Category Archives: Five Stars

Various Artists: Country & Western Hit Parade 1966

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Various_CountryAndWesternHitParade1966The 1966 country jukebox of your dreams

The passing of decades often elides the full range of music that spun on jukeboxes and the radio. The commercial necessities of CD (and now MP3) reissue and oldies broadcasting further reinforce this narrow view with hit anthologies and playlists stocked primarily with superstars. What quickly recedes from earshot are the lesser hits and journeyman artists that made up the full context of the times. Faintly remembered are artists like Nat Stuckey, who regularly visited the Top 40 for more than a decade, but only cracked the top-ten a few times, and indelible acts like The Browns are usually recognized for their sole chart-topper, “The Three Bells,” rather than their other half-dozen Top 10s. Even country music’s superstars, such as Faron Young, Eddy Arnold and Ray Price, had so many hits that the bulk of their work is overshadowed by a few well-anthologized icons.

But the true soundtrack of a year’s music is a mix of hits, album tracks, superstars, journeymen, one-hit wonders, chart-toppers, regional breakouts and singles that barely grazed the Top 40. It’s this tapestry that gives a year, an era or a genre its full flavor. Bear Family’s twenty-six volume series Country & Western Hit Parade covers the years 1945 through 1970, one year per disc, interweaving chart classics with a wealth of lesser-anthologized, but equally influential releases. Each disc recreates the sound of its year by placing oft-repeated hits in the company of their lesser-known chartmates, providing context to the former and returning status to the latter.

The mid-60s were a transitional time for country music, with the Los Angeles-based Country & WesternMusicAcademy (later rebranded the ACM) exerting a West Coast pull with the introduction of their all-country awards show. In addition to Nashville’s cross-over pop, torch ballads, 4/4 Ray Price beats and a sprinkle of throwback honky-tonk, 1966 found Bakersfield in full flight, with Buck Owens in the middle of releasing fourteen-straight chart toppers and Merle Haggard starting a series of sixty-one Top 10s, including his first #1, “The Fugitive.” Billboard’s expanded country chart and a refined method of measuring radio play led to faster chart turnover, an increased number of charting titles, and greater opportunity for new acts to break through. Jeannie Seely had her first (and biggest) hit with “Don’t Touch Me,” Mel Tillis broke through with “Stateside,” and Tammy Wynette scored with her first single, “Apartment #9.”

At the same time, veteran acts were winding down or changing direction. The Browns’ “I’d Just Be Fool Enough” was their next-to-last Top 20, and Eddy Arnold fully committed himself to middle-of-the-road pop with “I Want to Go With You.” The latter, though written by Hank Cochran, has a chorus and strings that overwhelm the hint of country in Floyd Cramer’s slip-note piano. Waylon Jennings’ “Anita You’re Dreaming” still bore Chet Atkins’ countrypolitan touches (including a marimba played by Ray Stevens), and though it would be another half-decade until he fully broke free of Nashville’s control, the seeds were being planted. Loretta Lynn found her feisty, personal songwriting voice  with “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and her first chart topper, “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).”

In addition to charting entries, this volume includes Johnny Paycheck’s outré album track “(Pardon Me) I’ve Got Someone to Kill,” Dallas Frazier’s original non-charting single of “Elvira,” and the original demo of “Distant Drums” that (with the appropriate Nashville dubbing) became a posthumous chart topper for Jim Reeves. The list of artists is complemented by a who’s who Nashville and West Coast A-list session players and country songwriters that include Cindy Walker, Tompall Glaser, Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran, Bill Anderson, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard, Mickey Newbury, Dallas Frazer, Mel Tillis, Jack Clement, Johnny Paycheck, Liz Anderson and Waylon Jennings. Bear Family’s exquisitely selected 31-tracks (clocking in at 83 minutes) are amplified by the label’s attention to detail in sound (original stereo except for 9, 12, 17, 22, 28 and 32), documentation and packaging. Each disc is housed in a hardbound book with 71 pages of liners, color photos and song notes. The set’s only disappointment is the unnecessarily difficult cardboard sleeve in which the disc is housed; deal with it once and keep the disc in a separate case. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Various Artists: The Big E – A Salute to the Steel Guitarist Buddy Emmons

