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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

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Thursday, September 26, 2019

Guy Clark - Texas Cookin' (1976 us, remarkable outlaw country rock, 2016 japan remaster)



Guy Clark's sophomore effort sounds more like a party of friends who got together to pick together on a Saturday night that it does a sensitive singer/songwriter outing. Essentially that's what it is, coming as it did at the height of the outlaw movement fever. Recorded at Chips Moman's American Studios in Nash Vegas, there is no producer listed on the set, so you can assume Clark did it himself with the aid of his many compadres here, who include but are not limited to Emmylou Harris, Susanna Clark, Johnny Gimble, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hoyt Axton, Waylon Jennings, Tracy Nelson, Brian Ahern, Mickey Raphael, Rodney Crowell, David Briggs, and Chip Young. 

Songwise, Clark's on a roll here; first there's the wooly party tune, "Texas Cookin'," that celebrates the Lone Star State's particular ability to make their food taste good with beer, and then there's the stunning "Anyhow I Love You," with Emmylou, Waylon, and Crowell accompanying Clark as a chorus. Jennings' harmony singing here is the best he did in his career. There's the mid-tempo "Good to Love You Lady" with Walker, Axton, Crowell, and Harris singing in a smoky contralto, an honest to goodness country song, baring its fiddles, pedal steel, and a trio of acoustic guitars to carry those rough and sweet voices through the story. And while the up-tempo tunes here are wondrously raucous fare, Clark's strength as a ballad writer is almost unequaled among his peers. 

Nowhere is this more evident than on "Broken Hearted People" (since retitled for the refrain, "Take Me to a Barroom"). Clark's version of the song lacks any sentimentality. He is one of the tune's subjects; his resignation is to spend his mourning days on a barstool after discovering a lover's faithlessness, but he's already wasted and can't even get there under his own power. His devastation is only eclipsed by his desperation: "Take me to a barroom driver/Set me on a stool/If I can't be her man, I'm damned/If I'll be her fool." In addition, Clark's "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" is a signature song, like his "Randall Knife" or "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train." It's a song; it's a story; it's a movie with acoustic guitars a bass, a cello, finger cymbals, and Waylon. Chilling, stirring, and unforgettable, just like the album itself. 
by Thom Jurek


Tracks
1. Texas Cookin' - 3:49
2. Anyhow, I Love You - 3:55
3. Virginia's Real - 3:00
4. It's About Time - 4:56
5. Good To Love You Lady - 5:03
6. Broken Hearted People - 4:45
7. Black Haired Boy - 3:10
8. Me I'm Feelin' The Same - 3:32
9. The Ballad Of Laverne And Captain Flint - 3:54
10.The Last Gunfighter Ballad - 2:52
All songs by Guy Clark excpet track #7 co written with Susanna Clark

Musicians
*Guy Clark - Vocals, Guitar
*Mike Leach - Bass
*Jerry Kroon - Drums
*Larrie Londin - Drums
*Chip Young - Guitar
*Brian Ahern - Guitar
*Lea Jane Berinati - Keyboards, Piano, Background Vocals
*David Briggs - Clarinet, Piano, Keyboards, Clavinet, Background Vocals
*Chuck Cochran - Piano
*Charlie Bundy - Bass, Background Vocals
*Susanna Clark - Background Vocals
*Sammi Smith - Background Vocals
*Hoyt Axton - Background Vocals
*Tracy Nelson - Background Vocals
*Nicolette Larson - Background Vocals
*Rodney Crowell - Guitar, Background Vocals
*Johnny Gimble - Fiddle
*Pete Grant - Dobro, Pedal Steel Guitar
*Emmylou Harris - Background Vocals
*Jack Hicks - Banjo
*Chris Laird - Drums, Percussion, Finger Cymbals
*Mike Leech - Bass, String Arrangements
*Waylon Jennings - Guitar, Harmony Vocals
*Steve Keith - Fiddle
*Chips Moman - Guitar
*Mickey Raphael - Harmonica
*Danny Roland - Guitar, Background Vocals
*Tommy Williams - Fiddle
*Byron Bach - Cello
*Jerry Jeff Walker - Guitar, Background Vocals

1975  Guy Clark - Old No1 (2016 japan remaster) 

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Saturday, September 21, 2019

Devil's Kitchen Band - Been A Long Time Coming, Be A Long Time Gone (1969-70 us, fantastic west coast psych jam blues rock, 2018 digi pak release)


Back in the 1 960S, Carbondale, Illinois was a lively college town. There were
lots of local bars that featured live rock bands. If you were a student, a rock 'n roll musician, and, you had a gig at one of those bars, you could cover most of your college expenses - tuition, books, room & board - playing once or twice a week. Students would often spend an evening drinking and dancing to live music after heading out to their favorite local road house. It was the dancing that set the tone, the drive, and it got folks up on their feet. Motown, Memphis, Soul, Blues, and the occasional grungy rock & roll cover tune filled the night air in funky road houses.

