Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

The BYRDS – ” Sweetheart Of the Rodeo ” Classic Album Released August 30th 1968

Posted: August 31, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo - Legacy Edition Vinyl 4LP (Record Store Day)

By the time “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo” was released in 1968, The Byrds had already changed the sound of rock music twice; from jangling folk-rock to experimental acid-rock, they constantly sought to push the boundaries of what rock music could be. The 1967 departure of David Crosby left a creative void filled quickly by country music-loving Gram Parsons, whose addition led Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and company to record an album comprised mostly of authentic country material in Nashville, with the aid of local session aces (including future Byrd Clarence White).

For the first time on vinyl—and on the heels of a 50th anniversary tour of the album by original members McGuinn and Hillman—this Legacy Edition of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo showcases this country-rock masterpiece alongside 28 bonus tracks, including demos, outtakes, rehearsal versions and tracks by Parsons’ pre-Byrds outfit, The International Submarine Band.

Fifty years after its creation, Sweetheart of the Rodeo looms as a cornerstone of country-rock and point source for alt-country and Americana, The Byrds’ most consequential stylistic stroke since the band’s pioneering folk-rock debut three years earlier. Yet when planning for the album began during the first months of 1968, the group was struggling against commercial headwinds and crippled by personnel changes, reduced to co-founder and lead guitarist Roger McGuinn and bassist Chris Hillman.

The duo was licking its wounds at the disappointing reception to the band’s fifth and most ambitious album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, which found them stretching to meet the high bar set by Sgt. Pepper. With its aggressive electronic edge and topical material reflecting political and cultural unrest, Notorious had earned them some of the best reviews of their career. By the time of its completion, however, internal dysfunction had boiled over, with McGuinn and Hillman firing David Crosby and drummer Michael Clarke. That album’s lead-in single, a wistful version of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “Goin’ Back,” had stalled after its October ’67 release.

By February, the two surviving members had drafted Hillman’s cousin, Kevin Kelley, as drummer and embarked on a trio tour that exposed their lack of firepower. With McGuinn and Hillman as the only signatories to a new Columbia Records contract, the plan was to proceed with hired sidemen. McGuinn, meanwhile, envisioned an even more ambitious full-length that would double down on Notorious’ scale by attempting a pan-generic survey of 20th century music.

Enter Gram Parsons. The Florida-born, Georgia-raised Parsons was a new kid in town seeking success with the International Submarine Band, whose debut album was weeks from release. Invited by Hillman to audition for the Byrds on piano, Parsons’ voice, guitar and original songs quickly established him as more versatile—and ambitious. Not content to be a mere hired hand, the charismatic Parsons lobbied for a shift away from McGuinn’s grand concept. Instead, Parsons pushed for a narrower focus highlighting the country elements he was already exploring with the ISB.

Not that the Byrds were strangers to country, especially Chris Hillman. As a teenager, he’d established himself as a mandolin player with Southern California bluegrass bands. As a Byrd, he had persuaded his bandmates to cover Porter Wagoner’s 1955 hit, “A Satisfied Mind,” and his Byrds debut as lead singer and songwriter came with “Time Between,” a brisk country shuffle on 1967’s Younger Than Yesterday. In Hillman, Parsons gained a crucial ally and future collaborator, and together they closed ranks with McGuinn around Sweetheart’s focal concept. With producer Gary Usher, they headed for Nashville and a week of March sessions reinforced by seasoned country session musicians. Subsequent Los Angeles sessions would follow in April and May.

Sweetheart’s opening track underlined the Byrds’ pivot from Hollywood to Music Row vividly. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” found them turning yet again to Bob Dylan for material, this time tapping into the bucolic spirit of the as-yet-unreleased Basement Tapes. In place of McGuinn’s signature Rickenbacker 12-string, the arrangement spotlighted Lloyd Green’s giddy pedal steel filigree, dancing between the vocals above a loping country beat. The album would close with another Basement Tapes gem, “Nothing Was Delivered,” but the set list otherwise leaned on country and folk material, plus a recent R&B ballad, William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water.”

Bell’s soulful weeper was tied to Parsons’ no-longer-hidden agenda in his Sweetheart input, a second draft for what he deemed “cosmic American music”—a junction of Southern idioms that prized both white country and black rhythm ’n’ blues. Vocal harmonies, pedal steel (by Jay Dee Maness) and honky-tonk piano (by Earl P. Ball) were anchored in Nashville, while Bell’s lyrics were pure Memphis, but Parsons’ original vocal ran afoul of protest from Lee Hazlewood and LHI Records, to which the International Submarine Band was signed. McGuinn tracked a new vocal lead in a compromise intended to quell the dispute.