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Various_TheBigEAll-star tribute to a steel guitar giant

Steel guitarists are often remembered for their spotlight instrumentals and flashy solos, but the lines they weave around verses and choruses more often define a song’s emotional texture. Players like David Keli’i, Leon McAuliffe, Don Helms, Ralph Mooney and others were (quite literally) instrumental in defining the sound of the bands they played in, the singers they backed and the sessions in which they recorded. Among the long list of hall-of-fame steel players, Buddy Emmons stands especially tall. His credentials include the founding of both the Sho-Bud and Emmons lines of steel guitars, innovative designs (including the invention of the revolutionary split-pedal setup), new tunings, instrumentals that quickly became standards, and a lengthy catalog of breathtaking performances that chartered new territory as they stretched from country to jazz to pop and beyond.

Emmons was a pillar of bands fronted by Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price and Roger Miller, and the first-call studio player in both Nashville and Los Angeles. His creativity and technical virtuosity sparked innumerable recording sessions and influenced both his peers and subsequent generations of steel players. Thirteen of those players (including legends Norm Hamlet, JayDee Maness and others) have gathered with a stellar list of vocalists to pay tribute through songs from the guitarist’s career. The material is drawn from Emmons performances with Ernest Tubb (“Half a Mind”), Little Jimmy Dickens (“When Your House is  Not a Home”), Floyd Tillman (“This Cold War With You”), Ray Price (“Night Life”), Gram Parsons (“That’s All it Took”), John Sebastian (“Rainbow All Over Your Blues”), Ray Charles (“Feel So Bad”), Judy Collins (“Someday Soon”), Roger Miller (“Invitation to the Blues”), as well as his solo albums (“Wild Mountain Thyme”) and live repertoire.

Also featured are two of Emmons’ compositions: “Buddy’s Boogie,” originally cut with Little Jimmy Dickens in 1955, and recreated with the hot-picked steel and six-string of Doug Jernigan and Guthrie Trapp, respectively. “Blue Jade,” a western-tinged instrumental originally recorded in 1967, is given an extra helping of twang from Duane Eddy’s guitar and Dan Dugmore’s steel, with Spooner Oldham’s piano providing graceful backing. Each player on the album adds their own twists, but Emmons’ original ideas anchor each extrapolation. Greg Leisz states Emmons’ contemplative solo reading of “Wild Mountain Thyme” before expanding on the theme with guitar, mandocello and lap slide, and JayDee Maness adds new turns to the famous solo on John Sebastian’s “Rainbow All Over Your Blues.” As intentional as this celebration may be, it’s the germination of Emmons inventions in each player’s style that’s the biggest tribute of all. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

A sampling of Buddy Emmons’ albums:

A sampling of Buddy Emmons’ performances:

Merle Haggard: The Complete ‘60s Capitol Singles

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MerleHaggard_TheComplete60sCapitolSinglesHaggard’s original 1960s Capitol singles – A’s and B’s

As with their collections of singles on Wanda Jackson and George Jones, Ominvore’s anthology of twenty-eight Merle Haggard sides – fourteen A’s and their respective B’s – shows off a perspective not covered by greatest hits collections or original album reissues. In addition to Haggard’s thirteen charting 1960s Capitol A-sides (eight of which topped the charts), the set includes the non-charting “Shade Tree Fix-it-Man.” Haggard wrote all but one of the A-sides (“The Fugitive,” penned by Liz Anderson), and most of the flips, but his first Capitol single was backed by a lush-stringed arrangement of Ralph Mooney’s “Falling for You,” and he later covered Anderson’s sorrowful “This Town’s Not Big Enough.”

Haggard’s B-sides are far from the filler many producers used to force DJ’s onto the plug side; the productions were carefully crafted, and the instrumental backings are often highlighted by Ralph Mooney’s piercing steel and Roy Nichols’ sharply picked electric and resophonic guitars. It’s hard to imagine how DJs kept themselves from flipping “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde” to play the equally attractive “I Started Loving You Again.” There are a few lighter sides, like “The Girl Turned Ripe,” but the lyrics are most often of afflicted love – relationships bound to end, ending, or receding too slowly in the rear view mirror. Haggard’s jazzier inclinations come out on Hank Cochran’s “Loneliness is Eating Me Alive” and the original “Good Times,” and his love of Jimmie Rodgers is heard in a cover of “California Blues.”