Discovering new music by British bands like Traffic, The Who, The Yardbirds, and eventually American groups like Jefferson Airplane and Butterfield Blues Band, rarely heard on top-forty commercial radio, after a while started making the bar gigs feel more like... work. And fanning desires for better, hipper, more artful scene were. tales told by friends and lucky classmates returning from school breaks and summer adventures in San Francisco.

The rock band; that became Devil's Kitchen began in Carbondale in 1967. Robbie, Brett, Steve, and Bucky, a 16-year-old bass player still in high school, started a band they called *OM", after the sacred cosmic Sanskrit syllable. The group planned to migrate to San Francisco at the end of the 1967-68 school year and join the party in progress, but unfortunately for Bucky, his parents said "No!". A Southern Illinois University design student then studying with the other Bucky (University Professor R. Buckminster Fuller) would be soon be graduating, so then Bob joined the group as the new bass player.

Driving west in a vintage VW Bus and arriving in San Francisco in June of 1968, band *OM" soon found there wets three other Bay Area bands already tuned in to the same cosmic vibe and featuring names like Om, Aum, or Ohm. So "OM" decided to name themselves after Devil's Kitchen Lake, a popular weekend retreat just a few miles outside of Carbondale. Devil's Kitchen had come to San Francisco well prepared, with dozens of compelling, original songs and arrangements and a level of musicianship that was up to the high energy demands of the San Francisco rock scene. They very quickly joined the legendary Chet Helms' Family Dog Productions as the "house band" at The Great Highway ballroom, and evolved into a killer psychedelic jam improvising those extended, dynamic, layered, energetic performances that were in tune with the San Francisco hippie scene. 

Far out! Groovy! Wish you could have been there! If you were there ... Hello, old friend!
Enjoy this live blast from the past.
CD Liner Notes


Tracks
1. Mellow Pot Blues (Buster Bennett) - 3:56
2. Earthfields - 9:28
3. Dust My Blues (Elmore James, Robert Johnson) - 5:16
4. All In A Daze Existence - 7:03
5. Farm Bust Blues - 10:42
6. City - 3:58
7. Mourning Glory - 4:52
8. To Love Somebody (Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb) - 3:59
9. Shadowbird - 5:43
10.Short Haired Woman (Sam Lightnin' Hopkins) - 7:34
11.Things On My Mind - 4:38
12.Head On Right - 3:21
All songs by Brett Champlin, Robbie Stokes, Bob Laughton, Steve Sweigart except where indicated

Devil's Kitchen Band
*Robbie Stokes - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Brett Champlin - Guitar, Vocals
*Bob Laughton - Bass, Vocals
*Steve Sweigart - Drums

1969  Devil's Kitchen - Devil's Kitchen (2011 Vinyl issue) 

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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Rumplestiltskin - Rumplestiltskin (1970 uk, impressive hard blues classic rock, 2007 remaster)



An abiding childhood memory for many people around the world is the strange story of Rumplestiltskin. Who was this creature and what possible connection could he have with the world of music? Well, Rumplestiltskin was a passionate, deformed dwarf of German folklore. Remember the miller's daughter, ordered by the King to spin straw into gold? The dwarf offered to achieve this miracle on her behalf, as long as she promised to give him her first child. The maiden married the king and grieved so much when their child was born, that the dwarf promised to relent if she could guess his name. A servant tipped off the maiden and when the child was saved, Rumplestiltskin killed himself in a fit of demented rage. 

But whence came the mysterious group that adopted this curious name? Did they yearn to spin their records into pure gold? It's most likely they had this firmly in mind. After all, 'Rumplestiltskin' was the idea of a successful record producer, and those who would do his bidding were all top British session players. Alas, their golden schemes came to nought, but at least they produced a splendid album that has since gone into rock folklore.

