Tim Buckley - Venice Mating Call (1969 us, monumental live recordings, 2017 double disc digi pak remaster)

In September 1969, and at just 22 years old, Tim Buckley was at the top of his game. A couple of months after the release of what remains one of his most widely-loved albums (Happy Sad), he was in the midst of an especially fertile creative period. He played a well-received string of shows in L.A., documented on the 1994 release Live at the Troubadour. Now, hours of additional material from those shows have emerged, extending the late folk-rock cult hero’s legacy: Venice Mating Call and Greetings from West Hollywood.

By then,  Buckley had only been a recording artist for three years.  Yet, he’d already undergone a remarkable artistic evolution. His self-titled debut LP was a relatively simple slice of art-folk, while the follow-up, Goodbye and Hello, leaped into ambitious, Sgt. Pepper-influenced baroque rock. But Happy Sad took a drastic detour into a passionate folk-jazz feel inspired by Miles Davis’ jazz innovations. By the start of the ’70s, Buckley would venture into avant-garde explorations; at the end of ’69, Buckley was really feeling his oats, coming to terms with the power and possibilities of his voice, letting it all hang out, and making it work. And that’s the luminous period captured on the Troubadour recordings.

Up until now, all fans had to go by was Live at the Troubadour;  Venice Mating Call and Greetings from West Hollywood make it clear that Buckley was capable of making magic happen onstage every night. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had one of his most spontaneous ensembles on hand for these shows: his longtime sidekick Lee Underwood on lead guitar and electric piano, Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart drummer Art Tripp, bassist John Balkin and conga man Carter “C.C.” Collins. Together, they tackled material from Happy Sad and Blue Afternoon, as well as embryonic versions of songs from later albums and even some tunes that would never see the inside of a studio.

Greetings from West Hollywood (a play on the title of Buckley’s 1972 album Greetings From L.A.) is a nine-song double LP, while Venice Mating Call (named after the Buckley instrumental included in both packages), is a 13-song, two-CD set. Each contains its own unique set of recordings from the Troubadour run. And it’s clear that Buckley and his band were on fire for the entire stint. The quintet used their free-flowing improv chops to turn those songs inside out, upside down, and any other way the muse demanded in the moment.  The result is a constantly-shifting amalgam of folk, rock, jazz, blues, and more.

Buckley commands a broad range of emotions over the course of these sets, with his fluid tenor turning either urgent or sultry, as the moment demands; the band is right there with him every step of the way. He makes his way through a hazy dreamscape in the hypnotic “Driftin’,” employing long tones that swell and swoop with a gauzy, ghostly feel, as Underwood frames Buckley’s ululations with some gently jazz swooping of his own. On the breezy, bossa nova-inflected “Blue Melody,” Buckley comes off like an otherworldly Joao Gilberto, as Underwood gracefully blurs the edges of the tune and Collins chimes in with just the right percussive punctuation.

But when Buckley gets worked up, as on “Gypsy Woman,” Underwood’s edgy electric piano  and Tripp’s drumming egg him on, and it sounds like he damn near leaves his body. He wails, shrieks, moans, coos, and generally pushes his voice past the limits of human possibility, while the band alternates between a simmer and furious boil. On “Nobody Walkin’,” Buckley and company turn a basic bluesy vamp into a churning, sweaty cross between a Baptist revival meeting and a jazz-juiced bacchanal.

The concerts captured on these two collections will be revelatory to those who haven’t already heard Live at the Troubadour. But even for those who have, it firmly reinforces the fact that Tim Buckley was one of the most fearless artists of his era. Not only did he push the artistic envelope by trying new things in the studio (evidenced by albums Lorca and Starsailor), he was equally courageous in front of an audience, willing to follow a feeling wherever it led. And with the superhuman vocal talent displayed on these recordings, Buckley was able to go places nobody else could.

by Jim Allen, October 27, 2017

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Buzzin’ Fly - 5:50

2. Strange Feelin’ - 5:48

3. Blue Melody - 5:42

4. Chase The Blues Away - 6:54

5. Venice Mating Call - 6:53

6. Gypsy Woman - 13:05

7. I Don’T Need It To Rain - 11:43

Disc 2
1. Driftin’ - 8:10
2. I Wanna Testify - 9:08
3. Anonymous Proposition - 8:08
4. Lorca - 11:10
5. I Had A Talk With My Woman - 7:25
6. Nobody Walkin’ - 8:25
All songs by Tim Buckley

Musicians
*Tim Buckley - Twelve-String Guitar, Vocals
*Lee Underwood - Electric Guitar, Electric Piano
*Art Tripp - Drums
*Carter C.C. Collins - Congas
*John Balkin - Bass

1966-74  Tim Buckley - Wings The Complete Singles (2016 remaster)  

1966  Tim Buckley - Tim Buckley (Part 1 of 2017 eight cds box set)
1967  Tim Buckley - Goodbye And Hello  (Part 2 of 2017 eight cds box set)
1967  Tim Buckley - Live At The Folklore Center (2009 digipak release)
1969  Tim Buckley - Happy Sad (Part 3 of 2017 eight cds box set)
1969  Tim Buckley - Blue Afternoon (Part 4 of the 2017 eight cds box set)
1969 Tim Buckley - Greetings From West Hollywood (2017 remaster)
1970  Tim Buckley - Lorca (Part 5 of the 2017 eight cds box set)
1970  Tim Buckley - Starsailor (Part 6 of the 2017 eight cds box set)
1972  Tim Buckley - Greetings From L.A. (Part 7 of the 2017 eight cds box set)
1967-69  Tim Buckley - Works In Progress (Part 8 of the 2017 eight cds box set)
1973  Tim Buckley - Sefronia (2017 remaster)
1973  Tim Buckley - Honeyman 
1974  Tim Buckley - Look At The Fool (2017 remaster)

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The Grass Roots - Uprooted / Powers Of The Night (1979/82 us, wonderful melt of classic rock blue eyed soul and power pop, 2005 edition)

Robert Frank "Rob" Grill was born November 30, 1943 in Los Angeles, California and was an American lead singer, songwriter and bass guitarist.

He was the central member of The Grass Roots and he launched a solo career in 1979, assisted on his solo project by several members of Fleetwood Mac. He then returned to leading The Grass Roots into the new millennium.

He was a native of Hollywood, California where he attended Hollywood High School. Soon after graduation, he began working at American Recording Studios with musician friends Cory Wells and John Kay (who later formed Three Dog Night & Steppenwolf).

Rob and The Grass Roots teamed up with mega-hit producer Steve Barri (The Mamas and the Papas, Tommy Roe, Four Tops and Dusty Springfield) and went on to chart twenty nine singles, thirteen of which went gold, followed by two gold albums and two platinum albums. In the new millennium, he released two live albums and one with a symphonic quartet.

