Category Archives: Reissue

Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner: Just Between You and Me (Bear Family)

A monument to one of music’s greatest-ever duos

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner’s partnership is remarkable even within a genre known for its venerable pairings. At the start of their professional relationship, Wagoner was an established star with dozens of hit singles and a weekly television program, and Parton was the new “girl singer” who had to win over fans of the departed Norma Jean. By the end of their partnership, seven years later, Wagoner’s chart action was winding down, and Parton’s stardom, which had begun its flight during her tenure with Wagoner, was about to go into hyperdrive. Parton said goodbye to Wagoner with “I Will Always Love You,” and lawsuits followed, but their chemistry as a duet was strong enough to survive their separation, with previously recorded material continuing to chart.

Parton and Wagoner were each artistic forces to be reckoned with. They were A-list songwriters and performers, and the enormous volume of material they recorded together was paralleled by a wealth of solo releases. Early on, Wagoner wrote surprisingly little for their pairings, choosing to showcase Parton’s material alongside that of other Nashville greats and a few adventurous selections, like Dan Penn’s “The Dark End of the Street.” Wagoner’s songwriting contributions picked up in the latter half of their partnership, and the pair also wrote several songs together. One has to wonder if the increasing fortunes of Parton’s solo career directed her original material to herself, and Wagoner was drawn to fill the void alongside his singing and producing duties.

Wagoner’s craft was meticulous, and the sidemen he selected included members of his road band (led by Buck Trent and featuring fiddler Mack Magaha) and the cream of Nashville’s session players (including Pete Drake, Lloyd Green, Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins and Roy Huskey, Jr.). The catalog he produced with Parton is impressive for both its size and uniformly high quality. The songwriting, vocals, production and playing never wavers across the duo’s seven-year partnership, and their commercial appeal lasted from an early cover of Tom Paxton’s folk classic “The Last Thing on My Mind” through Wagoner’s “Is Forever Longer than Always.” Along the way, fans will find the hallmarks of both Wagoner and Parton’s individual material, including the former’s dramatic recitations, the latter’s hard-scrabble roots and both of their religious faith.

Duet singing is ultimately more about the chemistry of conversation and the revelation of interpersonal dynamics than about the individual vocalists. Wagoner’s spoken-word interlude gives Parton’s lyric of family tragedy an extra shot of morbidity in “The Party,” and the easy give-and-take of “I’ve Been This Way Too Long” could just as easily be the extemporaneous bickering of a long-time couple. Though neither family nor spouses, the pair sang with the sort of connectedness that marks blood harmonies – and feuds. In retrospect, the spark that brought even the most common romantic themes to life now seems freighted with foreshadows of their bitter dissolution, eventual detente and final emotional reunion.

Like all of Bear Family’s box sets, this set’s extensiveness is both a blessing and a challenge. The blessing, of course, are six discs of superb recordings and a lavishly illustrated seventy-eight page book; the challenge is in trying to absorb seven years of material without the division and pacing of the original singles and albums. Alanna Nash’s lengthy notes and Richard Weize’s detailed discography provide fans a guide to the duo’s intertwined paths, and the compression of their career into a box set highlights the evolution of their pairing at fast-forward speed. This collection stands tall, even among the very tall field of archival releases Bear Family has produced since it’s founding in 1975; start saving your pennies and dimes (and quarters and dollars), as this is a must-have for fans of Porter, Dolly and Porter & Dolly. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Dolly Parton’s Home Page

Vanilla Fudge: The Complete Atco Singles

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Heavy ’60s covers of pop, soul and folk hits in original mono

This Long Island quartet grew from a blue-eyed soul act into one of the progenitors of what would eventually be labeled “heavy metal.” The group’s soul background is evident in their selection of cover material, but their mid-to-late 60s prime was also heavily influenced by the psychedelic era. Combining the two, Vanilla Fudge turned out a series of singles that relied heavily on slowed-down arrangements of then-contemporary covers, enlarged to nearly operatic size by producer Shadow Morton.

The band’s debut cover of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” stalled on the charts in 1967, but reissued in 1968, it climbed into the Top 10. The arrangement, supported by Mark Stein’s organ, the heavy rhythm section of Tim Bogart and Carmine Appice and unison backing vocals was a template for what was to come. The single’s original B-side, a cover of Evie Sands’ “Take Me for a Little While,” was also re-released as an A-side in ’68, and charted in the Top 40, sounding like a heavy version of the Rascals, and showing off the quartet’s instrumental talent in Bogart’s bass solo.

The band landed a few more singles in the Top 100, including the original title “Where in My Mind” and a two-part cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” that was generously carved from the lengthy album track. They softened their sound into a soul croon for Bacharach and David’s “Look of Love,” but this was unusual for a single. More typical is their hard-rocking cover of “Shotgun,” with its wailing guitar and full-kit drum fills, and the strutting B-side original “Good Good Lovin’.” Perhaps the band’s most miraculous single was their cover of Lee Hazelwood’s “Some Velvet Morning,” which somehow managed to cram 7’34 onto a seven-inch, 45 RPM record. A three-minute DJ promo edit is included in this set as a bonus.