The same fate befell several other Sweetheart tracks, most notably “The Christian Life,” an Ira and Charlie Louvin classic celebrating faith despite the loss of less devout friends. Parsons may have been a wealthy trust-fund kid and practicing libertine, but his reverent vocal featured here honoured the Louvins’ sincerity, nodding toward the axis of sin and soul shared by country and R&B. As heard on the finished album, McGuinn’s sarcastic drawl betrays his ambivalence, if not contempt, for the Louvins’ fervour.

The legal détente with Hazlewood and LHI over Parsons’ ISB obligations didn’t entirely erase him from the tracks. Most crucially, Parsons landed two original songs on the album. “Hickory Wind,” written with former ISB member Bob Buchanan, was a homesick reverie, a country waltz set against sighing fiddles and graced with gorgeous vocal harmonies. Parsons’ aching lead vocal projected weary vulnerability, alluding to worldly “riches and pleasures” that prove powerless against loneliness.

Parsons was less fortunate, however, with his second Sweetheart original, “One Hundred Years From Now,” another concession to LHI. Once more, McGuinn was pressed into service for the lead vocal, providing one of the set’s two mid-tempo rockers alongside “Nothing Was Delivered.”

Parsons’ lead vocals were retained for covers of Merle Haggard’s penitent “Life in Prison” and Luke McDaniels’ barroom lament, “You’re Still on My Mind,” clinching the newest Byrd’s prominence on Sweetheart.

Elsewhere on the album, McGuinn turned to Woody Guthrie for “Pretty Boy Floyd,” which cast the ’30s gangster as a Depression-era Robin Hood. Hillman, meanwhile, contributed the album’s other nod to country gospel, “I Am a Pilgrim,” and took the lead vocal on Cindy Walker’s “Blue Canadian Rockies.”

By the time “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” was released on August 30th, 1968, Parsons had left the group after refusing to play dates in South Africa. Hillman would soon follow him to join forces in the Flying Burrito Brothers, building on the “cosmic American” blueprint that would be further refined with Parsons’ solo albums with protégé Emmylou Harris.

Although other bands, including the Beatles, Lovin’ Spoonful, Buffalo Springfield and Monkees had nodded affectionately toward country, the Byrds had leaned into country too far, too soon, for Sweetheart, notching the lowest sales of any Byrds album to date: however, the project’s legacy would slowly reveal itself in a rising tide of country-rock full-lengths from the Burritos, Poco, ex-Byrd Gene Clark and, yes, the Byrds themselves, in a line-up now featuring Clarence White, whose nimble country guitar leads had been featured on the band’s studio albums since 1967.

The TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – ” Some Songs “

Posted: August 31, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man On Earth, is a Dylan successor if there ever was one. In fact, some music writers and fans may even feel his voice is a little too reminiscent of Dylan’s. His tendency to write music that’s more raw and stripped-down paired with his strained, gruff vocals make the comparison almost too obvious. But, then again, Matsson’s music is still something singular. Across five LPs and three EPs, the Swedish singer/songwriter and fingerpicker extraordinaire has charmed his way through folk circles and indie rock strongholds alike, positioning himself as one of the finest roots musicians working. Last year, he veered away from the strictly rustic style of his first four LPs in exchange for a more elaborate setup on I Love You. It’s A Fever Dream.: horn sections, electronic blips, atmospheric effects. But at the core of all his music is Matsson’s introspective song-writing sensibilities and his banjo (or guitar, depending on the song). In honour of one of the best artists in the world of indie folk, Matsson has a broad fanbase, but The Wild Hunt in particular has steadily acquired new fans and has aged especially gracefully over the last decade. Here are 10 of our favourite songs from his catalogue.

“Sagres”

While 2015’s Dark Bird Is Home is by and large a bit of a dark spot on Matsson’s otherwise untarnished discography, there are a few moments of reprieve within it. One of those is “Sagres,” a jangly folk-pop number that pays respect to Cape Sagres, a headland in the southwest of Portugal that’s nicknamed the “end of the road.” In the song, however, Matsson toils in the end of a relationship and starts to question everything, lamenting “It’s just all this fucking doubt,” at one exasperated point in the song.

“It Will Follow The Rain”

Matsson leans fully into his folklorist side on this cut from his self-titled debut EP. Mentioning mountains, valleys and lightning strikes, this song was just the tip of iceberg when it comes to The Tallest Man On Earth’s obsession with the natural world. Some of his best work references our Mother Earth, and this song in particular contains a hopeful, pastoral energy as Matsson compares life to the fleeting nature of a rainstorm.

“Little River”

His 2010 EP Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird contains some of Matsson’s best work, not least among it being “Little River.” If it weren’t for a rolling, quickened under-beat and a rather morose conclusion (“You just sing about your own death in your closet / You stumble out into the pitch-black hallway,” he sings at one point), it’d make the perfect lullaby.

