Quiet Sun were an English progressive rock/jazz fusion band from the Canterbury Scene consisting of Phil Manzanera (guitars), Bill MacCormick (bass), Dave Jarrett (keyboards) and Charles Hayward (drums). History: Having originated from a Dulwich College band by the name of Pooh and the Ostrich Feather, Quiet Sun was formed in 1970 after MacCormick had made friends with Robert Wyatt, the son of a friend of his mother's. The band integrated jazz elements and sparkling keyboard sounds into their complex music - similar to Soft Machine - but Manzanera's energetic guitar made their music very different from the Softs' who had not been using any guitar (other than bass guitar) on their regular albums before the 1975 release of Bundles, and had used reeds as the main other melody instruments aside of keyboards. Quiet Sun split up in 1972, Manzanera to Roxy Music, MacCormick to Matching Mole, Hayward to This Heat, and Jarrett began to teach mathematics. In 1975, Manzanera booked a studio for 26 days to record his album Diamond Head and got Quiet Sun together again to record an album from their old composed material in the studio at the same time. This first and only album of theirs, with participation of Brian Eno and the late Ian MacCormick, titled Mainstream was critically acclaimed and became the New Musical Express' album of the month. One of Quiet Sun's songs appears on Robert Wyatt's Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, under the name "Team Spirit". Additionally, reworked versions of "Rongwrong" and "Mummy was an asteroid, Daddy was a small non-stick kitchen utensil" both appear on the album 801 Live (the latter is consolidated with a track from Diamond Head, "East of Echo", with the result titled "East of Asteroid").
Members: Phil Manzanera (guitars) Bill MacCormick (bass) Dave Jarrett (keyboards) Charles Hayward (drums) Musicians album "Mainstream":
Ian MacCormick : Backing Vovals Bill MacCormick : Bass, Backing Vocals Charles Hayward : Drums.Percussion, Vocals Phil Manzanera : Guitar, Keyboards Dave Jarrett : Keyboards Brian Eno : Keyboards
Rongwrong:
Mummy Was an Asteriod, Daddy Was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil:
Discography: Mainstream (1975) Manzanera Archives: Rare One (2000, includes four previously-unreleased Quiet Sun demos) Source: wikipedia
Transatlantic Railroad was one of many late-’60s San Francisco psychedelic bands that did their share of live work in the region but barely recorded, remaining known almost exclusively to those who saw them play. Based on the material that showed up in the early 2000s on the archival release Express to Oblivion, their talent was such that it didn’t absolutely demand a record release. Still, their bluesy psychedelia, heavy on guitar soloing and Hammond organ as well as unpredictable multi-sectioned original compositions, was representative of the second or third division of northern California psychedelic bands of the era. The group formed at San Rafael High School in Marin County in 1965, and on its first show opened for the Grateful Dead, the night the Dead changed their name from the Warlocks. A couple of unreleased 1966 tracks in a garage-folk-rock style showed up about 30 years later on the ’60s Bay Area rarities compilation What a Way to Come Down. Like many other groups from the area, Transatlantic Railroad moved into a harder psychedelic style shortly afterward, and released just one single, “Why Me”/”Irahs,” on the Sire subsidiary Phoenix in 1968. They also started work on an album, but it was abandoned after five demos. It’s been reported (in the psychedelic rock reference book Fuzz Acid & Flowers) that this came about when Geoff Mayer’s large Hammond RT-3 organ wouldn’t fit through the doors of the studio, and Mayer was unwilling to use other equipment. Also according to the volume, the five completed demos can be heard on Express to Oblivion, which also has a couple of other lighter, less psychedelia-inclined tracks. After the group broke up in the early ’70s, guitarist and lead singer Kent Housman recorded or performed with Blue Cheer, the Ducks, and SFO. Members: rhythm guitar / lead vocals : Kent Housman bass guitar / backing vocals : Jamie Kindt drums / backing vocals : Ron Vanbianchi lead guitar : Stephen Meyers organ : Geoff Mayer Good Times:
Synanthesia were a hybrid of The Incredible String Band , acid folk, Comus-esque darkness and jazz. These styles/genres combined to make for quite an original sound with sax and haunting flute to the fore. These styles/genres combined to make for quite an original sound. Jim Frazer's sax and flute sounding somewhat like a cross between Keith Gemmell (Audience/ Stackridge), David Jackson (Van Der Graaf Generator) and Harold McNair (Donovan, et al). The closest sounding bands that can be referenced are probably Dr Strangely Strange and Jan Dukes de Grey. Formed in London, England in 1968 by guitarist, Les Cook, Synanthesia were a trio with an 18 year old, ex-soul bassist, Dennis Holmes, who switched to guitar and vibes. The trio was completed by jazz sax and flautist, Jim Fraser. They performed in and around the London area and garnered interest from the newly formed Chrysalis record label. One of the venues that they would frequent was the infamous Three Tuns in Kent, home to David Bowie’s Arts Lab. It is rumored that Synanthesia were briefly Bowie’s backing band, before he recruited the Hype and, subsequently, Hull’s Rats, who became the Spiders from Mars. Synanthesia recorded their sole, eponymous album Synanthesia in 1969 for RCA. Unfortunately, RCA weren’t interested enough to promote the band. Without RCA’s backing and the lack of airplay on the radio, Synanthesia split and the threesome went their separate ways. Synanthesia's only album has a unique sound, falling somewhere between Forest, Incredible String Band and Jan Dukes de Grey with a hint of Audience and Van Der Graaf Generator, the last two owing to Les Cook's sax and flute styles. Members: Dennis Homes - vibes, guitar, vocals Jim Fraser - alto/soprano saxophone, oboe, alto/nose/concert flute Les Cook - guitar, bongos, violin, mandolin, vocals Full Album:
Clear Light was a psychedelic rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1966. History:
In 1966, The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded one single – "Black Roses", written by Wolfe Dios – before changing their name to Clear Light and signing to Elektra Records. The Doors' producer Paul A. Rothchild took over management of the band. The core members of Clear Light were Bob Seal, lead guitarist and vocals, Robbie "The Werewolf" Robison, rhythm guitar and vocals, Doug Lubahn bass and vocals, Dallas Taylor drums, and Michael Ney on, unusually, another set of drums. The original line-up was featured in the 1967 motion picture The President's Analyst, with Barry McGuire cast as their leader and vocalist. They soon added Cliff De Young on lead vocals; the version of the band seen on their only album cover. However, sometime during the recording process, often described "brutal", Paul Rothchild was not happy with Robison's guitar playing skills and pressured the group to remove him - he was replaced by keyboard player Ralph Schuckett. In what has been called the band's finest hour, drunken customers in a Park Avenue club heckled them so brutally that Ralph Schuckett, the usually gentle organist, hurled a few choice words back at them. They then walked off the stage, retired to the Albert Hotel, and woke up in the morning to find that they had become underground heroes. Clear Light was the only album released by the 1960s American psychedelic rock band Clear Light. It was released in September 1967 and peaked at number 126 on the Billboard pop albums chart. It combined elements of folk, rock, psychedelic, and classical music. It is an AMG music pick, although the album was not a success at the time. A notable track from the Clear Light album, was "Mr. Blue," a psychedelic version of a folk song written by Tom Paxton and a popular request on underground radio at the time. Lasting over six minutes, the rather sinister, psychedelic song is considered a classic of the genre. Its lyrics, which alternate between spoken word and song, include verses opening with such lines as, "Good morning, Mister Blue, we've got our eye on you," "Step softly, Mister Blue, we know what's best for you," and "Be careful, Mister Blue, this phase you're going through ...." The album also included a reworked version of "Black Roses", released as a single, and some of guitarist Bob Seal's psychedelic folk-rock songs, namely "With All in Mind" and "They Who Have Nothing." It had some success in England, but was largely ignored in the U.S, reaching No. 126 on the Billboard album chart. Paul Rothchild then pressured the other members of the band to fire Bob Seal". Seal was replaced by ex-Fug Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar; Cliff De Young was soon to follow, and after having started work on a second album the group disbanded in 1968. Two tracks from the sessions for the second album surfaced in 2006, "Darkness of Day" and "What a Difference Love Makes"; the latter showed the group moving into more commercial territory due to Kortchmar's influence.
Personnel: Cliff De Young - vocals Bob Seal - guitar, vocals Douglas Lubahn - bass Ralph Schuckett - keyboards Dallas Taylor - drums Michael Ney - drums Bruce Botnick - engineer Jac Holzman - production supervisor Gordon Anderson - executive producer
Mark Fry (born 4 November 1952) is an English painter and psychedelic folk musician. He is best known for his album Dreaming With Alice, released in 1972, which has been hailed as a psychedelic folk classic by critics, and a diverse range of musicians. Original copies of the album are much sought after and have sold for in excess of £2,000.
