New Breed – The Many Moods Of (1970)
Artist: New Breed
Title: The Many Moods Of
Year: 1970
Format: LP
Label: New Breed
So how to describe this one? Perhaps the best description is that this one serves as a textbook example of a good bar band in action, although these guys sounded a bit older than most of their contemporaries and they actually seem to have had more talent and enthusiasm …
The force behind the band was apparently singer/drummer Jim Mills. Mills paid his bills working as a DJ (Jim Jefferson) at Carlisle, PA’s WHYL. The rest of the line up consisted of guitarist Terry Brady who made his living as a printer.
Guitarist Augie Dietz managed a carpet department in a home furnishings store. Bassist Terry Calaman was a home remodeler. Together the four friends (along with horn players Chet Nace and Ed Strohm) started playing dances and clubs throughout central Pennsylvania.
1970 saw them record and release the self-produced The Many Moods Of The New Breed. Released on their own New Breed label (one assumes they sold copies at their live shows), the album offered up a mixture of nifty original numbers and popular soul and pop hits.
Opening an album with a cover of “Shotgun” probably wasn’t the most original move in the book, but these guys managed to make it work. Propelled by Mills frantic drumming and his enthusiastic blue-eyed soul vocals (to my ears he sounded a little like the guy in The Flaming Ember who sang ‘Westbound # 9′), the result was one of the better Motown covers I’ve heard.
As good as the group’s covers were, the five Brady and Mills penned originals were even better. The only original on the first side, the molten “Rockbustin Blues” served to show these guys were rockers at heart. Showcasing a great fuzz lead guitar, side two started out with another winner in the form of the blues-rocker “Mississippi Delta” (crank it up), while the other three originals on side two were just as good.
The only disappointment was the closer “Never Ending Song of Love” which sounded like it was being performed for an audience of polka fans – don’t think Delaney and Bonnie would pick it as their favorite cover version. Not an album for anyone looking for sophistication and cutting edge creativity.
Their blue-eyed soul moves (“When Something Is Wrong with My Baby”) probably wouldn’t appeal to hardcore rock fans and there were also occasional horns that would put off some folks. On the other hand they sounded like they were having fun throughout the collection. All told one of my favorite finds and a group I bet was a ton of fun to hear at a local club !!! (Bad Cat)
Track Listing
- Shotgun
- Try Me
- Rockbustin Blues
- When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
- Mississippi Delta
- In The Wind
- Don’t Jive
- Unlock Your Mind
- Never Ending Song Of Love
Armageddon – Armageddon (1969)
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Artist: Armageddon
Title: Armageddon
Year: 1969
Format: LP
Label: Amos
Singer/lead guitarist Mark Creamer, rhythm guitarist James Parker, and drummer Johnny Stark had previously been members of the Texas-based The Kitchen Cinq (see April 23, 2010 post). Following the band’s collapse the trio along with Kitchen Cinq bassist James Dallas Smith decamped for Los Angeles.
Smith apparently decided to return to Texas in order to get a college degree and was quickly replaced by Skip Battin. The quartet was quickly signed to Jimmy Bowen’s newly formed Amos label (Kitchen Cinq manager Tom Thacker and Bowen were longtime friends).
As you probably guessed, the move to Southern California and a new label found the band ditching their earlier pop-psych roots in favor of a distinctively tougher, rock-oriented attack. Produced by Tom Thacker, 1969′s cleverly titled Armageddon marked a major step forward in terms of creativity.
Whereas The Kitchen Cinq LP and singles frequently followed prevailing musical trends, original tracks like “Armageddon Theme”, “Water Lilly” and “Another Part Of Our Life” offered up a first-rate set of fuzz guitar propelled hard rock, though much of the material was tempered by catchy melodies.
The other big difference was found in the vocal performances. Whereas The Kitchen Cinq lacked a distinctive singer, this time out all four members came off as first-rate vocalists. Virtually every one of the ten tracks was worth hearing (okay, any song based on a Tolkin character was of dubious worth (“Bilbo Baggins”) and the stoned cover of the Walt Disney class ”The Magic Song” was simply a bad idea to start with).