Rob passed away on July 11, 2011
The GrassRoots 

In 1982, seven years after the group disbanded, and three years after he recorded his solo album Uprooted, Rob Grill reactivated the Grass Roots with three new musicians and cut this album, which must be tied with its predecessor, The Grass Roots on the Haven label, as the most obscure album in the group's output. That's a genuine pity, as the record has lots of very good moments and is far more polished and successful than Uprooted -- one can only imagine that, beyond any role that the relative weakness of MCA at the time played in its failure (this reviewer scarcely saw or heard a word printed about the album or its release), it died an absolute death in the MTV-dominated environment of 1982-1983, as many worthwhile records did.

The album opens with a title track that's a little bit too much of a by-the-numbers power pop exercise, but from there we move through some nicely soul-flavored pop/rock with lots of hooks, vocal, and instrumental -- the guitars, in particular, are memorable and Grill is in excellent voice almost everywhere, and the selection of material is stronger than most of what is on Uprooted.

Given the large number of session musicians who participated on the Grass Roots' most famous recordings, there seems to be little point in pondering who's doing the backup singing behind Grill or playing some of what we hear; on the other hand, it does seem to be a great showcase for Terry Oubre's guitar work. And the results are consistently appealing, if not groundbreaking -- actually, a lot like the group's best work of the '60s. There were at least three potential singles on this album, which marked just about the last time that the Grass Roots were anything but an oldies act, redoing their vintage hits either on-stage or in the studio. One wishes it were a little better known on that basis, as well as a pretty good place for this band to have stopped making new music.
by Bruce Eder

Tracks
1. Feel The Heat (D. Callens, E. Villeria, W. Warkins) - 4:40
2. God Help The Man (Dennis Provisor) - 5:02
3. Have Mercy (Dennis Provisor, Rob Grill) - 3:24
4. Rockin' On The Road Again (Rob Grill) - 3:25
5. Strangers (Mike Chapman, Nicky Chin) - 4:17
6. Rock Sugar (Dennis Provisor) - 5:28
7. When Will It Be (Dennis Provisor) - 5:23
8. Open Up Your Heart (D. Callens, E. Villeria, W. Warkins) - 4:38
9. Where Were You When I Needed You (P.F. Sloan, Steve Barri) - 3:42
10.Powers Of The Night.. (Frieda Parton, Mark Anderson) - 4:21
11.Here Comes That Feeling Again (John Sembello, Louie Shelton) - 3:18
12.Try Me (Alex Call, Jim Keller) - 3:05
13.Keeps On Burning (Bobby Bennett, Rob Grill) - 3:09
14.I'm Not Gonna Cry Anymore (Bobby David) - 3:44
15.She Don't Know Me (Mark Avsec) - 3:28
16.Mirage (John Bettis, Michael Clark) - 3:28
17.You've Got To Be The One (Evan Pace, Scott Lipsker) - 2:48
18.Feels Like The First Time (Detlef Peterson, Inga Rumpf, Rob Grill) - 4:30
19.Little Too Late (Alex Call) - 4:01
Tracks 1-9 from Rob Grill 1979 solo album "Uprooted"
Tracks 10-19 from The Grass Roots 1982 album "Powers Of The Night"

Personnel
1979 Uprooted
*Rob Grill - Vocals
*Dennis Provisor - Keyboards
*Brian Naughton - Guitar
*Lindsey Buckingham - Guitar
*Steve Hunter - Guitar
*Mick Fleetwood - Drums
*Mike Huey - Drums
*John McVie - Bass
*Mark Leonard - Bass
*Annie McCloone - Backing Vocals
*Bill Champlin - Backing Vocals
*Carl Graves - Backing Vocals
*Donnie Gerrard - Backing Vocals
*Jay Gruska - Backing Vocals
*Kathy Collier - Backing Vocals

The Grass Roots 1982
*Ralph Gilmore - Drums, Vocals
*Rob Grill - Lead Vocals, Bass
*Terry Oubre - Guitar, Vocals
*Charles Judge - Keyboards, Vocals

1967-68  Grassroots - Let's Live For Today / Feelings 
1969  The Grass Roots - Leaving It All Behind  (2010 edition)
1972-73  The Grass Roots - Move Along / Alotta Mileage

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One Of Hours ‎- When You Hear The Music, It's Yours (1967-68 us, fantastic psych garage rock, 2019 release)

One of Hours were a Stonewall neighborhood band from Lexington’s south side. Formed in 1966, the three core members of the original lineup had been playing in a prior group called the 7 Suns performing primarily rock ‘n roll and early rhythm and blues covers for fraternity parties and special occasions.

Shawn Foreman, Lexington Catholic HS Class of ’64, recruited his 7 Suns bandmates David Bogliole and Dave Flynn (both still Seniors at Catholic) and formed One of Hours. The band was fleshed out with the addition of Lafayette HS grad Carol Craig on vocals and Georgetown College student Robert Nelson on drums.

Searching for a new sound, the band worked on lyrics and arrangements as a unit. There was no designated ‘leader’ of the group, but Foreman is generally credited as the creative force behind the band’s sound and direction.

A young man of only 20, Foreman was the embodiment of his Pisces birth – a true poet and artist. Image was everything and he was obsessed with the British Invasion and the fashion that came along with it. The band had to have the right clothes, Chelsea boots, and (since he had short, wiry hair) he would often don a mod Beatle-cut wig for photos and studio hangouts. He prowled the streets in a ’57 Cadillac hearse (appropriate since he had already earned a certificate in Mortuary Science after a short stay in Louisville) and used his ride to haul the band’s equipment to practice and gigs.

Shawn Foreman was the youngest of two boys. His family moved to Kentucky from Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood. His Italian Catholic mother Fulvia was a gifted pianist in the church and Shawn was also classically trained. His mother was very supportive of his musical interests and nurtured the band providing the use of the family’s basement, plenty of hot meals, and even helped with sewing outfits for the group during the early days.

The band walked into the newly founded Chetwyd studio (originally located at 1611 Fortune Drive in the Regency area of Southland) to record what would be the first release on the label. Ed Commons – a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, transplant – had already been working in radio and had a small jazz label there. A young entrepreneur, Commons was only 28 when he set up shop in his mother’s basement. His fledgling label would eventually produce eight singles, one EP, and at least four albums ranging from folk, jazz, soul, and garage/psych.

“It’s Best” b/w “Trifolia” was released in 1966. It is hard to pin down a direct influence from the band. Both sides have a dreamy, breezy psych pop Baroque feel unlike anything happening in Lexington at the time. The lyrics are imaginative and translucent with a lost-at-sea sound from the band. This complexity was intentional since, unlike other bands in the area, One of Hours were primarily a studio group. They played a few outings but were mostly interested in recording, writing, working on arrangements and experimenting with sound.

Bob Willcutt from Washington D.C. would join the group on guitar for their second and final release. Bob was at age 18 already a talented guitar player and prior had recorded with a group called the Curfews, a D.C. band with two garage 45s on the Montgomery label.

One of Hours already had a rough draft of the song “Feel the Pain” by 1967 when Bob made the scene to add the scorching guitar breaks and menacing feel to the track. Bob recalls working with the band and having “a great version of the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ worked up with extra fuzz tone.” He also remembers an upstairs shop at the intersection of High and Rose where a guy was making boutique effects pedals and having Willcutt come and ‘audition’ them for him.

