Plain and Fancy

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Harmony Grass - This Is Us (1969-70 uk, sunny bubblegum baroque beat, 2003 remaster with bonus tracks)

The sole Harmony Grass album, 'This Is Us' (1970), is arguably the finest UK soft rock release of the last three decades. Bandleader Tony Rivers was an enormous Beach Boys fan, and it was his enthusiasm for the California sound which defined his sonic template.

Until 1968, Harmony Grass traded as Tony Rivers & The Castaways, gaining a reputation as England's Beach Boys, and attracting the attention of UK pops' two most influential managers. In 1966 they signed a management contract with Brian Epstein and a singles deal with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records.

As the 60's wore on, Rivers picked up any new American musical developments. The Castaways' 1967 residency at London's Marquee Club was used to hone an act which included versions of The Tradewinds' Mind Excursion, The Lovin' Spoonful's You Didn't Have To Be So Nice, and an uptempo Association-style rendition of Walk On By.

By late 1968 the name Tony Rivers & The Castaways was sounding dated, and their post-Epstein manager decided Harmony Grass sounded much hipper. The renamed group signed with RCA and issued Move In A Little Closer Baby in December 1968.

Although subsequent Harmony Grass singles flopped, the band released some gems, totally at odds with the formulaic fare that might be expected from a band stranded on the chicken-in-a-basket cabaret circuit by the end of the decade. Foremost amongst them was Mrs Richie (included on the This Is Us album), a self-composed song influenced equally by the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and (uniquely for a British band) Love.

Despite the lack of single success, RCA released This Is Us. Tony Rivers produced most tracks and wrote seven of them. The soaring harmonies of What A Groovy Day were on a par with the best of The Association. Of the other new songs, the atmospheric Byrds/Beach Boys amalgam I've Seen To Dream was a stand-out. Cover versions of Chatanooga Choo Choo, Tom Dooley and Spanky & Our Gang's Byrd Avenue blended seamlessly into the album.

After the album failed to chart, RCA decided Simon & Garfunkel's Cecilia might be the song to get Harmony Grass back into the charts. They released the single, relegating Mrs Richie to the B-side. Insulted, Tony Rivers departed the group. Harmony Grass carried on without Rivers, issuing a final single, the bubblegum styled Stand On Your Own Two Feet, and then got heavy, first as 'Grass' and then as 'Capability Brown'.

Tony Rivers moved into production for CBS and worked as a session singer on projects ranging from the budget cover version Top Of The Pops collections to Roger Daltrey's One Of The Boys album. In 1975 he became Cliff Richard's vocal arranger, staying with him until 1986.

Nostalgia

Tracks

1. Move In A Little Closer Baby (Arnold Capitanelli, Robert O'Connor) - 2:44

2. My Little Girl - 3:15

3. What A Groovy Day - 3:33

4. I've Seen To Dream - 3:12

5. (It Ain't Necesserily) Byrd Avenue (Michael Peter Smith) - 2:01

6. Chattanooga Choo Choo (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon) - 2:24

7. Good Thing (Arnold Capitanelli, Robert O'Connor) - 2:44

8. Mrs.Richie (Kenny Rowe, Tony Rivers) - 3:46

9. Summer Dreaming - 2:15

10.I Think Of You (Tony Rivers, Pat Thompson) - 2:10

11.Ballad Of Michael. 2:38

12.Tom Dooley (Traditional) - 2:21

13.What Do You Do When Love Dies (Donna Weiss, Mary Unobsky) - 2:49

14.Let My Tears Flow - 3:17

15.You And I - 4:13

16.Summer Dreaming - 2:04

17.Walk On By (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - 2:04

All songs by Tony Rivers except where noted

Bonus tracks 14-17

Harmony Grass

*Tony Rivers - Vocals

*Tony Ferguson - Lead Guitar, Vocals

*Kenny Rowe - Vocals

*Tom Marshall - Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Vocals

*Bill Castle - Drums, Vocals

*Ray Brown - Bass

*Brian Hudson - Drums, Vocals

*Tony 'H' Harding - Lead Guitar, Vocals

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Friday, May 17, 2024

Greenwood Curlee And Clyde - One Time One Place (1972 us, spectacular psych folk rock, 2014 korean remaster)

An extremely rare piece of independent folk psych left in Minnesota in 1972. Three St. Paul natives: Richard Greenwood (vocals, sitar, guitar, violin), John Curley (vocals, harmonica, trumpet), Clyde Thompson (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and session members (drums, flute) , percussion, and bass), and features an acoustic sound with a natural live feel that has been compared to the early 70's British band Heron, as well as a laid-back acid feel.