Personal favorites included the acid-tinged ballad “Cave Of The Winds” and their Cream cover “Tales Of Brave Ulysses”. Not a major masterpiece, but easily on of the better albums I’ve stumbled across over the last couple of years. (Bad Cat)
Track Listing
- Armageddon Theme
- Water Lilly
- Another Part Of Our Life
- Come Tomorrow
- Cold Cold Tracks
- Cave Of The Winds
- The Lamp
- Bilbo Baggins
- Tales Of Brave Ulysses
- The Magic Song
Don Cooper – The Ballad Of C.P. Jones (1971)
Artist: Don Cooper
Title: The Ballad Of C. P. Jones
Year: 1971
Format: LP
Label: Roulette
Contributed By Eliot W.
Cooper rides the narrow furrow between folk, country and rock, uses his disaffected voice and guitar on some story themes and keeps the backup group (which has some strong jazz names) down. All in all it’s a good example of offbeat talent comin’ through. Good sample track is the opener, “The Ballad Of C.P. Jones.” (Billboard Magazine)
Track Listing
- The Ballad Of C. P. Jones
- Lonely Blue
- Rhinestone In The Rough
- Let Myself Go
- Fat Lovebirds
- A Better Way
- If It’s Gotta Happen
- Haven’t Much Time
- Howlin’ At The Moon
- Good Ol’ Gal
- If I Fell
- Do Or Die
Seagull – Seagull (1970)
Artist: Seagull
Title: Seagull
Year: 1970
Format: LP
Label: Burdette
Seagull were a Seattle-based duo consisting of Jonathan Perry (violin) and Ronald Orden (guitar). The album is a conceptual piece of Folk Rock Fusion Jazz New Age Violin/Bass/Guitar pertaining to the “day in the life” of a Seagull.
Released on the Burdette label (Springfield Rifle etc.), this fits in very well with the “New Age” genre and was recorded way ahead of it’s time in the early part of the seventies. (Howard Hales Broom)
Track Listing
- Dawn
- I Can Fly
- Toward Heaven
- Within Us All
- Power Dive
- Seagull
- No Limit
Tedd Smith – Smash And Grab World (1969)
Artist: Tedd Smith
Title: Smash And Grab World
Year: 1969
Format: LP
Label: Word
This is truly a great but often overlooked psychedelic Christian album on the very unpsychdelic Word label. And an obscuro fringe record to say the least. This is Tedd Smith’s attempt to convert all the drugged out hippies into nice Christians, I presume as he was a Billy Graham sidekick. But he had an ace up his sleeve. He was going to be working from the inside.
By making an album that sounded psychedelic, he could reach the people that needed help the most. The drugged-out hippies who actually seek out strange noises, exotic instrumentation and trippy lyrics! Perhaps Tedd Smith’s little spoken word bits have been the problem for those seeking heady sounds these days as they do tend to devalue the rest of the albums mood.
The mood being an unworldly mix of avant-garde, Egyptian circus keyboards and drums, semi-fuzz spy guitar, and the beautiful folky-fragile voice of Joan Hettenhouser that swirls and pulsates into a nice 60’s sound experience. And man what a voice. Whether she’s singing about “jumping for joy” or how all the kids are “getting high on grass and acid arrows”, Hettenhouser can create an atmosphere with the best of them. It’s a crime she isn’t better known.
Evidently, she was also in a Christian Rock band called The Sons of Thunder who released four albums starting in 1968. She certainly has a sound that belongs on the Hippie Goddess compilations. Tedd’s keyboards and songwriting, if not directly influenced by psychedelics, have enough second-hand exposure to make them seem genuine.
The rest of the band was probably sneaking away now and then behind Tedd Smith’s back to engage the practices that he was preaching against. They certainly sound “experienced”. Towards the end of “Runnin’ Man”, it starts to feel like I’m dreaming and floating away and I thank Heaven for Tedd Smith’s creations.
Even if he didn’t fulfill his intended purpose, his music is definitely nice to get high too (or remember getting high). In the end, the joke’s on Tedd Smith if he thinks that he could possibly convert a wayward soul with his jams.