“1904”

“1904” is undoubtedly one of the jammier songs across Matsson’s eight projects, benefitting greatly from an electric guitar groove. Apparently the song references a devastating earthquake that rocked Sweden and Norway in the titular year, but you needn’t have any knowledge of natural disasters to make sense of this pleasant folk-rock tune.

“Shallow Grave”

In all honesty, there isn’t much dispute among fans about which of the Tallest Man On Earth’s albums are best: 2008’s Shallow Grave and the proceeding The Wild Hunt (2010) are almost always going to come out on top. The title track from the former contains all the elements that make this pair of albums so interesting and listenable: a relentless banjo lick, existential ramblings and Matsson’s inimitable scratchy-throated cry. The narrator here is down-on-his-luck, and Matsson finds the most lyrically beautiful ways to convey this unrest: “I found the darkness in my neighbour / I found the fire in the frost / I found the season once claimed healthy / Oh, I need the guidance of the lost.” Following his debut album Shallow Grave in 2008, Matsson was invited to tour with indie-folk lord Bon Iver.

“Troubles Will Be Gone”

The human condition is one of constant searching and exhaustion. We have no assurance that things will be “OK,” as friends and family so often try to convince us. But, at the same time, their dedication to helping us believe everything will turn out alright is in itself proof that no matter what happens, life goes on, because we have loved ones around to see us through it. Matsson infuses a near-perfect banjo melody with this promise on “Troubles Will Be Gone”: “Well the day is never done / But there’s a light on where you’re sleeping / So I hope somewhere that troubles will be gone.” The Wild Hunt, his sophomore LP released on April 13th, 2010, Matsson makes the acoustic guitar sound like an orchestra on “You’re Going Back” and the banjo like a full-throttled band on “Troubles Will Be Gone,” a song about goodwill written in the verbal style of Robert Frost. The entire album is full of these tiny orchestras and miniature choirs—a sound few of Matsson’s contemporaries were able to recreate. But many folk artists who’ve arrived in years after The Wild Hunt have seemingly been taking notes. The like-minded Joan Shelley treats her acoustic guitar with a similar reverence, instrumental artist and former Silver Jews musician William Tyler probably learned a thing or two about pacing and rhythm from Matsson and Hiss Golden Messenger’s M.C. Taylor carries on the legacy of curving his sultry, lilting vocals into a style resembling Dylan, as do Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee, who share that same distinct vocal formula. The Wild Hunt gave proceeding indie-folk artists something to aspire to in terms of both authenticity and craft.

“I Won’t Be Found”

This is, technically speaking, a lovely display of Matsson’s talents. The cascade of banjo is enough to convince anyone to be on his side. But the lyrics, too, help you root for Matsson, as he projects plans for the future before realizing that, if he’s not focusing on the present, he might as well be asleep. “Well if I ever get that slumber / I’ll be that mole deep in the ground,” he sings. “And I won’t be found.”

“Burden of Tomorrow”

Who among us hasn’t fretted over what tomorrow will bring? Here, Matsson promises a partner he’ll be one less thing to worry about, while also acknowledging that while we can think about the future all we want, we truly have no clue what it will bring. We just have to meet it when it comes: “Oh but hell I’m just a blind man on the plains,” he sings over pristine guitar. “I drink my water when it rains / And live by chance among the lightning strikes.” Stylistically, The Wild Hunt isn’t all that different from the mystical, lean and perhaps even more lyrically forthright Shallow Grave. The Wild Hunt is only four minutes longer than Shallow Grave’s half-hour runtime, and like its predecessor, it only features a handful of instruments—never drums—and little to no production effects. Where Bon Iver may flirt with the occasional droning feedback and Marcus Mumford a thundering electric guitar solo, Matsson was strictly acoustic and, usually, strictly analogue. While he has a knack for layered wordplay in the vein of Dylan, rusticity was—and remains—his greatest strength. Kristian Matsson injected light and love into a form of music-making that was half-a-century old at this point, and he made it into something new, singular and sustainable. The Wild Hunt remains an aspirational album in that regard—few roots artists have managed to finesse such an act since.

“Love Is All”

“Love Is All” is The Tallest Man On Earth’s “hit”—and for good reason. It’s the perfect entry point into his catalogue and a damn good folk song in its own right. He recounts the dreadful end of a relationship, and, from the point of the listener, it sounds like he’s brusied beyond repair (“Love is all, from what I’ve heard, but my heart’s learned to kill”). But instead of dwelling on the lost “future” of this couplehood, he releases his regret: “Here come the tears / But like always, I let them go / Just let them go.” Further perfecting his tilted, Dylan-esque vocal delivery, Matsson (who, miraculously, learned English as his second language) spends the bulk of The Wild Hunt spitting out sturdy metaphors and basking in a pastoral wonderland. The album’s high points—including the back-to-back pair “King of Spain” and “Love is All,” easily two of his most popular singles to date—are the closest things you’ll ever hear to pop songs in The Tallest Man On Earth’s catalogue. The former expresses desire to pack up and start life over at a lover’s side on Spanish shores, while the latter is a kind of all-encompassing epic poem about the beauties and dangers of love. That may sound like a grandiose description, but Matsson has a way of making even the shortest folk song into something almost biblical. “Like a house made from spider webs and the clouds rolling in / I bet this mighty river’s both my saviour and my sin,” he sings on the spritely “Love is All.”

