Seatrain - Seatrain 1970

Produced by George Martin and recorded in England, Seatrain found all the parts with which to construct a great album of East Coast rock and country soul. With Peter Rowan added to the group as guitarist and lead vocalist, Seatrain managed to even get a Top 40 hit with the tune "13 Questions." But the good music doesn't stop there; each track is worth listening to. AMG.

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John Cale - Paris 1919 (1973)

One of John Cale's very finest solo efforts, Paris 1919 is also among his most accessible records, one which grows in depth and resonance with each successive listen. A consciously literary work -- the songs even bear titles like "Child's Christmas in Wales," "Macbeth," and "Graham Greene" -- Paris 1919 is close in spirit to a collection of short stories; the songs are richly poetic, enigmatic period pieces strongly evocative of their time and place. Chris Thomas' production is appropriately lush and sweeping, with many tracks set to orchestral accompaniment; indeed, there's little here to suggest either Cale's noisy, abrasive past or the chaos about to resurface in his subsequent work -- for better or worse, his music never achieved a similar beauty again. AMG.

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Dirk Hamilton - You Can Sing on the Left or Bark on the Right 1976

After moving to Los Angeles from Stockton, CA, Dirk Hamilton attracted the attention of Steely Dan producer Gary Katz, who in turn helped him sign a deal with ABC Records. The result, the Katz-produced You Can Sing on the Left or Bark on the Right, is quirky if occasionally misguided work, with moments of brilliance. Katz brought in a host of session pros, including Chuck Rainey, Elliott Randall, and Jeff Porcaro -- all of whom had previously worked with him on various Steely Dan projects -- to flesh out Hamilton's idiosyncratic, acoustic-based tunes. And while these great players are perfect for Steely Dan's sophisticated pop/rock, they don't really do much for the material here. Hamilton sounds loose and playful throughout, while the backing seems somewhat flat and lifeless. Still, what makes You Can Sing truly worthwhile, and distinguishes it from the other singer/songwriter recordings bombarding the industry at the time, is masterful songwriting like the terrific "She Don't Squash Bugs," the detailed melancholy of "Wasn't That One Night Good," and the opening track, "The Sweet Forever." It would take Hamilton a couple of years to find the perfect setting for his songs but, nonetheless, his sharp wit, keen insight, and unique style are evident throughout You Can Sing on the Left or Bark on the Right. AMG.

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Blerta - This Is The Life 1975

Blerta ("Bruno Lawrence's Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition"), was a New Zealand musical and theatrical cooperative active in the 1970s. It was the idea of Bruno Lawrence to arrange a group of musicians, actors, and friends, who would travel around New Zealand on a tour to get away from the pressure of the music and movie scene. He organized the traveling group, and in October 1971, they departed on their tour. The group traveled around New Zealand in a very distinctive red bus, concluding in January 1973 at the first large outdoor music festival in New Zealand, The Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival[1] before heading up the eastern seaboard of Australia and performing at the 1973 Aquarius Festival at the Northern Rivers NSW hippie town of Nimbin.

The group lived in a commune for many years. Three families, including Bruno Lawrence's and Geoff Murphy's, lived together. The group came to the attention of those in the New Zealand film industry and were at times employed to create work for TVNZ. The group was labeled as hippies during this time and was looked down upon by some in the industry despite the quality and nature of their work.

Throughout the years that Blerta traveled the lineup changed, over time members included Lawrence, Fane Flaws, Beaver, Geoff Murphy, Tony Barry, Mick Liber as well as many others, of which some had previously worked with Bruno in bands and others joined along the way. The original lineup was Bruno Lawrence, Corben Simpson, Kemp Turirangi, Geoff Murphy, Alan Moon, Tony Littlejohn, Beaver, Eric Foley, and Chris Seresin. The great adventure and experience of Blerta finished in 1975 when the troupe went out on one last tour. 

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Nine Days' Wonder - Nine Days' Wonder 1971

German underground rock band of the 1970's hailing from Mannheim. Eccentric and unique vocalist Walter Seyffer had fronted numerous bands during the 1960s. He claims to have established Nine Days Wonder in 1966, then known as The Graves, which gradually transformed into Nine Days Wonder proper in February 1970. Walter got together an unlikely collection of musicians from Germany, Austria, Ireland, and England, to create a diverse rock fusion encompassing all forms of Krautrock and showing distinct Frank Zappa and British progressive rock influences.

