Gary Farr - Take Something with You 1969 - (Isle of Wight 1970)

Although Gary Farr had started his recording career as a part of the mid-'60s British R&B wave, by the time he did his first full-length album, he was heavily influenced by folk and progressive rock. Members of late-'60s British progressive cult bands Blossom Toes and Mighty Baby, in fact, help out on Take Something with You, which sometimes has a pastoral rock-jazz-folk-blues feel à la Traffic. The songs aren't nearly as solid as Traffic's, though, and Farr's vocals, while decent, don't have the punch of a Stevie Winwood. The result is a record that's admirable in its attitude, but not that memorable, particularly as -- in common with some other projects by this loosely affiliated group of musicians, as heard on albums by Mighty Baby and Reg King -- there's sometimes a drifting, unfocused feel, as if the songs are sketches that haven't been fully worked out. Farr's at his best here when the compositions and arrangements are the folkiest, slightly recalling American songwriters Tim Buckley (a resemblance that's strongest on "Curtain of Sleep") and Tim Hardin. There's an attractive melancholy atmosphere to many of these tracks, just not quite enough follow-through or distinction to other the songs or singing to mark it as something outstanding. AMG.

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