The collection includes singles that are among Haggard’s best and most loved recordings, commencing (with “Swinging Doors”) a run of top-charting singles that ran for nearly twenty-five years. All twenty-eight sides are remastered from the original singles mixes, and in mono for everything but 1969’s “Okie From Muskogee” and it’s flip “If I Had Left it Up to You.” The sound is crisp and leaps from the speakers, and the sixteen-page booklet includes session and release data, photos, ephemera and new liner notes by ace guitarist Deke Dickerson. Those looking for a broader recitation of Haggard’s career should seek out the 4-CD Down Every Road, Bear Family’s box sets [1 2 3 4], or the numerous reissues of his original album (including many two-fers of his Capitol work); but for a great listen to his initial run as a hit-maker, this set is a first-class ticket. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Merle Haggard’s Home Page

Bill Wilson: Ever Changing Minstrel

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BillWilson_EverChangingMinstrelExtraordinary, yet virtually unknown singer-songwriter Americana from 1973

A label as big as Columbia in the early ‘70s was bound to miss a few opportunities, even ones they’d signed, recorded and released. Such was the case for this 1973 rarity, the product of an Indiana singer-songwriter, the famous producer he engaged and the all-star studio band wrangled for the occasion. The singer-songwriter is the otherwise unknown Bill Wilson, the producer, who’d already helmed key albums for Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, was Bob Johnston, and the band was a collection of Nashville legends that featured Charlie McCoy, Pete Drake and Jerry Reed. Wilson had made Johnston’s acquaintance by knocking on his door and naively asking to make a record; Johnston agreed to listen to one song, and by that evening, was in the studio with his unknown artist and hastily assembled band.

The record features a dozen original songs, and though released by Columbia, it was quickly lost in the wake of Clive Davis’ departure from the label (and reportedly a pot bust). The few copies that circulated disappeared before the album could even make an impression as a sought-after, long-lost treasure. It just vanished. It wasn’t until former Sony staffer Josh Rosenthal found a copy in a record store bargain bin that the title dug its way out of obscurity to this reissue. Johnston and Wilson never saw one another after their recording session, but Johnston was able to sketch out the album’s background. Wilson had landed in Austin after a stint in the Air Force, and found that Johnston had set up base there after leaving his position as a staff producer at Columbia. Wilson had some prior musical experience, singing and playing dobro in local bands, but it was as a singer-songwriter with a Southern edge, that he was compelled to make music.

Wilson’s touchstones included Dylan (and perhaps Bobby Darin’s late-60s activist sides), but also Austin songwriter Townes van Zandt, singer-guitarist Tony Joe White, and the open road sound of the Allman Brothers. The quality of the songs and performances would be impressive as a peak moment among an artist’s catalog, but as a one-off it’s truly extraordinary. Wilson is confident and earthy, while the band handles his material as if they’d been playing it on tour for years. The songs, in shades of folk, blues and rock, touch on traditional singer-songwriter themes, and the religiously-themed numbers have a strong hippie vibe. The label lists this as remastered from tape, but there seem to be a few vinyl artifacts that are more patina than distraction. The album’s rediscovery is an incredible feat of crate digging, and its return to circulation is most welcome. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

The Bill Evans Trio: Moon Beams

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Bill Evans meditates on the loss of Scott LaFaro

After redefining the piano trio on a series of albums for Riverside, Bill Evans had his musical foil taken from him with the 1961 car accident that killed bassist LaFaro. Perhaps most difficult was that LaFaro’s death came less than two weeks after the trio made their tour de force stand at the Village Vanguard, as subsequently memorialized on the albums Sunday at the Village Vangaurd and Waltz for Debby. Evans withdrew from performing for several months before reemerging in 1962, with Chuck Israels filling the bass slot, with this album of ballads. The interplay of the previous trio is still to be heard, but Evans piano, pensive but not moody, steps more assertively forward.Israels’ warm tone provides a soothing bottom end for Evans’ rhythmic chords and solo flights, and Paul Motian’s drumming, particularly in the sparser passages, keeps Evans moving without pushing the tempos. This is a beautifully expressive album from start to finish. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Paul Thorn: What the Hell is Going On?

