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31.1.09

The Kyla Brox Band




The Kyla Brox Band - Coming Home - 2004 - Kyla Brox

"I haven't honestly seen a better British Blues band for quite some time." - Jenny Lyndsey, Blues in Britian Magazine. "Destined to be Britians number one female singer." - Pete Evans, Dragon Blues Festival. "What a voice, what a talent, what performances!!!" - Darren Howells, Blues Matters! Magazine. "Kyla's voice is up there with the greats." - Chris Cordingley, Blues Matters! Magazine. "...an authentic Soul diva!..." - Mike Butler, City Life Magazine. "Kyla Brox Rocks!" - Northern Territory News, Australia.

You may not be too familiar with the name, but Kyla Brox, from Manchester, England is an incredibly talented blues/soul/R&B artist with a stunning voice. Kyla sang on stage from a very young age with her famous father, Victor Brox , (Victor Brox Blues Train, Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, Peter Green, etc). He is believed to have been described by Hendrix and Tina Turner as their favourite white blues singer. Kyla is naturally rooted in the blues and her repertoire is mainly classic soul/R&B songs along with the band's own compositions. The Blues run deep through their original material, but they build on that to create their own sound. Since 2002, Kyla and her small but extremely talented band have recorded several albums, all with classic R&B songs plus their own compositions. She has thrilled audiences worldwide, including two tours of Australia, and she is continually working hard to keep the Blues alive. Whether playing funky or sultry, Kyla, and her group of uniquely talented musicians play with a passion that will astonish you. They are anything but an average blues band, but they retain the pure blues basics, and are a sensational live band.. This is a marvellous album with great songs, incredibly good vocals and wonderful musicianship. A really quality recording from a lady who deserves to be a superstar. In the past few years both Blues Matters and Blues In Britain have featured her on their front covers. Let's hope it stays that way! "Coming Home" is VHR by A.O.O.F.C. Buy her "Window", "Beware" and "Gone" albums, and promote this incredibly talented lady. She has an album released entitled ˜Live at Matt & Phred’s’ which is extremely difficult to find, but if you see it, snap it up! It'a a magnificent album from a true "blues diva". Kyla Brox is surely destined for greatness. Find info on the following albums, - "Window" @ KBROX/WW "Beware" @ KBROX/BWARE This is an erratic server. Keep trying! "Gone" @ KBROX/GONE If Kyla is playing in your area, go and see her. N.B: If you notice a small amount of "scratching" noise on any of the tracks on "Coming Home", it is a fault in the original CD manufacturing, but it shouldn't affect your listening pleasure in any major way.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 She Knows - K.Brox/Blomeley
2 Coming Home - K.Brox/Blomeley
3 Do I Move You - N.Simone
4 It's On - K.Brox/Blomeley
5 Working On Your Love - V.Brox
6 Too Young To Care - K.Brox/Blomeley
7 Guilty - K.Brox/Blomeley/Gill/Marshall/Considine
8 Won't Fit There - K.Brox/Blomeley
9 Stargazing - A.Brox/K.Brox/Blomeley
10 Just For Then - K.Brox
11 Things I'd Change - K.Brox/Blomeley
12 Keep On Criticising - K.Brox/Blomeley
13 It's Understood - K.Brox
14 Don't Change Horses - K.Williams/J.Watson

MUSICIANS

Kyla (vocals and flute)
Danny Blomeley (bass and acoustic guitar)
Marshall Gill (electric guitar)
Anthony Curtis Marshall (saxophones)
Phil Considine (drums).
Victor Brox (vocals, horns, keyboards, guitar)

KYLA BROX - PRESS REVIEWS

"...an authentic soul diva...sensitive, sexy, and with infinite reserves of sassiness." © City Life Mag

What makes a first lady of British blues? The large audience at the Musician witnessing the first appearance at the venue by Kyla Brox would be quick to point out that Kyla has all the qualities needed - great voice, great presence, great songs, great band. Many may have been introduced to her beautiful, strong voice at the recent City Blues and Acoustic Festival at the De Montfort Hall. She bounced on to the scene five years ago in the shadow of her iconic father Victor, but quickly set her own stamp on the blues scene. Backing her is a band that has such individual, marvelous artists in their own right - but how brilliantly they play together - tight and sympathetic. Lead guitar is expertly played by Marshall Gill, a ZZ Top look-alike! Mellow sax sounds are supplied by Tony Marshall. Phil Considine lays down the funky beat on drums and Kyla's partner Danny Blomely plays a mean bass guitar (what a brilliant solo spot!) The two have written some fantastic songs - I shall be humming One Step Too Far for weeks to come - Frustration, Gone, Skin, What's Left On The Table...The titles roll on and on - here's hoping there will be many more! First lady of British blues? If she has not taken on that mantle yet, it will not be long before she does. © Steve England, Lecicester Mercury

After following the career of Kyla Brox and her band over the past few years it is one of the few definites in life that you are going to get a cracking show and 100% from all the band members. Walking into Blakey's Bar in Blackburn's King Georges Hall it was good to see that people had travelled out of Colne and Burnley to have another look at Kyla, who's last journey into deepest East Lancashire had been at last years Colne festival in front of over 600 people. There was not that number here tonight but the same level of anticipation could be felt all around. The band appeared on stage about 20 minutes later than advertised but seemed to throw themselves into it to make up for their lateness. After a minute of two of the band playing on their own, Miss Brox entered from stage right and immediately made her presence felt with a cracking rendition of 'Today I Sing the Blues', you could see that even the bar staff were blown away by what is rapidly becoming known on the R&B scene as "The Voice". As they proceeded to play tracks from the latest album, "Coming Home", and from the previous 2 albums, I could see that the band are maturing and progressing more and more into their own distinctive sound which can only be a good thing. Bringing the first set to a close with 'Don't Change Horses' Kyla was by now on fire (and there is always something erotic about listening to a beautiful woman singing the words "Giddy Up, Giddy Up"!!!) and the band sounding so funky, that at times, I thought I was listening to a band from the Acid Jazz record label. After a 30 minute break the band were welcomed back on the stage by our compere this evening, the ubiquitous Chris Powers. Most of the songs played in the second set are from the latest CD and we were treated to new material that isn't even recorded yet! Songs such as 'Coming Home', 'She Knows' and 'Guilty' will surely be played by the next generation of musicians, they are really that good! As another great night out listening to sweet music comes to an end I cannot get a certain thought out of my mind. Surely it is only a matter of time before Kyla is getting the attention that Joss Stone is currently enjoying. If you can get out and see The Kyla Brox Band anytime soon, DO! © Max Cash, Blues Matters! Magazine



BIOGRAPHY [ © 2003-2009 MySpace. All Rights Reserved ]

Kyla was born to sing. She grew up in Manchester, England, listening to her dad singing the blues and her mum singing opera, not to mention the soul and rock exploits of her four older siblings, so it seems inevitable that she would be bitten by the music bug. By the age of 3 she had her heart set firmly on becoming a singer (even asking for Chaka Khan's clothes, hair and voice for Christmas!) and by 1993, at 12 years old, she had already begun to sing in her father's band, the Victor Brox Blues Train (which he originally formed way back in the 60s with Kyla's mother, Annette). It's little wonder that Victor, multiinstrumentalist and singer (who fronted the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, and has played/recorded with the likes of Alexis Korner, Little Walter, Graham Bond, Muddy Waters, Champion Jack Dupree, Jimi Hendrix, Doctor John, Peter Green and Sonny Boy Williamson II...) has been a huge influence on Kyla's musical career, encouraging her to learn to play the flute and guitar, as well as sing. Tours, numerous gigs and festivals, and a handful of cds with the Victor Brox Blues Train, have ensured that Kyla has had the proper schooling in her craft. Fate played it's hand in 1993, when Kyla met the equally precocious, 13 year old multi-instrumentalist, Danny Blomeley, when he began to play bass in her dad's band. Danny was a seasoned musician even then, having formed the first of his own band aged 10 (in which he played electric guitar). The pair spent their teenage years honing their skills together in the Victor Brox Blues Train (then affectionately known as the "Child Slavery Band" due to the extreme youth of the musicians!), until 1998 when Danny left the UK to travel the world with guitar in hand. His musical expertise was soon in demand from a diverse range of bands, playing jazz, blues, salsa and rock, on guitar, bass, mandolin and piano. When Danny arrived back in the UK in the spring of 2001, he and Kyla formed a duo. Danny's sensationally unique style on the acoustic guitar is the perfect complement to Kyla's incredible voice, and often leaves the audience wondering where the rest of the band are hiding! Their vibrant performances quickly made them a favourite in the clubs and venues around North West England, and the rest of the UK was soon to follow. With media interest, including Kyla featuring on the front covers of the UKs two biggest Blues dedicated magazines, Blues In Britain and Blues Matters! (who coined her nickname, "The Voice") and radio play, including a live session for BBC Radio 2 (the UKs most listened to radio station), their reputation has grown and grown. The pair make a strong song-writing partnership and recorded their first album, ‘Window’, in 2003, a mixture of original and classic numbers. Kyla and Danny put together an electric band in 2002, with Danny on bass, Marshall Gill on electric guitar, Tony Marshall on saxophones and Phil Considine on drums. The Kyla Brox Band have recorded three studio albums, ‘Beware’, ‘Coming Home’ and most recently 'Gone', and also a powerful live album, ‘Live at Matt & Phred’s’. With their own special mix of funky, jazz-tinged blues, and armed with the two different touring outfits, they have caused a stir all over the world, performing concerts, and often headlining at festivals though out the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia, such as, The Great British Rhythm n Blues Festival (Europe's largest blues festival), Copenhagen Blues Festival, Blues autour du Zinc, (Paris), The Great Southern Blues and Rockabilly Festival (Australia), Phuket International Blues Festival (Thailand), Edinburgh Festival (Scotland) and Limavady Jazz & Blues Festival (Ireland), to mention a few. “...acoustic, intimate and powerfully emotive” Alan Pierce, Editor, Blues Matters Magazine. “Excellent!” Paul Jones, BBC. Kyla and the band have recorded five albums to date, with a repetoire drawn from classic R&B songs and their own compositions. The Blues runs deep through their original material, but they build on that to create their own sound. They are anything but your average Blues band, yet they keep the fundamentals of the Blues alive; they play with a feeling that is infectious. "I haven't honestly seen a better British Blues band for quite some time." - Jenny Lyndsey, Blues in Britian Magazine. "Destined to be Britians number one female singer." - Pete Evans, Dragon Blues Festival. "What a voice, what a talent, what performances!!!" - Darren Howells, Blues Matters! Magazine. "Kyla's voice is up there with the greats." - Chris Cordingley, Blues Matters! Magazine. "...an authentic Soul diva!..." - Mike Butler, City Life Magazine. "Kyla Brox Rocks!" - Northern Territory News, Australia.

