BLUE ASH
No More, No Less
Collectors Choice CD
www.ccmusic.com
Many people think that Ohio power pop started and stopped with The Raspberries, but Youngstown, Ohio’s Blue Ash would definitely have something to say about that. The quartet released an album in 1973, No More, No Less which, while relatively forgotten, can certainly hold its own with The Raspberries output, and Collector’s Choice has shown their usual good taste by reissuing the album. The opening cut, ‘Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)’ is everything a quintessential power pop song should be. Other sturdy power poppers on the album include ‘All I Want’ and ‘Wasting My Time’, and while ‘Plain To See’ clearly borrows from the early Beatles and ‘I Remember A Time’ recalls The Byrds, Blue Ash make these songs sound all their own. Plus, how many bands could transform Dylan’s ‘Dusty Old Fairgrounds’ into a power pop tune featuring some rather Moon-esque drumming from David Evans?
Liner notes come courtesy of Blue Ash co-songwriter and bassist Frank Secich, and though the band had many bad breaks, he dwells only on the positive, which is reflective of the typically upbeat attitude the band proffers on No More, No Less, as well as during their still-going-strong live performances. Power pop fans need to own this reissue!
David Bash
BRIDGE
Bridge
Erebus CD
www.ersbusrecords.com
The liner notes to the re-issue of this hopelessly obscure 1971 album boldly proclaim that the best way to describe this record would be Sweetheart Of The Rodeo on tons of acid. Of course, that would make it the jaw-dropping genius of A Gift From Euphoria, which it doesn’t actually appear to be. Instead, it’s more like a local garage band jamming out on a range of mild medications, most probably borrowed from Ma’s medicine cabinet. Bridge emerged from the ashes of (the Canadian) David and what your bucks buy you here is an amiable and slightly wonky lo-fi perambulation taking in country, bar-room boogie blues, post-Hendrix funk rock and jazz shufflin’ – all shot through with the home-spun charms of the relatively inept. Not offensive in any shape or form, but then again not really much else either.
Hugh Dellar
JW FARQUHAR
The Formal Female
Shadoks CD/LP
www.psychedelic-music.com
Here’s an odd brew of a record, rescued by Shadoks from the oblivion of 1972 Philadelphia. JW Farquhar was undergoing a brutal divorce when he barricaded himself in his apartment and recorded this one-man assault on the female race.
The sound is similar to the Stone Harbour album in its grim murk, from out of which Farquhar conjures moments of intense psychedelic queasiness. The style is a curious mixture of psych, blues, folk and funk overlaid with a weird vocal that ranges from a grizzly mumble to put-on weirdo voices.
The fuzzy, tuneless burp through the Wedding March that closes the first track leaves you with no doubt as to Farquhar’s views on his ex-wife and womanhood in general. The misanthropy and misogyny present in every track might leave a lot of people cold, but personally I found it a bitter pleasure. Not one I’d recommend to everyone but if you like that dark, raw basement sound, then this is the one for you.
Austin Matthews
FORMERLY FAT HARRY
Mariachi Riff Live And Free Music
Shagrat Records LP
nwcprods@hotmail.com
‘Mariachi Riff’ is a glorious 25-minute groove of sun drenched, West Coast Californian guitar-driven blues. It’s somewhat ironic then that it was recorded live at Aylesbury Friars in December 1970. Although clearly influenced by San Franciscan behemoths Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service, Formerly Fat Harry also had bona fide West Coast credentials. Founded in Croydon in ’69 by former Country Joe & The Fish bassist Bruce Barthol, the band also included two other Berkeley émigrés - Phil Greenberg and Gary Peterson.
The second side of this vinyl-only release is taken up by two numbers of self-described “free music” from ’69. But be warned, these two experimental tracks are an acquired taste and are wildly different from either ‘Mariachi Riff’ or their eponymously titled and country tinged debut album from ’71. Avant-gardisms aside though, this release is well worth investigating for ‘Mariachi Riff’ alone.
Rich Deakin
GREER
Between Two Worlds
Erebus CD
www.erebusrecords.com
With Don Dixon twiddling the knobs, along with singing backups and playing occasional bass, had Greer stuck more with the Big Star-like proto-power-pop mode of the opening ‘All I Need’, I’m pretty sure cult status would be hard to avoid. However, bar one Status Quo boogie rawk-out, the band’s sole author Mike Greer, chose for the remaining thirty minutes to be filled up with epic prog-balladry. None of these are bad really, ‘Night Of Dreams’ being the stand out, with a kinda spooky feel reminiscent of The Beatles’ ‘Because’, but 27:23 out of 34:37 seems as long as a distance “between two worlds” indeed, even for 1973.
Goran Obradovic
TERRY JACKS
Seasons In The Sun
7Ts Records CD
www.cherryred.co.uk
The song ‘Seasons In The Sun’ had quite a history before Canada’s Terry Jacks scored an international number one hit with it in 1974. Originally written as the French ballad ‘Le Moribond’ by Jacques Brel, it was later given an English language adaptation by Rod McKuen before being recorded by both The Kingston Trio and The Fortunes in the ’60s. In ’72 Jacks produced a version of it recorded by The Beach Boys, who found it wanting and left it in the can; Jacks laid his own rendition down shortly after, and the rest is bubblegum history.
The album Seasons In The Sun never enjoyed the same success as its title track, and it’s easy to see why: there’s just not a lot to go on here. Jacks did his best work when he and then wife Susan fronted The Poppy Family and released the soft rock masterpiece albums Which Way You Goin’, Billy? and Poppy Seeds. Without Susan’s rich voice and the band’s trippy sound, soft rock just became soft.
Brian Greene
JADE
Faces Of...