He seems more converted into the psychedelic culture than vice versa in my book. I guess he got his revenge with those dreadfully awful spoken word sermon poems that he threw into the album though. If you can overlook this, you’re in for a treat with this album. He ventures places that few have or ever will. (Shane Georges)
Track Listing
- Jump For Joy
- Games
- Smash And Grab World
- A Little Understanding
- Circles
- The Runnin’ Man
- Outside
- The Good I Would Be
Mark Spoelstra – State Of Mind (1966)
Artist: Mark Spoelstra
Title: State Of Mind
Year: 1966
Format: LP
Label: Elektra
Folksinger Mark Spoelstra was ahead of the curve in the opposition to the Vietnam War that grew up in the mid-’60s. Raised a Quaker, he had sought conscientious objector status when drafted in 1963 and spent two years performing alternative community service in a rural black community in central California, completing his commitment in the fall of 1965, by which time President Lyndon Johnson had vastly increased the number of American troops in Vietnam and protests against the war had become widespread.
Meanwhile, Spoelstra had established a modest career in music, following his two 1963 albums of folk-blues standards for Folkways Records with his 1965 Elektra Records debut, Five & Twenty Questions, in which he sang his own thoughtful songs of personal reflections and political commentary. State of Mind was the follow-up to that disc, and on it Spoelstra became more specific about his own life and about his views on the issues of the day.
“There are soldiers of all kinds,” he sang in “Sacred Life,” “and the battlefield type is not mine/There are soldiers that fight for the living and soldiers that live for the dying.” In such songs as this one, “Too Late,” and “Soulless Blues,” he castigated war and those who, unlike himself, were willing to fight it.
His experience with the disadvantaged also gave him a special, close-up perspective on the civil rights movement, one he expressed in “Guns of Our Cities,” which concerned the urban rioting of the mid-’60s, and “Farewell to North Avenue,” in which he looked back on his service and those with whom he worked.
The subject matter might have made the album somewhat relentless, but the tone was relieved by a number of children’s songs (“Bubble Gum Song,” “Gimme Gimme,” and “Play Run Run”) and by the music, which consisted largely of uptempo fingerpicked country blues that Spoelstra played on his acoustic guitar, the only musical accompaniment to his vocals.
The album’s simplicity probably doomed it commercially in 1966, when most folkies were heading into folk-rock behind Bob Dylan. Elektra was encouraging that movement, and the label was getting more interested in signing rock bands like Love, so when State of Mind didn’t sell as well as Five & Twenty Questions, Spoelstra was unceremoniously dropped, and it took him three years to find another label berth. (William Ruhlmann)
Track Listing
- Too Late
- State Of Mind
- Guns Of Our Cities
- Bubble Gum Song
- Dizzy Spell Blues
- This Man
- Gimme Gimme
- Soulless Blues
- Full Time Man
- Sacred Life
- Play Run Run
- Farewell To North Avenue
Bob Martin – Midwest Farm Disaster (1972)
Artist: Bob Martin
Title: Midwest Farm Disaster
Year: 1972
Format: LP
Label: RCA Victor
Bob Martin is a highly talented singer songwriter from Lowell, Massachusetts who released Midwest Farm Disaster in 1972. Martin is still making records today but this one is generally acknowledged as his masterpiece and is perhaps one of the finest singer songwriter albums ever recorded.
Martin’s voice is gravelly and weathered but soulful. Think of a strange Kevin Coyne, Van Morrison, and Bob Lind blend and you’d be right on target. The lyrics are top shelf too, the equal or better of most major or critically acclaimed artists out there.
The album’s sound is very close to Gene Clark’s White Light or Bob Lind’s Since There Were Circles LP, a stark, beautiful blend of folk and country that reveals its depth with repeated listens. Each song has something new to offer, and Bob brings us into his working class world with great American stories about local drunks, small town farm life, hard times, prison convicts, and working on the mill.
“Blind Marie” is a moving singer songwriter track that sounds like a classic, it also happens to be the album’s most accessible song that should have gained Martin commercial notoriety. Tracks like the Woody Guthrie influenced “Third War Rag” and “Frog Dick, South Dakota” are coloured by a distinct sense of humor but are also packed with good, catchy melodies and wonderfully sarcastic lyrics.
Other songs like the intense “Mill Town” and the title track are dark tales that relate to Bob’s earlier life on the farm and are superb examples of real Americana. The album ends with “Deer Island Prison, ” which might be thought of as the album’s centerpiece.