30.1.09

Blood, Sweat & Tears




Blood, Sweat & Tears - B, S & T 4 - 1971 - Columbia

The great New York-based jazz rock band were very lucky to find David Clayton-Thomas, who could sing their fantastic mix of jazz rock, blues, soul, pop, big band and classical music, and make them a hugely popular jazz rock band in the late sixties and early seventies.The English born David Clayton-Thomas, based in Toronto, Canada, had written some Canadian chart hits and was a popular "jamming" musician in NYC in the sixties for his ability to sing any song with all types of bands. When he joined B, S & T , after sailing through an audition, his voice became the sound of BS&T, and the band produced some of the biggest hit singles of the 1960s. David Clayton-Thomas has a great voice, and wrote some great songs including the classic "Spinning Wheel". When he played with BS&T, he had a wonderful stage presence, and was a natural bandleader, who had complete control over BS&T's playing style. He was also a hugely popular artist with concert-goers. But like so many other bands, who keep going when "the captain leaves the ship", it will be forever said that the band could not maintain either their popularity, or great musical output when David went his separate way. B, S & T 4 has received many mixed reviews. Some say it is a typical B, S & T album with great vocals and songs from David Clayton-Thomas, while others think it is a weak album, especially on the compositional side, regardless of David Clayton-Thomas' great vocals. Nevertheless, the album was a commercial success, and most of the music is excellent. It has been stated before on this blog, that B,S&T found it very difficult to emulate the brilliance of the their first two albums. David Clayton-Thomas has featured on a few later B, S & T albums. Check out "Nuclear Blues". There is info on the Blood, Sweat & Tears Featuring David Clayton-Thomas album, "New City" @ BST/DCT/NC and you can find info on the Blood, Sweat & Tears "More Than Ever" album @ BST/MTE If you haven't been familiar with B, S & T's early music, check out their stunning 1968 "Child Is Father To The Man" album, regarded as the band's "Sergeant Pepper" and their outstanding 1969 s/t "Blood, Sweat & Tears" album.

TRACK INFO

A1 Go Down Gamblin' (4:14)
Arranged By - Fred Lipsius
Written-By, Arranged By, Guitar - David Clayton-Thomas
A2 Cowboys And Indians (3:07)
Written-By - Terry Kirkman, Dick Halligan
Arranged By - Dick Halligan
A3 John The Baptist (Holy John) (3:35)
Arranged By - Fred Lipsius
Written-By - Phyllis Major, Al Kooper
Arranged By - Al Kooper
A4 Redemption (5:11)
Congas - Michael Smith (9)
Guitar - Jim Fielder
Written-By - Clayton-Thomas, Halligan, Katz
A5 Lisa, Listen To Me (2:58)
Lyrics By - David Clayton-Thomas, Music By Dick Halligan
Arranged By - Dick Halligan
A6 A Look To My Heart (0:52)
Written-By, Arranged By - Fred Lipsius

B1 High On A Mountain (3:13)
Arranged By - Dick Halligan
Written-By - Steve Katz
B2 Valentine's Day (3:56)
Arranged By - Fred Lipsius
Bass [Acoustic Bass] - Dave Bargeron
Clarinet, Clarinet [Bass Clarinet] - Don Heckman
Written-By, Vocals - Steve Katz
B3 Take Me In Your Arms (3:27)
Arranged By - Fred Lipsius , Jim Fielder
Written-By - Dozier, Holland, Holland
B4 For My Lady (3:23)
Arranged By - Dick Halligan
Bass [Acoustic Bass] - Dave Bargeron
Clarinet, Clarinet [Bass Clarinet] - Don Heckman
Written-By - Steve Katz
B5 Mama Gets High (4:09)
Written-By - Steve Katz, Dave Bargeron
Arranged By - Dave Bargeron
B6 A Look To My Heart (Duet) (2:07)
Written-By, Arranged By - Fred Lipsius

MUSICIANS

Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Harmonica, Mandolin - Steve Katz
Guitar - Georg Wadenius [Not definite if he played on this album - info. appreciated]
Bass [Electric] - Jim Fielder
Drums, Percussion - Bobby Colomby
Lead Vocals - David Clayton-Thomas
Organ, Trombone, Piano, Flute - Dick Halligan
Keyboards - Larry Willis
Producer - Don Heckman
Saxophone [Alto], Piano, Organ, Clarinet - Fred Lipsius
Sax/Flute - Lou Marini, Jr
Trombone, Tuba, Horns - Dave Bargeron
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Chuck Winfield , Lewis Soloff
Arranged By - Dick Halligan (tracks: A2, A4, A5, B1, B4) , Fred Lipsius (tracks: A1, A3, A6, B2, B3, B6)

REVIEWS

I have always love the originality of BS&T. Their first three albums showed that they could take other singer/songwriter's music and create such a completely different version that the song would belong to BS&T forever. Blood Sweat & Tears 4 was going to be the album where they put their own songwriting to the test. All but two songs on this LP was written by the group. The exceptions: "John the Baptist" (by Al Kooper, ex-BS&T member) and "Take me in your arms" It's also interesting to note that while recording this album the group got so frustrated that they even asked Kooper to help produce it. Music-wise, this is a very good LP. Although only two songs got any real airplay, "Go Down Gambling" a Clayton-Thomas rocker, and "Lisa Listen to Me" a upbeat melodic number, just about all the songs are great. My favorite is Redemption, a hard driven song that has your classic BS&T sound. Although not their best (Blood Sweat & Tears, their 2nd album will always be their bench-mark) this by far tops BS&T 3 and anything that came after. This particular album accentuates how a band that enjoyed such tremendous success, could be so unaffected as to turn out a mature and well constructed album of charts that are similar but vastly different from their previous albums. This innovative band continued, with this recording, to be one of the great aural joys of their era. The highpoints are "Go Down Gamblin'" with David Clayton-Thomas being surprisingly good on guitar. Raunchy guitar lines over awesome brass, with Jim Fielder humming on bass. "Cowboys and Indians" - mature, thoughtful. Dave Bargeron's mellifluous trombone gliding above the arrangement. "Redemption" - strong unorthodox drumming(Max Roach meets Butch Trucks) by Bobby Colomby. Sharp Brass attach lead by the stratospheric Lew Soloff, and Dave Bargeron taking off at dead run and shifting to fourth gear on trombone. The touching "Valentine's Day" with Steve Katz plesant easy vocal style and the classically inflected piccolo trumpet solo of Lew Soloff over Chuck Winfields trumpet, "Mama Gets High" - Dixieland Rock and the intropsective piano , trumpet collaboration of Lew Soloff and Fred Lipsius. It is a shame that this band has become one of the best kept secret joys in music, when far lesser bands have been lionized. They were the first of their kind and there never was another. Some say that you cannot wed one musical idiom to another. This is proof that you can. - Liner Notes by Don Heckman ........Review: - Having relied largely on outside songwriting for its last two wildly successful albums, Blood, Sweat & Tears decided (as many groups had before) to bring some of that song publishing income into the family by writing their own material. Singer David Clayton-Thomas contributed the Top 40 hit "Go Down Gamblin'," and he and keyboard player Dick Halligan collaborated on another chart entry, "Lisa, Listen to Me." Ex-bandleader Al Kooper even contributed a track, "John the Baptist (Holy John)." But Side two was given over largely to songs by guitarist Steve Katz that were substandard, and the band's cohesion seemed to be disintegrating. Although the album scraped the Top Ten briefly and went gold, it marked the end of BS&T's period of wide commercial success on records. By the next outing, Clayton-Thomas had quit and the band's heyday was behind it. Although this was their swan song LP, nonetheless it was and remains a remarkable achivement for a bunch of guys, that for all practical purposes didn't like each other very much. With all that was going on with this group, they managed to set a new genre of music at the time and in doing so sold a lifetime of music in a very short span. © Audiogon.com. All rights reserved

Having relied largely on outside songwriting for its last two wildly successful albums, Blood, Sweat & Tears decided (as many groups had before) to bring some of that song publishing income into the family by writing their own material. Singer David Clayton-Thomas contributed the Top 40 hit "Go Down Gamblin'," and he and keyboard player Dick Halligan collaborated on another chart entry, "Lisa, Listen to Me." Ex-bandleader Al Kooper even contributed a track, "John the Baptist (Holy John)." But Side two was given over largely to songs by guitarist Steve Katz that were substandard, and the band's cohesion seemed to be disintegrating. Although the album scraped the Top Ten briefly and went gold, it marked the end of BS&T's period of wide commercial success on records. By the next outing, Clayton-Thomas had quit and the band's heyday was behind it. © William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com

When Ed Sullivan welcomed Blood, Sweat & Tears to his show a while back he asked them where they got the unusual name from. From Churchill, they replied. Well, since the Kinks did Arthur, everybody knows Churchill isn't worth very much anymore, so as a result the name has been immeasurably weakened. So maybe they ought to shorten it (names of groups are too long nowadays) to just Tears. After all it's the Tears that have always been their most vital component. There really hasn't been that much in the way of sweat except maybe from the spotlights getting too hot. And the only blood has been from the deep scratches Janis inflicted on David ClaytonThomas' back when that pair hooked up once upon a time. So it's Tears and it fits. After all they've always been best at sad ballads and this album is no exception. And Steve Katz has a lot to do with it, having written two real pretty little things, called "Valentine's Day" and "For My Lady." The first of them is sort of vaguely reminiscent of something with a similar title that Tim Buckley did around four years ago. Which isn't peculiar, since Steve did that Buckley thing "Morning Glory" on the first BS&T album three years ago. Well, his Valentine item is just as pretty as anything by Tim and "For My Lady" is prettier still. It's as pretty as a peach, it's even what some people might call shit-pretty. That's how pretty it is. Lovely in fact. And Fred Lipsius does this even lovelier instrumental thing on both sides called "A Look to My Heart" which sounds like Monk's "Ruby My Dear" and sounds even more like Coltrane's "Naima." Or anything by Bill Evans. You know: concrete timeless breathless prettiness as an excuse for beauty. Which certainly is a good formula. Like if jazz titans can indulge in it, why not jazz non-titans like BS&T? It's no disgrace to balladize exclusively, maybe they ought to give it a try. It's what they do best, isn't it? When they try to rock with David wailing and flailing it comes off like Paul McCartney doing same. Conviction is abandoned in the attempt to get down, get with it, teach your dog to swim. And conviction is something that actually seems to be on the agenda when they're doing the soft stuff and ever since Elvis did "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," it's been a well-known fact that ballads need not be worthless. And need not be non-rock either so there's no threat to their masculinity or anything like that. Anyway, ballads may even be vehicles for the conveyance of meaning. Like on that Indian song by David called "Cowboys and Indians." It's an Indian song rather than cowboys, and it's poignant and yet there's no blood like in Soldier Blue or Little Big Man so it avoids heavy polarities in making its point. Kids'll be quoting it in English classes and maybe even social studies. Richie Havens could even have a decent size hit with it and then it would take on really relevant racial significance. So you can play the soft tou ching stuff and then for a change slip the needle over to "Lisa, Listen to Me." It's like a breath of fresh Airplane, circa "We Can Be Together." Steve really pulls off a mind-boggier of a riff on his ax and the vocal that follows doesn't even ruin it. Put the ballads and it together and you've got yourself the best – B-(e)-S-(&)-T – Blood, Sweat & Tears album since the first. And come to think of it, David's guitar playing on "Go Down Gamblin'" is better than Jagger's guitar playing on Sticky Fingers. And "For My Lady" is a lot like George Harrison's "Something," so I wonder what Joe Cocker would have to say about it. © R. MELTZER, (Posted: Aug 5, 1971), © 2009 Rolling Stone