During Fry's time in Italy he was introduced to the record producer Vincenzo Micocci. On hearing some of Fry's songs, Micocci signed him to record label IT Dischi, a subsidiary of RCA. Dreaming with Alice was recorded by Fry and a band of session musicians in Rome over a three-day period in the summer of 1971. Following the recording session Fry toured Italy supporting singer Lucio Dalla. Fry left Italy in autumn 1971 to return to England before Dreaming With Alice was released. He was sent a box of the records following the release on IT Dischi records in Italy in 1972, and had no further dealings with the label. For several years, Fry continued to perform music with various musicians including drummer Pete Thomas (later of Elvis Costello's band The Attractions), but without any associated record releases. In the early 1980s, after a long period of travel in the US and West Africa, Fry decided to return to London and pursue his career as an artist. Unknown to Mark Fry, the album Dreaming With Alice had been developing cult status over the ensuing three decades as a psychedelic folk classic, garnering acclaim from critics and a new generation of musicians as diverse as Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), Colleen and Plastic Crimewave. Fry was to discover this by chance in the early 2000s (decade). Dreaming With Alice is included in Record Collector’s Top 20 Strange Folk Albums (Strange Folk Revisited, August 2009). Mark Fry and Dreaming With Alice are featured in the anthology Galactic Ramble (Foxcote Press, 2009) as well as in Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid, Psych and Experimental Folk by Jeanette Leech (Jawbone Press, 2010). The highest price paid at auction to date for an original copy of Dreaming With Alice was £2,327 in May 2009.
LIFE (Text Mark Fry) For me, painting and music have always walked hand in hand. When I left school in 1970 I set off for Italy to study painting, but I took my guitar with me and ended up recording Dreaming With Alice in Rome. Back in England in 1973, I joined up with Ben, an old friend from school, and together we formed a band. For a couple of years it seemed as though we were always just a whisker away from being signed up. But the music industry felt very cut-throat, there was a lot of pressure to be commercial, and slowly I began to feel I was losing my way. In 1975 I decided to go travelling and spent six months working my way across Canada from Newfoundland to Vancouver. At that time in Canada it seemed that everyone was listening to The Beach Boys, which felt a little incongruous on the prairies or up in the Rocky Mountains. I looked forward to getting down to California. By Christmas I was in Los Angeles and eager to try and get something going. I wrote songs, recorded some demos, played a few gigs and pushed the tapes I had of our band in front of anyone who would listen. Even Phil Everly lent them his ear. He said “Sounds great, man, keep going”, which is what I did, but nothing quite clicked. By 1977 the band I’d formed with Ben had drifted apart. I went back to painting, although I never stopped writing songs. Early in 1980 I went travelling again, and spent six months living in the Inner Niger delta in Mali. Africa renewed my love of music. I used to buy cassette tapes in dusty streets from market hawkers, and that’s how I first came across musicians like Ali Farka Toure, Baba Mall and Youssou N’Dour and the Super Etoile de Dakar. Because I had my guitar with me I was received like a travelling griot and asked to play wherever I happened to be. One memorable night I was invited to play for a group of Touareg who were camped on the banks of the Niger just south of Timbuktu. I played until my fingers bled and there were only four strings left on my guitar. Their favourite songs were Johnny B Goode and Rock Island Line, but they also quite liked All My Life. I spent most of the 1980s moving between London and New York, trying to make ends meet and painting when I could. At the end of the decade I got my first painting break. The London art dealer Christopher Hull took notice of my work. Suddenly I had a good gallery that wanted my pictures. I started spending a lot of time in France and it was there that I really started to paint in a quiet and concentrated way. Through the act of painting, songs began to come to me again. In 2006, things began to conspire to get me recording. I wrote more songs. Somehow, I got to grips with digital technology. I built a little home studio and started work. Old and new friends encouraged me to keep going. A new album of songs began to take shape. As it turned out, the Sunbeam reissue of Alice in November 2006 was a kind of catalyst. To wake up one morning and suddenly find yourself back in the arms of something you created so long ago has been a strange but magical experience. I realized I would come to regret it if I didn’t follow Alice’s path and see where she would lead me again. Since Shooting The Moon was released in 2008, I’ve played in all sorts of places, including London, Paris and Chicago, seen another album, I Lived in Trees, released in 2011, and have a fourth in preparation in 2013. Meeting and working with other musicians again has been a wonderful contrast to my solitary life in the painting studio. You could say that when I’m painting I’m a painter, and when I’m writing and playing music I’m a musician, but for me they are so tangled up together in the creative process that I find them hard to separate: each feeds off the other. The thing is to keep going and see what happens. By Mark Fry The Witch:
Discography: Albums: Dreaming With Alice LP (IT ZLST 70006), RCA / IT Dischi, 1971 Dreaming With Alice CD (SBR CD5028), Sunbeam Records, 2006 Dreaming With Alice LP (SBR LP5028), (includes 2 bonus tracks), Sunbeam Records, 2007 and 2010 Shooting the Moon (IDLECD001), Boredidlebaby, 2008 I Lived In Trees (SL013), Second Language Music, 2011
In most corners of America in late 1960s, kids were growing their hair long and partaking in the cultural explosion of the times. Utah, on the other hand, remained staunchly Mormon and conservative. Amid that atmosphere, Merkin sprang out of the small town of Orem. Rocky Baum and Ralph Hemingway were high school friends, and occasionally, Hemingway would sing along with Baum's guitar playing as something of a lark. By the summer of 1969, after a few years of playing together, the duo felt the absence of a backbeat, so they set out to make the twosome a rock band. Drummer Alan Newell, bassist Kent Balog, and guitarist Doug Hinkins were added to fill out the combo, and they came up with the odd name Merkin, derived either from the dictionary or from an obscure B-movie. The band rehearsed at Hinkins' house, playing cover versions of popular songs. Soon they were writing original material, most of it composed by Baum, and with the addition of schoolmate Rod Olsen as manager, the band began attaining gigs at local high schools, colleges, and other assorted youth hangouts. Newell was replaced by Balog's twin brother Gary in 1970, and Robert Barney replaced Hinkins as lead guitarist. Richard Leavitt was also added on keyboards to round out the Merkin sound. In 1971, the band recorded a live demo that caught the attention of Gay Young of Kommittee Productions, and a recording session was arranged for the band in Los Angeles in 1972. The subsequent album, Music from Merkin Manor, was recorded in four days and gained some airplay in San Francisco, enabling the band to tour Colorado, but the album was not officially released (in a pressing of only 200) until early 1973, by which time Merkin had returned to Utah, and any commercial momentum was stifled. In addition, Baum had received sole songwriting credit on the album, infuriating the rest of the band. He was asked to leave, and Merkin limped on, finally calling it quits in 1974.
More info about the album "Music from Merkin":
Release Date: 1972 Total Time: 53:48 Genre: Rock
Music from Merkin Manor is a strangely interesting album, as might be expected from a group of young longhairs playing a combination of psychedelic, country, and hard rock in smalltown Utah in the early 1970s. The album opens up with "Ruby," a song on which Merkin sound something like the Association on acid singing harmonies that sound slightly off-kilter while being backed by Blue Öyster Cult. Odd, to say the least. There are many recognizable influences on the album, but many of the influences wouldn't seem as if they should be within miles of each other. As a result, a song such as "Take Some Time" has the druggy ambience of early-'70s stoner rock moving into pop verses, before it somehow evolves into a jazz jam. "Todaze" again sounds not unlike the Association (a comparison that consistently holds throughout the album) in terms of the vocals, but only if that pop act was backed by a groovy hard rock band fronted by Carlos Santana that was capable of shifting rhythms at the drop of a dime. "Sweet Country," just as the title implies, tries on country-rock without batting an eye, and many of the songs graft similarly across-the-board influences together, and somehow generally do so in a tidy pop song framework of three to four minutes. It is terribly intriguing to listen to at least once, but unfortunately, the influences simply do not jibe well enough most of the time to sustain any sense of enjoyment or appreciation for the music. The album showed promise, but was far too haphazard to make much of an impression. Rocky Baum showed a nice flair for quirky songwriting, and when it worked, it worked well, but sonically Music from Merkin Manor is only half-baked. Merkin "Music From Merkin Manor" - Goodbye (1973) : https://youtu.be/dFiIe-L_oQs :
Gryphon were a British progressive rock band of the 1970s, best known for their unusual Medieval sound and instrumentation.
Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and his fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that mixed traditional English folk music with medieval and Renaissance influences. Shortly after this, the duo was joined by guitarist Graeme Taylor and drummer/percussionist Dave Oberlé. After their self-titled debut, they expanded their sound to include electric guitars and keyboards as well as wind instruments, such as bassoons and krumhorns, not previously used in rock music. Gryphon's music often sounded as much like rural English folk or renaissance chansons as it did rock, at least on their early recordings. After their third album (Red Queen to Gryphon Three) and the subsequent tour as a supporting act for Yes, their instrumentation became more conventional and the use of non-standard instruments was reduced. Fans and critics generally regard Midnight Mushrumps and the all-instrumental Red Queen to Gryphon Three as their finest albums. In 1974, the group's publicist Martin Lewis arranged for the band to be commissioned to write and record the music for a major stage production of Shakespeare's The Tempest at Britain's National Theatre, directed by Sir Peter Hall. It opened at the historic Old Vic Theatre in April 1974. The music the band wrote and recorded for the stage production inspired the 21-minute fantasia "Midnight Mushrumps" (named after a phrase mentioned in The Tempest) which became the title track of their second album. Following the successful premiere of the play and acclaim for its music, Lewis arranged for Gryphon to give a Sunday evening concert at the Old Vic in July 1974 - the first-ever and to date only rock concert held at Britain's National Theatre. At the concert, the band performed "Midnight Mushrumps". The concert was considered a major breakthrough for progressive rock music. Audio tapes of the fabled concert exist, but none have yet surfaced publicly. The band's sound engineer at the time, Richard Elen, recorded the event on a 4-track machine (2 tracks PA feed, 2 tracks stereo acoustic sound picked up at the balcony) and subsequently mixed it to stereo. He has cassette copies of the master tape (which have some technical issues), but Martin Lewis is believed to have the master itself. It is not known whether the master is of releasable quality.
In September 2007 it was announced on Gryphon's website that, after a silence of 31 years, the band had finally decided to produce a new album. Whether the new Gryphon album will be a modern progressive and commercial sounding offering, like their later albums, or a return to the predominantly medieval-based themes of their earlier works, has yet to be announced. Whilst there was no timescale planned, it was envisaged that it would be released in the Summer of 2008 with a one-off London concert date also suggested, although not confirmed. On 15 September 2008, Gryphon announced via their website that the album was still in production, "albeit slowly". As of December 2010, no album has materialised and there have been no further updates on the band's webpage relating to it. On Saturday 6 June 2009, 32 years after its last performance, Gryphon reformed for a reunion concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. The four original members - Richard Harvey, Brian Gulland, Graeme Taylor and Dave Oberlé - opened the evening with a selection of songs and instrumentals from the first album Gryphon. They were then joined by Jon Davie (the final bass player, who appeared on Treason) and a new member, the multi-instrumentalist and film/production music composer Graham Preskett for the rest of the evening.
Members: Brian Gulland - Bassoon, Krumhorn, Recorder, Keyboards, Vocals Richard Harvey - Recorder, Krumhorn, Mandolin, Keyboards, Vocals Dave Oberlé - Drums, Percussion, Lead Vocals Graeme Taylor - Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Vocals (through Raindance) Philip Nestor - Bass guitar, Vocals (Midnight Mushrumps and Red Queen to Gryphon Three) Malcolm Bennett - Bass guitar, Flute (Raindance) Jonathan Davie - Bass guitar (Treason), acoustic bass guitar ("Reunion") Bob Foster - Guitar (Treason) Graham Preskett - Keyboards, mandolin, violin, guitar, percussion ("Reunion") Auxiliary members: The following craftsmen manufactured instruments used on Gryphon albums, but they were not band members: Ernest Hart – Organ (Midnight Mushrumps and Red Queen to Gryphon Three) Peter Redding – Acoustic bass (Red Queen to Gryphon Three) Tim Sebastion co-wrote lyrics for Treason. Round & Round + Flash in the Pantry:
The 'Ploughboy's Dream':
Discography: Albums: Gryphon (1973) Midnight Mushrumps (1974) Red Queen to Gryphon Three (1974) Raindance (1975) Treason (1977) All albums released by Transatlantic Records, except Treason, which was released by EMI/Harvest. Compilations and other releases: The Collection (1991) The Collection II (1995) About as Curious as It Can Be (2002) - 1974 & 1975 BBC Radio session performances Glastonbury Carol (2003) - 1972 & 1974 BBC Radio session performances plus the title track, theme music for the Peter Neal film Glastonbury Fayre about the 1971 Glastonbury Festival Crossing the Styles: The Transatlantic Anthology (2004)
Poco is a Southern California (USA) country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Rusty Young following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative, they were pioneers of the country rock genre and forerunners of the Americana genre. Throughout the years Poco has performed in various groupings, and is still active today.