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Bob Weir - Heaven Help The Fool 1978

Issued half a decade after his first solo LP, Ace (1972), Heaven Help the Fool is the antithesis of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir's debut effort. Although initially dismissed by critics and Deadheads alike as a slick, soulless, L.A.-sounding disc, the passage of time has somewhat mitigated that assessment -- but not by very much. One of the primary factors in the decidedly over-produced and at times uncomfortable-sounding approach can be directly attributed to the absence of his Grateful Dead bandmates. This is in direct contrast to Ace -- which was, in reality, a full-blown Dead album in disguise. Another common thread is producer Keith Olsen. As he had done with the Dead's Terrapin Station (1977) long player the previous year, Olsen obscures some uniformly interesting melodies with disco-laden arrangements, the most blatant offenders being "Wrong Way Feelin'" and a reworking of Marvin Gaye's "I'll Be Doggone." They're abused with synthesizer-drenched rhythms and disposable, generic backing vocals. Even the array of studio talent -- which includes Waddy Wachtel (guitar), David Foster (keyboards), fellow Bay Area Sons of Champlin-founder Bill Champlin (keyboards), Mike Porcaro (bass), Tom Scott (woodwinds), and former Elton John bandmembers Nigel Olsson (drums) and Dee Murray (bass) -- is unable to salvage a majority of the material on Heaven Help the Fool. However, it is Weir's uniformly strong original compositions -- penned with longtime lyrical collaborator John Barlow -- and well-conceived choice of cover tunes that suffer the most. Those wishing to hear infinitely more tolerable interpretations of tracks such as "Bombs Away," "This Time Forever," "Shade of Grey," and Lowell George's "Easy to Slip" should seek out Weir/Wasserman Live (1998). Likewise, the more industrious enthusiast might even wish to locate the Grateful Dead's very occasional live versions of "Heaven Help the Fool" and "Salt Lake City." AMG.

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Hollins Ferry - Hollins Ferry 1977

Not much info about this power pop band from Baltimore, Maryland who released one album in 1977 on Port City Records before splitting up. 

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Marc Brierley - Hello 1969

Marc Brierley's second album boasted considerably more color in the arrangements than his 1968 debut Welcome to the Citadel had. Perhaps the production input of Ashley Kozak, who had been Donovan's manager, helped move Brierley in the more melodic, accessible direction that characterized Donovan's brand of folk-rock. (For that matter, sidemen Harold McNair, on flute, and Tony Carr, on percussion, had played on some of Donovan's fine 1960s recordings.) Brierley's not a "Sunshine Superman," though, and while it marks an improvement from its predecessor, Hello is still pretty tame, unmemorably effusive period late-'60s British folk-pop/rock. The mood ranges from light bonhomie with a vaudevillian speckle ("Sunny Weather"), earnest flowery orchestrated folk-pop ("Lady of the Light" and "When Martha Comes"), and jazzy bossa nova ("Lookin' Around the Room") to more melancholy and acoustic material, the title track recalling both Donovan and Al Stewart. The net effect, however, is to remind you just how much better Donovan's records were, though this is superficially similar in some respects. AMG.

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Sandy Harless - Songs 1973

From a young age, Sandy Harless harbored the tender soul that he’d later put on display with his 1973 LP Songs. At five, he raised an abandoned baby skunk, and later bred exotic fish and sold them to local pet shops. Growing up in Ravenswood, West Virgina, a teenaged Harless turned the sale of one spindly African butterfly fish into a Dan Armstrong Ampeg bass guitar in clear acrylic. As a student at Ohio University in Athens, Harless booked twelve sessions over three weeks of 1973 at Chillicothe’s Appalachia Sound Recording Studio. Set to tape were an assemblage of performances by a group of longtime friends and classmates—identified on the LP jacket as simply Mark, Elise, Phil, and Chauncey—each of whom scheduled overdub sessions around final exams. Pedal steel guitarist, Jon David Call—founding member of Columbus, Ohio country-rock outfit, Pure Prairie League—happened to be in the studio the day Harless dropped by to book his session. On hiatus from the League following their 1972 RCA debut, Call agreed to sit in on the session for Songs.