BIO (B,S & T/DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS)

For a brief period at the end of the '60s and the start of the '70s, Blood, Sweat & Tears , which fused a rock & roll rhythm section to a horn section, held out the promise of a jazz-rock fusion that could storm the pop charts. The band was organized in New York in 1967 out of the remnants of the Blues Project by keyboard player/singer Al Kooper and guitarist Steve Katz of that group and saxophonist Fred Lipsius . The rhythm section consisted of bassist Jim Fielder and drummer Bobby Colomby and the horn section was filled out by trumpeters Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss and trombonist Dick Halligan . Al Kooper came up with the name when he was on the phone with a promoter, while gazing at a Johnny Cash album cover. The album was called, "Blood Sweat & Tears". The inspiration for the band name did not come from Winston Churchill's quote, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat", as was widely reported at the time. Their first gig was at the Village Theater (which later became the Fillmore East) as the opening act for the James Cotton Blues band. A couple of weeks later the band opened for Moby Grape at the Cafe A Go Go. They were a huge success and three record labels were willing to sign the group. They decided to sign Columbia, a label that Kooper already had a relation-ship with. In December 1967 they began recording their first album "Child Is Father To The Man", which was released on February 21 1968. The critics loved it and compared it to the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" and the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds". The album was considered as a mile stone in rock music and was awarded a Grammy nomination, but only hit # 47 in the charts. Al Kooper began working on the next BS&T album, searching for songs for follow-up material. On the first album, Kooper was given free hands to do what he could for BS&T. On the second album Katz and Colomby wanted to take a more active part in the development of the band and both of them wanted to get a new, better, stronger vocalist. After meeting with Kooper he decided to leave the band after their last gig at the Garrick Theatre in New York. Also Randy Brecker left the band to join the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Band. He was replaced by Chuck Winfield. Jerry Weiss left as well, his place being taken by Lew Soloff. Dick Halligan took over the organ and Jerry Hyman was added on trombone. Now they started searching for a new singer. Laura Nyro, who happened to be dating Jim Fielder at the time, was invited to a rehearsal, but she decided not to join the band. Steven Stills was also approached, but he was busy working with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield on the "Super Sessions" album. Bobby Colomby then told the others of a virtually unknown singer named David Clayton-Thomas, and convinced them that his Blues-tinged style seemed perfect for the band. Clayton-Thomas had some hits in Canada with "the Bossmen" and sang briefly with a band called "Flying Machine". Born in Surrey, England, on Sept. 13th, 1941 as David Henry Thomsett of British-Canadian parents, the family moved to Toronto, Canada when he was age six. David had a troubled adolescence and was jailed a half-dozen times for vagrancy, parole violations and petty theft. While other teenagers in suburban Toronto were attending high school proms, David was a street kid, a loner, sleeping in parked cars, stealing food and clothing, learning how to survive and fight behind bars. When he was at Millbrook Reformatory he learned to play the guitar. An old guitar had been left behind by an outgoing inmate, and David claimed it. He began to practice alone, late into the night, and for the first time in his life he had a dream, a plan for the future. After his release, David made music his life, and steadily honed his skills in one band after another until Blood, Sweat and Tears approached him in 1969. The band also hired James William Guercio to produce their next album. If their first effort was a loose jazz blending melted together with rock, this album had a clearer delineation between jazz and rock. Straight-ahead rock songs and a jazzy part in the middle of each song. This was the formula that really did catch the fancy of the public. The album was released on December 11 1968 and launched three gold singles, "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "And When I Die" and "Spinning Wheel". The L.P. garnered five Grammy awards, including Album of the Year and Best Performance by a Male Vocalist. Suddenly B,S&T were as big as any band could be. Offers poured in for major concerts, TV appearances and jazz and rock festivals from coast to coast. They even played at the original Woodstock Festival. The month following Woodstock they began working on their next album. Before the album was released, they had to make a goodwill tour to East Europe, because Clayton-Thomas who was a Canadian citizen didn't have a green card. The members didn't like the idea of making a goodwill tour for the Nixon-administration but they had no choice if they wanted to keep Clayton-Thomas in the band. The tour was a major disaster. On the fist night, in Bucharest, the young Romanian audience jumped to its feet and shouted "USA". The Police responded by loosing attack German shepherds on the audience. The communist government gave orders to B,S&T, " more jazz ...less rhythm". After the return from the tour, their third album, "Blood, Sweat & Tears 3", struck gold upon it's release. The album contained a lot of high points, such as Goffin-King's "Hi-De-Ho", Laura Nyro's "He's A Runner", Traffic's "40,000 Headmen" and Clayton-Thomas' "Lucretia MacEvil" along with one of Steve Katz finest songs, "The Battle". On the album was also a version of Jagger-Richards' "Sympathy for the Devil", with an arrangement by Dick Halligan. "Hi-De-Ho" was released as a single and reached #14 in the charts. Jazz magazines praise their precision, their arrangements, and their musicianship. Contrary, rock critics call the group "slick and inflexible". Clayton-Thomas replied to the criticism."This band does more free blowing on stage than practically any rock band, but we do it within a very literate and educated framework. A lot of people say, it sounds so precise. Well that's the way these guys play. If you go to Juiliard for five or six years, you learn to play precisely." In September, "Lucretia MacEvil" was released as the next single and peaked at #29 in the charts. November saw the group play its first concert with a full symphony in New Orleans. They also recorded music for a Barbra Steisand, George Segal movie, "The Owl and the Pussycat". In January 1971, the group begin recording its next release in San Francisco. They recruited jazz writer/saxman/composer Don Heckman to co-produce. The sessions seem to drag on, with takes mounting up to the dozens. In a brief break from the recording, Blood, Sweat & Tears became one of the first rock bands to play Las Vegas, for which they received a lot of criticism. The band was charged with being hollow and pretentious, swapping its original rock audience for older, cabaret-oriented listeners. They were called a"lounge act" and that they had sold their soul for the money. Back in the studio again, they ask Al Kooper to come and help out with the album. Kooper, Colomby and Roy Halee co-produced the rest of the album. "B,S&T 4" was released at the end of June and it's the first album with mostly original tunes. It turns gold in a month. This time even the rock critics are impressed. Two singles are released from the album, "Go Down Gamblin'" and "Lisa, Listen To Me", neither of which do well on the pop charts. About this time, the band seemed to split into three separate fractions: the rockers, including most of the rhythm section; the jazzers, Colomby and most of the horn section; and the Vegas star, Clayton-Thomas. Each believes that the band has gone too far in the other direction. In January 1972, the split is total. David Clayton-Thomas leaves the band for a solo career. The decision was mutual, their musical ambitions were too different. Fred Lipsius left the band. The next month David Clayton-Thomas is replaced by the blind singer Bobby Doyle, once leader of the Bobby Doyle Trio. Joe Henderson replaces Fred Lipsius and guitarist George Wadenius, a member of the Swedish group "Made in Sweden", joins the band. The new lineup fails to gel and they start to look for another lead singer. Jerry Fisher is at this time recording singles in New York with "New Design", a subsidiary of Columbia Records (the BS&T label). His newly tracked recording session prompted an invitation to have a jam session with the group. After that, he's invited to join the band. Prior to joining BS&T, Jerry Fisher performed the nightclub circuits in Las Vegas, Tahoe, parts of his native Oklahoma and Texas. He had a sizeable following and was considered by one Texas music critic as "probably the greatest white blues singer in the business". All these changes mean time rehearsing and reorganizing instead of recording and Columbia Records releases a "Greatest hits" package. Eleven selections, seven singles chart entries, plus two album tracks from the celebrated debut album when Al Kooper lead the group, and two more from the Grammy-winning multi-platinum second album.The album contained the singles edits of the songs. The personal changes continued. Joe Henderson is replaced by Lou Marini Jr. Dick Halligan calls it a day and Larry Willis takes over as keyboard player. In the summer of '72, Blood, Sweat & Tears went in the studio again to record a new album. This time they choose mostly covers. At the end of August, the first new material to be released in 13 months, the single "So Long Dixie" is released, but stalls out at #44. The album is released a month later. A discouraged Steve Katz leaves the band along with Chuck Winfield, who is replaced by Tom Malone. There is no replacement for Steve Katz. As touring continued, Blood, Sweat and Tears begin gathering material for yet another album and in the spring of 1973 they are once again in the studio to record. The result "No Sweat" was released in June the same year and contained both originals and cover songs. The album this time is more rocking with "Roller Coaster" released as a single. The LP scores at #42 and another single, "Save Our Ship" is released from the album. The touring continues and so are the personal changes within the band. Longtimer Jim Fielder leaves and is replaced by Ron McClure, Lou Marini JR is replaced by Bill Tillman. Tom Malone leaves and Tony Klatka takes over. Lew Soloff also leaves the band. Jerry LaCroix, formerly a member of the Edgar Winter group, joins the band on sax and flute. He also sings, but Jerry Fisher is still the lead singer. In March and April 1974 the band spend most of the time in the studio for their forthcoming album and in July, "Mirror Image" is released. A song called,"Tell Me That I'm Wrong" is released as a single but only reaches #83. The album flops at #149. Jerry LaCroix didn't feel comfortable within the band, and he couldn't' handle Bobby Colomby. Basically he didn't care for Blood, Sweat and Tears style and he did not like to share lead vocal duties. He was more interested in his solo album "The Second Coming", that he recently had recorded. He once said that one of the reasons for him to join was that they ware going on a world tour and he hadn't seen the world. While they were in Australia he decided to quit. When they came back, he left the group after a gig in Central Park. Luther Kent, a blues singer from New Orleans was recruited as a new leadsinger, together with Jerry Fisher. Luther Kent had been singing with The Greek Fountains, a busy, popular band in demand regionally, then criss-crossed America with his own, 9-piece r&b band, "Blues, Inc". His voice could be described as powerful, rough and whiskey-drenched. Blood, Sweat and Tears never did any recordings with Luther Kent, who eventually quit to form "Trick Bag" with guitarist Charlie Brent. As 1975 began, David Clayton-Thomas returned to Blood, Sweat and Tears. Joe Giorgianni was added on trumpet, flugelhorn and in sessions during February, they recorded new songs for an album. 50 percent cover tunes (Janis Ian, Randy Newman, the Beatles, Blues Image) and 50 percent originals, including a song from one of Clayton-Thomas solo albums ("Yesterday's Music"). The L.P. called "New City" is released in April, and on the cover it says "Blood, Sweat & Tears featuring David Clayton-Thomas", to let people know that now it's the same band that made all those hits a few years ago. It's the first BS&T album in many years to get favourable reviews. Live bookings began to increase in quality and quantity, and the band experienced renewed popularity. Their revival of the Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life" peaked at US #62, and the album hit #47. During this period, a live album was recorded and released in Europe and Japan as "In Concert". It's the same album that later was released as "Live and Improvised" in the U.S.A. In August 1976, an album called "More Than Ever" was released, but it was a disappointing seller. This was the weakest album they ever have put out, despite guest vocals by Patti Austin. It stalls at #165 and Columbia Records dropped the band. At this time, Bobby Colomby, B,S&T's sole remaining original member calls it a day. In 1977 the band is signed to ABC records and in November the same year, they recorded "Brand New Day". The album garnered positive reviews, but was not a major seller. The group continued to tour and personnel continued to fluctuate. In January 1978, they toured Europe. The band members at that time were, Clayton-Thomas on vocals, Dave Bargeron tuba, Anthony Klatka and Chris Albert trumpet, Gregory Herbert saxophone, Randy Bernsen guitar, Larry Willis keyboards, Neil Stubenhaus bass and Bobby Economou on drums. After a concert in Amsterdam, Gregory Herbert took an overdose of cocaine and died. The band returned home and separated. In late 1979, David Clayton-Thomas reformed a new Canadian version of Blood, Sweat & Tears with Bobby Economou. On guitar he recruited Robert Piltch, one of Canada's finest young guitarists and his brother David on bass. The other members were: Bruce Cassidy from Bruce Cassidy Band on trumpet, and arranger. Earl Seymour - Saxophone, Flute, Vernon Dorge - Alto, soprano sax, flute, Richard Martinez - Organ, piano, clavinet. Signed to MCA Records in 1980, this incarnation of Blood, Sweat & Tears first album was called "Nuclear Blues" and featured cover versions of Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression" and Henry Glover's blues classic, "Drown In My Own Tears". But the face of music had drifted away from the style that made Blood, Sweat and Tears popular and the band disbanded again later the same year. The Group faded from view for pretty much the next five years, with Colomby and Clayton-Thomas occasionally getting together for a few live shows here and there. In 1985, David teamed up with hard-driving young manager, Larry Dorr, formerly a tour manager with he band. Larry convinced David that there was still life in the once proud name Blood, Sweat & Tears, and that with the right musicians, good management, and strong leadership, it could once again be an attraction on concert stages around the world. They recruited musical director/trumpeter Steve Guttman, graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Blood, Sweat & Tears began performing with prestigious American symphonies like the Detroit, the Houston, the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestras. Larry Dorr was right. A revitalized BS&T under his direction and David's leadership came storming back to the concert stages of the world, playing international jazz festivals, symphonies, concert halls and casino show rooms. In the late 80's the personnel of the band stabilized and they became a regular group again. Due to legal hassles over use of the name "Blood, Sweat and Tears"' there haven't been any new albums released. In 1994, David Clayton-Thomas and Blood Sweat & Tears horn section: Jerry Sokolow - trumpet, Steve Guttman - trumpet, Tim Ries - Sax and Charlie Gordon - Trombone, made a record with the Hungarian jazz drummer Leslie Mandoki. The album was called "People". In 1996 David Clayton-Thomas was induced into the Canadian Music hall of Fame. and later recorded an album that was called "The Uptown Album". It was recorded live at Ornette Coleman's Harlem studio and was produced by David himself. It was released in Canada in November 1997 and in the US and the rest of the world in January 1998. In 1997 another album called "People In Room no. 8" was released. Later in 1998, David recorded a solo album called "Bloodlines" that featured some of the musicians that had been in Blood Sweat and Tears over the years. Blood, Sweat and Tears continued to tour and even though David Clayton-Thomas is regarded as "the voice of Blood, Sweat & Tears", it is the skill and the musicianship of all those very talented musicians that have passed through the band that made this group so special. In 2007, they were sharing the stage with Chuck Negron, formerly of Three Dog Night, in a series of shows across the US. © www.classicbands.com/bst.html