Tracks

1. Changes - 4:45

2. One Time One Place - 3:37

3. Little Willy - 4:18

4. Sitting At The Crossroads - 3:25

5. Wandering - 4:27

6. Kind Woman - 2:33

7. Brother Song - 6:50

8. One Little Man - 7:13

9. Christmas Song - 4:25

10.Together - 6:27

Music and Lyrics by Richard Greenwood, John Curlee, Clyde Thompson

Musicians

*Clyde Thompson - Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Tambourine, Vocals

*Richard Greenwood - Acousic Guitar, Violin, Sitar, Vocals

*John Curlee - Harmonica, Trumpet, Vocals

*Chip Harding - Electric Guitar

*Jef Schroeder - Electric, Acoustic Bass

*Dave Cushing - Drums

*Reid McLean - Flute

*Tony Paul - Conga Drums

*Bruce, Linda, Danny, Joyce, Beth, Jeanne, Tim, Toni - Additional Voices

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Thursday, May 16, 2024

The Hello People - Fusion (1968 us, sensational sunny baroque psych, 2013 remaster)

Late-'60s concept band Hello People was put together by New York producer Lew Futterman. Basing his concept on French mime films, Futterman assembled a group of Ohio musicians to make up the group, dressed in full face paint and performing wordless mime routines between their songs during their live sets. The first lineup of the band consisted of guitarist and singer W.S. Tongue, bassist Greg Geddes, keyboardist Larry Tasse, drummer Ronnie Blake, guitarist Bobby Sedita, and flute player Michael Sagarese. Taking on stage names like "Goodfellow" and "Much More," the band was born and recorded its debut, self-titled album in 1967.

The Hello People were one of the more interesting also-rans of their day, never really scoring a hit record but turning heads for a moment with their gimmicky mime motif, dressing in full face paint and performing wordless skits between songs while performing. A convoluted back story and one best ignored when examining Fusion, the second of eight LPs produced in the group's lifetime, and arguably their brightest moment.

More or less the creation of New York producer Lew Futterman, the band reached out in several directions at once to cash in on various musical trends at the inception of their Summer of Love. Watching mimes tune in, turn on, and drop out may have been a little harder to swallow at the time, but with decades of hindsight, the various attempts at counterculture significance on Fusion are pleasantly comical, surprisingly inspired, and often weirdly deep. Beginning with the moody, Baroque pop of "White Winged Doves," the album switches gears with almost every song.

The Free Design-esque flutes and social commentary of "Anthem" are bizarrely mismatched, and abruptly fade into the proto-prog horns of the instrumental "Jelly Jam," and then into the electric Dylan rip-off of "How Does It Feel to Be Free?" Beatles-via-the-Monkees pop, psychedelic folk, and rootsy road ballads round out the album's diverse ten songs, bringing together a vaguely conceptual album about fusing ideas and styles from a vaguely conceptual band. Buffered by nostalgia, the ten completely processed stabs at appropriating styles of the day hold some weight and feel enjoyably odd as tuneful reminders of strange days past.