By the summer of ’67 the single “Feel the Pain / Psychedelic Illusion” was released. “Feel the Pain” having a direct “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone” influence would be considered the A-side and the haunting, shimmering “Psychedelic Illusion”, which was made up almost on the spot with lyrics by Foreman and 12-string guitar courtesy of Willcutt. With nice bubbling bass lines from Bogliole and an organ dirge break from Shawn, this is a hidden gem on the two-sider.

500 copies were pressed at Recordings Incorporated pressing plant in Baltimore. Though distribution was slim, the record was getting some airplay on local Lexington radio station WLAP and by DJ Denny Mitchell on WVLK’s ‘Denny’s Den.’ The groups effort cracked the local Top 40 and a photo of the band was featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader upon the release of the new single.

Shortly after “Feel the Pain / Psychedelic Illusion”, the band morphed again adding new members and losing others. A name change to Dandelion Wine cemented the new lineup. By ’68 the band was traveling to D.C. to try and make a bigger city splash. Opening up for the likes of the Cherry People and Iron Butterfly, the group settled in an apartment there for a short time. The Civil Rights movement and accompanying race riots, protest marches and normal D.C. politics created an unusually chaotic time in the city and the band retreated back to Lexington and familiar territory.

Not missing a beat, Dandelion Wine played a memorable dance party at UK complete with a full psychedelic light rig, black lights and day glo painted dancers. They also quickly slid back into the studio to record an LP’s worth of unreleased material – “When You Hear the Music It’s Yours.” More progressive and art rock oriented with the sounds of the late ‘60s, it took 50 years but Willcutt has made it available on the internet digitized from a quarter inch tape of the original master.

By 1970 the band was dissolved. Shawn Foreman took off for California with the Dandelion Wine master in hopes of finding a record deal. It is also believed that he had many of the copies of the second One of Hours singles with him at the time as well. Foreman would be heard from one more time with his album of DIY electronic compositions “Transistor-Jet Strikes Back” before his untimely death at age 38 in June of 1985.

David Bogliole stayed in Lexington and became a practicing architect.

Dave Flynn continued to play music and joined several local country rock bands over the years.

Bob Willcutt continued to play guitar and was also in several soul/rock and country rock bands in the area including one with a Lemco release – B.W. Cat. He opened a guitar shop in the Southland area in the 1970s and remains in business today.

Robert Nelson moved to Arizona and continues to play drums in a wedding band dubbed Blue Passion.

Label owner Ed Commons is still in the music recording business and is the sound engineer for Red Barn Radio an old-time string band and Americana themed live broadcast and variety show in downtown Lexington at Arts Place. 

by Lee Bryant 

Tracks
1. When Your Hear The Music, It's Yours - 5:35
2. Mother Said - 2:26
3. Love Is Real - 2:15
4. Two Heads For 35 Cents - 2:34
5. Mary Jane Like A Woman - 3:25
6. Cry - 2:41
7. Within My Garden - 3:42
8. Little Willie - 3:35
9. Kazoo Man - 2:41
10.Sweet Dragonfly - 3:23
11.Incense C-19x - 2:02
12.A Way To Leave At Last - 3:31
All compositions by Bob Willcutt, Shawn Foreman, David Bogliole, Dave Flynn, Robert Nelson  

One Of Hours
*Bob Willcutt - Guitars
*Shawn Foreman - Hammond Organ, Piano, Flute
*David Bogliole - Bass
*Davy Randolph - Drums
*Vance Arnett - Lead Vocals

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Gene Clark - Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers (1967 us, a glorious countrified psych folk rock album, 2014 japan blu spec remaster and expanded)

When Gene Clark died in 1991 after years of substance abuse, obit writers cited his brief period as a founding member of the Byrds. Clark was actually much more. He infused the original band with much of its soul and vision, establishing himself as a pivotal folk-rock innovator, a fact known to the band and hardcore fans but never comprehensively chronicled until John Einarson’s 2005 Clark biography, Mr. Tambourine Man.

Like bandmates Jim (now Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby, Clark was a former folkie captivated by the Beatles. His baritone vocals were as integral to the Byrds’ sound as McGuinn’s jangly Rickenbacker twelve-string electric. So were Clark originals such as “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”, “I Knew I’d Want You” and “She Don’t Care About Time”. McGuinn and Crosby may have shared co-writer credit on “Eight Miles High”, but they essentially embellished a song that Clark had created. Overwhelmed by demands of fame and tired of clashing with the contentious Crosby, Clark left the band in 1966; Byrds manager Jim Dickson landed him the Columbia contract that spawned this album.

Recorded with the Byrds’ rhythm section of Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, plus A-list Los Angeles studio musicians Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers has justifiably gained stature over the past 40 years, not only as a glorious brew of ’60s folk-rock, proto-country-rock and complex, Beatlesque pop, but as an expository effort that defined and clarified Clark’s importance to the band he left behind (and briefly rejoined).

Given the fact the vocal harmonies from the Gosdins (future Nashville star Vern and his brother Rex) were of marginal importance, their overblown billing can only by explained by the fact that Dickson also managed them. Clark invoked the Byrds sound several times, on “The Same One” (with guitar from Clarence White, then just beginning to plug in), “Couldn’t Believe Her”, and “So You Say You Lost Your Baby”. The painfully emotional “Echoes”, a bit of baroque ’60s art-rock framed by Russell’s string arrangement, showcases Clark’s stunning lyrical impressionism.

Revolver-era Beatles influence bursts forth from “Is Yours Is Mine” and “Elevator Operator”. Buck Owens is the influence on “Tried So Hard” and “Keep On Pushin'”, a harbinger of the country-rock Clark would pursue with Doug Dillard in 1968. Six bonus tracks include two alternate takes, two acoustic demos, and mono mixes of both sides of a 1967 Columbia single. This isn’t the album’s first reissue, but this edition conclusively summarizes and showcases Clark’s early genius.

No Depression

Tracks
1. Echoes - 3:19
2. Think I'm Gonna Feel Better - 1:37
3. Tried So Hard - 2:22
4. Is Yours Is Mine - 2:23
5. Keep On Pushin' (Gene Clark, Bill Rinehart) - 1:47
6. I Found You - 3:02
7. So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 2:09
8. Elevator Operator (Gene Clark, Bill Rinehart, Joel Larson) - 2:28
9. The Same One - 3:30
10.Couldn't Believe Her - 1:53
11.Needing Someone - 2:04
12.So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 2:29
13.Is Yours Is Mine - 2:10
14.Tried So Hard - 2:27
15.Only Colombe - 3:02
16.The French Girl (Ian Tyson, Sylvia Fricker) - 2:33
17.Tried So Hard - 2:22
18.Keep On Pushin' (Gene Clark, Bill Rinehart) - 1:49
19.Think I'm Gonna Feel Better  - 1:36
20.Is Yours Is Mine - 2:29
21.Echoes - 3:21
22.The Same One - 3:32
23.Needing Someone - 2:02
24.So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 2:10
25.Couldn't Believe Her - 1:58
26.I Found You - 2:58
27.Elevator Operator (Gene Clark, Bill Rinehart, Joel Larson) - 2:55
28.Couldn't Believe Her - 2:11
29.Tried So Hard - 2:20
30.Only Colombe - 3:09
31.The French Girl (Ian Tyson, Sylvia Fricker) - 2:37
32. So You Say You Lost Your Baby - 3:13
All songs by Gene Clark except where indicated
Tracks 12-13 Acoustic Mono Versions
Track 14 Alternate Mono Mix
Tracks 15-16 Mono Versions
Tracks 17-26 Collector's Series Early L.A. Sessions
Tracks 27,29 Alternative Stereo Version
Tracks 28,30,31 Remixed
Track 32 Acoustic Demo Version