28.1.09

Karen Dalton




Karen Dalton - In My Own Time - 1971 - Just Sunshine Records

There are voices, and then there are voices. Sometimes the ones that move us most are those most on the edge: the ones racked with pain, the ones that sound beyond hope. One such belongs to the late Karen Dalton, a tragic half-Cherokee, half-Irish beauty who left a paltry but bewitching legacy of two official albums, the second (In My Own Time) reissued for the first time by a tiny label called Light In The Attic. © Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2008

In My Own Time, was recorded at Mercury Sound Studios, and the famous Bearsville Sound Studios near Woodstock, N.Y., over a six month period in 1970/71 with Dylan sideman Harvey Brooks directing an elite gathering of session players. The album was originally released on the Just Sunshine Records label which was owned by Michael Lang, famous for his promotion of the great sixties Woodstock Festival. It was a more polished recording than Karen's loose, and "rough at the edges" debut album, but it totally flopped. It was not easy to make an impact on the folk/blues record scene in America in the early seventies, as artists like James Taylor, Carole King, and many other talented singer/songwriters were coming to the forefront of American popular music. Karen was very uneasy in the environment of a recording studio She also suffered from stage fright and her material was written by other composers. All these factors did nothing to help or promote Karen's new album or career. After the commercial failure of the album, Karen spent little time with music, and developed an alcohol and drugs problem, which was a prevalent problem at that time, affecting the humblest musicians, to megastars like Hendrix and Morrison. Dylan sideman Harvey Brooks stated that - "I only knew her as an addicted personality," "She had drug problems the whole time I knew her. She had a painful personality, and I think she did drugs to soothe the pain." How she lived her final years and how she died is not completely certain.. Lenny Kaye, guitarist for Patti Smith, described Karen's last days as "living on the New York streets, destitute, her health gone," but Dalton's friend, guitarist Peter Walker tells a different story. "Let me put to rest these ideas that she died in destitute poverty and drug addicted homelessness," he states. "She was perfectly functional mentally. She was living in Hurley, in upstate New York. She lived with AIDS for more than eight years, but with an excellent quality of life considering the disease." Whatever the story, since the 1960s Karen Dalton has been an ongoing inspiration to many folk rock musicians, including Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart, Lucinda Williams and Joanna Newsom. There has never been a singer to equal the late Karen Dalton's voice of intense passion, and raw beauty, which sometimes sounds as if it's "cracking" with a "pent up" emotion. She remains an important lady in the development of great folk and blues music" In My Own Time" was re-issued on Vinyl LP, and remastered CD on Light In The Attic Records in 2006. Try and listen to her "It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best" album. If anybody is aware of any other recordings by Karen, A.O.O.F.C would be most appreciative of any info.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

A1 Something On Your Mind - Valente
A2 When A Man Loves A Woman - Lewis, Wright
A3 In My Own Dream - Butterfield
A4 Katie Cruel - Traditional
A5 How Sweet It Is - Dozier, Holland, Holland

B1 In A Station - Manuel
B2 Take Me - Jones, Payne
B3 Same Old Man - Traditional
B4 One Night Of Love - Tate
B5 Are You Leaving For The Country - Tucker

MUSICIANS

Vocals, Guitar [12 String], Banjo, Arranged By - Karen Dalton
Bass, Recorded By, Producer, Arranged By - Harvey Brooks
Clarinet [Belch] - Robert Fritz
Drums - Dennis Whitted , Dennis Siewell , Greg Thomas
Guitar - Amos Garrett , Dan Hankin
Guitar [Steel] - Bill Kieth
Organ - Ken Pearson
Piano - John Simon , Richard Bell
Saxophone [Tenor] - Hart McNee
Trumpet - Marcus Doubleday
Violin - Bobby Notkoff

