Category Archives: Five Stars

The Voyces: Let Me Die in Southern California

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Voyces_LetMeDieInSouthernCaliforniaBrilliant restyling of 1970s California soft-rock and folk-pop

The Voyces are a New York-based group fronted by former Californian Brian Wurschum, and including co-vocalist Jude Kastle. Despite his West-to-East migration, Wurschum’s musical ethos remains deeply rooted in the sounds of California pop, drawing heavily on the vibes of 1970s acts like Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Not that the Voyces sound like either of these acts, but they do offer a similar warmth in mesmerizing harmonies, and laidback tempos that are more ocean breeze than traffic jam. The high edge of Wurschum’s lead vocals may remind you of Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend-era singing and, but if you’re memory’s good enough they’ll also suggest singer-songwriter Moon Martin.

After a brief instrumental, the title track opens the album with a letter of longing for the Golden State; trimmed from six minutes to three and sent back in time this could be a huge radio hit in 1976. Wurshum’s sings double-tracked as he escapes into the desert, finds freedom along the highway and immerses himself in the spirituality of coastal waves. The song’s loping rhythm and compressed lead guitar are perfectly complemented by sharp hi-hat strikes and acoustic strums, all played by Wurschum, who manned all of the instruments on the album. The overdubbing gives the album a homemade sound that may remind you of Shoes’ Black Vinyl Shoes and the Posies’ Failure.

Wurschum and Kastle sing of romantic uncertainty, shadowing one another in close harmony on “If I am Not Your Everything, Baby I’m Not Anything,” and accompanied by a heavy bass line, wah-wah rhythm guitar and buzzing Neil Young-styled lead on a remake of Majority Dog’s “Finest Hour.” The album’s love songs, such as “You Can Never Know,” are written and sung as secret professions, filled with earnest emotion that’s cut in half by diffidence. Adolescent angst has grown into adult doubts, and the caffeinated agitation of power-pop has resolved into faithlessness. Wurschum’s repetition of title lyrics and chorus hooks gives these songs a measure of self pity that’s cannily effective in conveying despair.

The album’s sequencing provides several effective transitions, binding the songs into an album. The short acoustic guitar instrumental “La Lonita” provides a restful interlude between the electric guitar that closes “Finest Hour” and the complex vocal harmonies that open “You Can Never Know.” The yearning vocal fade of “You Can Never Know” in turn gives way to the plucked electric guitar and punchy bass and drums of “The Speed of Fear.” These segues draw the ear and mind from one song to the next, much like the crossfades of Pink Floyd’s classic 1970s albums. The closing “It Whispers” is particularly Floyd-like, with a trudging tempo, lengthy guitar solo and a keening vocal that suggests David Gilmour.

The group’s previous releases foreshadowed many of the sounds employed here, but Wursham’s new songs are more intense, the instrumentals rocked up from the folky vibe of 2006’s Love Arcade, and the double-tracked vocals have lost the bubblegum sound evident on “Kissing Like It’s Love” (the best Archies track never actually recorded by the Archies). This is a superbly crafted album, filled with beautiful voices, solid pop-rock playing, thoughtful lyrics and a touch of bedroom production that wraps the album in a shy sweetness. Fans of early ‘70s radio pop (the AM moment between the hippie meltdown and the corporate arena takeover), California production rock, and late-70s power pop will truly love these golden sounds. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Let Me Die in Southern California
MP3 | You Can Never Know
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Raquel!

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DVD_Raquel!Fantastic 1970 Raquel Welch TV special

Originally aired in 1970, this filmed television special captures Raquel Welch at the peak of her stardom. The bulk of the forty-nine minutes are staged song-and-dance numbers shot on location in Paris, Mexico and a ski resort, featuring Welch solo, with dancers, and with guest stars Tom Jones and Bob Hope. John Wayne also appears for a short sketch on a Western back lot set. Welch is radiant throughout, whether wearing high-end fashions or a space-age bikini and boots.

Welch sings hits of the day, including “California Dreaming,” “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In,” “The Sounds of Silence,” and a rock ‘n’ roll medley with Tom Jones that includes “Rip it Up,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Lucille,” “Tutti Frutti,” and “Jenny Jenny.” Tom Jones adds a solo version of “I Who Have Nothing.” Welch and Hope sing and dramatize “Rocky Raccoon,” with the former pulling off a credible imitation of Mae West and the latter hamming it up.