by Fred Thomas

Tracks

1. White Winged Doves (Peter Weston) - 4:11

2. Anthem (W. S. Tongue) - 4:01

3. Jelly Jam (Bobby Sedita, Greg Geddes, Larry Tasse, Michael Sagarese) - 4:00

4. If I Should Sing Too Softly (W. S. Tongue) - 3:16

5. How Does It Feel To Be Free (W. S. Tongue) - 3:41

6. Pray For Rain (Peter Weston) - 2:53

7. A Dream Of Tomorrow (Peter Weston) - 4:18

8. Everything's Better (Bobby Sedita, Larry Tasse, W. S. Tongue) - 3:17

9. Come And See Me (W. S. Tongue) - 6:38

10.I Ride To Nowhere (Peter Weston) - 3:06

The Hello People

*W. S. "Sonny" Tongue "Country" - Vocal, Guitar

*Greg Geddes "Smoothie" - Bass, Vocal

*Bobby Sedita "Goodfellow" - Guitar, Vocal

*Larry Tasse "Much More" - Keyboards, Vocal

*Michael Sagarese "Wry One" - Flute

*Ronnie Blake "Thump Thump" - Drums

1968 The Hello People - The Hello People (Vinyl edition)

1971 Hello People - Have You Seen The Light (2016 korean remaster)

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Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Slapp Happy - Acnalbasac Noom (1974 us / uk / germany, essential avant garde prog rock, 2005 extra tracks remaster)

In the mid 1960s, so concerned were the Danish-American Blegvad family by the US’ nightmare political mood following the Kennedy assassination and the escalating Vietnam conflict that they upped sticks from prosperous mid-century Connecticut and relocated to sleepy Hertfordshire. It was there, at the fee-paying St Christopher School in Letchworth, that Peter Blegvad formed a band with aspiring musicians Anthony Moore and Neil Murray (who doesn’t appear again in this story but would later play bass for Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.) The teenage band, variously named things like Slap Happy and the Dum-Dums, went their separate ways as teenage bands tend to do. After a stint at a British art school, Anthony Moore moved to Hamburg in 1970. On arriving, two people would change the course of his creative life. One was Dagmar Krause, a Hamburg native who had already been a member of early alternative folk act The City Preachers and recorded the excellent psychedelic avant-rock album I.D. Company in 1970 with vocalist Inga Rumpf. Krause and Moore quickly became an item.

The other was Uwe Nettelbeck, a German leftist intellectual and critic who had begun acting as a middle-man between label PolyGram and the West German avant-garde. Nettelbeck had effectively assembled the membership of Faust and, admirably, convinced the label to finance a new studio for the group in a former schoolhouse in the village of Wümme on the outskirts of Bremen. Meeting Nettelbeck was fortuitous timing. Moore was developing a fierce interest in tape machine experiments, influenced by European avant-garde composers like Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer but also English pop experimentalists such as George Martin and Joe Meek. Through Nettelbeck, Polygram recorded three albums of Moore’s work – 1971’s Pieces From The Cloudland Ballroom and the 1972 releases Secrets Of The Blue Bag and Reed Whistle And Sticks. “It was enough for PolyGram to throw up their hands in despair,” remembered Moore in a 2022 interview with Perfect Sound Forever website, “at that point, Uwe asked me if I couldn’t possibly make something a little more listenable.”

He phoned up his old friend Peter Blegvad, who was bored, lonely and studying in Exeter. Of course he wanted to get on the next plane to make an experimental rock album. His arrival at Wümme minted the three-piece act that would adopt the name of Peter and Anthony’s old school band. “Peter, Dagmar and myself were offered the use of the studio and as we were just a trio,” writes Blegvad in the liner notes to the new reissue, “it seemed a natural choice to ask Faust to become our rhythm section.” Jean-Hervé Péron, the bass player, Gunther Wüsthof, the keyboard and sax player, and Zappi Diermaier, the drummer, became, in effect, Slapp Happy’s rhythm section.