“The Gardener”

The Tallest Man on Earth’s “The Gardener” is a metaphorical story of hiding one’s ugliness to better be the apple of a lover’s eye. The verses are patterned a certain way, each a distinct scene recounting a figurative body buried, with the sort of subtle variations that keep you grasping always for the next lyric, imagining the garden you have made.

The ROLLING STONES – ” Goats Head Soup ” The Re-Issue

Posted: August 29, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Goats Head Soup” emerged from a period of deep uncertainty for the Rolling Stones. After their successful tour for Exile on Main Street, they’d splintered across the world; a few months later, in late 1972, they reconvened in Kingston, Jamaica, to cut a set of dark grooves that sounded like nothing they’d ever released. There were drony experiments (“Can You Hear the Music?”), strung-out ballads (“Coming Down Again”), and snarling rockers (“Dancing With Mr. D”).

Critics didn’t enjoy the change of direction. Atlantic Records disapproved of their choice for a lead single, wanting another ‘Brown Sugar’ instead of a ballad. It was the first in a series of misunderstandings that makes rediscovering GHS such a joy; ‘Angie’ sounds better than it ever has before in the 2020 remaster, as does everything else.

Did you know there were actually 3 different album designs proposed for Goats Head Soup – a (stuffed) goat’s head in soup (deemed too uncomfortable for some but used as an insert), the band depicted as centaurs: half-man, half-horse (mock up below – ended up being rejected) and finally the one you see today – the band enveloped in chiffon veils of various colours shot by David Bailey. Pink for Mick Jagger, black for Keith Richards, white for Charlie Watts, green for Bill Wyman and red for Mick Taylor.

The Rolling Stones have created a video for “All the Rage,” the third and final previously unavailable song from the newly released Goats Head Soup reissue.

Recorded in late 1972 during sessions in Kingston, Jamaica, “All the Rage,” embedded below, has shown up on bootlegs as “You Should Have Seen Her Ass.” But as Mick Jagger told UDiscoverMusic, he decided to pen some new words to get it ready for its first official airing.

“That’s like a very Rolling Stones rock track,” he said. “That wasn’t finished, it didn’t have a finished vocal or many lyrics, [so] I had to finish that one. But the guitar parts, I think, were all done. Might have added percussion, but that’s what you would have done anyway – [added] a bit more maracas and stuff afterwards.”

“[I]t’s in that mold,” Keith Richards added when informed of its similarity to “Brown Sugar.” “Certain songs seem to be either closely related, or cousins of one another. I’d forgotten about it until I heard it again, but yeah, it does come off to me, now you mention it, [as being] in the ‘Brown Sugar’ mold.”

The other two unearthed tracks on the Goats Head Soup reissue are “Criss Cross” and the Jimmy Page-fuelled “Scarlet.” Earlier in the week, Jagger revealed that, when the idea of including them was posed to him, he thought, “’They’re all terrible!’ That’s always my initial reaction, ‘They’re all useless!’ I mean, actually, I always liked the songs, but they weren’t finished.”

By the time he heard them cleaned up, however, the singer realized that “these three songs are all up there with the rest of the songs on this record.”

For the penultimate stop on the Rolling Stones’ 1973 European tour, they staged a pair of loose, swaggering sets in Brussels. They’d already played around 40 dates — but as showcased on Brussels Affair, a rare live album bundled in the new deluxe edition of Goats Head Soup, their energy was still at a peak.

“Toward the end of [listening to] it, I wondered what the rest of the band were on because things were really starting to rock at a ferocious pace,” guitarist Keith Richards recalled in a 2011 interview. “What’s interesting about these bootlegs is the band don’t know they’re being recorded, so they don’t give a shit, and they’re playing what they’re playing and you get a natural feel, you know?”

The LP documents the band at its scrappiest: Richards sounds like he’s on the verge of blowing out his voice during Exile on Main St.’s “Happy,” and frontman Mick Jagger is seemingly gasping for air on a brassy version of “Brown Sugar.” Throughout, including then-recently issued songs like “Angie” and “Dancing With Mr. D,” the Stones push forward with the relentless of a teenage garage band.