REVIEW

In My Own Time is the second and last album the mercurial singer Karen Dalton ever cut. Following It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best, producers Michael Lang and Harvey Brooks (Dalton's longtime friend and the bassist on both her records) did something decidedly different on In My Own Time (titled after the slow process of getting the album done — in Dalton's relaxed and idiosyncratic manner of recording), and the result is a more polished effort than her cozy, somewhat more raw debut. This time out, Dalton had no trouble doing multiple takes, though the one chosen wasn't always the most flawless, but the most honest in terms of the song and its feel. The album was recorded at Bearsville up in Woodstock, and the session players were a decidedly more professional bunch than her Tinker Street Cafe friends who had appeared on her first effort. Amos Garrett is here, as is Bill Keith on steel, pianist John Simon, guitarist John Hall, pianist Richard Bell, and others, including a star horn section that Brooks added later. If Lang was listed as producer, it was Brooks who acted as the session boss, which included a lot of caretaking when it came to Dalton — who began recording in a more frail condition than usual since she was recovering from an illness. In My Own Time is the better of her two offerings in so many ways, not the least of which is the depth she is willing to go inside a song to draw its meaning out, even if it means her own voice cracks in the process. The material is choice, beginning with Dino Valente's gorgeous "Something on Your Mind." Brooks' rumbling single-note bassline opens it with a throb, joined by a simple timekeeping snare, pedal steel, and electric guitars. When Dalton opens her mouth and sings "Yesterday/Anyway you made it was just fine/Saw you turn your days into nighttime/Didn't you know/You can't make it without ever even trying/And something's on your mind...," a fiddle enters and the world just stops. The Billie Holiday comparisons fall by the wayside and Dalton emerges as a singer as true and impure as Nina Simone (yet sounds nothing like her), an artist who changed the way we hear music. The band begins to close in around her, and Dalton just goes right into the middle and comes out above it all. She turns the song inside herself, which is to say she turns it inside all of us and its meaning is in the sound of her voice, as if revelation were something of an everyday occurrence if we could only grasp its small truth for what it weighs. When the album moves immediately into Lewis and Wright's "When a Man Loves a Woman," Dalton reveals the other side of Percy Sledge's version. This woman who was so uncaged and outside the world that she died homeless on the streets of New York in the 1990s was already declaring the value of loving someone even if that someone couldn't return the love as profoundly — which doesn't mean it isn't appreciated in the depths of the Beloved's being. Dalton sings the song as if wishing that she herself could accept such a love. Her voice slips off the key register a couple of times, but she slides into her own, which is one of the hidden places in the tune that one didn't even know existed. The layered horns don't begin to affect her vocal; they just move it inside further. And the woman could sing the blues in a way that only Bob Dylan could, from the skeletal framework of the tune toward the truth that a blues song could convey — just check her reading of Paul Butterfield's "In My Own Dream," with some gorgeous steel playing by Keith. Her version of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" has her singing completely outside the time and beat of the tune; floating through the tune's middle, she glides, slips, and slides like a jazz singer in and around its changes. Another standout is Richard Manuel's "In a Station." As a piano, rolling tom-toms, and an organ introduce it, Dalton is at her most tender; she feels and communicates the understatement in the original, and lets her voice flow through even as the band plays on top of her. And when her voice cracks, it's as if the entire tune does, just enough to let in the light in its gorgeous lyric. Of course, it wouldn't be a Dalton album if there weren't traditional tunes here, and so there are three, including "Katie Cruel," with Dalton playing her banjo and finding the same voice that Dock Boggs did, the same warped cruelty and search for the brutality of love. "Same Old Man" is another banjo-based tune set in an Eastern modal drone. Only the stark loneliness and outsider presence of Dalton's voice shift and move through the large terrain provided by that drone and create the very substance of song from within it. It's spooky, otherworldly. George Jones' "Take Me" is transformed from a plea to a statement; it's a command to the Beloved to deliver her from her current place outside love to become its very substance. It's still a country song, but there's some strange transgender delivery that crosses the loneliness of Hank Williams with the certainty of Tammy Wynette, and is rawer than both. If one can only possess one of Karen Dalton's albums, In My Own Time is the one. It creates a sound world that is simply unlike any other; it pushes the singer outside her comfort zone and therefore brings listeners to the place Dalton actually occupied as a singer. Without apology or concern for technique, she could make any song her own, creating a personal narrative that could reach outside the song itself, moving through her person and becoming the truth for the listener. The fine Light in the Attic label reissued this set — originally on Paramount — on compact disc in 2006. It's in a handsome package with remastered sound and a beautiful booklet that includes a slew of photos and essays by Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave, and Devendra Banhart. It's a handsome tribute to a nearly forgotten but oh so necessary © Thom Jurek, allmusic.com

ABOUT KAREN DALTON

A cult singer, 12-string guitarist, and banjo player of the New York 1960s folk revival, Karen Dalton still remains known to very few, despite counting the likes of Bob Dylan and Fred Neil among her acquaintances. This was partly because she seldom recorded, only making one album in the 1960s — and that didn't come out until 1969, although she had been known on the Greenwich Village circuit since the beginning of the decade. It was also partly because, unlike other folksingers of the era, she was an interpreter who did not record original material. And it was also because her voice — often compared to Billie Holiday, but with a rural twang — was too strange and inaccessible to pop audiences. Nik Venet, producer of her debut album, went as far as to remark in Goldmine, "She was very much like Billie Holiday. Let me say this, she wasn't Billie Holiday but she had that phrasing Holiday had and she was a remarkable one-of-a-kind type of thing.... Unfortunately, it's an acquired taste, you really have to look for the music." Dalton grew up in Oklahoma, moving to New York around 1960. Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, who was in her backup band in the early '70s, points out in his liner notes to the CD reissue of her first album that "she was the only folk singer I ever met with an authentic 'folk' background. She came to the folk music scene under her own steam, as opposed to being 'discovered' and introduced to it by people already involved in it." There is a photograph from February 1961 (now printed on the back cover of the It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best reissue) of Dalton singing and playing with Fred Neil and Bob Dylan, the latter of whom was barely known at the time. Unlike her friends she was unable to even capture a recording contract, spending much of the next few years roaming around North America. Dalton was not comfortable in the studio, and her Capitol album It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best came about when Nik Venet, who had tried unsuccessfully to record her several times, invited her to a Fred Neil session. He asked her to cut a Neil composition, "Little Bit of Rain," as a personal favor so he could have it in his private collection; that led to an entire album, recorded in one session, most of the tracks done in one take. Dalton recorded one more album in the early '70s, produced by Harvey Brooks (who had played on some '60s Dylan sessions). Done in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, it, like her debut, had an eclectic assortment of traditional folk tunes, blues, covers of soul hits ("When a Man Loves a Woman," "How Sweet It Is"), and contemporary numbers by singer/songwriters (Dino Valente, the Band's Richard Manuel). The Band's "Katie's Been Gone," included on The Basement Tapes, is rumored to be about Dalton. © Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com

BIO (Wikipedia)

Dalton, whose heritage was Cherokee, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid, Oklahoma. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to that of iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown -- making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string Gibson guitar and a long neck banjo. In his 2004 autobiography, Bob Dylan wrote this in his description of discovering and joining the music scene at Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? after arriving in New York City in 1961: "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times." Dalton's second album, In My Own Time (1971), was recorded at Bearsville Studios and originally released by Woodstock Festival promoter Michael Lang's label, Just Sunshine Records. The album was produced and arranged by Harvey Brooks, who played bass on it. (Harvey Brooks played bass also on the Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, on the Bob Dylan album Highway 61 Revisited and on the Richie Havens album Mixed Bag.) Piano player Richard Bell guested on In My Own Time. Its liner notes were written by Fred Neil and its cover photos were taken by Elliot Landy. Less well-known is Dalton's first album, It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best (Capitol, 1969), which was re-released by Koch Records on CD in 1996. Both Dalton's albums were re-released in November 2006: It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, on the French Megaphone-Music label, included a bonus DVD featuring rare performance footage of Dalton. In My Own Time was re-released on CD and LP on November 7, 2006 by Light In The Attic Records. The version of the song Something on Your Mind (composed by Dino Valenti) that is sung by Dalton on her album In My Own Time is the soundtrack during the ending credits of the 2007 film Margot at the Wedding, which was written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starred Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Known as "the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday" and "Sweet Mother K.D.", Dalton is said to be the subject of the song Katie's Been Gone (composed by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson) on the album The Basement Tapes by The Band and Bob Dylan. She struggled with drugs and alcohol for many years. It has been widely reported that she died in 1993 on the streets of New York City after an eight-year battle with AIDS. However, an article in Uncut magazine confirmed that Dalton was actually being cared for by the singer-songwriter Peter Walker in upstate New York during her last months.