"Acnalbasac Noom" was their second LP, recorded in 1973, and engineered by Kurt Grauner, in Faust's legendary Wumme studio. Like the first it was produced by Faust's Svengali Uwe Nettelbeck, using Faust as the Slapphappy house band. Unaccountably it was rejected by Virgin Records, who made the group re-record all the material with different musicians and another producer in their own studio. That version is still available through Virgin as 'Casablanca Moon' -- they straightened up the name too. As time has told, it is now universally accepted that Acnalbasac is the definitive version of this material. This rather overdue reissue, taking advantage of significant technological advances, has been completely re-mastered by Bob Drake from the original tapes. The CD also features a handful of extra tracks, including the single 'Everybody's Slimming' released to coincide with a one off concert at the ICA in the '80's." Bonus tracks: "Everybody's Slimming," "Blue Eyed William," "Karen," and "Message."

by Fergal Kinney, 15 September 2023

Tracks

1. Casablanca Moon - 3:05

2. Me And Paravati - 3:31

3. Mr. Rainbow (Peter Blegvad) - 3:50

4. Michelangelo/The Drum - 6:30

5. A Little Something (Peter Blegvad) - 3:17

6. (Silence) - 0:14

7. The Secret - 3:25

8. Dawn - 3:36

9. Half-Way There (Peter Blegvad) - 3:08

10.Charlie 'N Charlie - 2:24

11.Slow Moon's Rose (Anthony Moore) - 3:08

12.(One Minute Silence) - 0:56

13.Everybody's Slimmin' - 4:12

14.Blue Eyed William (Peter Blegvad) - 3:37

15.Karen (Peter Blegvad) - 3:23

16.Messages (Dagmar Krause) - 2:13

All compositions by Anthony Moore, Peter Blegvad except where indicated

Bonus Tracks 13-16

Slapp Happy

*Anthony Moore - Keyboards, guitar

*Peter Blegvad - Guitar, vocals

*Dagmar Krause - Vocals

With

*Jean-Hervé Péron - Bass guitar

*Werner "Zappi" Diermaier - Drums

*Gunter Wüsthoff - Saxophone

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Monday, May 13, 2024

Sonny Bono - Inner Views (1967 us, magnificent folk psych, limited remastered bonus tracks edition)

In the days when folk-rock first emerged from Sunset Strip nightclubs, Sonny & Cher were its King and Queen, with Top 10 hits like "I Got You Babe," "Baby Don't Go," and "The Beat Goes On" pulsing from transistor radios across the country. With the duo as hot as they would ever be, Sonny Bono recorded and released Inner Views, his first -- and only -- solo album. As it was in 1967, it remains today a singular listening experience.

The opening track, the nearly thirteen-minute long opus grande, "I Just Sit There," is the perfect example of what listeners are in for. It employs a sitar as its lead instrument, quotes from both "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" and "A Day In The Life" within sixty seconds of each other, liberally uses faux-Dylanesque harmonica and organ stings throughout, rhymes "sturgeon" with "virgin" and thunders from your speakers with Sonny's own Wall Of Sound. They just don't make records like this anymore. As Sonny's Inner Views solo album is just 33-minutes long, we have filled out this CD with every Sonny Bono solo Atco single there ever was.

From his first solo hit "Laugh At Me" (heard here in the mono single-lyric version, the stereo album-lyric version, and a previously unreleased original backing track recording session) through his cover versions of "Misty Roses" and "Cheryl's Goin' Home" to the shortened "radio friendly" re-edited single versions of many Inner Views tracks which Atco somehow thought might become big hits. Inner Views includes 16 tracks and a 20-page booklet with all of the album lyrics and with three essays about the album from varying perspectives.

Every Atco release Sonny Bono ever issued solely under his own name is now in one convenient package. Inner Views has been out of print for three decades. It has been remastered from the Atco vault masters and appears on compact disc for the first time anywhere. Sonny Bono was shagadelic before shagadelic was a registered trademark. And with this absurdly comprehensive Rhino Handmade expanded reissue of Inner Views there is now 69 minutes of incontrovertible, permanently encoded digital proof. Inner Views is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 1,500 copies.

