Mother Earth - Make A Joyful Noise 1969

Make a Joyful Noise is the follow-up to 1968's Living With the Animals. This time out, Mother Earthneatly divided their joint appreciations for rural and urban American music: à la the thematic "City Side" and "Country Side." The City Side is an R&B workout, powered by a robust horn section and the vocals of Rev. Ron Stallings on burning soul cuts such as "Stop That Train," Tracy Nelson's killer performance on Naomi Neville's cooker "What Are You Trying to Do," and sultry read of Little Willie John's babymaker "Need Your Love So Bad." The Country Side is more subdued, adorned by steel guitars and Powell St. John's quavering vocals on "I'll Be Moving On" and the strange "The Fly."Nelson's version of Doug Sahm's "I Wanna Be Your Mama Again" is her blues-country gospel version of Hank Williams' honky tonk nugget "You Win Again" (with a fine fiddle solo by Johnny Gimble). Some of the guest stars on this set include Boz Scaggs, Hargus Robins, Ben Keith, D.J. Fontana, and Pete Drake. Make a Joyful Noise remains an overlooked classic from the Warner Brothers catalog that finally saw CD issue in 2004 by Wounded Bird. AMG.

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Steve Cropper - With a Little Help from My Friends 1971

After years of being a team player, Steve Cropper got to make a solo album for the label he helped put on the map, Stax Records (actually their Volt subsidiary). As you might figure, it turned out as an instrumental soul album, and a darn good one, too. It's a bona fide Telecaster-soaked dance workout, with Cropper turning in signature versions of "Land of a Thousand Dances," "99 1/2," (which features a particularly nasty period fuzz guitar), "Funky Broadway," "Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway," "In the Midnight Hour," and original instrumentals like "Crop Dustin'" and the closer "Rattlesnake." A solid and soulful little side project that holds up quite well years later. AMG.

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Jose Feliciano - Memphis Menu 1972

One of the most prominent Latin-born performers of the pop era, singer/guitarist Jose Feliciano was born September 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico; the victim of congenital glaucoma, he was left permanently blind at birth. Five years later, he and his family moved to New York City's Spanish Harlem area; there Feliciano began learning the accordion, later taking up the guitar and making his first public appearance at the Bronx's El Teatro Puerto Rico at the age of nine. While in high school he became a fixture of the Greenwich Village coffeehouse circuit, eventually quitting school in 1962 in order to accept a permanent gig in Detroit; a contract with RCA followed a performance at New York's Gerde's Folk City, and within two years he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. After bowing with the 1964 novelty single "Everybody Do the Click," he issued his flamenco-flavored debut LP The Voice and Guitar of Jose Feliciano, trailed early the next year by The Fantastic Feliciano.
Unhappy with the direction of his music following the release of 1966's A Bag Full of Soul, Feliciano returned to his roots, releasing three consecutive Spanish-language LPs -- Sombras...Una Voz, Una Guitarra, Mas Exitos de Jose Feliciano and El Sentimiento, La Voz y La Guitarra de Jose Feliciano -- on RCA International, scoring on the Latin pop charts with the singles "La Copa Rota" and "Amor Gitana." With 1968's Feliciano!, he scored a breakthrough hit with a soulful reading of the Doors' "Light My Fire" that launched him into the mainstream pop stratosphere; a smash cover ofTommy Tucker's R&B chestnut "Hi Heel Sneakers" solidified his success, and soon Feliciano found himself performing the national anthem during the 1968 World Series. His idiosyncratic Latin-jazz performance of the song proved highly controversial, and despite the outcry of traditionalists and nationalists, his status as an emerging counterculture hero was secured, with a single of his rendition also becoming a hit.
In 1969 Feliciano recorded three LPs -- Souled, Alive Alive-O, and Feliciano 10 to 23 -- and won a Grammy for Best New Artist; however, he never again equalled the success of "Light My Fire," and only the theme song to the sitcom Chico and the Man subsequently achieved hit status, edging into the Top 100 singles chart in 1974. Throughout the 1970s Feliciano remained an active performer, however, touring annually and issuing a number of LPs in both English and Spanish, including 1973's Steve Cropper-producedCompartments; he also appeared on the Joni Mitchell hit "Free Man in Paris," and guested on a number of television series including Kung Fu and McMillan and Wife. In 1980 Feliciano was the first performer signed to the new Latin division of Motown, making his label debut with an eponymous effort the following year; his recorded output tapered off during the course of the decade, although he occasionally resurfaced with LPs including 1987's Tu Immenso Amor and 1989's I'm Never Gonna Change. A school in East Harlem was renamed the Jose Feliciano Performing Arts School in his honor; in 1996, he also appeared briefly in the hit film Fargo. AMG.

