Addiss & Crofut - ST (Columbia, 1967)

Here's another in my sporadic posts, and one I have mixed feelings about. Addiss and Crofut were certainly versatile and ahead of their time in their multicultural approach to folk music, but they often strike me as bland and somewhat emotionless. Still the album has its moments, Sita Ram's raga-folk sound is quite pleasing, for instance, and they have the good sense to cover a Fred Neil song.

The duo seemed to have played a lot of college campuses in the early/mid 60s (according to my google search) and had a gig touring the world on a State Department junket. According to a 1963 press release, Robert Kennedy singled them out for praise. So they were performing a while before they released this, their first album. A 2nd album, Eastern Ferris Wheel, is their best release to my ear and can be heard on the Record Fiend blog. Bill Crofut passed away in the late 1980s but Addiss appears to still be around, although I'm not sure what, if any, involvement he still has in music.

Anyway, it's late so I won't ramble. Here's the tracklist
A1 Simple Gifts
A2 War of Words
A3 Innsbruch
A4 Malaysian Flute
A5 Sita Ram
A6 Blues on the Ceiling
B1 A Ballad from Vietnam
B2 I Sing of a Maiden
B3 Non norbis, Domine
B4 To Have a Wife
B5 Mail Myself to You
B6 Crusader's Song (pts. 1 &2)
B7 Joys of Love (Plaisir d'Amour)

Here's the music.

I did recently record a few records to my computer, and while it takes a bit of time to clean them up and get them ready for posting there will be more posts coming including Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa, Vida E Inspiracion, John & Anne Ryder & Elmerlee Thomas).

Randy Holland - Cat Mind (Mother Record Corp., 1972)

A lot of private press releases did not appear on commercial labels for good reason, but not this one. This is a very nice rock release, with some folk and country inflections, and a good loner vibe. It's not (contrary to some catalogues) psychedelic, but Holland dark and somewhat snotty delivery and some smokin' guitar make it stand out from the pack.

Most of the songs were writtne by Holland with the exception of a couple by Lew Alpaugh (who also did the arragements on the record), a nice Mickey Newburry cover ("I'll Remember the Good") and a rollicking "Muddy Water" by a F. Wright (not sure who did that one originally, or whether it appears here for the 1st time, although it sounds like it could have been a country song circa late 60s). The record was recorded in Bound Brook, NJ and the record company was located on George Street in New Brunswick, NJ (not far from Rutgers' radio station, WRSU, where I spent many an hour in Grad school).

This is the only album Holland recorded but you can read some of his poety on his blog. He ended up in Las Vegas, doing some kind of casino work and running an art gallery. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year--you can read the obit here.

Here's a track list (and can someone please tell me why I'm no longer to paste text into blogger post entries?!?!--guess I have to retype)

Side ONE

Bless the Nake Days

Colours of Sad

Song for a Rainy Tuesday

Make Me Flowers

Muddy Water

Side TWO

I'll Remember the Good

Cat Mind

Indian Blues

Ladybug

Take My Hand

I hope you enjoy the record.

I'm hoping this marks a return to regular blogging for me. I've got a stack of records I want to record for you, but my next post may be one of the records that have been "sitting" on my computer for a while (Tipico Nos Grandsea or the Freedom Singers, odd choices I know).

Some news

Just a quick post with a bit of news and one crass plug.

The crass plug first. I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute some reviews to the book Endless Trip, an American/Canadian companion volume to Galactic Ramble. But even if that weren't the case I would still highly recommend it. A fantastic collection of reviews, both new and vintage, of 60s & 70s era pop, psych, folk, prog, rock, r&b, & even some jazz. It's bigger than your phonebook, even if you live in a major metro area, containing over 3000 reviews, both well-known and obscure. Click the book title to order your copy.

Also, I'm making a major effort to update my links. Getting rid of dead blogs and adding cool new ones. If anyone wants to help by reporting dead links, new links for old blog, or just new good blogs to add, please do. Since every time I check I link I have to go back over the past year's posts (it's been that long since I checked most of them), it takes a while.

Even better, I expect to have a new post up within a week, Randy Holland's Cat Mind album--some very tasty private press, loner rock.

Stephen Spano - Eye to Eye (Adelphi, 1975)

This has been long overdue. I originally intended on posting this album a year or so back and discovered it was posted elsewhere, and was since informed that the other blog & this post along with it has disappeared. However, instead of posting my rip, which has a skip on one track, I'm posting the one that originally appeared on the sadly demised Good Records NYC blog, with many thanks to the original poster.

It's excellent private press, folk-psych with flute, record, melodica & mini-moog in addition to acoustic guitar & vocals. Spano is still around doing work as an actor as well as a musician and you can find some more information about him here and here. I'll make this review short, since this blog is really on life-support at the moment and just say it's a great record and well worth a listen. Get it here.

I hope to have a news post up in the next couple weeks and a music post once Spring arrives, so I'm not quite done yet, but it's been a long winter and there's a lot going on right now.