Personnel
*Gene Clark - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
*Vern Gosdin - Backing Vocals
*Rex Gosdin - Backing Vocals
*Glen Campbell - Electric Guitar
*Jerry Cole - Guitars
*Bill Rinehart - Guitars
*Clarence White - Guitar On
*Doug Dillard - Electric Banjo
*Leon Russell - Piano, Harpsichord; String Arrangements
*Van Dyke Parks - Keyboards
*Chris Hillman - Bass
*Jim Gordon - Drums
*Michael Clarke - Drums
*Joel Larson - Drums

1964-90  Gene Clark - Flying High
1964-82  Gene Clark ‎- The Lost Studio Sessions (2016 audiophile double Vinyl set)
1967  Gene Clark - Echoes
1967  Gene Clark - Sings For You (2018 digipak with unreleased material)
1968-69  Dillard And Clark - Fantastic Expedition / Through The Morning, Through The Night
1971  Gene Clark - White Light
1972  Gene Clark - Roadmaster  (2011 Edition)
1974  Gene Clark ‎– No Other / No Other Sessions (2019 hybrid SACD three disc box set) 
Related Acts
1979  McGuinn, Clark And Hillman (2014 Japan SHM Remaster)
1964  The Byrds - Preflyte (2012 Edition)
1973  Byrds - Byrds (2004 issue)
1967-68  The Rose Garden - A Trip Through The Garden (2018 bonus tracks remaster)

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Keith Christmas - Pigmy (1971 uk, sensational acid folk psych rock, 2012 remaster)

Acid Folk is one of those musicological genre headings that had to be invented retrospectively because it didn’t exist when the music it describes was extant in the late sixties. These days it’s taken to cover the acoustic singer-songwriter individuals and combos who sprang from Dylan-inspired folk-pop roots, picked up psychedelic overtones and morphed into the complexity of prog-rock – which satisfyingly describes Keith Christmas’s most creative period, up to and including Pigmy.

Originally an Essex lad, Christmas was an undergrad at Bath University (coincidentally my own alma mater at around the same time, though we never met) where he studied Building Technology in between extensive gigging on the vibrant London and Bristol folk club circuits. Never a true folkie but certainly influenced by the likes of Bert Jansch and John Rembourn, he combined an enviable fingerstyle technique on an unfashionable but strident Fender Palomino with hippie bedsitter lyricism and a reedy but distinctive voice, a combination also evident in the work of his contemporaries Nick Drake and Al Stewart. The schizophrenic nature of Keith’s career at this time – recording with session musicians but invariably gigging solo – is mirrored in the three albums he cut between 1969 and 1971, these setting his formidable acoustic guitar work alternately against orchestral ensembles and jazzy rock band backings.

Christmas has disowned his first album, 1969’s vaguely country-rock Stimulus, recorded with musicians from Mighty Baby and pedal steelist Gordon Huntley, as “overproduced”; I’d say it was rather a venture in an unsuitable musical direction for the man. He hit his stride eighteen months later with the second, Fable Of The Wings, recorded with session musicians with folk-rock credentials, which subsequently established the folk-baroque-prog template for which he’s best remembered today. There’s little to choose quality-wise between this and the ensuing Pigmy, which for me just has the edge, offering immaculate, restrained orchestral arrangements by Robert Kirby (who did the same for Nick Drake) and the LSO on its first side of introspective ballads, notably the earnest but cerebral “Timeless And Strange”, and powerful keyboards from Rod Argent and bass from Fuzzy Samuels on the other side’s trio of extended classy rockers, culminating in the extraordinary “Forest And The Shore” with its swelling, Ligeti-like choral interludes. Keith’s acoustic shimmers like a harpsichord on the top side, and his ferocious acoustic rhythm work on the flip is leavened with some fluid electric soloing. The album artwork shows him appropriately framed by a Narnia-like background, wispily-bearded, Afghan-coated and apparently rolling a joint, the true zeitgeist of the period.

Although critically his best-received works, neither Fable nor Pigmy sold in droves at the time, and after an even less successful move in a rock/soul direction Christmas threw in the professional music business. While his contemporaries Al Stewart and Nick Drake had gone on to contrasting fates – one to superstardom in LA, the other to clinical depression and an untimely death – Keith became a renovator of old houses and eventually a schoolteacher, settling in a pleasant village near Bristol and making music for his own pleasure, issuing privately-recorded small-circulation albums at intervals and occasionally gigging local pubs and small venues, his acoustic guitar mastery undiminished. Stimulus has been bootlegged for CD, but Fable and Pigmy remain unreissued and are now great rarities on vinyl; however, almost their entire contents are available on the excellent Castle compilation CD Timeless And Strange, whose title encapsulates his music of that period and which is available direct from Keith himself at his website.

by Len Liechti

Tracks
1. Travelling Down - 4:11
2. Timeless And Strange - 4:42
3. Evensong - 4:28
4. Spanky - 2:38
5. Poem - 2:01
6. The Waiting Grounds - 3:29
7. Song For A Survivor - 9:18
8. Forest And The Shore - 7:07
All compositions by Keith Christmas

Musicians
*Keith Christmas - Vocals, Guitars
*Rod Argent - Piano, Organ
*Calvin 'Fuzzy' Samuels - Bass
*Adrian Shaw - Bass
*Conrad Isidore - Drums
*Roger Powell - Drums
*Mac Kissoon - Backing Vocals
*Kathy Kissoon - Backing Vocals
*Mike London - Backing Vocals
*Ray Warleigh - Saxophone
*Bob Stewart - Swedish Psaltery
*Robert Kirby - String, Choral Arrangements
*London Symphony Orchestra - Strings

1969  Keith Christmas - Stimulus (2012 remaster) 

1970  Keith Christmas - Fable Of The Wings (2012 remaster)
1974-76  Keith Christmas - Tomorrow Never Ends The Anthology (2010 Two Disc Set)

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Don Nix - In God We Trust (1971 us, spiritual blues rock, 2016 SHM remaster)

Born in Memphis, Nix attended Messick High School with Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper of the famed Stax house band Booker T. & the MG's. After graduation, Nix spent a short stint in the Army before returning to Memphis, where he joined Dunn and Cropper, along with Wayne Jackson, Packy Axton, Terry Johnson, and Smoochy Smith, as a saxophonist in the Mar-Keys.