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Lester Bowie - African Children 1978

From the 1970s until his death in 1999, Lester Bowie was the preeminent trumpeter of the jazz avant-garde -- one of the few trumpet players of his generation to adopt the techniques of free jazz successfully and completely. Indeed, Bowie was the most successful in translating the expressive demands of the music -- so well suited to the tonally pliant saxophone -- to the more difficult-to-manipulate brass instrument. Like a saxophonist such as David Murray or Eric Dolphy, Bowieinvested his sound with a variety of timbral effects; his work had a more vocal quality when compared with that of most contemporary trumpeters. In a sense, he was a throwback to the pre-modern jazz ofCootie Williams or Bubber Miley, though Bowie was by no means a revivalist. Though he was certainly not afraid to appropriate the growls, whinnies, slurs, and slides of the early jazzers, it was always in the service of a thoroughly modern sensibility. And Bowie had chops; his style was quirky, to be sure, but grounded in fundamental jazz concepts of melody, harmony, and rhythm.

Bowie grew up in St. Louis, playing in local jazz and rhythm & blues bands, including those led byLittle Milton and Albert King. Bowie moved to Chicago in 1965, where he became musical director for singer Fontella Bass. There Bowie met most of the musicians with whom he would go on to make his name -- saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Jack DeJohnette among them. He was a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musiciansand (in 1969) the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Bowie's various bands included From the Root to the Source -- a sort of gospel/jazz/rock fusion group -- and Brass Fantasy, an all-brass, postmodern big band that became his most popular vehicle. Bowie's catholic tastes were evidenced by the band's repertoire; on albums, they covered a nutty assortment of tunes, ranging from Jimmy Lunceford's "Siesta for the Fiesta" to Michael Jackson's "Black and White." Besides his work as a leader and withthe Art Ensemble, Bowie recorded as a sideman with DeJohnette, percussionist Kahil El'zabar, composer Kip Hanrahan, and saxophonist David Murray. He was also a member of the mid-'80s all-star cooperative the Leaders. Bowie's music occasionally leaned too heavily on parody and aural slapstick to be truly affecting, but at its best, a Bowie-led ensemble could open the mind and move the feet in equal measure. AMG.

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Hollins And Starr - Sidewalks Talking 1970

This one record comes via Rockasteria.  Chicago-based duo Chuck Hollins and David Starr only made this one album, which originally appeared in 1970 on the Ovation label. All we know about them is what the original ads for the album said: "David Starr learned piano when he was three, began composing when he was four. At twenty-one he was playing flute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Chuck Hollins picked up a guitar one day and just started playing.... by the time he left Northwestern with his Creative Writing degree he was turning his poetry into music."

Others have said: "Unique blend… with a lovely dreaming, drifting vibe" – the Acid Archives; "Many diverse influences from pop-psych, mystical mellow passages, quasi-classical touches, delightful ethereal flute, trance-like vocals and fuzz guitar… there is much to appreciate on this largely undiscovered gem" – Fuzz, Acid & Flowers. The deluxe mini-LP sleeve CD edition has four bonus tracks, including a "hidden track" with some rare sound effects plucked from the vaults, and it is limited to 1,000 copies.

The sole album by Chuck Hollins and Dave Starr, their only known recordings, is a treasure trove of strong melodies and dreamy vocal stylings an album sure to appeal to fans of acid folk, popsike, and even those who like jazzy funk. Listening to it is a rich, rewarding experience. This is a perfectly produced and arranged record, an ode to the free mind, structured by intelligent considerations. And as another person has said, "No wonder it has been sampled by DJ Shadow." Ovation said at the time of its release, "Classical artistry rock and sidewalk poetry." All true. Very cool. Hip, mellow, and stoned. Thanks Marios.

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The 31 Flavors - Hair 1969

In the late '60s, a bunch of mysterious psychedelic exploitation albums were released by the budget Crown label in the U.S. Issued under different band names (The Firebirds,Underground Electrics, 31 Flavors, etc.), they were recorded by an anonymous group of studio musicians. Hair by 31 Flavors is the counterpart to Light My Fire by The Firebirds. Along with demented raw garage covers of "Hair" and "Aquarius," it contains some of the heaviest, fuzzed-out exploitation sounds ever committed to vinyl. You can hear echoes of Blue Cheer, Hendrix and Sabbath, featuring proto-doom, heavy-psych bombs like "Distortions of Darkness."

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Calvin Scott - I'm not blind, I just can't see 1972

Best known for his longtime collaboration with R&B great Clarence Carter, Calvin Scott turned up on Stax just long enough for this awkward spiritual soul session, a shameless and wan stab to capture the sound and schtick of Ray Charles. The uncomfortably titled I'm Not Blind, I Just Can't See bears few of the classic Stax hallmarks, with backing unit the Jazz Crusaders settling for a half-baked deep-fried soul sensibility that fails to complement Scott's gritty vocals -- moreover, the songs lack fire, delivering little beyond a few uplifting lyrical platitudes. AMG.

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Jesse Colin Young - Songbird 1975

Buoyed by the positive reaction he received opening Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's summer 1974 stadium tour, Jesse Colin Young cut another album of attractive, frequently country-tinged music with his usual backup band, in which keyboardist Scott Lawrence and reed player Jim Rothermel had become near collaborators. Young repeated "Josiane" and "Sugar Babe" from his Youngbloods days and took on such unlikely subjects as the plight of Native Americans ("Before You Came"), while his romantic life seemed to be suffering ("Again") and he felt the need to answer his critics ("Slick City"). But his pleasure in playing music remained contagious, especially on the title track, and his fans responded, making Songbird his highest-charting album ever. [Originally released in February 1975 as Warner Bros. 2845, Songbird was reissued in 1994 as Ridgetop Music 1030.] AMG.

