Where Have You Been Hiding? - 2:53
8. Hey Woman - 4:01
9. Happy To Have You Here Again - 3:33
10.Barbarella (Bob Crewe, Charles Fox) - 2:46
11.Love Drags Me Down (Bob Crewe, Charles Fox) - 3:46
12.I Love All The Love In You (Bob Crewe, Charles Fox) - 3:54
13.Rumpelstiltskin (P. Cowap) - 2:28
14.Ode To An Unknown Girl - 2:07
15.Alice In Wonderland - 2:35
16.New York Blues - 3:40
17.Born To Blues.2:13
18.It's Going To Take Some Time - 1:51
19.Grandma, Why Do You Live In Harlem? - 4:10
20.Going Home - 5:00
21.Rainbow Child - 3:30
22.For Ann, Liz And Harvee - 3:11
All compositions by Mike Gayle except where noted

The Glitterhouse
*Mike Gayle - Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals,
*Hank Aberle - Harmony Vocals, Guitar, Violin
*Al Lax - Hi Harmonies,  Bass,
*Moogy Klingman - Keyboards, Vocals
*Joel "Bishop" O'Brien – Drums, Vocals

Free Text

Text Host

Lyle Swedeen - Sunshine Inside (1974 us, magnificent classic soulful rock with folk traces, 2009 korean remaster and expanded)

 Lyle Swedeen has been a natural talent with music since the age of five. By the age of twenty he set out to LA, California to pursue a Music Career and landed a job for the Language Of Sound Music Publishing Company as a Professional Staff Writer. From his time there, over 2 years and 90 songs later, the experience lead him to his first solo effort towards an album release known as "Sunshine Inside". With over 15 of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles at the time, yhis 1974 Release was not an instant classic but ended up being lost for almost 40 years to become one of the Best Singer-Songwriter Albums of the 1970's and known as a "Lost Treasure of the 70's".

Originally Lyle Swedeen was signed to Fantasy Records, a Label started by Credence Clearwater Revival, which was a subsidiary of Prestige Milestone Records that was strictly a Jazz Label at the time. But after some shady music industry take over, Credence Clearwater Revival sued Prestige Milestone Records to release Fantasy Records from their grip.. and won! But this dropped Lyle Swedeen’s “Sunshine Inside” smack in the middle of a Jazz Record Label and was lost for years!

With such a continued growing response from the music community and fans around the world, this album has been Digitally Re-Mastered and Re-Released for the first time since its original vinyl production by Fantasy Records in 1974, with distribution in South Korea and United States.

Band-camp

Tracks
1. Can't Dance Without Music - 3:27
2. Meadowbird - 3:23
3. It's All Over Now - 4:14
4. I'm Never Gonna Be Lonely Again - 3:04
5. Sunshine Inside - 5:29
6. Of Your Precious Time - 3:12
7. Easily (Sean London) - 2:30
8. If I Were A Rainbow - 3:38
9. Horace Greeley (Collaer, Lloyf) - 3:28
10.It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Take A Train To Cry (Bob Dylan) - 5:18
11.Lover's Fool, Strings - 7:43
12.No More Lies - 2:16
13.California - 2:33
All songs by Lyle Swedeen unless as else stated

Musicians
*Lyle Swedeen - Guitar, Vocals
*Bad Henry Davis - Bass
*Joe Osborn - Bass
*Lee Sklar - Bass
*Dave Kemper - Drums
*Jefferson Kewley - Guitar
*Mike Stewart - Guitar
*Tony Peluso - Guitar
*Larry Knechtel - Keyboards

Free Text

Just Paste

Instant Orange - Instant Orange (1968-74 us, awesome low fi folk psych country rock)

The eternal mania for reissues of obscurities turns up all sorts of trumps but sometimes the results are a cut above not simply with the music but with how it's all presented. Such is the case with the self-titled collection by Instant Orange, which compiles the entirety of the recorded work of this San Bernardino band that thrived, via a sporadic series of self-released items, including a full album, from 1968 through the mid-'70s. 

Speaking of the music, Instant Orange, at their core a trio of Terry Walters, Randy Lanier, and Lynn McCurdy, were solid but not lost revolutionaries, musical or otherwise; their open Byrds/Buffalo Springfield jones holds sway in a series of performances that are often enjoyable, as with songs like "The Visionary (Reactive)" and "Coming of the Day," not to mention the outright quirk of the banjo-and-kazoo romp of "Cycle 2." Walters and Lanier's guitar work is easygoing and approachable, though, as is their reflective singing, finding a balance between tenderness and electric charge that would get a new life in later years following R.E.M.'s hot-wiring of influences and all that came in its wake. 

The album itself is a careful creation, well recorded and with a variety of small interstitial moments of backwards tape and odd elements -- up through and including burping -- while the mastered-from-vinyl rarities, covering two singles and two EPs, include the original 1968 take on "Reflecting Emotions." In ways, though, the loving band history courtesy of Walters (a thorough biography in miniature), his extended introduction explaining how he was tracked down courtesy of an obsessive vinyl collector via former colleagues in police work, and the pleasant surprise of the resultant comprehensive reissue make this just as much of a treasure, providing a detailed story of a band that never "made it" but forged ahead for years in its own right and left more behind it than most. 

by Ned Raggett 

Tracks
1. Introduction - 0:18
2. The Visionary (Reactive) (Walters, Lanier) - 3:29
3. Whole Lot Better Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:17
4. Whole Lot Better Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 3:23
5. Silent Green (Walters, Lanier) - 2:43
6. Seems Like Everything Part 1 (Walters) - 0:37
7. Seems Like Everything Part 1 (Walters) - 1:58
8. Cycle 2 Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:48
9. Cycle 2 Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 1:48
10.Reflecting Emotions (Walters, Lanier) - 3:35
11.Genesis II (Walters) - 2:51
12.Cactus Gardens (Lanier) - 3:10
13.Ballad Of The RTD Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:15
14.Ballad Of The RTD Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 2:39
15.Prairie To The Sea Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:11
16.Prairie To The Sea Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 3:14
17.Coming Of The Day Part 1 (Walters, Lanier) - 0:15
18.Coming Of The Day Part 2 (Walters, Lanier) - 1:38
19.You I'll Be Following (Walters, Lanier, Prud Homme) - 2:09
20.Reflecting Emotions (Walters, Lanier) - 2:41
21.Suburban Pictorial Abstract (Walters) - 2:39
22.20 To 6 Bianchi Boogie (Bianchi) - 1:27
23.Theme From Beat Whistle (Bianchi) - 8:35
24.View From Ghiradelli Square (Walters) - 2:11
25.Paper Lay (Lanier) - 3:28
26.Skyline (Bianchi) - 3:36
27.Plight Of The Mary Celeste (Lanier) - 4:01
28.Genesis II (Non LP Version) (Walters, Lanier, Brown) - 2:50
29.Same Old Thing (Walters, Lanier, Brown) - 2:03

Musicians
*Randy Lanier - Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Percussion
*Terry Walters - Vocals, Guitars, Banjo, Harmonica, Kazoo, Bass, Drums, Percussion
*Lynn McCurdy - Various Instruments, Percussion
*Bryon Prud Homme - Bass
*Steve Brown - Drums
*Jim Brown - Guitars
*Jon Svarc - Drums
*Tim Powers - Guitar
*Joe Bianchi - Organ
*Dennis Baxter - Drums
*Mike Loucas - Bass
*Steve Sullivan - Drums
*Dennis Hoff - Guitar, Vocals
*Brian McDonough - Vocals, Harmonica

Free Text
Text Host