This was a high-budget special with excellent location footage, generous helpings of helicopter shots, extravagant costuming for Welch and the dancers, and A-list guest stars. The choice of middle-of-the-road material and tried-and-tested mainstream guest stars show Welch aiming square at the heart of middle America. Welch’s beauty often obscured her talents as a singer, dancer and comedienne, and then-contemporary clips of a British press conference show her to be witty and bright, to boot. This is a superb time capsule of  late ‘60s hippie culture finding a cleaned-up and watered-down place in the mainstream. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Fabulous Poodles: Mirror Stars / Think Pink

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FabulousPoodles_MirrorStarsThinkPinkLate-70s lost rock ‘n’ roll classic

Amid the anarchy of punk rock and the forced quirkiness of new wave a few genuine rock ‘n’ roll bands managed to slip through the cracks. In the UK these bands often derived from the pre-punk pub rock scene, either directly as in the case of Rockpile, or on the tail end as in the case of the Fabulous Poodles. Their flamboyant stage act gave them a jokey veneer, but their records (particularly the debut produced by John Entwistle) were filled with superbly crafted rock ‘n’ roll that combined the melody and drama of Brill Building pop with modern touches and welcome helpings of Bobby Valentino’s violin and mandolin.

Vocalist/songwriter Tony De Meur had a flair for dramatizing and adding a touch of humor to stories that feel as if they were drawn from real life, not unlike Ray Davies. He sings as a lonely teenager who grows up to find revenge in stardom, a twenty-something allergic to work, a seductive singing idol, and an overworked and undersexed porn photographer (“they never seem to want to know / a seedy flashgun gigolo”). He celebrates the magic of B-movies, the joy of a perfect haircut (a Chicago Boxcar with a Boston Back – think D-Day in the film Animal House), a bionic dream and a satiric ‘50s styled rock ‘n’ roll ode to anorexia.

In addition to nineteen group-written tunes, the Poodles cover Mel McDaniel’s obscure country blues “Roll Your Own” and the Everly Brothers’ “Man With Money.” American Beat’s two-fer pairs the Poodles first U.S. release, Mirror Stars, which cherry-picks from the group’s first two UK albums, with their third and final release, Think Pink. The latter is more pedestrian and forced, particularly in comparison to the former, but Mirror Stars is easily worth the price of this two-fer CD. This is a bare-bones reissue with a four-panel booklet that lists song titles, writers and running times, but offers no liner notes. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Elvis Presley: From Elvis in Memphis

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ElvisPresley_FromElvisInMemphisStellar expansion of 1969 Elvis milestone

Elvis Presley wasn’t just the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, he was an artist who prospered in spite of an unsympathetic manager, and a star who rose to a second great peak, resurrecting himself from the ashes of a moribund career. His incendiary, game-changing hits of the ‘50s led to the start of a bright film career, but after losing his crown in a repetitive string of artistically lean popcorn movies, it took a string of three key performances to regain the throne. The first, 1967’s How Great Thou Art, was a gospel album anchored in Elvis’ musical roots; the second, an iconic NBC comeback special in 1968, proved he still had the rock ‘n’ roll spark; and the third, this 1969 return to his Memphis home ground, showed he still had something new and potent to offer. There was more, including live and country albums in 1970 and 1971, but the artistic and commercial renaissance of 1967-69, capped by this soul and gospel masterpiece (and its hit single, “In the Ghetto”), is one of the great comebacks in music history.

Even more impressive, the album’s dozen tunes are less than half the Memphis sessions’ output. RCA’s 2-CD Legacy reissue collects 36 tracks from Elvis’ stay at Chip Moman’s American Studio, adding ten tracks from the second platter of From Memphis to Vegas – From Vegas to Memphis (subsequently reissued as Back in Memphis), four single mixes of album tracks, six non-LP singles (including the trio of chart hits “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “Kentucky Rain”), and four bonus tracks. Having recorded in Nashville and Hollywood since his mid-50s departure from Sun, Elvis returned to Memphis to find soul music still heavily influenced by gospel and blues, but also powered by the bass-and-horns funk developed by the Stax, Hi, FAME, American and Muscle Shoals studios.