The group scored a smash hit with the instrumental "Last Night" on the Satellite label (later Stax/Volt), and Nix went on the road with the group, while a house band from Memphis attempted to recorded follow-up hits under the Mar-Keys' name.

After the success of "Last Night" fizzled, Nix returned to Memphis and spent the next several years as a horn for hire, occasionally playing gigs with a re-formed version of the Mar-Keys or backing Stax stars such as William Bell and Carla Thomas.

In the mid-'60s, Nix began making trips to L.A. to visit Leon Russell and Carle Radle, friends he'd met through touring. The friendship with Russell, a big producer at the time, landed Nix a position in Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars backing one of Russell's acts, Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Their friendship also provided Nix the opportunity to see how a session was put together, and he began engineering and producing at studios around Memphis such as Stax and Ardent. 

Nix spent the next several years writing and producing for artists such as Freddie King, Albert King, Sid Selvidge, and Charlie Musselwhite. In 1970, he signed a recording deal with Shelter Records (co-owned by his old friend Leon Russell) and released a solo album, In God We Trust and followed it a year later with Living by the Days. Neither album sold very well, and after a few more attempts, Nix returned to recording other artists, producing records for John Mayall and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. 

by Steve Kurutz

Tracks
1. In God We Trust - 4:29
2. Golden Mansions - 4:08
3. I'll Fly Away (Traditional) - 3:29
4. He Never Lived A Day Without Jesus (Don Nix, Bobby Whitlock) - 4:07
5. Nero My God To Thee (Traditional) - 1:09
6. Amos Burke - 3:03
7. Long Way To Nowhere (Don Nix, Larry Rasberry) - 3:38
8. Iuka - 5:20
9. Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Traditional) - 3:58
10.I've Tried - 1:29
All songs by Don Nix except where indicated

Musicians
*Don Nix - Vocals
*Barry Beckett - Keyboards
*Roger Hawkins - Drums
*David Hood - Bass
*Eddie Hinton - Electric, Rhythm, Slide Guitars
*Furry Lewis - Slide Guitar
*Larry Rasberry - Rhythm Guitar
*J.A. Spell - Fiddle

1971  Don Nix - Living By The Days (2011 japan SHM remaster)

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Lee Michaels - Recital (1968 us, awesome classic rock with prog shades, 2016 hard sleeve remaster)

A big, demanding voice seeping with melody, combined with crafty keyboard exercises were prime factors engraved in the songs of Lee Michaels. Prior to adopting such a stance, the Southern California based musician held membership in a surf rock band called the Sentinals, trailed by stints with the Joel Scott Hill Group and the Family Tree. Leaving the band thing behind, Lee launched a solo career that parented a string of fine albums.

Powered by limitless energy and imagination, Lee’s second album, Recital taps into his multiple talents from track to track. Along with piano and Hammond organ, Lee also plays guitar and harpsichord, while his songwriting is strong and expressive. A crack band further contributes their mojo to the disc. Noted session musician Larry Knechtel handles bass, and both John Barbata (the Turtles, Jefferson Airplane) and Frank Davis supply drum duties.

The first song on the album, “If I Lose You”  radiates with harmonious motions shaped of punchy hooks, digging rhythms and a soul-inflected swagger. As an incentive, former Paul Revere and the Raiders guitarist adds a run of steamy licks to the cut. Beginning on mid-tempo footing, “The War” eventually develops into a muscular force of intensity. A tasty blend of driving harpsichord and organ flourishes accent the folky angst of “Basic Knowledge,” where “Spare Change” starts out on a funky feel before turning into an ear-splitting experimental endeavor pulsating with pounding keyboard passages tinted with classical leanings.

Composed of catchy arrangements and stirring instrumentation, “Time Is Over,” “Blind” and “Grocery Soldier” weigh in as other excellent songs featured on the record. An exciting listen from side to side, Recital captures Lee at the peak of his presence. His ability to incorporate rock, pop, blues and soul into a progressive soundscape remains stunning.

Although Lee’s music swayed more towards the underground edge of the spectrum, he managed to score a pair of hit singles during the latter days of 1971. “Do You Know What I Mean” reached number six on the charts that autumn, followed by a cool cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get A Witness,” which made it to the number thirty-nine position. But after that, his profile waned and he soon disappeared from the scene altogether. An artist ripe for rediscovery, Lee Michaels truly commands the recognition he deserves. And Recital proves to be just one of his many masterstrokes. 

by  Beverly Paterson

Tracks
1. If I Lose You (Larry Marks, Lee Michaels) - 2:23
2. Time Is Over - 3:45
3. No Part Of It - 2:14
4. Fell In Love Today - 1:59
5. Blind - 2:53
6. Grocery Soldier - 2:28
7. What Can He Do - 0:45
8. Basic Knowledge - 3:29
9. Gonna Leave - 2:22
10.The War - 3:12
11.Spare Change - 7:24
All songs by Lee Michaels except where stated

Personnel
*Lee Michaels - Vocals, Piano, Harpsichord, Organ, Bass
*Drake Levin - Guitar
*John Barbata - Drums
*Frank Davis - Drums
*Larry Knechtel - Bass

1968  Lee Michaels - Carnival Of Life (2010 remaster)
1969  Lee Michaels - Lee Michaels 
1970  Lee Michaels - Barrel

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John Compton – To Luna (1973 us, amazing art prog folk rock, 2005 japan remaster)

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist John Parker Compton co-founded the acoustic band APPALOOSA with violinist Robin Batteau in the late '60s. Both musicians had been heavily influenced by the folk scene in their hometown, Cambridge, MA. Compton got his start singing in a Cambridge church choir before he and Batteau began playing the coffeehouse circuit together.

As the 1972 press release for Compton's solo album, To Luna, tells it, John Compton showed up at producer Al Kooper's Columbia Records office in late 1968, hoping to show Kooper his songs. Uninterested, Kooper told the kid - Compton was 18 to come back some other time. But a little while later, Kooper came in on Compton and Batteau performing for the office secretaries. Won over, Kooper recorded their demo, and within a year the newly signed musicians had an album out, the self-titled debut from their group Appaloosa. Also including bassist David Reiser and cellist Eugene Rosov, Appaloosa was joined in the studios by members of  Blood, Sweat & Tears, and by Kooper himself.