“We were hitting some very fast tempos,” Richards noted in the 2011 interview. “Mick was doing an incredible job. It didn’t faze him.”

It’s far from the Rolling Stones at their smoothest or most pristine, but the backing band — including keyboardist Billy Preston and a full horn section — offers a cinematic wrinkle to tracks like “Star Star” and “Street Fighting Man.”

With the “Goats Head Soup” reissue, the show is finally available in a (somewhat) more accessible physical format. The album was first released digitally in 2011 through Google Play Music and the Rolling Stones Archive website, followed in 2012 by limited-edition vinyl box sets (which cost at least $750) and a 2015 Japanese CD.

“Brussels Affair” is included on Goats Head Soup’s four-disc CD and vinyl box sets, along with rarities and alternate mixes. And if you trust Richards, the live set is essential listening. “I was impressed very much with the Brussels [show],” he said in 2011. “I’ve rarely heard the Stones that early on playing live and that well recorded.”

Goats Head Soup 2020 released Friday September 4th.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION – ” A Tree With Roots ” The Songs Of Bob Dylan

Posted: August 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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At the very beginning of their career, the North London Fairport Convention were often mistaken for an American band. This was largely due to their penchant for cover versions of songs by US singer-songwriters, primarily Bob Dylan. A good reason for a 2018 compilation is that it marks the 50th Anniversary since the original 12-track ‘Basement Tapes’ acetate of Dylan arrived in London. It was from this white label that Fairport Convention got “Million Dollar Bash” and Fairport splinter group, Fotheringay, took “Too Much of Nothing”. Manfred Mann scored a hit with “The Mighty Quinn”, Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger, “This Wheel’s On Fire” and, lest we forget, The Tremelos “I Shall Be Released”.

This new compilation of vintage covers of Bob Dylan’s work by Fairport Convention and their friends, “A Tree With Roots — Fairport Convention And The Songs Of Bob Dylan“, will be released on Island on 3rd August. It comes just ahead of the 2018 edition of the band’s celebrated Cropredy Festival, which takes place this year from 9th-11th August with Fairport themselves in the traditional headlining slot.

In their early days, before they developed their own song writing, Fairport were much given to covering the work of Dylan, one of their prime influences. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the American bard’s Basement Tapes acetate in London, from which the nascent English folk group took ‘Million Dollar Bash.’ It also offered up ‘Too Much Of Nothing’ to the Fairport splinter group Fotheringay.

Dylan was also responsible for Fairport’s one UK hit single, ‘Si Tu Dois Partir,’ their version of his ‘If You Gotta Go, Go Now’,’ written in 1964. It prompted an appearance by the band on Top Of The Pops and featured on their third album Unhalfbricking, spending two weeks at No. 21 on the UK singles chart.

That version is on A Tree With Roots along with such Dylan copyrights as ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune,’ ‘I’ll Keep It With Mine’ and the more widely-celebrated ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.’ Tracks by Fotheringay and Fairport’s former lead singer Sandy Denny are also included.

GOOD MORNING – ” Barnyard “

Posted: August 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Melbourne lo-fi rock duo Good Morning have built quite an impressive resume for themselves despite flying largely under the radar for much of their career. Melbourne’s slacker jangle pop outfit Good Morning join the Dinked series with their latest landing on exclusive wax with a poster insert.

The two high school friends have been making bright and breezy tunes together for almost a decade now, and ‘Barnyard’ hears them at their most melodic and attentive to the outside world. The pair recorded the album at Wilco’s Loft studio following a US tour, and is set for release in October.

They’ve had a consistent output of short albums, EPs and singles over the years, their song “Warned You” has become a veritable indie hit, and A$AP Rocky even sampled their song “Don’t Come Home Today” on his last album Testing. The duo’s new album “The Option” is largely devoid of the hazy psych trappings of their past, but it’s also their most sprawling and fully realized record to date.

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‘Barnyard’ sees Australian lo-fi slacker-indie duo Good Morning firmly settling into the laidback sound they brought us on 2019’s ‘Basketball Breakups’. This is an LP of off-kilter, gently strummed melodies and jangling lead guitar lines. Their influences come from the likes of Smog, Sebadoh, Pavement and the Flying Nun roster.
“The Option” includes 8 new rock songs by the band Good Morning.
Good Morning are played this time by Stefan Blair, John Considine, James Macleod & Liam Parsons.
released April 5th, 2019

based off the short film ‘cornerstone’ (2009) by Richard Ayoade taken from the album ‘The Option’ out now

DONOVAN – ” Sunshine Superman ” (1966)

Posted: August 27, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Sunshine Superman”, by Donovan The first single and title track from the album “Sunshine Superman“, released on this day in 1966. This was the first song that saw Donovan combine efforts with producer Mickie Most and arranger John Cameron. The trio kept working together through Donovan’s streak of hit albums in the late 1960s. Cameron plays the harpsichord on this track, and he came up with the idea of using both acoustic and electric bass, enlisting jazz bass player Spike Heatley and John Paul Jones.