Tracks

1. I Just Sit There - 12:45

2. I Told My Girl to Go Away - 4:21

3. I Would Marry You Today - 4:26

4. My Best Friend's Girl Is Out of Sight - 4:16

5. Pammie's On A Bummer - 7:52

6. Laugh At Me - 3:00

7. Tony (Brian Stone, Charles Greene, Sony Bono) - 2:22

8. The Revolution Kind - 3:26

9. Georgia and John Quetzal (Brian Stone, Charles Greene, Sony Bono) - 2:14

10.Misty Roses (Tim Hardin) - 3:08

11.Cheryl's Goin Home (Bob Lind) - 2:43

12.I Told My Girl To Go Away - 3:34

13.Pammies On A Bummer - 5:01

14.My Best Friend's Girl Is Out Of Sight - 2:38

15.Laugh At Me - 4:27

16.Laugh At Me - 2:49

All songs by Sonny Bono except where stated

Tracks 7,9 as Sonny's Group

Bonus Tracks 6-16

*Sonny Bono - Vocals

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Saturday, May 11, 2024

Hallelujah - Hallelujah Babe! (1971 germany / uk, fantastic heavy jam psych prog rock, 2003 extra track remaster)

Well, back then (1969/70) I was on tour with the band “Missus Beastly”. This may mean next to nothing to you. "Missus Beastly" was a totally weird group that improvised psychedelic rock for hours when there was always enough of the stuff in the medicine cabinet. And we weren't just a sensation in Westphalia! We gave it to our fans every night - we didn't know what would happen and we didn't know that one of our friends would jump out of the window because he thought he could really fly. But that's a different film.

So, now I was standing in some dim city hall, only the lighting and sound crew were there and a funny drummer from England who was setting up his drum kit with dedication. He was part of "Amon Düül II", who had been headlining this small tour through small towns in southern Germany for over a week. Please don't ask me what city it was in, what time of day, or what time of year. I think it was spring 1970.

My buddies in the dressing room had just finished their blotting paper, so it was time for me to do my own private sound check all by myself. I rammed my Gibson into the Fender Showman and let it howl to celebrate the day, then transitioned elegantly into Jeff Beck's "Rock My Plimsoul." Then Keith Forsey, the English drummer for “Amon Düül II”, set up the eavesdroppers and simply joined in. The group's second English loanee, Dave Anderson, also picked up his bass and didn't let us down. An outsider would certainly have had the feeling that the three of us were having fun with music for the first time in weeks. And we had that.

At some point the two of us, Keith Forsey and me, Paul Vincent, decided to forget all the psychedelic Krautrock shit and do our own British thing. A mixture of Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Cream and everything... That was our world.

Back then, I lived in Munich in my old rusty house, the VW Bully with the “Star Club” logo on it, somewhere on a quarry lake. In any case not far from Klara, Keith's Munich girlfriend from Hasenbergl. We always went to Klara's secretly to shower, my friend Woldy Fette, who had accompanied me from Lippe-Detmold to Munich, Keith, who had long since started working with Klara, and me.

Ambassador Music, our London producer, got us two really great musicians, keyboardist Pete Wood and bassist Rick Kemp, to record our songs with Keith on drums and me on guitar. By the way, Pete Wood had a small global career with Al Stewart ("Year Of The Cat") in the following years. And the good Rick Kemp also achieved some respect, at least in the British Isles, with his group “Steeleye Span”. The sound engineer who recorded the four of us in a small but nice backyard studio in London's Dalston district was a certain Robin Sylvester. I later found his name on a number of “Jethro Tull” records, well the world is that small...

Our LP was mixed in one of the finest London establishments, the Trident Studio, where such illustrious people as George Harrison came and went at that time. Imagine accidentally opening a studio door and accidentally finding yourself face to face with Marc Bolan, one of the gods you've always wanted to meet: "Oh sorry, wrong door!" "No problem!" And everything is completely normal. At the front counter you drink your cola with the top-class musicians, as if they were the nice guys from the parallel class. And your English is so good that no one thinks you're a Kraut, thank God, but rather an Australian or South African. Bingo. No more stupid Nazi jokes, just: The cigar goes around and it's just "Peace and Power to the Monkeys". And then, a few weeks later, we finally had the mixed tapes and had to go back to Germania.

The record company Metronome in Hamburg liked our band, turned out to be a generous association and promised us all kinds of support for the live promo, i.e. our band gigs. However, they first had to transfer all the money to Ambassador Music in London, because they were the official contractual partners.