Buoyed by the success of his televised comeback, Elvis shook off the insipid material he’d been recording, and dug deeply into a set of blues, country, gospel and pop sounds, pushed by Moman and his crack studio band. You can hear Elvis rediscovering himself as he tests his crooning, wandering through a loose arrangement of “I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” that turns Eddy Arnold’s 1940s country twanger into an emotion-soaked gospel. He’s commanding with the testimony of “Power of My Love” and swaggering and blue at the same time on “After Loving You.” He nails a slow-burning gospel-tinged cover of “Long Black Limousine,” lightens to horn-lined Memphis melancholy with “Any Day Now” and closes the album with the stunning “In the Ghetto.” The extras on disc one are finished tracks that include Bobby Darin’s “I’ll Be There,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and the gospel “Who Am I?”

The ten tracks of the follow-up album open disc two, and though the sessions were well picked-over for the original album, there are several highlights in the second set, including the slow building blues rocker “Stranger in My Own Hometown,” the dramatic farewell of “The Fair’s Moving On” and the gospel soul “Without Love (There is Nothing).” Disc two’s pay-off are the original mono single mixes, six of which don’t appear on either Memphis album, including the hits “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain,” and the supremely funky “Rubberneckin’.” All of these tracks have been previously released, scattered across LPs and singles, and brought together on collections such as The Memphis Record and Suspicious Minds. But never before has Elvis’ homecoming been drawn as such a vivid portrait.

This brief leave from Col. Parker’s stifling control gave Elvis a chance to go home, both literally and figuratively, and the circumstances in which to wax one of the two or three finest albums of his career. The energy created in Memphis sustained the King through a resurgent live show, but as the bubble closed back around him, these blue-eyed soul sessions turned into the last studio high point of his extraordinary career. Legacy’s 2-CD set is delivered in a tri-fold digipack that reproduces the covers of both From Elvis in Memphis and Back in Memphis, and includes a 24-page booklet stuffed with photos and excellent liner notes by Robert Gordon and Tara McAdams. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Tanya Tucker: My Turn

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TanyaTucker_MyTurnGritty, heartfelt country covers tribute to Tucker’s  father

The wear that Tucker’s voice has accumulated over the years, the burnish of life, drugs, drink and age, has only made her sound tougher. There isn’t a waver in her pitch as she relives this dozen country classics. Even rougher, she takes on songs that were originally the emotional province of male singers, showing that while times have changed (women wearing pants!), it still takes an unusually strong woman to stand toe-to-toe with iconic classics waxed by Faron Young, Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Ray Price, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Lefty Frizzell, Wynn Stewart, Don Gibson, Eddy Arnold and Merle Haggard. Tucker takes them on and pours a life’s worth of misery and redemption into each one, minding her father’s admonition to “sing it like soap wouldn’t get it off.”

Producer Pete Anderson, renowned for the inventive textures he brought to Dwight Yoakam’s records, dials it back here to present Tucker in basic country productions of guitar, bass, drums, fiddle and steel, with accordion from Flaco Jimenez on “Anybody Goin’ to San Antone?” and Jo-El Sonnier adding a Cajun twist to “Big Big Love.” The simple arrangements give this a nostalgic sound, but Tucker’s forthrightness and grit follow a modern arc from the hard-won gains of Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn and even the younger Tucker herself. Without heavily reworking the songs, the sound of Tucker’s voice (paired with a superb duet from Jim Lauderdale on “Love’s Gonna Live Here”) is more than enough to lend each tune her individual signature.

George Jones notes in his introductory notes that “you know immediately when Tanya Tucker is singing,” and this album is absolute proof. She brings her life story as a country singer, troubled tabloid star, lover, mother, and the daughter of a hard-country loving father to this project. This is an album one could only record on the heels of a career steeped in country music and a life lived deep inside the pains and joys drawn by these songs’ lyrics. Cover albums have a long history in country music, including recent releases from Pam Tillis (It’s All Relative), Patty Loveless (Sleepless Nights), and Martina McBride (Timeless), but this one shines especially bright in their company. It’s a great covers album, a great Tanya Tucker album, and most of all a great country music album. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Dave Brubek Quartet: Time Out

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DaveBrubek_TimeOutSuperb 50th anniversary expansion of landmark jazz album

Though jazz was the popular music of the US for many decades, there are few post-40s jazz albums – modern jazz albums – that go down easily with non-jazz listeners. There have been pop-jazz crossovers that caught the public’s ear and even climbed the charts, but true jazz albums that can keep a pop listener’s attention are few and far between. The Dave Brubek Quartet’s 1959 release contains two tunes, the opening “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and the iconic “Take Five,” that surprised even the group’s own label with their popular acclaim. The album peaked at #2 on the pop chart, and “Take Five” was a hit single in both the US and UK. Much like Vince Guaraldi’s compositions for A Charlie Brown Christmas, listeners took to the melodies and performances without drawing genre lines around them.