Martin turns in a stunning vocal and lyrical performance that must surely rank as one of the great, unsung confessionals. This is an excellent and unforgettable LP full of rich drifter music and mandatory listening for those who are into deep, rustic singer songwriter albums. (Rising Storm)
Track Listing
- Captain Jesus
- Third War Rag
- Mill Town
- Changes In Me
- Old Rass
- Sister Rose And The First Salvation Band
- Midwest Farm Disaster
- Frog Dick, South Dakota
- Blind Marie
- Charlie Zink
- Deer Island Prison
Glenn Yarbrough – Baby The Rain Must Fall (1965)
Artist: Glenn Yarbrough
Title: Baby The Rain Must Fall
Year: 1965
Format: LP
Label: RCA Victor
In 1963 after Glenn Yarbrough had left the Limeliters, he planned to take off the next few years and sail around the world. But before he managed to set sail, his record label intervened and begged him to record just one more album.
One album became four and suddenly in 1965, “Baby The Rain Must Fall” was one of the most popular albums of the year, and suddenly Glenn Yarbrough went from being not just a folk star, but a pop star.
First released in 1965, “Baby The Rain Must Fall” sold over a million copies and quickly became the #1 single in radio markets across the country. Glenn’s world famous vibrato combined with folk favorites like, “The Bull Frog Song,” and “Rusting In The Rain,” plus the phenomenal success of the title track show why this album has remained in demand for over 35 years. (folkera.com)
Track Listing
- Baby The Rain Must Fall
- Lonesome
- She’s Too Far Above Me
- Rusting In The Rain
- Love Let Me Not Hunger
- The Bull Frog Song
- She
- Long Time Blues
- I’ve Been To Town
- Billy Goat Hill
- Walk On Little Boy
- Everybody’s Rich But Us
Hairband – Band On The Wagon (1969)
Artist: Hairband
Title: Band On The Wagon
Year: 1969
Format: LP
Label: Bell
U.K. Psych Blues album featuring Alex Harvey, Mickey Keene, Laurie Baker, Peter Woolf etc. This album was recorded when Alex was in the rock musical ‘HAIR‘ and the band that played all the music was deemed good enough to record for this album. Harvey wrote many of the songs and plays guitar and sings. Produced by former Animals keyboardist Alan Price.
Great heavy psych prog beast that would be as big and as valuable as other similar monsters like Open Mind and Motherlight if it weren’t for the presence of horns on some tracks. Personally, I don’t mind a little sax here and there, especially in public places.
Anyway, there are some really killer tracks on here, like “Golden Egg“, which starts off in a cool loungey funk mode before switching gears to a KILLER late 60′s go-go dancefloor theme with dramatic orchestral stabs and some sexy, jazzy sax solos.
“Electric Blues” isn’t really blues at all, but more of an upbeat rural-flavored psych rock track with some trippy backwards guitar. It gets more upbeat and picks up tempo as it goes along, culminating in a psychedelic maelstrom of wild guitar solos courtesy of Mr. Alex Harvey himself. (Ned Ginty)
Track Listing
- Sacrifice
- I’m Living
- The Yellow Bay Tree
- Swan Song
- Big Louis
- Band On The Wagon
- Travelling Song
- No Offence Eddie
- The Golden Egg
- Electric Blues
- How Deep Is The Ocean
Hair [Hairband] – Rave-Up (1969)
Artist: Hair [Hairband]
Title: Rave-Up
Year: 1969
Format: LP
Label: Pye
Originally released on vinyl in 1969, the eleven tracks recorded by the Hair stage band should be appealing to fans of Alex Harvey, 1960s pop culture and/or – simply – the rock musical, which had a special twist in London that is chronicled in a lengthy essay by David Wells.
Harvey handles nearly all the lead vocals and his performance art wit snatches the spotlight on “Royal International Love-In,” though his lyrical interpretations of “All Along The Watchtower” and “Birthday” are scintillating.
The instrumentals aptly demonstrate how the shows merged a true concert experience into the production. The musical had a tremendous run of nearly 2,000 performances – September 1968 to July 1973 – which only ended when the theatre’s roof collapsed. The band had a number of side projects during those years. (Groovy Times)
Track Listing
- Hair
- El Pussy Cat
- Royal International Love-In
- Bond Street Baby
- Harekrishna
- All Along The Watchtower
- Birthday
- Keep Out
- Candy
- Movin’ In The Right Direction
- I Know Where You Are