KAREN DALTON BIOGRAPHY

The best singer you've never heard of. - Bob Dylan was a big fan, like most of those who heard the late, great vocalist. Now, 14 years after her death, Karen Dalton's time has come. 'Karen's voice is a voice for the jaded ear; a combination of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Jeannie Ritchie, the Appalachian singer." The country singer Lacy J Dalton is on the line from Nevada, trying to put into words the voice of Karen Dalton, whose surname she adopted in tribute. "There's a horn quality to it and her phrasing is exquisite," she says. "I once heard it described as cornmeal mush, but it's more than that. When she sang about something, you believed her." Dalton is the great lost voice of the New York's Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s. Hers was a voice to make the listener feel sad and lost. At times it was warm and supple, rippling over Something on Your Mind, for example; at others it was twisted and other-worldly, as when wrapped around Katie Cruel. It was a voice that earned her the tag "folk music's answer to Billie Holiday" - a comparison she loathed, but which was inevitable, Dalton's voice possessing that same welling, bluesy sadness. "She sure can sing the shit out of the blues," is how another singer on the Greenwich Village scene, Fred Neil, put it. Dalton died in 1993, but you can see her now on YouTube, standing stock still, long black hair parted in the centre, her lower two front teeth missing, that voice seeming to rise up out of nowhere. Despite her talent, Dalton has remained largely unknown, a cult favourite whose name is muttered like a secret handshake: Nick Cave labelled her his "favourite female blues singer". She has inspired Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart, as well. As the great folk revival wagon rolls on, Dalton, too, is starting to become known beyond a coterie of musicians. Her first record, It's So Hard to Tell You Who's Going to Love You the Best (1969), was rereleased last year, and was followed recently by her second and final album, In My Own Time (1971). It is a strange and bewitching record. That it was made at all is as remarkable as the fact that it has now been reissued. Dalton turned up in Greenwich Village in the early 60s. She had left behind her husband in Enid, Oklahoma, and arrived with her 12-string guitar, a banjo and at least one of her two children. She began to sing at the pass-the-hat folk venues that were flourishing at the time and played with Bob Dylan, Fred Neil and Richard Tucker. Dylan recalls her as "funky, lanky and sultry". "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton," he remembers in Chronicles. "Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday's and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed." Lacy J Dalton rented out a room to Karen and her boyfriend, and they became firm friends. Karen served as a mentor to the younger singer, teaching her to speak songs, not sing them. "Why do you think you have to sing so loud?" she once told Lacy. "If you want to be heard you have to sing softer." Lacy was captivated, too, by Karen's story. "Her mother, Evelyn, was Cherokee. She would sleep on a brass bed in her backyard," she remembers. "And Karen was willowy with long, black native American hair. She was perfect for those times.The thing I remember most about her is a certain gentle warmth and, in her best moments, a sort of cleanness that you don't see very often in this world. She was a wonderful cook, and she could make anything grow. She was magical." Although Dalton was in the right place at the right time, hanging with the right people and boasted a rare talent, she was also self-destructive. She drank heavily, used drugs and had a tendency to disappear on a whim. She played only cover versions, and her decision to not play her own material in an era that belonged to singer-songwriters perhaps also hindered her success. She was uncomfortable performing live, and she also loathed recording - It's So Hard to Tell You Who's Going to Love You the Best was only recorded because Fred Neil fooled her into believing the tape wasn't rolling. The follow-up, In My Own Time, was recorded at Bearsville studio, near Woodstock in upstate New York, which was set up by Bob Dylans's manager, Albert Grossman. In order to make herself feel more at ease with recording, Dalton returned to Oklahoma to fetch her two teenage children, her dog and, reputedly, her horse, before going to the studio. Producer Harvey Brooks, who had played bass on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, recalls the sessions as fraught. "The fact that she wasn't a writer meant that we really had to create something for her," he says. "It was a lot of work, because her emotional personality had to be dealt with every step of the way. And respected." The very nature of the record brought its own problems. "This was a folk-rock record that tilted towards pop, and on pop records you concentrate on getting the performance out of someone," Brooks explains. "On folk records you accept what it is. With pop you have to work the singer. So I worked her. It took some cajoling, but she let me do it, and she liked the idea of the more pop-sounding record, but she made sure that she had Katie Cruel on there. But my favourite track is Take Me. It was done in the middle of winter and I can feel the chill in my bones when I listen to that song." Despite the album's impeccable cast, In My Own Time failed commercially. "It just didn't work out for her," says Brooks. "For some people it's just like that; they give, but they don't get. And it just broke her heart. After that, she couldn't get her life together and in the music business you have to be able to promote your product. That album didn't sell and nobody was gonna put the money up to make another." After the failure of In My Own Time, Dalton seemed to drift out of view, participating less in music and more in drink and drugs. "I only knew her as an addicted personality," says Brooks. "She had drug problems the whole time I knew her. She had a painful personality and I think she did drugs to soothe the pain." Lacy recalls that Dalton and her boyfriend "were probably dealing drugs. They did dangerous things, heavy things like heroin." Dalton once overdosed at her house. "She called me up after that and she said 'I guess it's been three weeks. It's taken me this long to call and say I guess I oughtta thank you for something.' She was furious at me for bringing her back." Dalton's unhappiness was partly personal - the failure of her marriage and her later estrangement from her children hurt her considerably, according to Lacy. But it was also part of a wider cultural despondency. "She was of the old beat generation that felt you had to be burning the candle both ends and dying of hunger to call yourself an artist," says Lacy. "I've always called them canaries in the coalmine, because they were in some ways hypersensitive to what was going on in the world. They were expressing their feelings of powerlessness and they felt they should live, do drugs, drink, whatever to take the pain away." By the early 90s Dalton was living on the streets of New York. "Whenever I performed there she would show up," Lacy remembers. "She didn't look too bad. She had an odour and her teeth were awful, but she was a very clean person and very beautiful to everyone, so I don't think people noticed her teeth." As Dalton drifted steadily downwards, Lacy pulled some strings to get her into rehab in Texas. "We got her guitars out of the pawnshop, we got her damn cat from Pennsylvania and we got her on a plane to Texas. There was a recording session set up for her for when she'd finished. She called me when she got there. She said, 'I oughtta stick my cowboy boot up your ass! One of us oughtta change her name. Get me a plane ticket home now!' I said, 'Karen, stay long enough to get your teeth fixed,' but what I didn't realise at the time was that her teeth was how she was getting access to codeine. And so she went back to New York and died on the streets a year later." Quite how she died remains muddled. "Some said it was a drug overdose," says Brooks. "But from what I understand, she ran out of steam." "Karen had true, true greatness that had not been recognised," says Lacy. "I said to her, 'It's going to annoy the hell out of you but you'll probably only get recognised after your death.' I think her time is coming now, because people are fed up of slick, over-produced voices. And this old world is not a child any more, we need the truth. It doesn't need to be in words, it needs to be in delivery." The song Lacy most remembers Dalton singing is Just a Little Bit of Rain: "If I should leave you/ Try to remember the good times," she says, singing softly down the line, the way Dalton taught her. "Warm days filled with sunshine/ And just a little bit of rain." · It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You Best is out now on Megaphone; In My Own Time is out now on Light in the Attic [The best singer you've never heard of. © Laura Barton The Guardian, Friday 23 March 2007. This article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 23.56 GMT on Friday 23 March 2007. It appeared in the Guardian on Friday 23 March 2007 on p14 of the Features section. It was last updated at 23.56 GMT on Thursday 22 March 2007. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Joanna Connor




Joanna Connor - Slidetime - 1998 - Blind Pig Records

Great Chicago-style electric blues with a roots flavour from the Brooklyn born slide guitarist and vocalist, Joanna Connor. An underrated performer with a great voice, and a marvellous slide guitar technique, Joanna has played with Buddy Guy and A.C. Reed during her career, and can be classified as another "blues conservationist". This is an excellent blues rock album from Joanna, who is to be admired for her passion for the blues, and her "uncommercial" album releases. This album of all new material contains some modern electric blues, but the album retains the traditional Chicago blues style at all times. Her vocals and remarkable guitar playing is faultless, and guitarists Anthony Palmer, and Ron Johnson contribute some fine playing as well. This is a lady who deserves a wider audience, and A.O.O.F.C would recommend you buy her superb "Believe It! " album. For similar blues style music, check out Debbie Davies' "Blues Blast" album @ DEBDAV/BBLST

TRACKS

Nothin' But The Blues
My Papa
You Don't Love Me
Got To Have You
Slide On In
My Man
Free Free Woman
Money Blues
It's Not The Rock
At The Club
Pea Vine Blues

All songs composed by Joanna Connor, except "It's Not the Rock" by Joanna Connor, & Boyd Martin

MUSICIANS

Joanna Connor (vocals, guitar, slide guitar)
Anthony Palmer, Ron Johnson (guitar)
Vic Jackson (bass)
Boyd Martin (drums)
Jovaughn Mixon, Darnell Wilcher, Andrea Variames (background vocals)

REVIEW

Joanna Connor's fourth album for Blind Pig finds her still working solidly in blues-rock territory with plenty of her blistering slide guitar work well to the fore. Joanna penned all 11 of the tunes here, co-writing one of them with guitarist Ron Johnson and the other with drummer Boyd Martin; her songwriting chops show considerable added depth and improvement on this go round. Still keeping her sound in the time-honored road-band format of two guitars, bass and drums. She brings aboard background vocals on "Slide It In," "Got To Have You" and "Pea Vine Blues," the latter also featuring some nice fingerpicked guitar from Ron Johnson. Connors' guitar positively blisters on "My Man," "Free Free Woman" and others, making this one of her strongest outings. © Cub Koda, All Music Guide



BIO

What sets Joanna Connor apart from the rest of the pack of guitar-playing female blues singers is her skill on the instrument. Even though Connor has become an accomplished singer over time, her first love was guitar playing, and it shows in her live shows and on her recordings. Brooklyn-born, Massachusetts-raised Joanna Connor was drawn to the Chicago blues scene like a bee to a half-full soda can. Connor, a fiery guitarist raised in the 1970s -- when rock & roll was all over the mass media -- just wanted to play blues. She was born August 31, 1962, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised by her mother in Worcester, MA. She benefitted from her mother's huge collection of blues and jazz recordings, and a young Connor was taken to see people like Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder and Buddy Guy in concert. Connor got her first guitar at age seven. When she was 16, she began singing in Worcester-area bands, and when she was 22, she moved to Chicago. Soon after her arrival in 1984, she began sitting in with Chicago regulars like James Cotton, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and A.C. Reed. She hooked up with Johnny Littlejohn's group for a short time before being asked by Dion Payton to join his 43rd Street Blues Band. She performed with Payton at the 1987 Chicago Blues Festival. Later that year, she was ready to put her own band together. Her 1989 debut for the Blind Pig label, Believe It!, got her out of Chicago clubs and into clubs and festivals around the U.S., Canada and Europe. Her other albums include 1992's Fight for Blind Pig (the title track a Luther Allison tune), Living on the Road (1993) and Rock and Roll Gypsy (1995), the latter two for the Ruf Records label. Slidetime on Blind Pig followed in 1998 and Nothing But the Blues, a live recording of a 1999 show in Germany, appeared on the German Inakustik label in 2001. Connor left Blind Pig and signed to small indie label M.C. in 2002. Her first release for her new label, The Joanna Connor Band, finds Connor expanding her sound a bit in an attempt to reach a more mainstream audience. Connor has blossomed into a gifted blues songwriter. Her songwriting talents, strongly influenced by greats like Luther Allison, will insure that she stays in the blues spotlight for years to come. © Richard Skelly, All Music Guide



MORE ABOUT JOANNA CONNOR

Born on the 31 August 1962, New York City, New York, USA, Joanna Connor was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts and began playing guitar while still a small child. Encouraged by her mother, a blues enthusiast, her guitar playing skills proved to be exceptional and in her teenage years she frequently sat in with visiting blues artists. By the mid-80s she had relocated to Chicago where she continued sitting in, this time with major figures who appreciated her instrumental ability. By the late 80s she had played in bands led by Johnny Littlejohn and Dion Payton, performing with the latter at the 1987 Chicago Blues Festival. Forming her own band was the next logical step and this she did late in 1987. By the end of the decade, owing to her records, she was extending her fanbase nationwide. In addition to playing and singing, Joanna also writes her own material, developing this facet of her talent through the 90s and into the early 00s. Her singing has been likened to that of Bonnie Raitt, one of the visiting artists with whom she played back in Worcester. Her strongest asset is her outstanding guitar playing, which allies sometimes savage intensity with a remarkable level of technical virtuosity. [ Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze ]

27.1.09

Jan Akkerman




Jan Akkerman - fromage a trois - 2006 - Akkerweb

This is a scarce Jan Akkerman CD originally limited to 500 copies. It was recorded on Jan’s 2005/6 ‘Fromage a Trois’ theatre tour in Holland where Jan paid homage to the incomparable jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and his Hot Club De France. The CD was sold on his UK tour in February 2006. When this album was promoted on stage in Wolverhampton, Jan was quoted as saying that "all should buy it as it will be worth a fortune on eBay!" The sound and techniques of Reinhardt are the main inspiration for this project by ‘the only Dutch guitar legend’. The concert is mostly an acoustic set using an authentic maccaferri of the type used by Django Reinhardt. Jan also uses his electric guitar. Of course, the concert wouldn't be complete without a great version of "Hocus Pocus". There is R&B, funk, rock, blues, and deep swing on this album. An incredible album by the living legend, Jan Akkerman. Most of his solo works are marvellous works of originality, incredible guitar technique, and cover ever musical genre. Buy Jan's "The Noise Of Art" album. There is info on Jan's "Heatwave" and "Profile" albums on this blog, and if you haven't heard the masterful Focus "Live At The Rainbow" album, then there is a big gap in your musical education!