The quartet’s approach wove Brubek’s blocky piano chords, Paul Desmond’s warm alto saxophone, and the gentle swing of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello into a most inviting sound. One can’t compliment the rhythm section enough, as it’s their steady work that keeps one’s toe tapping through Brubek and Desmond’s melodic explorations, and its their rhythm that guides listeners through this album’s unusual time signatures. Morello’s introduction to “Take Five,” followed by Brubek’s vamping, have you tapping your foot in 5/4 time even before Desmond insinuates his sax with the theme. It has the rise and fall of a waltz, but when you count it out, the measures go to five instead of three. Amazingly, it feels completely organic. Morello’s spare, mid-tune solo provides a brilliant example of drumming dynamics.

The album opens with the 9/8 time of “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” with a 2/2/2/3 pattern that’s hard to count even with the numbers in front of you. The music swings in a frantic way that suggests rush hour in New York City until it transitions to a relaxed 4/4 (with 9/8 inserts) for the piano and sax solos. The fluidity with which the band shifts between the two time signatures would be even more breathtaking if it didn’t flow so naturally. Other tunes are played in waltz (3/4) and double waltz time, but you won’t notice until you count them out loud. Eugene Wright’s bass provides the steady pulse around which Brubek and Desmond swing, and the contrast between Brubek’s percussive piano and Desmond’s smooth sax gives the quartet its signature balance.

1959 was a banner year for jazz, seeing the releases of Giant Steps, the soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder, Mingus Ah Um, Kind of Blue and many other milestones. But Time Out was the only album to break wide of jazz audiences, to seed itself in the broader public’s consciousness. And it did so on its own terms, rather than by pandering to the pop sounds of the mainstream. It foreshadowed the lightness and optimism that would mark the transition between the Eisenhower and Kennedy eras, and its tone obviously caught the mood of the times. Ted Maceo’s production paints an excellent stereo soundstage, which adds to the recording’s excitement.

Columbia Legacy’s 2-CD/1-DVD reissue augments the album’s seven tracks with a CD of live performances from the ’61, ’63 and ’64 Newport festivals that include the album’s hits and six additional titles. The basic roles of the players remain from their live-to-tape studio albums, but the concert performances are driven by fresh group interplay and more audacious soloing, and stoked by the audiences’ enthusiastic responses. “Pennies From Heaven” winds up with a forceful piano solo, and the original “Koto Song” provides a good example of Brubek’s interest in world sounds. “Take Five” is played at a hurried tempo that diminishes the song’s swing, but stretched to seven minutes it provides more space for soloing, including a longer spot for drummer Joe Morrello’s crackling snare and punchy tom-toms. All eight live tracks are recorded in stereo.

The bonus DVD offers a 2003 interview with Brubek, intercut with historical television and concert footage, and a few then-contemporary sequences of Brubek at his trusty Baldwin. Brubek discusses the album tracks and the dynamics of the band, and shows immense pride in both. An additional bonus provides a 4-angle piano lesson from Brubek as he plays through “Kathy’s Waltz.” The 3-disc package is presented in a quad-fold digipack with a 28-page booklet that includes detailed liner notes by Ted Gioia and fine archival photos. If you don’t have a digital copy of the album, this is the one to get; if you already have a much loved copy, this is well worth the upgrade. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Big Star: #1 Record / Radio City

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BigStar_NumberOneRadioCityTwo of the greatest pop albums ever recorded + two bonus tracks