Shel Talmy was an American born producer resident in London during the Swinging Sixties. Talmy was closely involved with The Who, The Kinks, The Easvbeats and many other top groups. As a busy producer, he appreciated the benefits of using session players as they could save him time and money. Groups had all the ideas, but often their guitar players and drummers were inexperienced youngsters who found it difficult to cope with studio demands.Talmy would call in reinforcements, when he needed guys who could read music and quickly grasp the arrangements.

The contributions of his anonymous session men were usually a closely puarded secret. Nevertheless, the producer grew to admire the hard working studio stalwarts and that's probably what gave Shel the idea forming a new kind of'super group'. It would give the professional musicians a chance to shine in their own right. Except that, like the mythical prototype, their names could only be revealed by guesswork. Once again, 'Rumplestiltskin' became the centre of a spinning web of intrigue.

The musicians chosen for the enterprise were all top line players. The line up comprised Peter Charles Green (Vocals), Alan Parker (Guitar), Alan Hawkshaw (Keyboards), Herbie Flowers (Bass) And Clem Cattini (Drums). "We all had a great laugh in the studio," recalls Clem Cattini, recalling the events of some 36 years ago. "We were all session men, but the idea was to form our own supergroup. It was Shel's idea to call it Rumplestiltskin and we all played under assumed names, because the BBC wouldn't play our record if they thought it was by session men. So I went under the name of 'Rupert Baer'."

Peter Charles Green was actually Peter Lee Stirling, a singer/songwriter who subsequently enjoyed an international hit single under the name of 'Daniel Boone' with 'Beautiful Sunday' in 1972. He had previously sung in the group Hungry Wolf, that also featured Clem Cattini, Herbie Flowers, Alan Hawkshaw and Alan Parker, and recorded an album for Philips in 1970. Alan Parker as one of the top session guitarists of the day who played the solos on records by all sorts of artists, from Status Quo to David Bowie. Says Clem: "Alan Parker and I worked with Lulu as her backing band at 'The Talk Of The Town' in the West End, with John Paul Jones on bass and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Alan Hawkshaw wrote loads ofTV material, including the theme for Channel 4's 'Countdown'. Herbie Flowers used to play with John Williams in a group called Sky.

He also wrote 'Grandad', a big hit for Clive Dunn." Clem believes that Shel Talmy brought them together to see if they could compete with the heavy rock groups like Led Zeppelin and Status Quo. "We did a  helluva lot of work with Shel and he wanted to get this supergroup going, without being facetious. He had a lot of faith in us. But we never got a hit, and this was the only record we made. We recorded the album at Pye and did one 'live' gig at the Marquee Club in Soho. It was a great band and Alan Parker was a superb guitar player. He played on Donovan's big hit 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' and so did I.You read that it was Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham on the record, but that's completely wrong. The  trouble was, nobody knew who we were. But I was one of the original rock'n'rollers." Clement Cattini was born in Stoke Newington, London August 20, 1937. His father emigrated to England from Italy in the early 1900s and began a career in the restaurant trade. Thanks to flat feet, Clem escaped National Service with the Army, the fate of most British teenagers in the 1950s. He was able to enjoy life as a rock'n'roller and became was one of the U.K.'s first professional pop and rock drummers.

He started playing aged 18 and joined Terry Kennedy's Rock'n'Rollers. They had the extraordinary experience of touring with legendary British comedian Max Wall in 1957. "Max was doing a Bill Haley skit in his show and we had to back him," recalls Clem. "He was a fabulous guy and so funny. I used to watch him every night." After touring with Max, the band backed pop idol Terry Dene and were known as the Dene Aces. They appeared in Terry's movie 'The Golden Disc'. Clem: "I was in the film as a smiling youth. I get ribbed quite a lot about that when it's shown on TV. But I'm so glad I was involved in that era."

After playing for Terry Dene, Clem worked on the Larry Parnes package shows, backing Billy Fury, Duffy Power and Johnny Gentle. He then joined Johnnv Kidd and the Pirates who had a Number One hit in 1960 with 'Shaking All Over'. "I'd had a enough working for £20 a week for Larry Parnes, so I left him and got the job with Johnny Kidd. We recorded 'Shakin' All Over', which was my first Number One. The guy who played the guitar solo on the record was Joe Moretti. He used to lidiiy diuund the 2I's Coffee Dai in Soho. Our regular guittiiist was too nervous to do a solo, so we asked Joe if fancied making a record — as you do. Joe now lives in South Africa. Just before he died, George Harrison told me at a party that 'Shakin' All Over' was one of his favourite records, and he was surprised when I told him who had actually played the famous solo." Clem left the Pirates when Johnny Kidd's touring schedule dried up and answered an advert to join a session group put together by producer Joe Meek. 