Cameron: “The combination of double bass and bass guitar gave us, pre-synthesizers, a lot of depth and different textures at the bottom end.” John Paul Jones was at the time an in-demand musician and arranger, working with Most on recordings by Herman’s Hermits. The session also included one guitar player named Jimmy Page. A few years later Page and Paul Jones would form a band called Led Zeppelin.

Donovan wrote the song about his relationship with Linda Lawrence: “My tempestuous affair had started in the spring, had gone all the way through the summer, with me falling deeper and deeper in love with this girl who I realized – slowly – had a child and who had been with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones for two years and no marriage.

Lawrence left England for the sunny southern California, but the two reunited in 1970.

Donovan is multi-talented. This song is about how he was tripping while hanging out w/Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. The guitar player here is Jimmy Page. The bass player is John Paul Jones. Donovan also played w/The Jeff Beck Group. He is the other voice on Alice Cooper’s “Million Dollar Babies.” He did great folk, folk-rock, rock, blues, jazz, and even classical. He also had a great literature background, and his lyrics were very poetic.

PINEGROVE – ” Orange “

Posted: August 25, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Pinegrove have shared the studio version of their new song “Orange,” which centers around governmental inaction with regard to climate change. The song’s release follows an acoustic live performance of the song which the band shared a week prior.

Frontman Evan Stephens Hall explains in a press release: “‘Orange,’ a waltz about the climate crisis, was written on the day in 2020 that the photos of Oregon’s eerie, bloodshot sky circulated the internet. The song tries to balance outrage at those preventing progress politicians elected in good faith to protect us who instead believe themselves celebrities with the ethereal, almost dissociative feeling of being alive at the end of history.

The mirage on offer by today’s political theatre does nothing to assuage our concerns as we watch where the money actually goes: the American military, one of the single greatest global sources of fossil fuel emissions. So for all who have on one hand heard the desperate scientific prognosis, and on the other seen the already-weak promises on the campaign trail traded in for endless wars—it’s tough not to lose heart.

“This isn’t a song trying to convince anyone that climate change is real. It’s for people horrified at the government’s inaction to what we can all see with our own eyes. As this summer progresses, breaking all sorts of records across the northern hemisphere, and the conclusion sinks further into our collective gut, it’s essential for people with a microphone to start shouting, and in whatever way we can to affirm community, to step in and help one another cope in the absence of our government, and take seriously the need to organize for a better world.”

Pinegrove’s most recent studio album, “Marigold”, was released last year via Rough Trade Records.

Evan and the Gang come through with a wonderfully poignant song about our impending doom, wrapped in some of their most tasteful production, enchanting harmonies, and dynamic instrumentation yet

Released August 25th, 2021
2021, Pinegrove under exclusive license to Rough Trade Records Ltd

PERNICE BROTHERS – ” Spread The Feeling “

Posted: August 25, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Spread The Feeling” is the sixth or seventh studio LP by The Pernice Brothers. I’m honestly not sure. I don’t keep track. All I know is that if I play one song off each album at a gig, it’s a long show. Joe Pernice formed Pernice Brothers in Massachusetts with his brother Bob in 1997 when Joe was playing with his band the Scud Mountain Boys. The Scuds disbanded later that year, and Pernice Brothers became Joe’s main musical focus. Their debut release was the ’97 Monkey Suit 7” on Sub Pop Records, followed by the LP “Overcome by Happiness” in ’98.
Pernice & Linehan launched their Ashmont Records in ’99

I recorded a full length Pernice Brothers record a few years back, but ditched it after it was mixed. Scrapping it had everything to do with me not liking the songs. The playing, the recording and mixing were fantastic to my ears. After letting the mixes sit for a while . But there were a couple songs that were really good and deserved to be saved, unlike my soul. I holed up with engineer/musician extraordinaire Liam Jaeger in Toronto, and we reworked/mixed the songs worth the time. Then we kept recording new songs until “Spread The Feeling” was done. (I am toying with releasing all my rejected recording on a double CD called SHITTY SONGS.

Eric Menck came up with the title. I think it was a peanut butter ad campaign slogan.

I don’t know if “Spread The Feeling” is a return to some kind of form. That’s for other people to decide. To be honest, I write all kinds of songs all the time. It might come down to my mood at the time as to which songs make a record. This record definitely has the most “muscle” of all my records. (That’s not saying much if you compare it to say, PINE BOX by the Scud Mountain Boys.) The playing is pretty nuts. Liam Jaeger and James Walbourne are two of the finest guitarists out there. Peyton Pinkerton is a true genius. It should be no surprise to learn that he’s an exceptional painter. All three players wowed me at every turn. Both Patrick Berkery and Ric Menck played drums. They are as good as it gets in my opinion. Neko Case and Pete Yorn were extremely generous with their voices. I’m grateful to both for elevating the songs. Oh, and my brother Bob is on there too, as always.