When, during the disco fever, we the Munich musicians had the opportunity to go to L.A. in the wake of Giorgio Moroder, Keith went crazy and actually made a full career in America. He stopped playing drums, which is a sin, co-wrote the lyrics to "Flashdance/What A Feeling" with Irene Cara, produced Billy Idol, Icehouse and also did a few tracks with the guys from Simple Minds. But at some point his tracks were lost in the snow of Los Angeles and New York.

But I didn't like disco too much and preferred to stay in Munich with my wife and children, started writing chamber music on the side and recorded a few well-conceived LPs as a soloist, including one with German lyrics. 1973 "Makin' Our Own Sweet Music", 1975 "Vincent's Flying Rock & Roll Circus", 1981 "Sternreiter"

I played, arranged and co-produced several albums and tours for Udo Lindenberg from 1975 to 1980, which I thought was really great at the beginning, finally big halls, long tours, endless recording sessions, but towards the end it was easy couldn't stand it anymore.

For 28 years (from 1975 to 2003) I composed, produced and played for and with the Swabian blues bard Wolle Kriwanek and put together a band for him that could be seen and heard throughout Germany. Unfortunately, my friend Wolle died unexpectedly at Easter 2003. I've been writing film music since 1979 and have had great success with it: I won the German Film Prize in 2001 in the film music category!

by Paul Vincent, Mai 2003

Tracks

1. Hallelujah / Signs Of Strange (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay, Wolfgang Fette) - 7:48

2. Z.I.P. (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay) - 4:33

3. The Winter Song (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay) - 6:28

4. English Rain (Paul Vincent Gunia) - 2:18

5. Mini Funk (Paul Vincent Gunia) - 0:47

6. Waterloo (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay) - 4:11

7. Friend (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay) - 6:46

8. Ode To A Little Knight (Paul Vincent Gunia, Keith Forsay, Wolfgang Fette) - 5:43

9. Jam And Toast (Paul Vincent Gunia) - 2:23

Hallelujah

*Paul Vincent Gunia - Guitars, Vocals

*Keith Forsay - Drums, Vocals

With

*Pete "Funk" Wood - Keyboards

*Rick Kemp - Bass

1973 Ralf Nowy - Lucifer’s Dream (2008 remaster)

1972/74 String Driven Thing - String Driven Thing / Please Mind Your Head (2006 issue)

1976 Michael Chapman - Savage Amusement ( 2015 remaster)

1969-72 Bridget St John - Dandelion Albums (2014 four disc box set)

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Thursday, May 9, 2024

Quintessence - Self (1972 uk, marvelous raga psych prog rock, 2008 bonus tracks remaster)

"Self" emerged a delight regardless, chiefly courtesy of the live second side that caught the band in full flight at Exeter University. Despite being just two songs long (""Freedom"" and ""Water Goddess""), the performance rolls back the years so effectively that the faintly workaday weight of side one is barely even relevant to the album's glory. There, of course, the band's customary blending of Indian mantra and jazzy heartbeats is as eclectic as ever, and the only downside is that the group has not really moved on from its original vision.

by Dave Thompson

Tracks

1. Cosmic Surfer - 3:49

2. Wonders Of The Universe - 4:13

3. Vishnu-Narain - 6:25

4. Hallelujad - 4:15

5. Celestial Procession - 1:20

6. Self - 3:08

7. Freedom - 6:44

8. Water Goddess - 14:26

9. You Never Stay The Same - 6:16

10.Sweet Jesus - 2:57

All compositions by Allan Mostert, Ronald Rothfield, Richard Vaughan, Jake Milton, Dave Codling, Phil Jones

Tracks 7,8 recorded live at Essex University, December 11, 1971

Bonus Tracks 9,10 from 45' single

Quintessence

*Allan Mostert - Lead Guitar

*Ronald Rothfield “Raja Ram” - Flute

*Richard Vaughan “Sambhu Babaji” - Bass

*Jake Milton - Drums

*Dave Codling "Maha Dev" - Rhythm Guitar

*Phil Jones "Shiva" - Vocals, Keyboards

With

*Simon Lanzon - Piano (Track 2)

