Another country (Mimi and Richard Fariña) (LP 998)

Mimi and Richard Fariña  Celebrations For A Grey Day (Vinyl, Vanguard Records, 1965) ****  

Genre: Folk 

Places I remember: Spellbound Wax Company (Gisborne)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Michael Andrew and James

Gear costume: Dandelion River Run, Hamish

Active compensatory factors: I picked up a mint copy of this for ten dollars from my favourite music shop in Gisborne (maybe the only music shop in Gisborne?)

It's their first album and it sets out their approach clearly and succinctly. 

It's a wonderful record with earthy, authentic vocals from Mimi and Richard, simple sparse accompaniment - often just guitar and dulcimer, brilliant folk songs given sympathetic arrangements by Richard, and the magic dust of being closely connected to Joan Baez (Mimi is her younger sister).

Even though it's just Mimi and Richard playing guitar, dulcimer and autoharp, there are different approaches and textures presented throughout the album with a great mixture of instrumentals and vocals from either Richard or Mimi or both. I like their harmonic interplay especially.

Where do they all belong? Tragically, Richard died young, in 1966, in a motorcycle accident. There was only time to record a follow up to this album. Joan's wonderful Sweet Sir Galahad is written for Richard.

Street gang (Ronnie Lane) (LP 996 - 997)

Ronnie Lane  Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance (Vinyl, Island Records, 1975) ****  

Genre: Country rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Little Piece Of Nothing

Gear costume: Stone

Active compensatory factors: Slightly disheveled and ramshackle are a couple of adjectives you could throw Ronnie's way after he left The Faces.

The cover image tells a story - sepia toned and the fag in the corner of the mouth give a good idea of the kind of music inside.

Ronnie is as honest as the day is long and his lack of guile is a huge plus throughout this album. I'll even forgive him a rough version of I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself A Letter). It must have been a labour of love surely to goodness!

There is a lot to enjoy here - Ronnie's worn vocal, simple instrumentation and even the choice of instruments (I love that mandolin sound!). It all adds up to the loveable street urchin image he lived in.

Where do they all belong? Live Ronnie material still to come.

Take a pebble (Emerson Lake & Palmer) (LP 993 - 995)

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Emerson Lake and Palmer (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1970) ***** 

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Tarkus (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1971) *** 

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Pictures At An Exhibition (Vinyl, Manticore Records, 1971) ***

Genre: Prog rock 

Places I remember: Lewis Eady Ltd; Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Lucky Man

Gear costume: Take A Pebble

Active compensatory factors: I warned you all about needing an ELP sized deep breath when I last mentioned Keith Emerson in this blog. For some reason I am an ELP completist. I know. Weird right.

I much prefer guitars to keyboards, but here I am anyway. Prog rock will do that to you, I guess.

I'll be doing it in smallish bites, so you can relax a tad.

The first album is a kitchen sink, show-offy classic. It's full of things that shouldn't really work: daft lyrics; abrupt changes in mood and style but it does. It even includes a brilliant pop song with the best moog solo of all time.

You can't really have the drums or the bass as the main soloing instrument so, early on, Keith Emerson is established as the main dude on display. 

Luckily, he plays well alone, but he also plays well with others. First with The Nice and then joining forces with Palmer and Lake.

The debut is breathtaking in its scope and performance. It still sounds fantastic in 2023!

Second album, Tarkus, continues the fun. Side One is the Tarkus concept group of pieces. I have never understood the story line behind it. Yes, it's overblown and pretentious, but it also doesn't include too many memorable chunes. I prefer the madness of side 2. It even has a proto-punk number to end things!

Although it gets a rapturous audience reaction, the live Pictures At An Exhibition is my least favourite early ELP album. I just don't get the whole classical/rock mash up thing, I'm afraid. It's certainly an album they had to get out of their system before the next stage kicked in.

And, wowsers - what a next stage!   

Where do they all belong? A lot more to come as we reach my favourite ELP albums!

Sweet music (Lon and Derrek Van Eaton) (LP 992)

Lon and Derrek Van Eaton  Brother (Vinyl, Apple Records - UK pressing, 1972) *** 

Genre: Apple Records, pop/rock

Places I remember: Marbeck's Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Help Us All

Gear costume: Without The Lord

Active compensatory factors: George Harrison heard a demo recording by the brothers and liked it enough to make the American brothers one of the last signings for Apple Records. 

I suspect he liked being reminded of the soulful gospel vibe being generated by Delaney and Bonnie. And again - a lot of the songs sound like Harrison's own.

Ringo makes an appearance, along with Jim Gordon and Klaus Voormann who took over the production duties for George. So it naturally sounds Beatlesque in parts, in terms of the music.

Although it wasn't commercially successful at the time, its appeal has grown with the years. However, it's not an album I reach for on a regular basis!

Where do they all belong? Their only album for Apple Records, they subsequently moved back to the US and to A&M, but not Dark Horse, which is interesting. I didn't have any desire to collect their non Apple efforts.

Younger men grow older (Richie Havens) (LP 991)

Richie Havens Alarm Clock (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1971) ***  

Genre: Folk Rock

Places I remember: Record Fair

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Here Comes The Sun

Gear costume: Girls Don't Run Away

Active compensatory factors: I think I got carried away by his performance at Woodstock and expected his studio work to have the same magic, which is unrealistic. 

His Woodstock performance was a one off and those images of his feet keeping time and the sweat all over him from the humidity, plus those songs in that setting, are frozen in time.

By 1971 he was well established as an artist and this album became his biggest seller. So it's a good place to start listening to his studio albums.

Funnily enough, it begins with a great live version of Here Comes The Sun. With its percussive strumming, it forms a nice link from Woodstock in 1969 (also when the Beatles did the Harrison song) and 1971.

As for the rest? Pleasant, somewhat dated folk-rock is the order of the day. Richie had his moment (in the sun - sorry), and that was Woodstock. By Alarm Clock his time was waning (sorry part 2).

Where do they all belong? A stand alone in the collection. 

Running wide open (Michael Murphey) (LP 990)

Michael Murphey Flowing Free Forever (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1976) **  

Genre: Country rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: North Wind and a New Moon

Gear costume: The Wandering Minstrel

Active compensatory factors: On this one Murphey strays a little bit too close to John Denver (Yellow House is easy to hear with Denver's voice), Seals/Crofts and Dan Fogelberg (Changing Woman is easy to hear with Dan's voice) at times but still retains enough country hippy rock grit to be himself.

Wide open spaces remains a central theme lyrically and he even has another horse story - See How The Horses Come Dancing, but Wildfire remains a few lengths ahead.

Generally, the songs don't have the sparkle to force themselves into ear-worms and they come off as pleasant country rock doodles.

Where do they all belong? Blue Sky - Night Thunder remains the high-water mark for Murphey. I will be sticking with that and don't feel any need to add any more of his albums to the collection.