A year after Appaloosa's 1969 release - which was produced by Al Kooper on Columbia Records, a 19-year-old John Compton got to take the stage at Fillmore East the last weekend of December, along with the Allman Brothers, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Appaloosa soon gave way to a duo project of Compton & Batteau, and the two musicians recorded Compton & Batteau in California for Columbia. By 1971, Compton was on his own with a new LP, To Luna, but after this, it would be over 20 years before he returned to the studios. His return was marked by 1995's Mother of Mercy, which was followed by a six-song self-released recording of Compton on a Vermont radio station....

by Joslyn Layne

Tracks
1. Colano Sound - 4:00
2. Short Lands - 3:56
3. Lookout - 4:26
4. Verandas - 3:42
5. Maker - 5:50
6. Polinate The Blue - 4:29
7. Yorkshire Pines - 4:30
8. Hot Cross Buns - 2:40
9. Ona Find Me Home - 4:49
10.Leave My Casos In Laos - 5:15
11.Bob Dylan's Cap (Instrumental) - 6:42
12.I Like It - 3:19
13.The City Looks So Big - 2:47
14.Spaceride - 2:54
15.Sally Go 'round The Roses (Zell Sanders, Abner Spector) - 3:30
All compositions by John Parker Compton except track #15

Personnel
*John Compton - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Autoharp
*Harvey Brooks - Bass
*Billy Mundi - Drums 
*Bill Elliot - Keyboards
*David Mowry - Acoustic Guitar
*Stu - Stand Up Bass
*Roland Dufault - Acoustic, Electric Guitar, Harmonica

Related Acts
1969  Appaloosa - Appaloosa (2006 japan remaster) 
1970  Compton And Batteau - In California (2017 remaster) 
1973  Batteaux - Batteaux (2002 japan remaster) 

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Trilogy - I'm Beginning To Feel It (1970 us, magnificent classic rock with folk tinges, 2019 korean remaster)

Skip Griparis has flourished in many of the performing arts. After first studying piano and saxophone as a boy, he began his professional career while at Joliet West High School as a singer/guitarist in the first of a succession of top-rated pop/rock bands. Skip also found the time to work as an announcer at WJRC-AM Radio. Following high school, he continued his music studies at Joliet Junior College.

Soon Skip released his first album on Mercury Records as a member of Trilogy, a Joliet- based band that opened for such artists as Count Basie and Buddy Rich. Griparis also became a staff writer for United Artists Publishing, where he penned songs that have sold worldwide. Next, he joined Chicago's MCA recording artists New Colony Six. After a two-year stint, he left to sing and play in the Olivia Newton-John band, a position he held for four years. Skip performed with Olivia in a wide range of venues, including the Bu-Do Kan in Tokyo, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. 

After his tours with Newton-John ended, Griparis performed in several Joliet Drama Guild productions, and then completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater at Lewis University. He has acted in everything from professional world-premier productions to classic Shakespeare. His film and TV appearances include the role of Monte the colorman in the blockbuster hit movies Major League I and II.

Always looking for a new challenge, Skip combined his sense of humor with his music and acting skills to produce a satiric musical comedy act. In addition to performing numerous times at the Rialto Theater, he has headlined Dangerfield's in New York, Zanies in Chicago, and the Ice House in Los Angeles. A Chicago Tribune poll recognized Griparis as one of the top five comics in the country.

Joliet City

American classic rock band with folk shades, good vocal hamonies and excellent guitar with some psychedelic influences. They were from Chicago area but in their hearts they must have been from San Francisco.

Tracks
1. Red Wine (Skip Griparis) - 3:43
2. Thought (#1) (Skip Griparis) - 0:41
3. Three Blind Minds (Kevin McCann) - 3:35
4. The Royal Shut (Kevin McCann) - 2:57
5. Thought (#2) (Bob Wilson) - 0:21
6. Removing Myself  (Bob Wilson) - 2:47
7. Thought (#3) (Kevin McCann) - 0:27
8. Goodbye Flying  (Skip Griparis) - 3:13
9. I'm Beginning To Feel It (Kevin McCann) - 2:45
10.March 16th (My Closet Shelf) (Bob Wilson) - 2:58
11.Comin Up Soon (Skip Griparis) - 4:07
12.Thought (#4) (Kevin McCann) - 0:52
13.For An Occasion (After The Ball) (Kevin McCann) - 2:10
14.Trilogy For Carol (Bob Wilson) - 5:17

Trilogy
*Skip Griparis - Lead Guitar, Piano, Vocals,
*Kevin McCann - Guitar, Harmonica, Organ, Vocals,
*Bob Wilson - Lead Guitar, 12-String Guitar, Vocals
With
*Bernie Pershey - Drums, Tabla
*Rick Barr - Drums
*Thom Richards - Bass, Flute

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The Troggs - Wild Thing (1966 uk, classic garage psych beat, 2015 audiophile limited edition)

Remembered chiefly as proto-punkers who reached the top of the charts with the "caveman rock" of "Wild Thing" (1966), the Troggs were also adept at crafting power pop and ballads. Hearkening back to a somewhat simpler, more basic British Invasion approach as psychedelia began to explode in the late '60s, the group also reached the Top Five with their flower-power ballad "Love Is All Around" in 1968. While more popular in their native England than the U.S., the band also fashioned memorable, insistently riffing hit singles like "With a Girl Like You," "Night of the Long Grass," and the notoriously salacious "I Can't Control Myself" between 1966 and 1968. Paced by Reg Presley's lusting vocals, the group -- which composed most of their own material -- could crunch with the best of them, but were also capable of quite a bit more range and melodic invention than they've been given credit for.

Hailing from the relatively unknown British town of Andover, the Troggs hooked up with manager/producer Larry Page (who was involved in the Kinks' early affairs) in the mid-'60s. After a flop debut single, they were fortunate enough to come across a demo of Chip Taylor's "Wild Thing" (which had already been unsuccessfully recorded by the Wild Ones). In the hands of the Troggs, "Wild Thing" -- with its grungy chords and off-the-wall ocarina solo -- became a primeval three-chord monster, famous not only in its original hit Troggs version, but in its psychedelic revamping by Jimi Hendrix, who used it to close his famous set at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.

"Wild Thing" made number one in the States, but the Troggs' momentum there was impeded by a strange legal dispute which saw their early records simultaneously released on two different labels. Nor did it help that the band didn't tour the U.S. for a couple of years. As a consequence, the fine follow-up single "With a Girl Like You" didn't do as well as they might have.

by Richie Unterberger

Tracks
1. With A Girl Like You - 2:07
2. From Home - 2:21
3. I Just Sing - 2:09
4. Hi Hi Hazel (Bill Martin) - 2:43
5. Lost Girl - 2:32
6. Evil (Shelby S. Singleton Jr.) - 3:14
7. Wild Thing (Chip Taylor) - 2:34
8. Our Love Will Still Be There - 3:08
9. Jingle Jangle - 2:26
10.When I'm With You - 2:23
11.Your Love (Michael Julien) - 1:53
12.I Want You (Colin Michael Frechter) - 2:14
All songs by Reg Presley except where indicated

The Troggs
*Ronnie Bond -  Drums
*Chris Britton - Lead Guitar
*Reg Presley - Lead vocals
*Peter Staples - Bass

1966  The Troggs - From Nowhere (2003 bonus tracks)
1967  The Troggs - Cellophane (2003 bonus tracks)
1966-76  Troggs - Archeology (double disc)
1968-73  The Troggs - Hip Hip Hooray (2004 digipak remaster) 

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Badger - One Live Badger (1976 uk, remarkable prog rock, 2016 digi pak remaster)

After Tony Kaye left Yes he formed Badger and in an unprecedented move of great confidence the band supported Yes at The Rainbow in London and recorded their show, playing completely unknown material to the audience and then released it as their first album. Brave on many levels and although they were surely well received with ex-Yes man Tony Kaye in the line-up, the audience reaction sounds rather too good to be true.