The group turned out to be The Tornados who promptly had a Number One hit in America in 1960 with the instrumental 'Telstar'. Despite his success with The Tornados and The Honeycombs, Joe Meek suffered from personal and business worries, and on February 3, 1967, Meek took out a shotgun and killed his landlady, before turning the gun on himself. Once he had recovered from this shocking tragedy, Clem went back to work and joined successful vocal group The Ivy League that led to endless 'demos' sessions for different acts. "That's how I got into session work and ended up playing on the master discs. I was lucky because I was one of the few session men who could play rock'n'roll."

During a career lasting 23 years, Clem played on 43 Number Ones, including Tony Christie's '(Is This The Way) To Amarillo', the smash hit so successfully revived in 2005. Cattini still plays 'live' gigs with a revived version of The Tornados. In 2006 the group was looking forward to playing on a special show to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Joe Meek's death, in February 2007, also due to include John Leyton, Cliff Bennett and The Honeycombs. But the big question remains — could Rumplestiltskin have made it as a successful supergroup? Says Clem: "Quite possibly, because the band had some great musicians. Who knows? I might got have finally got my swimming pool!"
by Chris Welch, London, England, February 2007


Tracks
1. Make Me Make You (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Peter Charles Green) - 6:08
2. Poor Billy Brown (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Peter Charles Green) - 8:10
3. Knock On My Door (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Peter Charles Green) - 2:46
4. No One To Turn To (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Peter Charles Green) - 3:36
5. Mr Joe (Witness For The Defence) (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker) - 6:43
6. Pate De Foie Gras (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker) - 2:58
7. Rumplestiltskin (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Clem Cattini, Herbie Flowers) - 3:20
8. Squadron Leader Johnson (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker, Peter Charles Green) - 5:00

Rumplestiltskin
*Peter Charles Green - Vocals
*Alan Parker - Guitar
*Alan Hawkshaw - Keyboards
*Herbie Flowers - Bass
*Clem Cattini - Drums

1972  Rumplestiltskin - Black Magician (2011 hard sleeve remaster edition with extra track) 
1970  Hungry Wolf - Hungry Wolf 
Related Acts
1956-66  Johnny Kidd And The Pirates - The Best Of (2008 two disc set) 
1969  The Pandamonium - The Unreleased Album (2004 release)
1969  P.J. Proby - Three Weeks Hero
1970  Bob Downes Open Music - Electric City (2007 japan remaster)
1972  Tennent Morrison - Tennent Morrison  

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Thursday, September 12, 2019

Trapeze - Trapeze (1970 uk, great debut classic rock with glam flashes, 2004 remaster with bonus tracks)



Trapeze were the first act signed by the Moody Blues to their newly founded Threshold Records label, and remain the most substantial talent -- along with Nicky James -- ever to pass through that company's roster, apart from the Moodies themselves. Those listeners who only know the subsequent albums by Trapeze may be surprised by this debut effort, the sole recording left behind by the original five-piece version of the band. With Moody Blues bassist John Lodge producing a lineup that included ex-Montanas lead singer John Jones and guitarist/keyboardist Terry Rowley alongside singer/guitarist Mel Galley, bassist Glenn Hughes, and drummer Dave Holland, late of Finders Keepers, the sounds here don't closely resemble the hard-rocking work of the subsequent trio -- there are lush choruses, psychedelic interludes, and hook-laden romantic ballads scattered throughout this record. 

Yet that trio, of Hughes, Galley, and Holland, is pumping out high-energy music within the context of psychedelic pop/rock throughout this album, which comes off as a much higher-wattage alternative to the Moody Blues. And in some respects, this album also closely resembles the better moments on those three early Deep Purple albums (the ones with Rod Evans on lead vocals), when they were essentially a hard rock outfit still playing pop/rock -- the results aren't bad and, in fact, are quite catchy at times, but it's clear that three of these musicians are holding back to one degree or another in these surroundings. Galley's high-energy leads and power chords and Hughes' already larger-than-life bass are the dominant sounds about 60 percent of the time, overpowering much around them, with songs like the Galley/Jones-composed "Fairytale" and Hughes-authored "Am I" pointing the way to their future sound -- and even on Rowley's rock ballad "Send Me No More Letters," Holland is playing drums about as hard as the music will permit. 