History: During recording of the third Buffalo Springfield album (Last Time Around), each of the three lead singers (Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay) recorded songs without the other members present. One of Furay's solo songs was the country-influenced ballad "Kind Woman", which he recorded with the help of producer/engineer/bassist Jim Messina and pedal steel guitarist Rusty Young. When Buffalo Springfield then split up, Furay, Messina and Rusty Young decided to start their own group oriented toward such songs. The original lineup of this new group was Furay (vocals and rhythm guitar), Messina (lead guitar, vocals, producer), Rusty Young (pedal steel guitar, banjo, Dobro, guitar, mandolin and vocals), George Grantham (drums and vocals) and Randy Meisner (bass and vocals).
Members: Rusty Young Jack Sundrud George Lawrence Michael Webb Past members: George Grantham Richie Furay Jim Messina Randy Meisner Timothy B. Schmit Paul Cotton Al Garth Steve Chapman Charlie Harrison Kim Bullard Rick Seratte Jeff Steele Dave Vanecore Gary Mallaber Richard Neville Tim Smith More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poco
Seven is the seventh album by the country rock band Poco released in 1974. This is the first album Poco made after leader Richie Furay left the band. - Drivin' Wheel" (Paul Cotton) - Rocky Mountain Breakdown" (Rusty Young) - Just Call My Name" (Timothy B. Schmit, Noreen Schmit) - Skatin'" (Schmit) - You've Got Your Reasons" (Cotton)
Discography: Albums:
Pickin' up the pieces1969 Poco1970 Deleverin'1971 From the inside1972 A good feelin' to know1973 Crazy eyes1973 Seven1974 Cantamos1974 Head over heels1975 Live1976 Rose of cimarron1976 Indian summer1977 The last roundup1977 Legend1978 Under the gun1980 Blue and gray1981 Cowboys and Englishmen1982 Ghost town1982 Inamorata1984 Legacy1989 On the country side1996 Take two2001 Running horse2002 Keeping the legend alive2004 Bareback at big sky2005 The wildwood sessions2006
Bob Theil is a Scottish born singer-songwriter and guitarist, steeped in the tradition of the great acoustic troubadours from the UK scene circa 1965 and onwards. His songs and music recall what for many is considered a halcyon period when the likes of Roy Harper, Bert Jansch, Michael Chapman, Richard Thompson and Al Stewart to name a few, were plying their trade in the UK clubs and college circuit. His voice, writing and guitar playing are an eclectic mix of folk and rock influences. Other obvious influences at the time were Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake as well as a mix of artists such as Jethro Tull, Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin, Genesis. The use of mainly 12 string acoustic/electric guitar in his unique picking (finger and plectrum) style lends itself perfectly to songs that are an evocative mixture of Celtic atmosphere on the one hand, to at other times an acoustic rock sound that has been likened to Pink Floyd. In a way, this comparison is understandable given the Gilmouresque electric leads featured on a few tracks on his debut LP "So Far" (1982). "So Far", was released in 1982 but most songs were written in the 70s and sounding like that...in fact some of the bonus tracks were recorded in the mid 70s and the most of them were written by then too. In 1993 Bob Theil also had the CD “Bridging the Silence” released on Koch International under the pseudonym Lawrence Woolfe. More recently in the summer of 2003, a new collection of songs was released in the form of an limited edition LP “Playing it all for laughs” aimed mainly at the collectors’ market. A CD issue is also in the pipeline.