The band plays that kind of seventies music that no one remembers. A great band, with Roy Dyke on drums from Ashton Gardner and Dyke, (Dyke played On George Harrison’s Wonderwall) and I presume David Foster on bass, who shares lead vocals with guitarist Adrian Parrish. But what are they – not Progressive, not Pop, not Blues or anything you can put your finger on – not that it should matter. But produced by Geoffrey Haslam and Jon Anderson (whatever that means in this live setting) they were really good at a nameless style. I’m not sure if it’s the songs or the singing but the more I hear it I equally admire and dismiss it. It’s the strangest feeling to be both impressed and unmoved simultaneously. Maybe you have to get to know the songs but really, why did they not release a studio record? The answer to that is probably that they were good enough to not have to, and maybe the record is better than it would have been with studio polish. I’ve never felt as ambivalent towards a record as I am towards this one.

It obviously wasn’t working for the singers in the band either with Foster and Parrish both leaving. They hired Kim Gardner, from Ashton Gardner and Dyke on bass and then established singer Jackie Lomax (whose debut solo album was released on Apple and produced by George Harrison). Lomax took over the band and wrote most of the materal in a Soul/Blues direction releasing White Lady – a studio album in 1974, produced by New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint.

That was it, and it would be unfair to remember them just for the Roger Dean cover art and the pop-up badger in the gatefold of the debut album, that novelty item notwithstanding, their claim to fame is lost in the cruel mists of time.

by Marty Willson-Pipe

The early '70s marked the heyday of progressive rock -- it seemed like every time you turned around and everywhere you looked, there were top-flight bands like Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, et al., all around, and their emulators and lesser rivals spreading out as far as the eye could see. Badger was part of that whole scene, a Yes offshoot group that managed to get signed by the same label. Officially, the group's origins go back to 1972 and Tony Kaye's departure from Flash, the group he'd co-founded with his fellow ex-Yes alumni, guitarist Peter Banks. Kaye was a virtuoso who favored more traditional instruments such as the Hammond organ over the more modern Moog synthesizer (not that he didn't play the latter, but he used the organ more prominently), and who had the bad fortune to have been succeeded in Yes by the much flashier Rick Wakeman. This time out, he was going to put together his own progressive rock supergroup, on a firmer footing than Flash (whose work had sometimes strayed too close to that of Yes).

The ex-Yes keyboard player called on his longtime friend David Foster, who had managed to skirt the orbit of Yes several times without ever being asked into that lineup (in part because his instrument was the bass, and Yes was incredibly well covered in that department by Chris Squire). Foster had been a member of the Warriors, Yes lead singer Jon Anderson's mid-'60s group, and had co-authored songs with Anderson on Yes' second album, Time and a Word. Kaye had ended up working with Foster on what was ultimately to be an unreleased Foster album -- when Kaye quit Yes in 1971, he initially joined Banks in founding Flash, but after his exit from the latter, Kaye and Foster decided to finally take the plunge. They recruited drummer Roy Dyke, lately a member of Family and, before that, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke -- he was a Liverpool veteran whose career went back to the early '60s and the Remo 4 and Brian Epstein protégé Tommy Quickly, and had played on one hit single, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke's "Resurrection Shuffle"; he, in turn, steered the organizers to Brian Parrish, an ex-member of Medicine Head and Three Man Army, who had played with Paul Gurvitz and Mike Kellie in an outfit called Parrish & Gurvitz, who'd cut one LP for Regal Zonophone.

The quartet, christened Badger, fit together perfectly, and after some rehearsals began building a name for itself on a European tour opening for Black Sabbath. The band was signed by Atlantic Records, which already had Yes and saw Badger as potentially offering another group of the same caliber. When it came time to record an album, however, it was decided that nothing they tried in the studio was capturing the intensity and involvement they demonstrated on-stage, and that a live album was the best way to introduce Badger. A show at the Rainbow Theatre, opening for a now well-established Yes, was recorded, produced by Jon Anderson and Geoffrey Haslam. One Live Badger did rather better in Europe than it did in America, though it got strong reviews everywhere. Perhaps if it had come out at another time -- and not in the same season that the first wave of progressive rock albums from ELP's Manticore label was being released, with lots of publicity and advertising support -- it might've done better, and a single might've been a help (even Yes had needed "Roundabout" to find a mass audience).

by Bruce Eder

One Live Badger is the easier Badger album to find, and the one worth having anyway. As the album's title indicates, the band also took the unusual step of making their first album a live recording of original songs. It has aged very well -- with all the energy of live performance, there's none of the usual studio excesses or noodling of the era. The Yes connection via Tony Kaye is abundantly evident; the album was co-produced by Yes singer Jon Anderson, uses long instrumental breaks and prominent Hammond organ solos, and features the obligatory Roger Dean cover art. Nonetheless, the brooding lyrics and soulful harmonies make comparisons to Traffic and Blind Faith a much closer musical match. The first half of the album is excellent, kicking off with the pleasingly hoarse vocals of David Foster on the full-tilt rocker "Wheel of Fortune" and the pensive "Fountain." There's an especially tight rhythm section underlying the restrained guitar work of "Wind of Change," combining to produce the album's best song.

by Paul Collins

Tracks
1. Wheel Of Fortune - 7:56
2. Fountain - 7:24
3. Wind Of Change - 7:15
4. River - 6:53
5. The Preacher (Brian Parrish) - 4:00
6. On The Way Home - 7:40
All compositions by Brian Parrish, Tony Kaye, Dave Foster, Roy Dyke, except track #5
Recorded live at The Rainbow Theatre 15th/16th December, 1972

Badger
*Dave Foster - Bass Guitar
*Roy Dyke - Drums
*Brian Parrish - Guitar
*Tony Kaye - Keyboards

1975  Badger - White Lady (2015 remaster) 

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Troyka - Troyka (1970 canada, astonishing psych rock with experimental mood, 2014 bonus track remaster)

This Edmonton power trio combine some frenetic post-Cream guitar thrills with gruff, hyper-macho vocals on their one and only LP. The lads - Edmontonians Robert Edwards, Michael Richards, and Ron Lukawitski - actually trekked as a quartet to Montreal in 1966 but, after losing their drummer to personal family issues, regrouped back in Alberta. There, in a rather deft homage to their shared Eastern European heritage, they dubbed themselves Troyka though whether their namesake was a powerful triumvirate or an antiquated three-horse cliche has certainly blurred with the passage of time.

Troyka even comes speckled with Slavic elements two tack-on instrumentals, the lilting 'Introduction' and the closer 'Troyka Finale', bookend the record, but for the most part it relies on crotch-heavy amplification to counter the relative paucity of ideas here. 'Natural', for instance, sports some prime virtuosic guitar work, though the constipated vocals reek of facile sexism - as if an axe and some fine chops weren't enough to get you laid without pubescent posturing like, "Hey mama, won't you come down by the river, and give me some". 'Rolling Down the Road', with its nearly proto-speed metal, fares much better, channelling frantic hyper blues into an almost MC5-like abandon. Other tracks hint at a more delicate side, especially the wistful soft-psych instrumental 'Dear Margaret Malagosia', with its Spanish tinges and flecks of John Williams-ish guitar.