The core trio does find a good compromise with Rowley and Jones' more lyrical, psychedelic pop sensibilities, and Trapeze probably could have held this sound together longer than they did but for Jones' and Rowley's departures. But it's also clear that there was another band trying to break out from within the sound of this lineup, which happened later in the year when Trapeze were reduced to a trio. 
by Bruce Eder


Tracks
1. It's Only A Dream (Mel Galley) - 0:43
2. The Giant's Dead Hoorah! (Glenn Hughes) - 3:32
3. Over (John Jones, Mel Galley) - 3:37
4. Nancy Gray (Glenn Hughes) - 2:47
5. Fairytale - Verily Verily - Fairytale (John Jones, Mel Galley) - 7:40
6. It's My Life (John Jones, Mel Galley) - 2:48
7. Am I (Glenn Hughes) - 3:07
8. Suicide (John Jones, Mel Galley) - 4:50
9. Wings (Glenn Hughes, Terry Rowley) - 3:28
10.Another Day (Mel Galley, Glenn Hughes, John Jones) - 2:36
11.Send Me No More Letters (Terry Rowley) - 4:33
12.It's Only A Dream (Mel Galley) - 0:37

Trapeze
*Glenn Hughes - Bass, Guitar, Piano, Trombone, Lead Vocals
*Mel Galley - Lead Guitar, Bass
*Dave Holland - Drums
*Terry Rowley - Organ, Guitar, Piano, Flute
*John Jones - Trumpet, Vocals

1970  Trapeze - Medusa (2008 remaster)
1974  Trapeze - Hot Wire (2015 remaster)
1975  Trapeze - Trapeze (2015 remaster)
1975  Trapeze - Live At The Boat Club

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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Pandemonium Shadow Show (1968-70 uk, impressive heavy psych prog rock, 2019 release)



Pure late 60s UK psychedelic sound with early prog moves, plenty of Hammond and fuzzed out guitar, powerful vocals…Including such lost gems as the Barrett-Floyd sounding ‘The World Whistles By’, killer psych-rockers like ‘Pandemonium Shadow Show’ or ‘Doris The Piper’, the mellotron fuelled ‘October Country’ and more!

Unlike other ’60s British bands who changed their music to “psychedelic” or “progressive” with the time, MPS were born “progressive” from day one. Formed in 1967 in Walthamstow (London) by a core of art school students, their members were Brian Engel, Martin Briley, Paula Riordan, Martin Hooker and Barry Nightingale (later replaced by David Potts).

During their short lifespan (’67-70), MPS supported big names like Pink Floyd, The Nice or Vanilla Fudge. They played at The Isle Of Wight Festival, had a residence at the Star Club in Germany and ran their own club night (Asgard).

Signed to the Parlophone label (though the band was aiming to be part of the more progressive Harvest imprint) they released in ’69 the ‘Strange Walking Man’ 45, recorded at Abbey Road and now widely considered a lost British psychedelic classic (check Rubbles, Perfumed Garden, etc). Due to lack of promotion and interest from their record label, the 45 went nowhere. After some line-up changes and shortening their name to just Mandrake, the band definitively split in 1970.

Pandemonium Shadow Show collects studio recordings registered by Mandrake Paddle Steamer / Mandrake during ’68-70 at various London studios such as Regent, Orange and other unknown locations. Some of these tracks had been previously included on several bootleg albums with inferior sound quality / wrong titles and others have remained unreleased until now. 
Shindig  


Tracks
1. Pandemonium Shadow Show (Brian Engel, Martin Briley) - 4:18
2. Solitair Husk (Brian Engel, Martin Briley, Martin Hooker, Paula Riordan) - 2:55
3. Stella Mermaid (Martin Briley) - 7:07
4. The World Whistles By (Brian Engel, Martin Briley) - 3:56
5. Upminster Windows (Brian Engel, Martin Briley, Martin Hooker, Paula Riordan) - 5:27
6. Doris The Piper (Martin Briley) - 7:35
7. The Doorway To January (Martin Hooker) - 4:50
8. Simple Song (Martin Briley) - 5:13
9. The October Country (Brian Engel, Martin Briley) - 4:59
Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 recorded 1968
Tracks 3, 6, 8 recorded 1970