The Ghent Sessions LP [2010] The Ghent Sessions CD [2007] So Far Double-LP [2006] So Far CD [2006] So far CD [2004] Playing it all for laughs LP [2003] Bridging the silence CD [1993] Songs From The Margin (unreleased album recorded as a follow-up to Bob's debut-album 'So Far') So far LP [1982] Another flight EP [1980]
1968
"It has been said about my music that there's a strong Celtic influence in sounds and images, which reflects my Scottish upbringing. This has never been a conscious thing on my part so it must spring from a natural relationship with my roots. Of course there is a wider world to explore outside of one's own small corner of the planet. In a cultural climate of, on the one hand ease of consumption, hype and homogenised commercial banality, and on the other hand the centuries old traditions of literature, music, philosophy and academic endeavours, is there any way of bridging the gulf between all or nothing? To speak or remain silent, how much to express and to whom do we address and commune with? How long do our attention spans allow? What of our appetites for attentive absorption? How often does the art of conversation even remotely come close to bridging the gulf between something or nothing? So here I am, one voice amidst many. Whether the mood of my writing is light or dark, I hope it contains something of value beyond merely the superficial." Bob Theil
Folk legend Richie Havens has passed away yesterday (April 22, 2013) at the age of 72. The Brooklyn-bred singer/guitarist was perhaps best known for opening the legendary Woodstock Festival with a near three-hour performance which set the tone for the rest of the event.
Here's the announcement from Havens' longtime representatives, The Roots Agency: RICHIE HAVENS was gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969. For four decades, Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom. Billboard Magazine writes, “This acoustic soul giant truly seems to be getting more inspiring and graceful with age.” From Woodstock to The Isle of Wight to Glastonbury to the Fillmore Auditorium to Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, Richie played the most legendary music festivals that ever were, and most of the world’s greatest concert venues. But even when performing in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse or a small club or regional theater, he was eternally grateful that people in any number turned up each time to hear him sing. More than anything, he feels incredibly blessed to have met so many of you along the way.
The Seventh Dawn was a folk-rock band from Maryland (USA) active from 1970 to 1981. They released at least two albums called 'Sunrise' (1976) and 'Dreams'. The Seventh Dawn is nothing like any other American albums I know of, but has much more something comparable to the British folk-psych scene (Trader Horne, Ithaca/Agincourt,..). The reason for this style is that all 4 members of Seventh Dawn had written these songs when they were between 11 and 17. Ann & Heff were taking classes in electronic music, which gave them access to the labs with two synthesizers, two stereo records and one four track recorder. This protected opportunity was unspoiled by any style-pushed fashions, and had a comparable sweetness, innocence and almost pastoral purity to the best moments of the UK album of Sallyangie (with Mike Oldfield, also then only 15). The same reason why Ithaca was compared to Moody Blues (a reference which always is more symbolic, because MB never had that much of its own style-reference uniqueness in many songs), can be given here as a reference too. Just listen to the nice sweet-fuzzed guitars which flow softly like keyboards on "Such a lonely". Another reference which is also relevant on one track, "Latecoming". is Emtidi for its piano arrangements in combinations with the song. The female singer holds the middle of several possible references, like Vashti Bunyan (at times, like on "Sunrise"), and Trader Horn's singer. Some people refer also to Trees' singer Celia Humphries (which I understand, but that last comparison can be confusing). At first, the songs are sung by a female and then male vocalist, and are worked out well. Then more and more songs of Heff appear, sometimes a bit too sparsely arranged, and with tiny 60s psychpop flavours in its inspirations. It is wonderful that the album now is completed with these 4 extra surprisingly beautiful tracks, which have a welcome reappearance of the female singer, as exactly what the album needed to feel like a more perfectly finished musical concept. Members:
Ann Munson - vocals, guitar, synth Bill Munson - vocals, guitar Eric Munson - vocals, bass Heff Munson - vocals, drums, keyboards, synth
From Erie, Pennsylvania (USA), The Arkay IV was started in 1963 by Bill Arnold, Skip Niebauer & John Nicotra. After his high graduation Bill left for military service and was replaced by Bob Sustak who was soon drafted into the army and was replaced by Dave Massello and Tom Brocki. This formed the core of the group from 1964 to 1969. The group went through several personal changes due primarily to the military draft for the Vietnam War. Members: Bill Adleff, Bill Arnold, Tom Brocki, Mark Fainstein, Jon Ims, Bill Kirby, Dave Massello, John Nicotra, Skip Niebauer, Doug Phillips, Mike Redicliff, Vil Stomers, Bob Sustak They disbanded in 1971. They issued three 45s and an album "For Internal Use Only" between 1966-68. Their album has been reissued as The Mod Sounds Of… by Cicadelic (CICLP 1003) 1988, and also on CD by Collectables as Battle Of The Bands. This CD combines The Arkay IV’s album and The Outcasts Meet The Outcasts! It contains 26 tracks including previously unreleased demos. * Split: The Outcasts / The Arkay IV Also known as Arkay IV Revival Surprise Love: http://youtu.be/ODQFbyr74Go