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A gourmet’s selection of blues, country, soul and rock covers

Paul Thorn is a Mississippi bluesman whose earlier career as a boxer still echoes in his gruff growl. Though well-known for his original, biographical songs, Thorn’s sixth album is an all-covers affair. Singing the songs of other writers is a complex task, one that reflects on Thorn’s understanding of songwriting craft as well as his visceral experience as a listener. He poses this set as an opportunity to “take a break from myself,” but his selections from others’ pens say a great deal about his musical roots, influences and tastes. Most of his picks are sufficiently obscure to avoid even registering as covers for many listeners; but these are interpretations rather than explanations, and Thorn’s fans will marvel at how easily he draws these songs into his personal orbit. This is a mix tape, but one in which the mixer sings the songs rather than having lined up other people’s performances on a C90.

Thorn’s voice has a clenched, raspy edge that variously brings to mind Dr. John, Jon Dee Graham, Willy DeVille, John Hyatt, Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman, Joe Cocker, Tom Waits and even a bit of Louis Armstrong. He doesn’t sound like any one of them, but your ears will catch passing associations as he work through a wide-ranging catalog drawn from Ray Wylie Hubbard, Buddy Miller, Elvin Bishop, Allen Toussaint and others. Each recitation balances flavors from the original recordings with Thorn’s own sound, retaining the signature rolling rhythm of Lindsey Buckingham’s early “Don’t let Me Down Again” while lowering its youthful freneticism, magnifying the blue side of Free’s “Walk in My Shadow,” and giving Muscle Shoals’ legend Donnie Fritts’ “She’s Got a Crush on Me” the soul vocal it really deserves.

Thorn finds something interesting to say with each of these covers, zeroing in on the fright of Hubbard’s “Snake Farm,” lending a heavier church-vibe to Miller’s “Shelter Me Lord,” and giving Bishop space to play guitar on a tightened-up version of his own title track. One of the album’s best tracks, “Bull Mountain Bridge,” is also its one thematic cheat. Originally recorded as a demo called “The Hawk,” the song was retitled (and shouldn’t be confused with songwriter Wild Bill Emerson’s “Bull Mountain Boy”) and given, with Delbert McClinton pitching in on vocals, a superb southern rock treatment. Thorn compliments his songwriting peers by wishing he’d written these compositions, and pays his debt for their listening pleasure by sharing these songs with his own fans. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Paul Thorn’s Home Page

The Ad Libs: The Complete Blue Cat Recordings

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Astonishing stereo re-masters and demos of Brill-era vocal group

Blue Cat was a subsidiary of the Red Bird label started in 1964 by legendary Brill Building songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The parent label cashed in on the girl group craze with the Dixie Cups and Shangri-Las, but Blue Cat also cracked the Top 10 with the label’s second single, “The Boy from New York City.” Written by saxophonist John T. Taylor, the song had a jazzy swing that gave the then-recently rechristened Ad Libs a distinct sound. The New Jersey quintet featured Mary Ann Thomas singing lead and a smooth male quartet providing backing vocals. A second single, “He Ain’t No Angel,” was penned by Red Bird’s house team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (and previously waxed by the Lovejoys for Tiger), but label turmoil stalled the single on the bottom rungs of the Top 100. Two more singles, “On the Corner” and “I’m Just a Down Home Girl,” fared even worse and led to the group’s departure from Blue Cat.

Judging solely by the charts, the Ad Libs were a four-single, one-hit wonder; but as this twenty-three track collection shows, there was a lot more to their catalog than found broad public acclaim. In addition to the group’s four A’s and B’s, Real Gone’s gathered a clutch of unreleased tracks, alternate versions and a cappella demos that give full testimony to the group’s vocal talent and their production team’s ability to craft memorable melodic and instrumental hooks. The B-sides are anything but throwaways, with “Kicked Around” sporting an incredible jazz bass line, sly organ bed and maddeningly memorable triangle figure behind Thomas’ thirsty flower vocal. “Ask Anybody” is a dance tune touched by doo-wop, blues and gospel, and the male leads on “Oo-Wee Oh Me Oh My” and “Johnny My Boy” show the group had more than one vocalist capable of holding the spotlight.