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The record was recorded and mixed in Boston, Toronto and Washington State.

What’s the single? Probably “The Devil And The Jinn” or “Mint Condition” or “Lullaby.” I have my favourite songs, but they are almost never the ones most people like. For instance, this song didn’t make the cut, but the chorus is pretty badass:

The cover photo was snapped in the early 1970s by late great BMX team owner Rick Twomey. Team member Mel Stoutsenberger launches out of the concrete flood channel into the Simi Valley heat. Rick’s Bike Shop team members and local talent look on in with admiration, chomping at the bit for their turn. Just a bunch of kids hanging out, getting rad, spreading the feeling. Joe Pernice

All songs by Joe Pernice,

TY SEGALL – ” Harmoniser “

Posted: August 19, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Harmonizer

Ty Segall has a new album titled “Harmonizer” that he has just foisted upon the world. The album, his first since 2019’s great “First Taste”, was made at Ty’s new Haronizer studios and co-produced by Cooper Crain. Members of Ty’s Freedom Band — Ben Boye, Mikal Cronin, Emmett Kelly, and Charles Moothart — all appear on the album, as does Ty’s wife, Denée Segall, who co-wrote two of the songs and sings lead on “Feel Good.” She also shot the album’s cover

The surprise new album Harmonizer which he has also released via Drag City Records. The album sees Segall’s sound continue to evolve into a new and unexpected territory. The album sees him lean further into synth production as well as bets, keyboard textures as well as of course guitars. It’s the first recording of Ty’s to be released from Ty’s newly-completed Harmonizer Studios . It’s his first album in forever (two years)! ty glides smoothly into a wild area with a synthtasm of production redesign, dialling up a wealth of new guitar and keyboard settings.

Again, Segall does what HE likes to do. This unexpected album just came out of the blue without any marketing promo. It’s a characteristic Segall record. Some Black Sabbath styled drones, some fuzzing and buzzing stompers, some hazy psycherazza and his partner Denée singing a track called ‘Feel Good’ (she also wrote the lyrics). Yep, it’s Ty by numbers, but his numbers are as usual pretty good.

A seething statement of emotional austerity, harmonizer enraptures the ear, while enabling ty to cut through dense undergrowth, making groove moves for the body, mind and soul. ty glides smoothly into unexpected territory, right where he likes to find himself! responding to the challenge his new songs gave him: a synthtastic production redesign, Ty kicks back with bottom-heavy creativity, dialling up a wealth of guitar and keyboard settings to do the deed. “Harmonizer” is a glossy, barely-precedented sound for him, and truth, it enraptures the ear — but in Ty’s hands, the sound is also a tool that allows him to cut through dense undergrowth, making for some of his cleanest songs and starkest ideas to date. Harmonizer’s production model couches tightly-controlled beats in thick keyboard textures, with direct-input guitar signal whining and buzzing purposefully from left to right. the Freedom band appear all over the record, but often one at a time, their contributions leaving a distinctive footprint on the proceedings wherever they appear.

Operating in this airtight environment with an eye towards precision, feel, and explosive mass, Ty’s crafted a formidable listening encounter — and once you get between the lines, the need to know more grows more compelling with every song. the thing about closed doors is they need opening again, no matter what happens. you open them and then you can pass through them. and there’s light on the other side. that’s what this album is about. the first recording to be released from Ty’s just-completed Harmonizer studios, Harmonizer benefits from a collaboration with Cooper Crain, who co-produced the album with Ty. the venn diagram of these guys unites them in diy/punk dyed-in-the-wooldom; Ty’s propers you know, but cooper’s own unique journey in rhythm, minimalism and diy (as heard on his productions with cave, bitchin bajas and jackie lynn) mines the depths around Ty’s peerless vocal attack and aid in the latest chapter of his never-ending search for unfathomably corrosive guitar sounds. spoiler alert: they found some more! bursting with transcendent energy, harmonizer is an extension of the classic style of emotional mugger and sleeper, revisiting the lonely days and loathsome nights of the alienated, grown-up-wrong soul, to make it all right in the end.

Ty Segall will take The Freedom Band on a USA West Coast tour, and has dates with his proto-metal-inspired trio Fuzz in 2022. 

PENTANGLE – ” The Pentangle ” Classic Folk Albums

Posted: August 4, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Pentangle are to have three of their first four albums, along with a 1970s compilation, reissued on deluxe heavyweight vinyl.

