Yays & Nays - Yays & Nays 1968

Imagine if one of those middling wholesome boy-girl combos of the commercial folk revival circa 1963 had suddenly been transported five years in the future. Then imagine they found they needed to adapt themselves to late-'60s trends as best as possible if they wanted to make an album, regardless of how awkward they might have sounded. That's about what you get with this mighty obscure LP, in which the three-man, three-woman combo fuse rather catchy early-'60s style troubadour "gotta travel on" folk-pop (with a hint of country) with more contemporary folk-pop-rock arrangements, some of which even verge on garage rock rawness. It sounds kind of ridiculous much of the time, especially when the lead vocals are delivered by a macho dude who seems to be trying to blend Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, but just ends up sounding like the square guy trying to crash a suburban party that can't decide whether to be a hootenanny or a love-in. For all that, though, the songs have their catchy elements, never more so on the most garage-folk-rockish cut, "Gotta Keep Travelling." Other cuts show some surprising stylistic versatility, with hints of sentimental early-'60s pop/rock surfacing in "Contrary Mary" and "Easy Woman" (which could almost pass for a Lee Hazlewood-Nancy Sinatra duet tune if not for the inferior vocals), and pure early-'60s commercial hootenanny folk ("Call Me a Dog"). It wasn't remotely like what was happening in the pop scene at the time of its release, but that's part of what makes it such an interesting if flawed curiosity, and certainly makes it stand out in a sea of far more predictable obscure LP releases from the same era. AMG.

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