The finished track “The Slime” went unreleased, and, sadly, was deprived of the opportunity to ignite a worldwide dance craze based on melting like butter down in the gutter. The set’s other unreleased master, “You’ll Always Be in Style,” adds a touch of Latin soul. The set’s most arresting find, however, are seven mono a cappella demos that starkly highlight the group’s melding of doo-wop and vocal jazz. In addition to demos of singles sides (including a take on “The Boy from New York City” that shows the hit single’s more relaxed tempo to have been the right choice), four additional titles are featured, including the holiday-themed “Santa’s on His Way.” The five alternate takes include a version of “The Boy from New York City” with a distractingly present trumpet riff, and the disc is filled out with seven tracking sessions that provide a rare peak inside the studio.

Reissue producer Ron Furmanek has re-mastered many of these tracks (1-4, 6-9, 18-30) in stereo from the original 3- and 4-track master session tapes. At times, particularly on the singles, the separation and clarity of the vocals and instruments is disconcerting to ears trained by original mono singles heard through AM radio. That said, even with handclaps and backing vocals panned hard left and right, the soundstage still hangs together reasonably well, even when individual elements (such as the honking saxophone on “He Ain’t No Angel”) stand a bit forward. The tracking sessions are interesting, but fresh re-masters of the original mono singles would have been a more long-lasting treat. Real Gone’s four-panel slipcase includes a 12-page booklet with lengthy liner notes and an introduction by the Manhattan Transfer’s Tim Hauser. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Jason Serious: Undercover Folk

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Exceptional indie album of folk, country and trad jazz

To say that Jason Serious’ solo debut is accomplished would be to sell it short. Not only is it full of incredibly memorable original songs, but its evocation of American musical vernacular is all the more extraordinary for his ex-pat status and the talented band of Europeans with which he recorded. To write and record something so immersed in American folk, country and early jazz while living in the states would be difficult enough, but to do so in Munich is nearly unimaginable. If this was a homesick love letter trying to bridge the distance, its rootedness would be more easily explained, but these are songs from a rural Marylander whose roots seem unaffected by the change in firmament, and whose sentiments seem to have nourished his talented, widely-listened band mates.

The brassy shuffle “Met Jack Kerouac” and drunken melody of “Buckets of Gin” recall the goodtime music of the Lovin’ Spoonful, and the steel-lined “ESB” mixes hand-clapping upbeat country-folk, colorful imagery and a chorus (“everybody’s somebody’s beautiful”) that would make Mr. Rogers smile. Serious is a surprisingly polished artist, given that much of his woodshedding took place on the couch; it’s only in the past few years that he began sharing his solo work with others, and only in the past year that he began recording. The sessions themselves choreographed a dozen local musicians, adding deft splashes of banjo, violin, mandolin, steel, horns and harmony vocals across the nine tracks. Ausgezeichnet! [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Jason Serious’ Home Page

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders: Eric, Rick, Wayne, Bob – Plus

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Excellent, but ill-fated second album with super bonus tracks

Given the indelible mark Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders made with Clint Ballard Jr.’s “Game of Love” (#2 in the UK, chart-topping in the U.S.) it’s surprising just how short they ran as a unit. Nine singles, two albums, and by 1965 they’d gone their separate ways. In fact, their run ended as their singles (“It’s Just a Little Bit Too Late” from this second LP and “She Needs Love,” included on this reissue as a bonus) failed to capitalize on their breakthrough and Fontana’s solo career was realized more quickly than had previously been expected. It’s reported that he informed the band of his departure as he walked off stage midway through an October 1965 live show. Fontana and the band continued on separately (the latter scoring quickly with Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager’s “A Groovy Kind of Love”), and this second album, released three months after the split, was left to founder.