Troyka's flaws aside, the guys were often hailed for their legendary live sets - one particularly raucous set at New York's Fillmore East saw them flagged back for a triple encore. By 1970 they seemed to be hitting their stride, scoring a coveted support slot in Toronto for the mother of all troikas, Leslie West's Mountain. But alas, while poised to secure a page in history alongside the Band, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin aboard the infamous bourbon-and-barbiturate-laced Festival Express cross-Canada train tour in the summer of 1970, guitarist Rob Edwards left to tend to family concerns and, thus, fame turned to footnote for Troyka.

by Michael Panontin

Tracks
1. Introduction - 0:34
2. Natural - 2:48
3. Early Morning - 3:54
4. Life's O.K. - 4:01
5. Burning Of The Witch - 3:03
6. Rub-A-Dub-Dub Troyka In A Tub - 2:20
7. Troyka Lament - 0:33
8. Troyka Solo - 0:37
9. Rolling Down The Back Road - 4:05
10.Berry Picking - 2:41
11.Dear Margaret Malgosia - 2:31
12.Go East Young Man Beautiful Eyes - 6:17
13.Troyka Finale - 0:31
14.The Wedding Song - 4:55
All Words and Music by Mike Richards, Robert Edwards, Ron Lukawitski

Troyka
*Mike Richards - Lead Vocals, Drums, Percussion
*Robert Edwards - Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
*Ron "Rumor" Lukawietsky - 8 String Bass, Bass, Bongos, Vocals

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Don Nix - Living By The Days (1971 us, spectacular blend of country psych blues rock, 2011 japan SHM remaster)

Don Nix may not be a household name, but for serious fans of 1960s and 1970s music, he is an important figure: as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. He also looms large in his home town of Memphis' musical history. Nix was a member of the legendary Mar-Keys and played saxophone on the hit "Last Night." He produced records at Stax (including Delaney & Bonnie's Home) and, while at Ardent, he wrote "Going Down" for Freddie King (later covered by Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan quite successfully). Nix played on and arranged a boatload of records. He was on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, and arranged the choir for George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. Living by the Days was his second album of 1971 and appeared on Elektra. His first, In God We Trust, was released by Leon Russell's Shelter Records.

Recorded at Muscle Shoals, its lineup includes Donald "Duck" Dunn, Barry Beckett, David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Roger Hawkins, Claudia Lennear, and Kathi McDonald. Opener "The Shape I'm In" (not the Robbie Robertson tune, but Nix's own; he wrote or co-wrote everything but the tepid cover of Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light"), "She Don't Want a Lover (She Just Needs a Friend)," and closer "My Train's Done Come and Gone" sound somewhat similar to the music the Band was making. Gospel, loose Southern gothic funkiness, and roots rock all commingle, but Nix's plaintive voice is drenched in authenticity. (And no disrespect to the Band, but the musicians here are on a wholly different -- higher -- level.) 

Stomping Southern R&B and early Memphis rock & roll fuel "Olena," and one can hear more than a trace of the sounds that the Rolling Stones would "borrow" on Sticky Fingers (on which Lennear also appeared). One can hear the influence of Russell on the honky tonk gospel of "Three Angels." Despite the shortcomings of "I Saw the Light" (Furry Lewis' opening narration is priceless), Nix and the Memphis bluesman were quite close. "Going Back to Iuka" begins as a conventional electric blues but becomes a tribute to "Mystery Train," with great slide guitar work and a popping funky bassline. While Living by the Days is very much a record of its time, it is from an era that has proven timeless in appeal to subsequent generations of rock fans. Living by the Days is well worth seeking out as one of the more obscure offerings issued by a major in 1971. 

by Thom Jurek

Tracks
1. Shape I'm In -  5:44
2. Olena -  4:19
3. I Saw The Light (Hank Williams) -  3:55
4. She Don't Want A Lover (She Just Needs A Friend) -  4:25
5. Living By The Days -  3:18
6. Going Back To Iuka -  4:29
7. Three Angels (Don Nix, Lonnie Mack) -  3:45
8. Mary Louise (Don Nix, Marlin Greene) -  2:47
9. My Train's Done Come And Gone -  5:00
All songs by Don Nix except where indicated

Musicians
*Don Nix - Vocals
*Tippy Armstrong - Guitars
*Barry Beckett - Keyboards
*Joey Cooper - Vocals
*Donald "Duck" Dunn - Bass
*Jeanie Greene - Vocals
*Marlin Greene - Vocals
*Roger Hawkins - Drums
*David Hood - Bass
*Jimmy Johnson - Guitars
*Claudia Lennear - Vocals
*Furry Lewis - Narrator
*Kathi McDonald - Vocals
*Mount Zion Singers - Vocals
*Gimmer Nicholson - Guitars
*Wayne Perkins - Guitars, Vocals
*Don Preston - Vocals
*Chris Stainton - Keyboards

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A.B. Skhy - Ramblin' On (1970 us, stunning blues psych rock, 2019 korean remaster)

Originally known as New Blues, they were basically an electric blues band with horns and some jazz influences. From Milwaukee, Winconsin they relocated to San Francisco where they became a popular live attraction at venues like the Fillmore and Avalon in the late sixties. 

Released following personnel changes which saw drummer Anderson replaced by Rick Jaeger and the addition of guitarist James Cooke, 1970's "Ramblin'" teamed the band with producers Kim Fowley and Michael Lloyd. Surrounded by an all-star cast, including appearances from guitarist Elvin Bishop, Dave Roberts and Steve Miller associate/keyboardist Ben Sidran.

Tracks
1. Gotta Be Free (Dennis Geyer, James Cooke) - 2:36
2. My Baby's Quit Me (Doc Pomus, Joe Kookoolis) - 3:54
3. Pearl (James Cooke) - 1:41
4. Lady In The Dark (James Cooke) - 4:30
5. Hope For The Future (James Cooke) - 3:17
6. Sweet Mother Earth (Dennis Geyer) - 4:02
7. Groovin' (Ben E. King, James Bethea) - 3:35
8. Trackin' Shoes (Jim Marcotte, Rick Jaeger, Dennis Geyer) - 4:35
9. I'm Walkin' (Antoine Domino, James Bartholemew) - 2:45
10.Gazebo (Dennis Geyer, James Cooke, Jim Marcotte, Rick Jaeger) - 6:06

A.B. Skhy
*Dennis Geyer - Guitar, Vocals
*James Curley Cooke - Guitar, Vocals
*Dr. Rick Jaeger - Percussion
*Jim Marcotte - Bass
With
*Wally Rose - Piano
*Ben Sidran - Keyboard
*Terry Andersen - Drums, Vocals
*Elvin Bishop - Guitar

1969  A.B. Skhy - A.B. Skhy 

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