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William Truckaway - Breakaway 1971

After leaving the Sopwith Camel singer/songwriter William Truckaway recorded one of the great lost singles of the early '70s, "Bluegreens." It is an insanely catchy ditty built around a chunky synthesizer and simple hippy-dippy sentiments with a multi-tracked Truckaway and the Stovall Sisters providing some truly blissed-out vocals. It was enough of a hit that Taco Bell used it for an ad campaign and it got Truckaway an album deal with Reprise. Breakaway, which contains "Bluegreens," was released in 1971 and it is a wonderfully sweet and mellow album from a guy who sings like he could charm the leaves off the trees in the summertime. The album has a relaxed and easygoing sound with plenty of gentle strumming and tender vocalizing but also inventive arrangements (synths, sitars, congas, flutes, strings, backing vocals) that give his thoughts about getting out of the city ("Hard," "Cold City Life"), going slow ("I Go Slow"), finding Jesus ("Leave It There") and love lost ("Where's My Baby") and found ("Way to My Heart," "Be the One") -- an extra punch that many of his contemporaries lacked. You could compare Truckaway without much of a stretch to John Sebastian, since the Sopwith Camel and the Lovin' Spoonful shared a sound and a producer (Erik Jacobsen, who also fulfills those duties with Truckaway here). Breakaway isn't a lost classic by any means but it is a satisfying and interesting listen that deserves to be reissued outside of Japan. AMG.

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Sky - Sailor's Delight 1971

The second album by the Knack's Doug Fieger was produced by Jimmy Miller with Andy Johns, eight years before producer Mike Chapman would unleash "My Sharona" on the world. Fieger's "Don't Want Nobody" has all the elements that Miller put into his Stones hits and Traffic classic album cuts -- piano and flute supplement the folk guitar and vocal, giving the singer an enviable platform. The album is a solid representation of Fieger's song compositions and pre-Knack efforts; "Let It Lie Low" is a nice bit of pop/rock that foretells what was to come, a happy-go-lucky drumbeat by Robby Stawinski exploding when the Rolling Stones' horn section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price kicks in. Young Fieger's letter to producer Miller not only landed him the two albums on RCA, it enabled the group to get the great players here, like guitarist John Uribe and the Stones' pianist Ian Stewart, continuing the tradition of the stellar guests who showed up for Sky's first album. "Taking the Long Way Home" definitely sounds like an American version of Traffic, with conga drums that help the transition from this song to the piano ballad "Come Back." Again, the Stones' horns come in to add a touch of class, creating a nice bed for the powerful song-title chorus to emphasize Feiger's slinky vocal. This track is outstanding, and should have been a staple on 1971 FM radio. Miller was quite busy in the early '70s with Locomotiv GT, the Savage Rose, the Rolling Stones, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison, and Ginger Baker's Air Force, among others. Sailor's Delight, with its beautiful red sunrise/sunset cover, is a lost gem from the major producer at the peak of his powers as well as from his discovery Fieger, who went on to create the hit of the summer of 1979, "My Sharona." Inside these grooves are melodies and performances that verify Miller's genius; "Tooly" has an island feel while John Coury's "Sing for Me" comes off like the serious side of Tommy James. "Sing for Me," "Come Back," and "Low Down" from this disc would be perfect Sky contributions for the inevitable Jimmy Miller production box set. As entertaining as it is historical, Sailor's Delight is creative work from the master producer and the musicians he believed in enough to sign. How many "name" producers on a hot streak would gamble on an unknown singer, with validation coming years later as the singer went on to worldwide fame? AMG.
 

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Elizeth Cardoso & Zimbo Trio - Balançam Na Sucata 1969

Elizete Cardoso, the singer whose album Chega de Saudade launched the bossa nova, was also the first popular singer to interpret Villa-Lobos at the Municipal Theaters of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and was considered by Almirante the best interpreter of Noel Rosa. Adored by Edith Piaf ("C'est merveilleuse! C'est merveilleuse!"), paid homage by Cartola (who wrote especially for her his famous samba-canção "Acontece"), and a most cherished artist by the Brazilian audiences, she was also known as "the Divina" (an alias given to her by Haroldo Costa and popularized by Vinicius de Moraes in his liner notes to Chega de Saudade).