As a result of new deal with US specialist label Renaissance Records, the band’s 1968 debut album “The Pentangle”, 1969’s ‘breakthrough’ third album “Basket Of Light” and 1970’s fourth album “Cruel Sister”, are all to be reissued, along with the 1973 compilation album “Pentangling“.

The third full length studio album, “Basket Of Light” was released in 1969 and was their most commercially successful. The song Light Flight became a popular hit single after it was placed as the theme song for the television series “Take Three Girls“. The album reached No. 5 on the UK album charts. the peak of The Pentangle’s long career.

“The Pentangle” was the 1968 debut album of the band featuring John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary song writing. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British Folk scene, with several solo albums each and a duet release “Bert And John”. Their use of complex inter-dependent guitar parts, referred to as Folk Baroque, had become a distinctive characteristic of their music. The two also shared a house in St John’s Wood London.

Jacqui McShee had begun as an (unpaid) “floor singer” in several of the London Folk Clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Surrey, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. Thompson and Cox were well known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner’s band Although nominally a ‘folk’ group, the members shared catholic tastes and influences. McShee had a grounding in traditional music, Cox and Thompson a love of jazz, Renbourn a growing interest in early music, and Jansch a taste for the blues and contemporaries such as Bob Dylan.

The Pentangle by British folk-jazz band The Pentangle available on 180 gram vinyl

Pentangle started out in 1967 with the original line-up of Jacqui McShee (vocals), John Renbourn (vocals and guitar), Bert Jansch (vocals and guitar), Danny Thompson (double bass), and Terry Cox (drums). The band’s unique sound was an eclectic mix of folk, jazz, blues, and rock influences. “They did bring together these elements, rather like a rock supergroup, like Cream, except they came from folk and jazz backgrounds rather than blues and rock”

Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records and their eponymous debut album was released in May 1968. This all-acoustic album was produced by Shel Talmy, who has claimed to have employed an innovative approach to recording acoustic guitars to deliver a very bright “bell-like” sound.

June of that year they performed at Royal Festival Hall in London. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, “Sweet Child” (released in November 1968), a double LP comprising live and studio recordings.

“They didn’t have a long time together, but particularly with their first album, They weren’t big on the loud and more rhythmic sense of it, but they did bring together these elements, rather like a rock supergroup, like Cream, except they came from folk and jazz backgrounds rather than blues and rock.

“I think they were important and they were much respected, particularly in America.”

Renaissance Records will start with the release of their debut album, “The Pentangle”, “Basket Of Light” and “Cruel Sister” onto deluxe 180g gram vinyl in late August of 2021. The remaining greatest hits album, “Pentangling” will be released in September of 2021. These albums will include extra incentives such as trading cards of the original band members, lyric sheets, lost photos, and more when you purchase them exclusively with Renaissance Records.

Basket Of Light by British folk-jazz band The Pentangle available on 180 gram vinyl

“Basket of Light” is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached no. 5 on the UK Albums chart. A single from the album, “Light Flight”, the theme from BBC1’s first colour drama series Take Three Girls, reached no. 43 on the UK Singles chart. Another single from the album, “Once I Had a Sweetheart”, reached no. 46 in the charts. 180 gram deluxe package features gatefold, trading cards, photos, lyric sheets and more. “Basket of Light”, which followed in mid-1969, was their greatest commercial success. By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film “Tam Lin” making at least 12 television appearances, and undertaking tours of the UK (including the Isle of Wight Festival) and America (including a concert at the Carnegie Hall).

“They had the tag of being folk jazz at the time but in fact their influences were very broad. In a way they were the first super group of unlikely musicians that came from backgrounds not conventionally allied.

Cruel Sister by British folk-jazz band The Pentangle available on 180 gram vinyl

“Cruel Sister” was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band The Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs. Whereas their previous album had been produced by Shel Talmy and featured quite a heavily produced, commercial sound, “Cruel Sister” was produced by Bill Leader, noted for his recordings of folk musicians. 180 gram deluxe gatefold vinyl.

Package features trading cards, lost photos and lyric sheets. Each of the five LPs released during Pentangle’s first and best period is a different shade of brilliant, deceptively showcasing the talents of its instrumentalists (guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox), who gave the perfect framework for vocalist Jacqui McShee to gently break hearts and warm souls. As all good boxed sets do, this new Cherry Red Records collection graciously expands the original albums within. Tacked on to the end of each disc is a smattering of studio outtakes, alternate versions and live material, much of it unreleased until now. The CD of Pentangle’s 1971 LP “Reflection” also includes a few tracks from Renbourn’s solo album “Faro Annie”, which featured Cox and Thompson. All of it provides an essential glimpse for anyone interested in the history of the U.K. folk scene.

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