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Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band - The Eggplant That Ate Chicago 1967

Odder than the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and more aligned with the straight folk/jug band tradition thanthe Holy Modal Rounders were, Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band were among the more notable 1960s groups that updated the old-timey/jug band spirit with a modern attitude and rock influences. Most known as the starting point for leader and chief songwriter Norman Greenbaum(there was no "Dr. West"), who would have a huge rock hit in 1970 with "Spirit in the Sky," they didn't achieve even the modest profile of Kweskin or the Holy Modal Rounders. Greenbaum once described himself as "a cross between Captain Beefheart and Spike Jones," and while Dr. West sounded much more like Jones than Beefheart, Greenbaum and his cohorts certainly had a knack for witty, often absurd modern-day jug band-style tunes. On-stage, Dr. West would go through medicine show routines between songs, a shtick which even drew the praise of Frank Zappa. Dr. West's sole album,The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, was chock-full of tunes embedded with blasé weirdness, like the title track, which would be tailor-made for airplay on Dr. Demento's show a few years later. A few post-album singles saw Dr. West filling out their sound with more rock-flavored arrangements that dovetailed with folk-rock and mild psychedelia, although the lyrical focus remained off the beaten track, with songs about a New York Hooker ("Bullet La Verne") and "Gondoliers, Shakespeares, Overseers, Playboys, and Bums." AMG.

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Freedom's Children - Battle Hymn Of The Broken-Hearted Horde 1968

This is Freedom's Children's first album, recorded in 1968 in South Africa for EMI. This album has all the wonderful excesses of early progressive rock; the deep meaningful poetry, spoken words, majestic organ-playing, sound effects, choirs, long guitar solos, etc. Ramsay MacKay's unusual Scottish/South African accent guides us through this album of contrasts. From the country sounds of "Country Boy" to the Traffic-style rock of "Judas Queen," this album does not let up for a moment. It rocks, it soothes, it challenges, it even refreshes (thanks to the inclusion of an old Pepsi advertisement). A great album and a mind-blowing debut.

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Dennis the Fox - Mother Trucker 1975

Got it while surfing in the music blogosphere and the front cover art was a great attraction, the music inside is just an interesting bunch of raw rock songs from tthe 70's. Give it a try. Hard to find.

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Eddie Harris - Free Speech 1970

Eddie Harris, who doubles on electric tenor-sax and reed trumpet, is joined by keyboardist Jodie Christian, bassist Louie Spears, drummer Billy Hart and percussionist Felix Henry on this okay session of funky jazz. Harris plays quite well as usual (he can be easily identified within a note or two) but none of his six originals on this out-of-print LP are very substantial. AMG.

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Cowboy - Reach for the sky 1970

While not exactly the house band for Phil Walden's Macon, GA-based Capricorn Records label, the members of the acoustic aggregate Cowboy -- consisting of Scott Boyer (guitars/violin/vocals),Tommy Talton (guitars/vocals), Bill Pillmore (piano/guitar/fiddle/vocals), Tomm Wynn(drums/percussion), George Clark (bass), and Pete Kowalke (guitars/vocals/drums) -- could be found on recordings by the Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman (whom they regularly supported), Alex Taylor, and Bonnie Bramlett. Their debut Reach for the Sky (1971) amply shows off their rural whimsy and substantial acoustic capacities. While their country-rock leanings are comparable to the Hearts & Flowers, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, or Pure Prairie League, they rely on their solid original material rather than adaptations and variations on traditional works and standards from the genre. However, as the mini-hoedown "Honey Ain't Nowhere" proves, they dew drop in for some unquestionably bluegrass-inspired pickin'. The succinct "Amelia's Earache" and "Pick Your Nose" are both off-the-wall indulgences that nicely balance out the stunning "Beautiful Friend" and the mid-tempo rocker "Stick Together," which bears all the earmarks of an early-'70s Allman Brothers side. Similarly, "Rip & Snort" features a strong repetitive rhythm that is accentuated by the guitarists in a tandem lead similar to that of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. Another recommended spin is the languid and laid-back "It's Time," as it wafts into a vibe reminiscent of Neil Young circa After the Gold Rush (1970). Reach for the Sky (1971) is full of pleasurable, if not slightly pastoral, music that is recommended for inclined ears who likewise favor Southern rock. AMG.

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The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump - The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump 1970

This quintet came from Walpole, Massachusetts, and boasted the powerful vocals of Caroline Stratton and the powerful guitar work of Dean Keady. Their sole album was produced by Michael Tschudin (The Listening, Cynara), and originally issued in March 1970. A taut blend of acid rock and ballads, it has been favorably compared to Jefferson Airplane and other leading psychedelic acts of the era.

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