So much has been written by the brilliant pop music of these two albums, that there’s little left to say about the music itself. Lauded by critics and ignored by pop music buyers, Big Star became the most influential rock band never to make it commercially. Their debut album, cheekily titled “#1 Record” (1972) and its follow-up, “Radio City” (1974), were reissued in 1978 as a gatefold two-fer that pricked the ears of pop fans and collectors who’d missed their original release. The group’s name would be bandied about by an ever-growing underground of in-the-know fans-cum-worshippers. The group’s unreleased-at-the-time third album (alternately titled Third and Sister Lovers) appeared briefly on vinyl on the PVC label shortly thereafter. The ‘80s passed before a CD reissue of the seminal first two albums appeared on Big Beat in 1990. This was followed by a domestic release on Fantasy in 1992, which was paralleled by a period live FM broadcast from 1974, Big Star Live, and a CD reissue of Sister Lovers.

The attention finally brought vocalist/songwriter Alex Chilton back to his Big Star catalog, and along with original drummer Jody Stephens and the Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, a reconstituted Big Star recorded a live album at Missouri University, Columbia. Additional reissues of the three studio albums followed, along with more archival live recordings and rehearsal tapes (Nobody Can Dance) and a studio album in 2005, In Space. The selling point of this latest reissue, aside from renewing media and retail interest in two of the greatest rock albums ever recorded, is a pair of bonus tracks. The first is the single version of “In the Street,” which is an entirely different take than the album track. This version was previously reissued on a grey-market vinyl EP in the 1980s, and appeared on Ace’s Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story. The second bonus is a single edit of “O My Soul” that shortens the original 5:35 to a radio-friendly 2:47.

The fold-out eight-panel booklet includes liner note from Brian Hogg penned in 1986 (as previously included in both Big Beat and Fantasy’s earlier CDs), and shorter liner notes by Rick Clark, penned for Fantasy’s previous domestic reissue. In fact, the booklet reproduces Fantasy’s 1992 insert almost exactly, with the original’s solicitation for a Fantasy catalog trimmed away and the two new tracks grafted onto the song listing in a font that doesn’t quite match. Those who’ve purchased one of the many previous reissues might see if download services offer the bonuses as individual tracks; if not, buy this for yourself and give your old copy to someone yet to discover Big Star. That should hold you until Rhino’s Big Star box set arrives in September. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women

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davealvin_guiltywomenAlvin kicks up new sparks with guilty women

Having debuted this all-female backing lineup at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in 2008, Dave Alvin and his estrogen-packing band have waxed a gem. Christy McWilson and Amy Farris’ harmonies and duets prove compelling partners to Alvin’s baritone on an album of blues, rock, folk and a few surprises. Chief among the surprises is the Cajun fiddle and pedal steel arrangement of Alvin’s “Marie Marie,” rendered so convincingly that it will take you a second to remember the Blasters signature original. From there the group comes out blasting with the galloping electric folk-blues “California’s Burning,” an allegorical tale that provides a requiem for the Golden State’s cash-strapped coffers. Alvin and McWilson duet like Richard and Mimi Fariña here, and Cindy Cashdollar adds some fiery slide playing.

The passing of friend and bandmate Chris Gaffney was one of Alvin’s motivations for forming this alternative to his Guilty Men, and he’s obviously in a reflective, memorial mood. “Downey Girl” remembers fellow Downey high school student Karen Carpenter and in his middle age Alvin finds a sympathetic appraisal of her fame. Nostalgia for young-pup years has always threaded through Alvin’s work, and with “Boss of the Blues” he ties together a nostalgic memory of Joe Turner with Turner’s own nostalgic memories of the golden years of the blues. One of the album’s happiest and transformative memories, of being dropped off at a Jimi Hendrix concert, opens with the “Folsom Prison” rewrite, “My mother told me, be a good boy, and don’t do nothing wrong.”

Christy McWilson (Dynette Set, Pickets) sings lead on a pair of her own originals, “Weight of the World” and “Potter’s Field,” continuing the mood of struggle that pervaded her two Alvin-produced solo albums. A real standout is her up-tempo duet with Alvin on a cover of Tim Hardin’s oft-covered “Don’t Make Promises.” Alvin and McWilson have paired for ’60s covers before, notably Moby Grape’s “805” on 2002’s Bed of Roses, but this one’s extended acoustic guitar jam really hits the mark. The closing cover of “Que Sera, Sera” suggests Alvin may be ready to move past his grief, but the song’s fatalism is strangely at odds with the rocking country blues arrangement.

