Rockasteria: Bat McGrath And Don Potter - Introducing Bat McGrath And Don Potter (1969 us, brilliant jazzy folk rock, 2013 remaster)

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Bat McGrath And Don Potter - Introducing Bat McGrath And Don Potter (1969 us, brilliant jazzy folk rock, 2013 remaster)

Bat and Don have been singing together since their early teens. They're 23 now and a lot of rock groups, records, songs and other changes have passed over the dam by now, but they're still singing together and they're still close friends. And it shows in their music.

Back in Glens Falls, New York (their home town), they played rock. Rock because that's what kids play to make some bread; rock because it's pretty good stuff and they were good at it: rock because what else would a couple of young kids from Glens Falls, New York, be playing?

They gigged their way to Rochester and settled down there. It's not the world's greatest town, but the Eastman School of Music has stimulated a very fertile musical climate there. At least it was stimulating enough to make them try it as a non- rock duo when that occupational hazard of rock groups (i.e.. disbanding) really got to them.

Their new concept really seemed to work for them. They wrote songs; they grew popular; they opened and still run the only successful coffeehouse in the history of Rochester. Of course, the music biz types in New York said. "That's nice, kids, but you can't sell that kind of stuff," as they have said to so many unorthodox performers who now sell millions of records every year. So Bat and Don were submerged in arrangers and horns and strings and whatnot and so on. It didn't make it.

Fortunately Bat and Don found John Hammond and vice versa. For decades John has been able to see where others are blind... and in Bat and Don he saw a great deal. They asked him for the chance to make it or break it their own way. John brought them to us and the enclosed is Bat and Don... their way. The rest is in the hands of the gods.

Bat, Don and I would like to dedicate this album to Paul Clayton. That's him singing the opening of his song "Your Kind Of Man." He was a good friend.

The production of this album was incredibly smooth, largely due to that something extra our musicians and engineers gave us. Thanks guys. Most of all we gratefully, humbly, and affec- tionately thank John Hammond. John sat in on our sessions and rarely opened his mouth with a suggestion, but when he did he was always right. Having him there was like having a guardian angel keeping us from straying too far.

And, oh yes. You should know that Bat and Don are beautiful guys. That's not a hype; that's a fact. The biggest thing I've gained from this project is two good friends... and friends like them are very hard to find.

by Barry Kornfeld, August 10, 1969 New York City