Fontana and the band had been pulling in different directions before the split – the former looking to highlight his singing, the latter (lead by guitarist and future 10cc founder, Eric Stewart) their instrumental abilities. The latter’s versatility is highlighted in the range of songs tackled on this second album – a collection that was put together over a longer period of time than the single day afforded their debut. There are only two originals (“Like I Did” and “Long Time Comin’”), both mid-tempo beat numbers written by Fontana under his given name of Glyn Ellis. The rest of the album picks up songs from a talented array of American writers, including Leiber & Stoller, Gene Pitney, Chuck Berry, Van McCoy, Goffin & King, Willie Dixon and Burt Bacharach. The selections are typically UK-centric, including a UK hit (“Memphis, Tennessee”) that was a non-charting U.S. B-side, and Merseybeat favorites from Richard Barrett (“Some Other Guy”) and Bill Haley (“Skinny Minnie”).

The album included the follow-up single to “Game of Love,” sticking with Clint Ballard for “It’s Just a Little Bit Too Late.” Despite its great beat, twangy guitar and catchy lyric, it only edged into the UK Top 20, and fell short of the U.S. Top 40. The group’s last single, included here as a bonus track, was yet another Ballard beat-ballad, “She Needs Love,” which cracked the UK Top 40, but failed to chart in the U.S. The album’s original dozen tracks are augmented on this Bear Family reissue with nine rare single and EP sides. Pre-LP singles include Jimmy Breedlove’s “Stop Look and Listen” (b/w a cover of Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl”), and the group’s UK smash cover of Major Lance’s sweet soul “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.” The latter is backed by a cover of the rare Doc Pomus and Phil Spector tune, “She Needs Love,” originally recorded by Ben E. King.

The final three tracks collect the rare Walking on Air EP (which also included “She Needs Love”). Here you’ll find covers of obscure soul favorites by Jimmy Williams (“Walking on Air”), Jimmy Hughes (“I’m Qualified”) and Billy Byers (“Remind My Baby of Me”). Together with producer Jack Bavenstock the group simplified the arrangements to fit the group’s rock ‘n’ roll sound, dropping the heavy sax and keyboards of Rick Hall’s original chart for “I’m Qualified” and upping the tempo on “Remind My Baby of Me.” All tracks are mastered in crisp, mono, and Bear Family’s reissue is housed in a digipack with a 22-page booklet stuffed with photos and liner notes in both German and English. This is a terrific artifact of the British Invasion, made all the richer by the nine bonus tracks, and a terrific complement to the group’s first album. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

The Explorers Club: Grand Hotel

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A masterful pastiche of ‘60s and ‘70s pop sounds

The Explorers Club’s debut, 2008’s Freedom Wind, set a very high bar with its unerring evocation of the Beach Boys’ most sophisticated period. Incredibly, the band’s second effort manages to top their first, with a seamless pastiche of ‘60s and ‘70s pop sounds that suggests the band’s mastermind, Jason Brewer, is a twenty-first century savant of Brian Wilson, Curt Boettcher, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach and others. He lovingly mashes riffs, instrumental sounds and melodic structures into confections that will spin the heads of those who once spun the AM dial in search of great pop. He lovingly cops the opening bars of “Up, Up and Away,” evokes the “over you” hook of “Goin’ Out of My Head,” and drops an electric sitar into “Bluebird” that’s worthy of Reggie Young’s work on “Cry Like a Baby.”

You’ll hear the rolling rhythms of Glen Campbell, the classical drama of Eric Carmen (as well as the bubblegum of the Raspberries), and spy music that’s equal parts Herb Alpert, Ron Grainer and the Ventures. Brewer is a fetching vocalist, with a high end that evokes Carl Wilson’s riveting alto, but it’s the instant, insistent catchiness of his melodies that immediately hooks your ear. What makes it sticky are sophisticated arrangements that evoke the forward lean of radio’s best turn-of-the-70s pop – sounds that strike the ear as both nostalgic and still-new at the same time. It’s a dichotomy that suggests these musical styles weren’t played out by the time they gave way to whatever was next. The Explorers Club plays as both a brilliantly executed homage and a lively continuation of something that’s still full of life. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

The Explorers Club’s Home Page