When he’s not fondly remembering happier times, Alvin sings low through much of the album, reaching a level of quiet introspection on “These Times We’re Living In” that brings to mind Leonard Cohen. The loss of Chris Gaffney has left a mark on Alvin, and for now at least, his music. His backing band is not just a terrifically talented quintet deeply steeped in the roots of their shared music, but a place for Alvin to rest his soul and rethink his relationship to the Guilty Men minus one. This is more than a temporary respite; it’s a revitalizing step towards artistic and personal rediscovery. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Nana and Jimi
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Gary Lewis & The Playboys: The Complete Liberty Singles

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garylewis_completelibertysinglesEndearing legacy of overlooked mid-60s pop hit maker

Despite major commercial success in 1965 and 1966, including a chart-topping debut, five top-five and ten top-twenty singles, Gary Lewis’ music career was all but over two years after it began. His 1967 induction into the army left his label to release stockpiled tracks and record Lewis on occasional leaves; by the time of his discharge a phalanx of bubblegum bands had taken his place in the hearts and minds of young listeners. Though Lewis’ initial connections may have been eased by the fame of his actor/comedian father, Jerry Lewis, it was an inviting personality and a dream team of writers, arrangers and producers that made his vocals the center of an incredibly compelling string of singles.

The Playboys began public life in 1963 with a summer gig at Disneyland. Lewis initially played drums and rhythm guitarist Dave Walker handled lead vocals. But once in the studio with producer Snuff Garrett, Lewis found himself up front singing the group’s first single, “This Diamond Ring.” Co-written by Al Kooper, the song was originally released as a low-charting R&B single by Sammy Ambrose, but re-imagined by Garrett it became an unforgettable dollop of earnest pop, with Lewis’ vocal thickened by double-tracking and dramatized by Hal Blaine’s tympani. The double-tracked vocals would become a group trademark, with the second voice often provided by session singer Ron Hicklin.

Lewis, Garrett and arranger Leon Russell became a hit-making machine throughout 1965 and into 1966 as they reeled off “Count Me In” (written by post-Holly Cricket Glen D. Hardin), “Save Your Heart For Me” (originally a Brian Hyland B-side), “Everybody Loves a Clown,” “She’s Just My Style,” “Sure Gonna Miss Her” (with superb flaminco guitar by Tommy Tedesco), “Green Grass,” “My Heart’s a Symphony,” and “(You Don’t Have To) Paint Me a Picture.” All are superbly written, arranged and produced, turning Lewis’ limited vocal range into loveable approachability. Even today it’s impossible to resist Lewis’ immensely charming performances.

Lewis’ hit singles still turn up on oldies radio and compilations, and the single-disc Legendary Masters Series collects all ten of his charting A-sides; what sets this collection apart is the inclusion of rarities, B-sides, and later non-charting singles, many of which are as good as the A’s. Lewis’ jingle for Kellogg’s, “Doin’ the Flake,” is a Freddy Cannon-styled rocker that was originally available for box tops, and the title song from his dad’s 1966 film “Way Way Out” was issued only as a promotional single. The B-sides harbor some typical flipside fodder, including go-go instrumentals (“Hard to Find,” “Tijuana Wedding” and “Gary’s Groove”), novelties (“Time Stands Still,” on which the Lewis slips into an imitation of his dad’s wacky voice), and the celebrity-impersonation filled “Looking for the Stars.”

But the B’s weren’t always throwaways. Early flips, mostly penned by Garrett and Russell, include the terrific Jan & Dean styled “Little Miss Go-Go,” the Robbs-like harmony rocker “Without a Word of Warning,” and the moody organ-backed “I Won’t Make That Mistake Again.” Each has deftly crafted hooks that memorably complement lyrics of summer love and autumnal broken hearts. The songwriting team of Sloan & Barri served up their trademark folk-rock sound on “I Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight,” complete with chiming 12-string and a Brill Building styled chorus. The 12-string is even better on the Searchers-styled “I Can Read Between the Lines.”