TRACKS

Hymme a L’amour
Time After Time
That Dream
The Zebrah
Sweet Sue
Between The Sheets
Cottonbay
Hocus Pocus UK version

MUSICIANS

Jan Akkerman (guitar)
Wilbrand Meischke (bass)
Coen Molenaar (keys)
Marijn van den Berg (drums)

BIO

Jan Akkerman was born on Christmas Eve 1946 and first picked up a guitar aged 5. Legend has it that he played accordian aged 3, and was entirely self-taught on the guitar, but in actual fact he took classical guitar lessons, studied at Amsterdam Music Lyceum for 5 years and won a scholarship. His father was a guitarist, and his mother played the accordian. He took a keen interest in group music-making, joining local bands The Friendship Sextet and The Shaking Hearts. In 1961, aged 15, he recorded his first single with his current band, Johnny & The Cellar Rockers, which also featured Pierre Van der Linden. The Cellar Rockers became the Hunters, and the first hit was scored with a cover of "Mr Tambourine Man", but an even bigger hit came from an original song called "The Russian Spy and I", inspired largely by the Shadows, but with a notable guitar solo from Akkerman. During the mid 1960s, Akkerman visited England, where he saw the guitarist Julian Bream performing Mediaeval lute music. This was an inspiration that was never to leave Akkerman. In the late 1960s, he formed Brainbox, with his old friend Van der Linden on drums, who negotiated a signing to Parlophone. During a recording session, Akkerman, who was fond of jamming and session playing, hooked up with the embryo Focus, and was ejected from Brainbox as a result. Brainbox's first (and only) album is regarded as a Dutch Prog Rock classic in some circles.
Not to be deterred, he recorded his own material, assisted by his friends from The Hunters; a solo album called "Talents for Sale", and joined Focus for recording the backing music to the musical "Hair", and their debut album "In And Out Of Focus". In 1971, Akkerman's old sparring partner Van der Linden is taken into Focus on drums, and "Moving Waves" is recorded. Despite the international success of this album, Akkerman relentlessly carried on recording his own material with the albums "Profile" and 1974's "Tabernakel", which features Akkerman's playing his newly acquired lute, and carries a Mediaeval flavour. Following "Moving Waves" and "Focus 3", Akkerman was pronounced best International guitarist by Melody Maker, in a poll that put him above Clapton, Beck and Page. In 1978, Akkerman's contract with Atlantic was ended due to the high costs involved with his insistence of hiring full symphony orchestras and low record sales, and Akkerman went off to persue other musical avenues, pausing only to attempt a Focus re-group. The album of this year "3" is an unusually funky album with very little ecelcticism. This didn't work out, so Akkerman carried on working, attempting to reform Focus once again in 1984, producing the rather raw "From the Basement". In 1989 he had a more successful collaboration with Miles Copland resulting in the successful "Noise of Art". His collaborations and various projects from then until now are too numerous to mention one by one, including work with B.B. King, Mike Kenealy, Alan Price, Charlie Byrd and Ice-T, but 1999's "Passion" is particularly notable. On February 16th 2005, Akkerman was awarded with a Golden Harp award at the Harpen Gala, proving that he is still not only going strong, with his favourite annual Dutch and UK tours, but still impressing with his skills. © Prog Archives, All rights reserved



MORE ABOUT JAN AKKERMAN

A musician of near-legendary prowess, Jan Akkerman for a time eclipsed Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck among reader polls in England as the top guitarist in the world. Akkerman was born in Amsterdam, Holland, and showed his musical inclinations early, taking up the guitar while still in grade school. His taste and interests were extraordinarily wide-ranging, from pop-rock to classical, with room for blues, Latin, and other influences. He joined his first band, Johnny &The Cellar Rockers, in 1958, at age 11, which included his boyhood friend Pierre van der Linden, on drums. Later on, the two were members of the Hunters, an instrumental group whose sound was heavily influenced by that of the Shadows. He acquired a special interest in the lute while on a visit to England during the mid-1960's, during which he saw a performance by legendary classical guitarist Julian Bream, whose repertory of medieval works also fascinated Akkerman. This interest, which broadened to embrace a fixation on medieval England and its countryside, later manifested itself in such works as "Elspeth of Nottingham" from Focus 3. During the late 1960's, Akkerman, Van der Linden, bassist Bert Ruiter, and singer Kaz Lux formed Brainbox, who were good enough to get a recording contract with Parlophone Records. He was involved with an early incarnation of the group Focus, founded by conservatory-trained flautist Thijs Van Leer, but join until after that group had issued its unsuccessful debut album — he took Van der Linden with him from Brainbox and, with Van Leer and bassist Cyril Havermans (later succeeded by Ruiter) from the original Focus, formed a new group of that name. With Akkerman's virtuoso guitar work and arrangments coupled to Van Leer's classical influence (and his yodeling on their breakthrough hit, "Hocus Pocus"), the new group found a large international audience beginning in 1972, which transformed Akkerman into a superstar guitarist. His solo career actually dated from 1968, though his attempt at a solo album, later titled Guitar For Sale — containing his covers of numbers such as "What'd I Day", "Ode To Billy Joe", and "Green Onions" -was so primitive by the standards of the time, that it was deemed unreleasable until Akkerman started topping reader surveys in the mid-1970's. Profile, released in 1972 after he'd begun making some headway with his reputation, also dated from 1969 and his days with Brainbox. Akkerman's first real solo album reflecting his music and interests at the time appeared in 1974, in the form of Tabernakel, which was recorded during the summer of that year at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York — having finally acquired a medieval lute of his own, he taught himself to play it and the results comprise more than half of this LP, made up of authentic medieval music and originals composed in a medieval mode. It was certainly the most unusual record ever to feature the playing of Tim Bogart (bass) and Carmine Appice (drums), as well as soul drummer Ray Lucas. After leaving Focus in 1976, Akkerman began releasing a stream of solo albums, which frequently embraced classical, jazz, and blues, and started leading his own bands. Much of his work during the 1980's wasn't released officially outside of Holland, but his periodic recordings with Van Leer, coupled with efforts to revive Focus with its two major stars, kept his name circulating in international music circles. The only problem that Akkerman faces derives from the sheer eclecticism of his work, which makes him very difficult to categorize — two different branches of Tower Records in the same city list him as a jazz and a rock artist, respectively, but one could just as easily make a claim for him as a classical artist. © Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

26.1.09

Matching Mole




Matching Mole - Little Red Record - 1972 - CBS UK

Matching Mole's second album is, to me, their more definitive hour. Here, the rest of the band has more of an input, as opposed to being more of a Wyatt project, with Robert only contributing the lyrics to this release. This functions as somewhat of a tradeoff for most listeners. On one hand, Little Red Record lacks the charming Wyatt-penned ditties like "O Caroline" and "Signed Curtain", but we do get to enjoy a full and focused album of biting jazz fusion more akin to the middle portions of the first album. The album takes what I feel were Matching Mole's real strengths and builds on them, with great contributions from Phil Miller and new full-time keyboardist Dave McRae. "Marchides" rocks out with some thundering drums and fuzzed out bass lines providing the basis for Miller's sizzling guitar attack. The band's disjointed take on jazz rock and Canterbury works supremely for me throughout the next three songs. They include great playing from all parties, along with an angular sense of daring and dissonance, and snatches of surreal melodies. This is all coupled with wry English humor, tongue-in-cheek socialist propaganda, and a female voice whispering amusing sexual innuendoes -- blending together in what seems like one extended jam. "Gloria Gloom" breaks down into a more ambient feel, with snippets of conversation going on over more of Wyatt's subtle and humorous lyrics ("How can I pretend that music is more relevant, than fighting for a socialist world?"). "God Song" is a brilliant piece of trademark Wyatt lyricism, a sarcastically clever shot at religion. The album closes out with "Flora Fidgit", with a melodic guitar riff and shimmering electric piano, and the atmospheric "Smoke Signal". The album was produced by Robert Fripp and features Brian Eno guesting on synthesizer for "Gloria Gloom", though neither's involvement in the project is eminently noticeable. Overall, this is a sublime piece of exceedingly unique Canterbury, blending a number of influences and balancing the Wyatt factor with more of a Hatfield & The North vibe. The little bits socialist commentary are, of course, only half joking (Robert Wyatt was in fact a dedicated communist) and add a unique charm, not to mention the fact that Little Red Record possesses one of the most subtle, amusing album covers in progressive rock. Neither of Matching Mole's albums are particularly good places to start exploring Canterbury, and one would probably have to be well versed with bands like National Health, Caravan and the Hatfield albums to really be able to get into this, but if you're feeling adventurous, Little Red Record is a must. © Greg Northrup [April 2001] © 2002, The Giant Progweed

Eccentric progressive Canterbury jazz rock fusion. You may not be impressed with this type of music. Most music critics lambasted the album, calling it meaningless garbage, among other compliments! The truth is - you either like Matching Mole's unique sound, or you use it for a frisbee! A.O.O.F.C praises it for it's totally unorthodox and nonconformist style of progressive jazz rock. It's very original,. very English, especially Robert Wyatt's vocals, and has the great Wyatt's "like it or lump it" attitude stamped all over it. Some of the inane background voices are reminiscent of The Goon Show,Syd Barrett or Monthy Python, again very English, and are very humorous. Not to be taken seriously, these insane ramblings add to the musical eccentricities, and somehow fit in with the surrounding music. The nusicians, including Dave MacRae, and Brian Eno produce some brilliant innovative musical passages that could have come from 2002 rather than 1972. Some of the tracks are very short, leaving no room to develop the music, but this is a common trait of these early works by groups like Egg, Gong, etc. The longer tracks are more inventive, and really worth listening to.This is a great Canterbury rock album, and is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Check out MM's "Smoke Signals" album and listen to Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" album. For other Canterbury Rock albums, give Hatfield & The North's "The Rotters Club" a listen, or Caravan's "For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night". It is also worthwhile listening to albums by Can, Gong, and Henry Cow. And please give these albums more than one listen!