1969-71 Quintessence - Spirits From Another Time (2016 double disc set)

1969-71 Quintessence - Move Into The Light The Complete Island Recordings (2017 double disc)

1972 Quintessence - Indweller (2008 remaster)

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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Sanctuary - Sanctuary (1971 us, magnificent jazzy psych art rock, 2022 remaster and expanded)

Reissue of a relatively obscure but rare US prog album from 1971. Sanctuary was based out of Kansas. They featured Erik Bikales on flute - he later went on to a popular career in the New Age genre. This is anything but that. Its a mix of original and cover tunes and frankly the covers are the most interesting part.

Beginning with “All In My Dreams,” the flute’s light and colorful timbre captures the ear, serving as a clarion call for all to follow and creating moments of majesty, as music and message seamlessly transform into one. Sanctuary’s interpretations of Yes’s “Time And A Word” and Edgar Winter’s “Winter’s Dream” are not mere covers. They are bright and bold musical statements, refusals to submit to the negativity of the times. Their unique take on these compositions, as well as their own, provides the kind of bright eyed anthems their generation’s voice needed to compete against the backdrop of war and social upheaval dominating the headlines."

Tracks

1. All In My Dreams (Roger Bruner) - 5:28

2. 1982A (Bill Champlin) - 3:58

3. Time And A Word (David Foster, Jon Anderson) - 4:54

4. Hard To Be (Roger Bruner) - 8:43

5. Winter's Dream (Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter) - 20:43

6. Things Get Better (Roger Bruner) - 6:40

7. Freedom Rider (James Capaldi, Stephen Winwood) - 5:32

8. Rainmaker (Harry Nilsson, Bill Martin) - 6:51

9. Magnificent Sanctuary Band (Roger Bruner) - 3:46

Bonus tracks 6-9

Sanctuary

*Eric Bikales - Keyboards, Flute, Recorder, Vocals

*Roger Bruner - Guitar, Vocals

*Dennis Loewen - Bass Guitar, Vocals

*Norman Weinberg - Drums, Percussion, Vocals

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Saturday, May 4, 2024

Don 'Sugar Cane' Harris - Fiddler On The Rock (1971-72 us, amazing avant garde jazz blues rock, feat. Harvey Mandel, 2007 digipak remaster with extra tracks)

Don “Sugarcane” Harris, from Pasadena, California was born in 1938, and by his teens was playing R&B guitar and violin with Dewey Terry under the name Don and Dewey. In the 60’s they separated, and Harris began to concentrate on electric blues violin. He made many appearances as a sideman, with artists such as John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Johnny Otis, John Lee Hooker and Little Richard. He is probably best remembered, though, for his work with Frank Zappa in the 1970’s, notably the grinding, take-no-prisoners rocking blues “Weasels ripped my Flesh”. Here he makes the most of his raw, shredding sound, frequent “harmonica” trills, tremelo and double stops. His playing can be fast and fluent, but is most effective on slow numbers, where his distinctive thin tone and shaky vibrato come across as vulnerable and sensitive. After a lengthy battle with pulmonary disease, on December 1, 1999 he was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment at the age of 61.

David Lindley (It's A Beautiful Day) referred to Sugar Cane as a “force of nature”, while Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, said “there are quite a few violinist on the scene, but Sugar Cane is the only true rock fiddler. His feeling, his phrasing, his timing, unreachable!”

Guitarist Randy Resnick, who played with Don in the band Pure Food and Drug Act (PFDA)in the 1970’s had this to say; “I never got chills in any other band like the ones I got when Don took off alone in a cadenza or when he and Paul did violin-drums duets. It was tribal, it was primitive and it was real music with all the faults that make us human. Don had a swing to his playing, a groove, a soulfulness that you don't hear anywhere else. No one plays with such gut-wrenching rawness, because musicians are trained to play "better".