As 1966 turned into 1967, Lewis’ material started to slip. An unreleased cover of “Sloop John B” is a pleasant sing-along, but without the magic of earlier hits. Still, there were some lower- and non-charting A’s and B’s that had something to offer, including light-psych harmony-pop (“Where Will Words Come From”), country-soul (“The Loser (With a Broken Heart)”), and California production pop styled production (“Girls in Love” and “Jill”). Lewis’ bubblegum sound reemerged on “Ice Melts in the Sun” and “Let’s Be More Than Friends,” turned to Monkees-styled pop on “Has She Got the Nicest Eyes” and Partridge Family harmonies on “Hayride.” A cover of Brian Hyland’s “Sealed With a Kiss” managed to hit #19, but additional covers ( “C.C. Rider,” “Every Day I Have to Cry Some,” “Rhythm of the Rain,” “Great Balls of Fire”) had both middling artistic and commercial success.

Lewis’ hitch in the army kept him from touring in support of his releases, and discord between his lawyer and label scuttled any real promotion. As quickly as he’d established himself with the chart run of 1965-66, he found top-notch releases in 1967 ignored by a fickle pop market. His last single, the self-produced, Box Tops-styled “I’m on the Right Road Now,” sports a snappy horn-arrangement and soulful backing vocals, but the quality only heightened the irony of the title’s failure. The market had moved on and so did Lewis, releasing a couple of solo singles (one on Scepter, one on Epic) in the mid-70s, continuing to tour and remaining a popular draw on the oldies circuit to this day.

Collectors’ Choice pulls together forty-five Liberty 45s, all remastered in sterling quality from the original mono tapes. Ed Osborne’s excellent liner notes are supplemented by release and chart info, and collector/producer Andrew Sandoval supplies numerous picture sleeve reproductions. This is a terrific package for anyone who craves lovingly produced, effervescent 1960s pop, and especially for those who’d like to hear how Lewis was presented to the public during the 45’s last gasp of uncontested dominance. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

King Wilkie: King Wilkie Presents- The Wilkie Family Singers

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kingwilkie_singersAudacious pop concept by former bluegrass wunderkind

If you caught King Wilkie’s bluegrass debut Broke, and somehow managed to miss their break with orthodoxy on 2007’s Low Country Suite, you’re in for a really big surprise. With the original group disbanded, and founding member Reid Burgess relocated to New York City, the band’s name has been redeployed as the front for this stylistically zig-zagging concept album. The Wilkie Family Singers are an imagined co-habitating, musically-inclined family fathered by shipping magnate Jude Russell Wilkie, and filled out by a wife, six children, a cousin, two friends and two pets.

In reality the assembled group includes Burgess, longtime collaborator John McDonald, multi-instrumentalist Steve Lewis, and guest appearances by Peter Rowan, David Bromberg, John McEuen, Robyn Hitchcock, Abigail Washburn and Sam Parton. And rather than constructing a storyline or song-cycle, Burgess wrote songs that give expression to the family’s life and backstory. As he explains, “Jude Russell Wilkie, Sr. had success with a Great Lakes shipping business, and becomes the father to a great family, whose normal familial roles aren’t neatly defined as they grow older. Their insular lifestyle and wealth has them in a sort of time warp. They’re wedged in limbo between past and future. Too big to hold mom’s hand or ride on dad’s shoulders, but still somehow too small to leave their childhood house.”

Much as the Beatles used Sgt. Pepper as a backdrop to inform the mood of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Burgess works from his sketch to conjure a family photo album rather than a written history. There are snapshots of togetherness, isolation, and stolen moments of solitary time, there’s lovesick pining, unrequited longing for the larger world, lives stunted in adolescence, violent dreams and medicinal coping. The band ranges over an impressive variety of styles that include acoustic country, blues and folk, rustic Americana, Dixieland jazz, ’50s-tinged throwbacks and ’70s-styled production pop. There’s even some back-porch picking here, but this edition of King Wilkie has much grander ambitions than to embroider the bluegrass handed down by Bill Monroe. The festival circuit’s loss is pop music’s gain.

Burgess paints the family as lyrical motifs and musical colors rather than descriptive profiles. The latter might have been more immediately satisfying but would have quickly turned stagey. Instead, the family’s dynamic is spelled out in small pieces, fitting the broad range of musical styles to create an album that plays beautifully from beginning to end. The songs stand on their own, but the family’s presence is felt in the flow of the album’s tracks. Casa Nueva hits a homerun with their maiden release, and King Wilkie proves itself a daring band whose next step should be highly anticipated. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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