Her ample tessitura, capable of exploring faithfully both low and high registers, and her highly personal interpretation, full of a melancholy that witnessed the essence of an artist who experienced deep sadness in her life (along with all the rewards that success can bring), conveyed an unforgettable poetic density. In her almost 70 years of artistic activities, she performed a wide palette of genres, but her preference was for the samba. Here with Zimbo Trio with whom she toured extensively all around the world. AMG.

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Brian Byrne - Brian Byrne 1973

This little-known and tough-to-find folk gem remains one of the best-kept secrets of Ireland. Much of the repertoire is traditional, however, it keeps the listener's attention though the whole set, possibly because it doesn't sound as expected. It is more modern and sometimes close to chamber-folk music. Brian's voice is something but what makes this album truly special is all the little - nonetheless essential - unexpected touches, the best example of that being the Moog: a bewitching, heartwarming sound.

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10cc - 10cc 1973

Displaying a command of pop styles and satire, 10cc showed that they are a force to be reckoned with on their first album. Hooks abound, harmonies shine, and instrumentation is dazzling without being overdone. Though charges of "self-consciously clever" could be leveled at the group, their command of witty, Anglo-styled pop is so impressive that even those criticisms must be weighed against the mastery of styles. All four members sing lead and are talented songwriters, and this leads to a wide variety of styles that add to their vision. Featuring their number one U.K. hit "Rubber Bullets," 10cc wade through ten selections of satire and parody. One of the best is "Johnny Don't Do It," a parody of all the "death discs" of the late '50s and early '60s (the misunderstood "bad but really good" guy who is killed in a wreck). More contemporary and bitingly sarcastic is "Headline Hustler," a commentary on the ravenous, scandal-hungry media. Medical facilities and the treatment afforded there is given ripe 10cc commentary in "The Hospital Song." ("And when I go, I'll die of plaster casting love.") Whether doing loving parodies of the music they grew up with or satirizing contemporary issues, 10cc show themselves to be top-level purveyors of pop on their debut recording. Some might criticize the group for being too self-satisfied with their own intelligence, but there is no denying the true craftsmanship and humor on their 1973 debut. AMG.

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Moby Grape - Moby Grape 1967

Moby Grape's career was a long, sad series of minor disasters, in which nearly anything that could have gone wrong did (poor handling by their record company, a variety of legal problems, a truly regrettable deal with their manager, creative and personal differences among the bandmembers, and the tragic breakdown of guitarist and songwriter Skip Spence), but their self-titled debut album was their one moment of unqualified triumph. Moby Grape is one of the finest (perhaps the finest) album to come out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, brimming with great songs and fresh ideas while blessedly avoiding the pitfalls that pockmarked the work of their contemporaries -- no long, unfocused jams, no self-indulgent philosophy, and no attempts to sonically re-create the sound of an acid trip. Instead, Moby Grape built their sound around the brilliantly interwoven guitar work of Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis, and Skip Spence, and the clear, bright harmonies of all five members (drummer Don Stevenson and bassist Bob Mosely sang just as well as they held down the backbeat). As songwriters, Moby Grape blended straight-ahead rock & roll, smart pop, blues, country, and folk accents into a flavorful brew that was all their own, with a clever melodic sense that reflected the lysergic energy surrounding them without drowning in it. And producer David Rubinson got it all on tape in a manner that captured the band's infectious energy and soaring melodies with uncluttered clarity, while subtly exploring the possibilities of the stereo-mixing process. "Omaha," "Fall on You," "Hey Grandma," and "8:05" sound like obvious hits (and might have been if Columbia hadn't released them as singles all at once), but the truth is there isn't a dud track to be found here, and time has been extremely kind to this record. Moby Grape is as refreshing today as it was upon the first release, and if fate prevented the group from making a follow-up that was as consistently strong, for one brief shining moment Moby Grape proved to the world they were one of America's great bands. While history remembers the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane as being more important, the truth is neither group ever made an album quite this good. AMG.

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