Erebus CD
www.erebusrecords.com
For quite a good reason, Jade’s sole 1970 album is most usually being mentioned alongside the likes of Klaatu, Flame, Rockin’ Horse, Liverpool Echo, Ellie Pop and Sleepy Hollow, all of whom made the ’70s easier to bear for desperate Beatlemaniacs trying to cope with the loss of their favourite band. Carrying such a burden usually ends up with the albums being dismissed by the general public, but however obvious the Beatles influence was, each of these features at least a song or two to be remembered for, in their own right. In the case of Jade, it’s the opening “pocket symphony” ‘Prelude Willow’s End’, along with the mind-bending psychedelia of ‘My Mary (More Than Ever)’ turning backwards like a “bent merry-go-round”. Of the more conventional stuff, ‘Rest Of My Life’ is pure Lennon at his ’65 best, while ‘Well’ and ‘Wait Till I Come Home’ are more indebted to McCartney’s melodic ways.
Fans of the above listed references are sure to drool upon this.
Goran Obradovic
GRAHAM NASH
Reflections
Rhino 3CD
ww.rhino.com
OK, so I must admit I’ve written and rewritten this review several times trying to capture the essence of this overview of a certain Mr Nash from Manchester’s career. I was going to detail the 64 tracks from The Hollies, CSN, Crosby & Nash and his solo career spanning 40 years. I was going to tell you about the myriad of new mixes, alternate versions and unreleased tracks, (a demo of ‘Right Between The Eyes’ being a highlight). I was going to mention the sumptuous 150-page booklet crammed with rare photos and notes from Nash himself. But forget all that, allow me to discuss the great songs!
Talk of Nash usually involves mention of that voice and his ear for harmony… but the songs, wow! Honest, open, raw, pure. Y’see, Nash was never afraid to lay his heart on the line in order to forge the perfect pop aria. Are there many as exquisitely beautiful as ‘Lady Of The Island’ or as warm and downright romantic as ‘Our House’? I don’t mind confessing to you fellow Shindiggers that hearing Nash’s sweet tenor sing the line “I am a simple man and I play a simple tune / I wish that I could see you once again across the room” on ‘Simple Man’ – like the first time – gets me every time. And how reassuring it is in this crazy, mixed up, credit crunch world we live in, to be reminded of Nash’s ability to meld rabble rousing hippy idealism to a catchy melody (‘Teach Your Children’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Military Madness’).
This set isn’t perfect. I could bemoan the shockingly mean lack of Hollies tracks (only three and nothing from Evolution or Butterfly) and the fact that chronology saddles us with dramatic dip in quality on disc three but none of that matters. Reflections presents these songs in a different context and proves he was more than just a great collaborator, but a master songsmith in his own right. It’s time that Nash was given the same respect afforded to many of his contemporaries and celebrated as a national treasure. A simple man with simple tunes… simply wonderful.
Andrew Lees
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE
Buffy / Changing Woman / Sweet America: The Mid-1970s Recordings
Big Beat 2CD
www.acerecords.co.uk
Buffy Sainte-Marie is an artist seldom written about or re-evaluated these days. Unfortunately these three albums, dating from her post-folk period and leaning towards uninteresting mainstream rock, wouldn’t inspire a newcomer to her work to delve much further.
Certainly there are some pioneering tracks – the unhappy, almost electronica feel of ‘Eagle Man/Changing Woman’ is dazzlingly original, and ‘Can’t Believe The Feeling When You’re Gone’ is a great hedonistic Fanny-style rocker – but overall there’s too much reliance on dull rock cliché or inconsequential mid-paced balladry.
Her tremulous voice is an acquired taste, and only seems to work well with an innovative arrangement or urgent beat, and there are far too few of those here. By Sweet America (’76) – the rhythmic ‘Star Walker’ aside – the overall impression is of an artist out of ideas, and this listener had run out of patience.
Jeanette Leech
SOGGY
Soggy
Memoire Neuve CD
www.memoireneuve.fr
Merging the then prevalent NWOBHM sound with The Stooges, Soggy’s punk/metal hybrid should have been a contender, but alas it was not meant to be. Luckily, we have the good folks at Memoire Neuve to thank for giving the music a new lease of life. This beautifully packaged vinyl reissue is well worth the cash, containing all of their recorded output plus their one and only single.
Buckle up and drive safely during the high octane speed freak rush of ‘Waiting For The War’ and keep your hands away from the kitchen utensils as you spin the Funhouse/dirt dirge that is ‘Slider’.
Fear not – 85% of this record keeps the quality quotient high and that’s more than enough for me. Does thuggish metallic hard rock with an Iggy-damaged lead singer sound like your cup o’meat? Yes? Then look no further.
Eric Colin Reidelberger
SPIRIT
The Archive: An Introduction
Acadia Records CD
www.evangeline.co.uk
The estimable Mick Skidmore, keeper of the Spirit archive, put this together as a sampler of the wealth of material he has released over the past decade. Although drawn neither from Spirit’s classic period at CBS/Epic nor from its phoenix-like re-birth at Mercury in the mid-70s, there’s much to savour, especially for those who felt that axe-maestro Randy California was Spirit’s most significant creative force. There are delightful examples of his innovative use of delay during live gigs, especially in an improvised intro to the Sardonicus-era track ‘Soldier’. Equally enjoyable is his tasty acoustic slide version of the old standard ‘When You’re Smilin’’.
At times, (e.g. in less well thought-out cuts like ‘Miss This Train’) Randy’s jamming becomes ragged or uninspired, and his penchant for what Zappa might have called “cosmic debris” will irritate some listeners. Nevertheless, the Byrdsy folk-rock of ‘My Friend’, the pop-psych of ‘Reeling The Night’ and the unpretentious country-blues of ‘Charlie James’ are bona fide lost treasures.
Johnny Black |