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

A1 Starting In The Middle Of The Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away - (MacRae/Wyatt) – 2:31
A2 Marchides - (MacRae) – 8:25
A3 Nan True's Hole - (Miller) – 3:37
A4 Righteous Rhumba (aka "Lything And Gracing") - (Miller) – 2:50
A5 Brandy As In Benj - (MacRae) – 4:24

B1 Gloria Gloom - (MacCormick/Wyatt) – 8:05
B2 God Song - (Miller/Wyatt) – 2:59
B3 Flora Fidgit - (MacCormick) – 3:27
B4 Smoke Signal - (MacRae) – 6:38

MUSICIANS

Bass - Bill MacCormick
Drums, Vocals - Robert Wyatt
Guitar, Keyboards - Phil Miller
Fender Rhodes electric piano, piano, organ, synthesizer - Dave MacRae
Synthesizer (on "Gloria Gloom") - Brian Eno
Vocals - Ruby Crystal, David Gale, Little Honest Injun
Producer - Robert Fripp

BIO (Wikipedia)

Matching Mole was a UK progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene best known for the song "O Caroline". Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album The End of an Ear. He continued his role on vocals and drums and was joined by David Sinclair, of Caravan, on organ and piano, Phil Miller on guitar and Bill MacCormick, formerly of Quiet Sun, on bass. The name is a pun on Machine Molle, the French translation of the name of Wyatt's previous group Soft Machine. Their first, eponymous album was released in April 1972, the bulk of which was composed by Wyatt himself, with the exception of the lush mellotron-laced "O Caroline" (a Dave Sinclair composition with lyrics by Wyatt about his recent breakup with girlfriend Caroline Coon) and Phil Miller's "Part Of The Dance". For their second album, Matching Mole's Little Red Record, released in November 1972 and produced by Robert Fripp, Sinclair was replaced by New Zealand-born keyboard player and composer Dave MacRae who had already played a guest role on the first album. This album was more of a team effort, with Wyatt concentrating on lyrics and vocal melodies and leaving the composing to his bandmates. Matching Mole disbanded in late September 1972 immediately upon completion of a European tour supporting Soft Machine, with Sinclair and Miller going on to form the more successful Hatfield and the North. A new lineup - consisting of Wyatt, MacCormick, ex-Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman and jazz saxophonist Gary Windo - was due to record a third album in 1973, but this was cancelled when Wyatt fell from a window and was paralysed from the waist down and was therefore unable to continue drumming.

Snowy White & The White Flames




Snowy White & The White Flames - Live Flames - 2007 - White Flames Records

Snowy White is one of a handful of classic blues-orientated British electric guitar players musicians whose sound technique and style has echoed the originality of the blues with the excitement of contemporary rock. At the age of eleven, he first heard the urban blues sound that had been emanating from the United States, - people such as BB King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Albert King, and was immediately aware that this was the music that he wanted to incorporate in his playing. He has developed his own style of ‘English ‘ blues, a combination of clear, clean blues phrases and harder edged riffs that are a recognisable feature of his very personal songs. © www.snowywhite.com

The English guitarist and vocalist, Snowy White is not a name that comes readily to mind when talking about great rock guitarists, and especially blues guitarists. He is probably best known for his connections withThin Lizzy and Pink Floyd . He also had an international hit with his beautiful "Bird Of Paradise" single in 1984. Check it out on UTube. In 1990 Snowy joined Roger Waters for a televised appearance of the Wall in Berlin. Here's a quote from Snowy about that experience - "Originally Eric Clapton was going to play, then maybe BB King, then Jeff Beck but in the end it was me and the other guitarist up on the wall. We spent two weeks in Berlin, it didn't rain all the time that we there except one shower. The night we did a rehearsal in front of an invited 3,000 crowd. On the actual night it was a 300,000 crowd. The fact that it was live on satellite drained the power on the night and our headphones which we need for the cues went dead. Ute Lemper came on and looked lovely in a white dress. She said to me 'What do I do?' I said 'That's showbiz'. For the TV transmission they were able to switch to a recording of the previous nights show. Roger told me 'That's probably the most frightening thing that's ever happened to me.' Now, Thin Lizzy and Pink Floyd" obviously don't need any promotion, but Snowy White, although he is not a complete unknown to the record buying public, definitely deserves a few more accolades, as he has contributed greatly to blues and rock music for nearly forty years now. Live Flames is the first live album by Snowy White and The White Flames. All the tracks were recorded on the White Flames UK tour in 2006. The album is a superb mixture of rock, jazz, and blues and is pure quality. One of the tracks, Peter Green's "Long Grey Mare" is given a great rendition by Snowy and his band. Buy Snowy's "That Certain Thing" album. Listen to his Blues Agency's "Change My Life" album. Check out Thin Lizzy's "Chinatown" album featuring Snowy on guitar. He also co-wrote the track "Having a Good Time" with Phil Lynott. Peter Green's "In The Skies" album also features some great playing by Snowy. There are lots more. This guy has so much to offer, it's incredible!

TRACKS

1. I'll Be Moving On
2. That Ain't Right
3. What I'm Searching For
4. Land of Plenty
5. Time Waits For No Man
6. Miracle I Need, A
7. Wintersong - Max Middleton/Snowy White
8. Emmerperirissa Express, The - Walter Latupeirissa/Juan van Emmerloot
9. Whiteflames Blues - Max Middleton/Snowy White/Walter Latupeirissa/Juan van Emmerloot
10. American Dream
11. Long Grey Mare - Peter Green
12. That's When I'll Stop Loving You

All tracks composed by Snowy White, except where stated. All tracks recorded on the White Flames UK tour in 2006

MUSICIANS

Snowy White (vocals, guitar)
Max Middleton (keyboard)
Walter Latuperirissa (bass instrument)
Juan Van Emmerloot (drums)

SNOWY WHITE BIO

British-born blues/rock guitarist Snowy White first became interested in music at age 11, when he heard urban blues performers like B.B. King, Otis Rush, and Buddy Guy, and was inspired to create his own clean, hard-edged style of British blues. After moving to London in the early '70s, White spent the decade forging his sound and playing with like-minded artists such as Pink Floyd, Peter Green, and Thin Lizzy. In 1979 Thin Lizzy asked White to join them as a full-time band member; he did, touring and recording Chinatown and The Renegade with them. In pursuit of different musical directions, White left Thin Lizzy in 1982. Joined by drummer Richard Bailey, bassist Kuma Harada, and keyboardist Godfrey Wang, he recorded his solo debut White Flames. Its single "Bird of Paradise" became an international hit, reaching number three on the U.K. charts. Not content to be known as a singles artist, White rethought his approach to music. After deciding to focus on his guitar playing, he formed a touring blues band in 1986 with Harada, drummer Jeff Allen, and vocalist/guitarist Graham Bell. For three years the band toured and recorded, releasing Change My Life and Open for Business. In 1990, however, White's old friend Roger Waters offered him a supporting slot in his epic Berlin performance of The Wall. White performed a memorable solo during "Comfortably Numb" atop the 80-foot high Berlin Wall, alongside other guest artists like Van Morrison and Bryan Adams. Waters also called on White the following year to play with him at the Guitar Legends concert in Seville. At this point, White decided to re-enter the music mainstream, and recorded songs he had collected over the past few years. The result was 1993's Highway to the Sun, his second solo album, featuring guests like David Gilmour, Chris Rea, and Gary Moore. His next album, Goldtop, was a retrospective piece, covering White's work from the early '70s to the '90s. 1998 saw the release of Little Wing, recorded with drummer Juan van Emmerloot and bassist Walter Latapeirissa as White's new backing band; Melting followed a year later. © Heather Phares, All Music Guide



BIO (Wikipedia)

Terence Charles "Snowy" White (born 3 March 1948, in Barnstaple, Devon) is an English guitarist, primarily known for having played with Thin Lizzy (permanent member from 1979 to 1981) and with Pink Floyd (as a back-up player; he was first invited to join the band through Europe and the United States, in 1977, and during The Wall shows in 1980) and, more recently, for Roger Waters' band. He is also known for his 1983 solo effort "Bird of Paradise", which became a UK Singles Chart Top 10 hit single. White grew up on the Isle of Wight, completely self-taught as a guitarist, having received his first guitar from his parents at the age of ten. He moved to Stockholm in 1965 at the age of seventeen, spending more than a year there playing in a trio called The Train. In 1968 he purchased his signature guitar, the Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. By 1970 he made his way to London and found work as a session player and as a member of Heavy Heart. During this time he was also to meet guitar legend Peter Green and the two would form a lifelong friendship (White later appeared on Green’s album In The Skies ). White had been recommended to Pink Floyd by Kate Bush’s former manager Hilary Walker, as they were looking for an additional guitarist for the live band on the “In The Flesh” stadium tour of 1977. White’s solo on “Pigs On The Wing,” although ultimately not used for the Animals album version (it appears on the 8-track version), was his very first time playing for the band (as David Gilmour did not require an audition). During the tour, White started off the show himself by playing bass on the song “Sheep,” as well as soloing during “Have A Cigar” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond part XIII.” Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham saw White play with Pink Floyd in New York City during the In The Flesh tour and approached him about joining Thin Lizzy in 1979. White accepted as he appreciated their more melodic approach to hard rock and felt their styles would be complementary. The collaboration with these two bands was very complicated; the invitation to rehearse the live show of The Wall for Pink Floyd happened at the same time he was invited to become a full-time member of Thin Lizzy, with whom he recorded/co-wrote their Chinatown and Renegade albums. White's connection to Pink Floyd continued in later decades. White was invited by the then former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters to perform in another take of The Wall, in 1990, by the ruins of the Berlin Wall, along with other guest artists. Also in 1991 for the 'Guitar Legends' concert, in Seville, and with David Gilmour as the guest on Snowy's 1994 album Highway to the Sun, appearing on the track "Love, Pain and Sorrow", with Gilmour playing his Fender Stratocaster which was recorded at Gilmour's houseboat studio The Astoria. Apart from guest appearances by Chris Rea, David Gilmour and Gary Moore, it also introduced two new Dutch-Indonesian musicians, Juan van Emmerloot (drums) and Walter Latupeirissa (bass and rhythm guitar). Kuma Harada also played bass and rhythm. White's next album project was entitled Gold Top, after his well-known Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Standard guitar. It features material in which White has been involved from as far back as 1974 right up to 1996, including two tracks from Thin Lizzy, jams from the Peter Green In the Skies session (with Peter on 2nd guitar), Al Stewart Live in Philadelphia (1974), and the only complete version of the Pink Floyd song "Pigs on the Wing" featuring White's original guitar solo. White has recorded five albums with his White Flames band. The first three were No Faith Required in 1996, Little Wing in 1998 and Keep Out: We Are Toxic in 1999. In 1999 White joined Roger Waters for his band's In the Flesh U.S. tour, which was so successful that, in the Summer of 2000, Waters again toured the U.S., this time recording a live album and making a film of the show. Once again, from February to July 2002 White toured the world with Roger Waters. Another White Flames album (as a three-piece), entitled Restless, was released in May 2002. Spring 2005 saw the release of a new White Flames album, entitled The Way It Is, with a basic four-piece outfit consisting of Richard Bailey (drums/percussion), Walter Latupeirissa (bass) and Max Middleton (keyboards). A DVD, 'The Way It Is...Live!' has been completed of the promotional tour. White is touring with Roger Waters in the current The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour since June 2006, having played in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and South America. He also performed with Waters at Live Earth.