Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Hedge & Donna - All the Friendly Colours (1969) & Special Circumstances (1971)













I finally decided to reformat my computer abandoning Vista & reinstalling XP (for those of you concerned about my computer problems) and so things here should return to normal soon. In the meantime, I'll try to make up for a lack of new rips (and a lack of time to write a better entry) by posting not one but two Hedge & Donna records. I had request for something by this folk duo a while back, so here it is. As mentioned these are not my rips & thanks go to the anonymous ripper (to be honest I don't even remember where I got them, a newsgroup I suspect).

These are the last 2 records by Hedge & Donna Capers (as far as I can tell). After recording a number of albums together they apparently went their seperate ways finally settling on careers outside music. Don't know too much about what happened to Donna but Hedge appeared in a B horror movie in 1972 called Who Fears The Devil? , which was edited and re-released as The Legend of Hillbilly John in 1973. I haven't seen it but it was based on Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories (some of which I have read). He then became a clinical psychologist who works primarily with businesses. If you're interested in reading some more about the duo, by people who've known them over the years, look here.

So what about the music? It's well written folky-pop or poppy-folk, well performed with a component backing band--but neither record strikes me as exceptional (although perhaps I'm just getting jaded).

Of the 2 lps, I prefer All the Friendly Colours, which is the folkier of the two and features some nice covers including Dylan's "I Shall be Released" (listed as "Any Day Now") & Jackson Browne's "There Came A Question." My favorite track though is off Special Circumstances--"The River," a fairly atypical outing on which their band is able to cut lose a bit and get kind of funky.

As I mentioned, these are not my rips & the sound is a little muddy--still I hope you enjoy both of these records (posted as one file).

Also, I recevied a comment that the Happy Feeling is due for a CD reissue & so it the link will be coming down later this week (check the comments for that record for more info).

24 comments:

Unknown said...

1. Thanx for the music!

2. Check out also Hedge & Donna - [R]evolution (1970) at:
http://lix.in/c09da2

Thanx again!

Anonymous said...

And the cover:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w59/wonderboyxp/front.jpg

Max said...

Thank you Wonderboy!

Anonymous said...

I used to be a Windows user. I work in a school district that uses about a fifty fifty array of Windows and Mac as a computer tech. Windows is always giving us problems, Macs rarely. In fact, we have no Mac software problems only hardware, like a bad logic board or something which could happen to any computer. I would never, ever go back to Windows. Macs work. You can save yourself a whole lot of headaches by switching to a Mac unless you have some specialized program only available on Windows but even then, you can run that program on a Mac, too. And probably more easily than in Windows.

Michael said...

DUDE.... HOW do I get these dl's to DL !? I am losing my mind w/ these mirror whatever sites... jeeeees

Max said...

Hi Michael,

It's not that difficult. When the page comes up go to the bottom right corner where there are a list of different hosting sites from which you can get the file. Click the word link to the right of the name of the site you want to use (e.g., Sendspace). That will bring up another page with the Sendspace page in the middle & then just dl from it the way you would usually (in this case right click & save file as).

Exposing Dana Houle said...

Hi there
Is there anyway to get these files to download as a zip? or if someone would be so kind as to explain to me, a complete computer idiot, how to convert an rar file to MP3 or similar for a Mac?

Max said...

There are a number of programs available for a Mac that will unpack a rar file. See http://freewaremac.net/2006/unpacking-and-creating-rar-files-on-mac-os-x/
for example.

Exposing Dana Houle said...

max
thank you so much!!!! I really appreciate your help and I am in awe of your impeccable taste in music!

brown beard said...

both these records have been sitting in the very dusty 'upstairs' room of my (crappy) local record store for a long, long time. Of course, there's no turntable to spin them on, so I've never known what they sounded like, but never been tempted to buy them. Now I can check it out for myself. Thanks,

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

To Michael:After accessing Massmirror you have 5 seconds to click download link before the page is closed(due to 'unabled Java Script'.

deelgee said...

Hi Max, just found your blog by following a link at the MyGeneration blog.

You've put up some stuff I've been wanting to hear for a long time
- thanks very much.

Can I just correct one thing about
Hedge and Donna's "Revolution"
album (Polydor PD24-4063) it's actually from 1971 not 1970.
From the catalogue number it would've been issued around June
1971.

Keep up the good work :)

Max said...

Thanks for the correction--I changed it.

Anonymous said...

Hey Max, thanks for the old music links. It is going to make my wife very very happy to hear these old tunes.

Nick

Anonymous said...

These two albums bring back some great memories -- thanks for posting them. Their first album, simply titled HEDGE & DONNA, has always been my favorite -- like all of their work, extremely hard to find. You'd think that eventually EVERYTHING would be available on CD, but...

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much man for having these albums here!... I've been a long time looking for them...
I discovered them years a go when I bought and old Capitol compilation from 1969... It had Jamie... I loved it!

Unknown said...

I HAVE ALL FOUR ALBUMS,ALL THE FRIENDLY COLOURS, MY FAVORITE.I'M TRYING TO GET AT LEAST THAT ONE ON A CD. I'M VERY NEW TO THE COMPUTER, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE ACTUALLY GOTTEN THIS FAR LOOKING FOR THIS INFO. I WOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR ANY HELP. I'M THE ONE WHO HAS INTRODUCED HEDGE AND DONNA TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS SINCE THE EARLY 70S.NICE TO KNOW THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS THEM!

Max said...

Hi mobabeb,
It's not available on CD, which is why I've posted the MP3 files here.
Max

Unknown said...

OMG, I'M SO COMPUTER ILLITERIT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON. CAN'T I JUST HAVE SOME ONE DO IT FOR ME AND I BUY IT? I HAVE A SMALL TURNTABLE BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW MY DVR OR CD WORKS!I'M ALITTLE OLDER AND DIDN'T GROW UP WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE. HELP!!!!

Max said...

There are places around that will transfer LPs to CD for you, if you have the LP in fairly good shape I'd go that route. If you don't have a good copy you can buy the lp and a cd copy from some place on the Web for an exorbinant amount.

Anonymous said...

THANKS A LOT!!

Anonymous said...

There were actually 3 albums after Special Circumstances... REvolution and then Capers and Carson as well as an album from the movie "The Legend of Hillbilly John" Hedge wrote all but one of the songs in the film and Donna is featured on some .. Hedge is sining lead on all of them as he had the title role
REvolution was released on Polydor produced by Gary Kelgrin
Capers & Carson on Chess produced by Gabriel Mekler

Del Buck said...

Well, I'm pretty late to the party - 45 years after the albums were released and 8 years after you posted them, but better late etc. These are two absolutely beautiful (albeit deeply unfashionable) albums. Many thanks for introducing me to them - I'm pretty well versed in 60s & 70s music but I guess they never reached the UK. I'm going looking for the rest of their work.