The Mandrake Paddle Steamer
*Brian Engel - Vocals (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 9)
*Martin Briley - Guitar, Vocals
*Martin Hooker - Keyboard
*Paula Riordan - Bass
*Barry Nightingale - Drums
*David Potts - Drums (Tracks 3, 6, 8)

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Thursday, September 5, 2019

Rosebud - Rosebud (1971 us, spectacular folk rock with baroque jazz and prog tinges, 2017 remaster and expanded)



Over the course of the 1960s, Judy Henske had gradually drifted from folk to pop to folk-rock and psychedelia. More than any of her other projects, the early-1970s LP Rosebud was very much a rock album, anchored by a functioning rock band rather than collaborators and session musicians. For the record was not a Henske solo release, but the work of an actual band called Rosebud, in which Henske was just one of five members, albeit a very important one.

Another key member of Rosebud was Judy's husband of the time, Jerry Yester. After recording folk and folk-rock in the mid-'60s as part of the Modern Folk Quartet, Yester replaced Zal Yanovsky in the Lovin' Spoonful and produced albums by Tim Buckley and the Association, as well as teaming up with Henske to share co-billing  on the psychedelically eclectic late-1960s cult classic Farewell Aldebaran. That record's fertile imagination hadn't resulted in commercial success, yet one of its songs, the crunching blues-rocker "Snowblind," was vital to turning Henske and Yester toward a rockier full-band setup. "The only thing that had been played [on the radio] was 'Snowblind,'" explains Henske. "Jerry and I already had a lot of material, but we thought that expanding out of that Modern Folk Quartet kind of style -- beautiful harmonies and delicate constructions -- might be a good idea. I had a heavier idea of what I wanted to do, or something that could swing. So then along came Craig."

Keyboardist Craig Doerge had first met Henske when he played in her backup band at a Cleveland gig in 1965. He'd subsequently moved to Hollywood to work as a studio player and songwriter. "I'd been on the lot of A&M Records, doing a lot of writing with Paul Williams and with Donna Weiss, who wrote [with Jackie DeShannon] 'Bette Davis Eyes,'" he remembers. "We were cranking out songs, very much in the West Coast Brill Building style of songwriting. Some of those songs were on the reel that I sent out to Judy."

"We heard some of Craig's demo records and it really sounded good," picks up Henske. "Craig was a swinging piano player with a big rhythmic sound, and big left hand; he didn't even need a bass player. So we decided to form a band." The trio was expanded to a quintet with drummer John Seiter, who'd been in Spanky & Our Gang and the Turtles, and bassist David Vaught (who only made the back cover shot and not the front one of the group), though "the songs were all written by Jerry, Craig, and me," continues Judy. "We decided to be very democratic on assigning lead singing, so most of the lead singing went to Jerry and me, some to Craig, and one [song] to Johnny Seiter."

The democracy was reflected in the album's diversity, with only a few of the songs (particularly the Henske-Yester compositions "Le Soleil," "Lullabye II (Summer Carol)," and "Lorelei") echoing the strange poetic wordplay and psychedelic-classical melodic whimsy of Farewell Aldebaran. At other points the sound was more in line with the burgeoning Los Angeles singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s and country-rock, though the Henske-Doerge-penned "Flying to Morning" ventured into baroque orchestrated art-pop. "Salvation," another Henske-Doerge collaboration, unexpectedly became a hit in France for French pop star Johnny Hallyday, who recorded it as "Sauvez Moi" in Hollywood, with Doerge on piano. The translation did take some liberties by adding, in Doerge's words, an "extra thing about going onto the steps of the guillotine."

Jerry Yester produced, his major role in shaping the recording praised by both Henske, who calls him "a wonderful thinker with strings and arranging," and Doerge, who hails his "terrific vocal arrangements. Jerry's very much a perfectionist on vocal parts, so we would sing that stuff ad nauseum. But it's the only way that the group could work, because they were complicated vocal charts. I personally had grave reservations about any band in which Judy's role as a lead singer was anything other than always outfront. In some ways, the democracy Jerry was looking for didn't serve Judy as a solo singer, because no matter how good Jerry or I might sing a song, it was immaterial if it meant Judy didn't sing the song. I think it was a time in Judy's life where she was raising [her daughter] and kind of happy to back off a little bit from being the wild and crazy solo Judy Henske, and willing to let her limelight be kind of tucked within a group." Yester, however, welcomed the chance to spread the vocals around, as "John Seiter was a fine singer, and Craig was a good parts singer. Judy and I loved parts singing, so we wanted to do as much of that as possible. It was a lot more rounded than just Judy and I."