"Fiddler On The Rock", released 1971 is a tripped-out batch of funk rock tracks – one of the biggest crossover successes of the MPS lable! Don Harris sings and plays violin – and he gets some very heavy backing by a trio that includes Harvey Mandel on guitar, wailing away with those slow choppy riffs that made him the west coast equivalent of Dennis Coffey's east of the Mississippi fuzzed-out guitar groove. Features the slow funk classic "The Pig's Eye", plus "No Inspiration", "The Buzzard's Cousin", and "Eleanor Rigby".

Tracks

1. Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 9:35

2. I'm Gonna Miss You - 4:48

3. The Buzzard's Cousin - 6:04

4. The Pig's Eye - 6:27

5. So Alone - 7:05

6. No Inspiration - 4:00

7. 'Till The Day I Die - 7:08

8. My Soul's On Fire (Victor Conte, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Paul Lagos, Harvey Mandel, Randy Resnick) - 4:12

9. Little Soul Food (Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Shuggie Otis) - 4:03

10.What Comes Around Goes Around (Victor Conte, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Paul Lagos, Harvey Mandel, Randy Resnick) - 4:21

11.Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 11:51

All compositions by Don "Sugarcane" Harris except where stated

Tracks 1-6 from the original album "Fiddler On The Rock" 1971

Tracks 7-11 from "Pure Food And Drug Act - Choice Cuts" 1972, recorded live at " The Fresh Air Tavern ", Seattle, Washington

Personnel

*Don "Sugarcane" Harris - Violin, Vocals

*Harvey Mandel - Guitar

*Larry Taylor - Bass (Tracks 1-6)

*Paul Lagos - Drums

*Randy Resnick - Rhythm Guitar (Tracks 7-11)

*Victor Conte - Bass (Tracks 7-11)

1968 Harvey Mandel - Cristo Redentor (2003 remaster and expanded)
1969-70 Harvey Mandel - Righteous / Games Guitars Play (2005 remaster)
1971 Harvey Mandel - Baby Batter (2016 remaster)
1972 Harvey Mandel - The Snake (2016 remaster)
1965-66 The Barry Goldberg Blues Band - Blowing My Mind ..Plus (2003 remaster and expanded)
1967 Charley Musselwhite - Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band
1968 The Barry Goldberg Reunion - There's No Hole In My Soul
1969 Barry Goldberg - Two Jews Blues (vinyl edition)
1967-73 Canned Heat - The Very Best Of (2005 issue with previous unreleased track)
1970 Canned Heat - Future Blues (remastered and expanded)
1971-72 Canned Heat - Historical Figures And Ancient Heads (extra track remaster issue)
1974 Love - Reel To Reel (2015 deluxe edition)

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Friday, May 3, 2024

Dragonwyck - Dragonwyck (1968/70 us, awesome rough fuzzy psych rock, 2008 edition)

In case you're wondering, Dragonwyck is the title of a 1944 historical romance by Anya Seton, made into a movie starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price. This Dragonwyck, on the other hand, was a psych band from Cleveland. Before taking on their eventual name, they called themselves Sunrise and recorded five songs in 1968 shortly after forming. Those tracks are included here as a bonus to the first Dragonwyck album, which dates from 1970 and includes refined versions of three of the Sunrise tunes. To a certain extent it shows that the musicians were quite young at the time, but from the start they show promise, operating in a realm of dark psychedelia with fuzz guitar and prominent keyboards.

Skip ahead to 1970 and you get a step up in virtually all respects: the recording quality is better, the playing is better, and they’ve refined their compositions. Only singer Bill Pettijohn and guitarist Tom Brehm remain from Sunrise, though they tend to define the sound, so there is continuity. Keyboards are expanded to include harpsichord in addition to organ. While I wouldn't exactly call this music proto-progressive, it's certainly headed in that direction. Unfortunately, the band never managed to find a sympathetic label to release their music, and only 85 LPs were pressed at the time.

Apparently the master tape was found, from which this reissue is taken. The band stuck at it until the mid 70s, recording two more albums' worth of material (also on World in Sound's slate).

by Jon Davis, Published 2007-03-01