"'Lorelei' and 'Lullabye' are two of the finest pieces of music that I think Jerry ever wrote for a group," adds Doerge. "The realization of those records was great as well, 'cause he was taking four very different voices. Our bass player and drummer were not big singers, but we actually sounded pretty good. Jerry knew how to give parts to everybody so that they sounded as good as they could. Because he knew how to arrange for a vocal quartet, which is what this was." Craig also admired Yester's orchestral arrangements for tracks like "Flying to Morning," where "there was a small orchestra, but they sounded great. I think Jerry works with a small orchestra not unlike Claus Ogermann, another great arranger. He gets a lot out of fifteen players because he can't afford more." From time to time the sound was also filled out by top L.A. session players, with Mike Deasy playing guitar on "Salvation" and "Reno," Buddy Emmons pedal steel on "The Yum Yum Man," and Ray Brown and Barry Zweig bass and guitar respectively on "Roll Home Cheyenne."

Yet after all the thoughtful craft that had gone into the group's formation and the album's recording, Henske says Rosebud played live just a couple of times (once at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles, and once in San Juan Capistrano) before splitting. Henske and Yester's marriage was breaking up, with Henske beginning a relationship with Craig Doerge, whom she's still married to, and with whom she still records and performs. Around the time Rosebud came out in 1971, Yester remembers running into Warners honcho Mo Ostin, "who said, 'Oh boy, we love the album, and we're going to give it a big push.' I said, 'Judy and I have broken up, Mo.' He said, 'Oh,' and drove off. And that was, I think, the last time I saw him. It was just horrible timing." With the band already dissolved, Rosebud's sole album enjoyed little promotion or commercial impact.

"That busted up the band," confirms Doerge, who would go on to play on albums by Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and many others, also recording as a solo artist, while Henske largely retired from the music business until her 1999 release Loose in the World. "I think if Rosebud had stayed together, we'd probably have been as big as Fleetwood Mac. But we suffered some of the same problems they did. That's great that it is being re-released, because Jerry and I have talked about it in the last few years hoping that it would be. Jerry and I both think there's a lot of great material on there, and it's wonderful that it's going to have the chance to see the light of day now."
by Richie Unterberger


Tracks
1. Panama - 3:54
2. Le Soleil - 2:37
3. Reno (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske) - 3:57
4. Western Wisconsin - 4:00
5. Loreli - 3:54
6. Salvation (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske) - 4:03
7. Lullabye Ii - Summer Carol - 2:31
8. The Yum Yum Man (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske) - 3:36
9. Roll Home Cheyenne - 3:14
10.Flying To Morning (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske) - 4:25
11.Lazy - 2:51
12.Reno (Mono Single) (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske)- 3:58
13.Mercury Of Fools - 3:17
14.Hey Old Friend - 3:04
15.Le Soleil - 3:36
16.What's The Matter With Sam - 3:19
17.Easy On Me, Easy (Craig Doerge, Judy Henske) - 3:39
18.Father Of Souls - 3:46
19.Mercury Of Fools - 2:58
20.Hey Old Friend - 3:16
All compositions by Jerry Yester, Judy Henske except where noted
Tracks 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20  Previously Unissued

Rosebud
*Judy Henske - Vocals
*Jerry Yester - Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Banjo, Autoharp
*John Seiter - Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Bells
*Craig Doerge - Vocals, Keyboards, Vibraphone, Concertina
With
*David Vaught - Bass
*Ray Brown - Bass
*Barry Zweig - Guitar
*Buddy Emmons - Pedal Steel Guitar

Related Acts
1969  Judy Henske And Jerry Yester - Farewell Aldebaran 
1965  Do You Believe In Magic (2016 Blu Spec Bonus Tracks Edition)
1966  Daydream  (2016 Blu Spec Bonus Tracks Edition)
1966  Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful  (2016 Blu Spec Bonus Tracks Edition)
1966 The Lovin' Spoonful - What's Up, Tiger Lily (2008 japan remaster) 
1967-68  You're A Big Boy Now / Everything Playing (2011 edition and 2016 Blu Spec Bonus Tracks Edition)
1969  Revelation: Revolution '69
1968  Zalman Yanovsky - Alive And Well In Argentina (2010 remaster and expanded)

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