After their initial success on the singles chart, the band continued to score with albums and on the concert stage. Their later singles featured a greater helping of original material, but failed to score commercially. These eighteen tracks represent all ten of the band’s commercially released singles for Atco; all that’s missing is a DJ-only promo single of “Eleanor Rigby” and “Ticket to Ride.” As the band became an album attraction, it’s interesting to hear how they were still represented in the singles market with punchy mono mixes (all but 1984’s synth-laced reunion single “Mystery” b/w “The Strangler”) that really should have gotten more radio love. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Vanilla Fudge’s Home Page

OST: Any Which Way You Can & Honkytonk Man

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Country music soundtracks toÂ 1980s Clint Eastwood films

Actor-director Clint Eastwood has a surprisingly rich musical history. In 1961 he leveraged his burgeoning acting fame for a shot at recording with the forgettable pop ballad “Unknown Girl,” a couple of years later he found a more suitable vehicle in a pleasant album of Cowboy Favorites, in 1969 he starred in the film version of the musical Paint Your Wagon and in 1970 he sang “Burning Bridges” for the film Kelly’s Heroes. Eastwood continued to dabble in music, participating in the soundtracks of Any Which Way You Can, Honkytonk Man, Bronco Billy and more recently, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The first two of these soundtracks have now been reissued for the first time on CD.

The 1980 soundtrack of Any Which Way You Can features Glen Campbell’s hit title track alongside David Frizzell and Shelly West’s chart-topping “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma.” The latter was written by a rare pairing of Felice & Bordleaux Bryant with the Collins Kids’ Larry Collins, the latter of whom also co-wrote Johnny Duncan’s Margaritaville-styled “Acapulco” and Jim Stafford’s “Cow Patti.” Clint Eastwood appears with Ray Charles on the playful lead-off “Beers to You,” and the album is filled out with tracks by Fats Domino (his last single, the New Orleans’ tinged country “Whiskey Heaven”), Gene Watson and Eastwood’s co-star, Sandra Lockhart.

Many of Snuff Garrett’s productions have the gloss of late ’70s Nashville, and include string-lined country-pop and gospel-tinged ballads. Domino and Stafford get rootsier treatment, and “Cotton-Eyed Clint” is a straightforward fiddle and steel instrumental. Locke, like Eastwood, is game, but no match for the album’s stars, who rang up seven chart hits among the album’s dozen tracks. This is a nice sampling of the commercial side of the era’s country music, as well as a reminder of the film’s lighthearted tone. Varese’s reissue includes the album’s original dozen tracks and a four-panel booklet with liner notes by Laurence Zwisohn.

The 1982 soundtrack of Honkytonk Man was led onto the charts by Marty Robbins’ top-ten title track, and followed by charting sides by David Frizzell & Shelly West (“Please Surrender”), Ray Price (“San Antonio Rose” and “One Fiddle, Two Fiddle”) and Porter Wagoner (“Turn the Pencil Over”). Also on board are Marty Robbins, Johnny Gimble, John Anderson and Linda Hopkins. Gimble’s western swing, Anderson’s acoustic country and Hopkins closing blues provide the selections least dated by Snuff Garret’s early-80s production. Varese’s reissue includes the album’s original dozen tracks and a four-panel booklet with liner notes by Laurence Zwisohn. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Keith Allison: In Action – The Complete Columbia Sides Plus!

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Los Angeles studio musician’s mid-60s solo shot

Keith Allison’s discovery at a taping of Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is is an only-in-Hollywood tale to rival that of Lana Turner’s first sighting at the Top Hat Malt Shop. Allison had been living a relatively anonymous life as a session musician (that’s his harmonica on the Monkees “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day“) and latter-day band member for his cousin Jerry Allison’s Crickets. Allison’s appearance as an audience member on Where the Action Is quickly led to a featured slot and a recording contract with Columbia. The latter gave Allison an opportunity to work with producer Terry Melcher for a single and Gary Usher for a pop-rock album.

His first Columbia release turned Joey Brooks and the Baroque Folk’s “I Ain’t Blamin’ You” into folk-rock, and featured an excellent, original B-side, “Look at Me” that turned up two years later as a Cher album track. His next single brought him Boyce & Hart’s “Action, Action, Action” and Mann & Weil’s bounch sunshine pop, “Glitter and Gold.” The former, produced by future Scooby Doo theme song vocalist Larry Marks, is offered here in both its stereo album and mono single mixes.

Allison’s full-length album played to his television audience, who knew him for his covers of hits-of-the-day. The album’s lone original is the very fine country rock “Freeborn Man,” co-written with Mark Lindsay; the rest of the track list is filled with tunes from Boyce & Hart, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Ray Charles and Lindsay. As the liner notes highlight, the variety of material provided a showcase for Allison’s versatility, even when the covers don’t add anything radical to the better-known hits. “Louise” and “Good Thing” give an early indication of how easily Allison would later fit into Paul Revere & The Raiders, and the country-rock arrangement of “Colours” adds something vital to Donovan’s original.

More interesting is the discovery of Neil Diamond’s early single “Do It,” the rave-up “Action, Action, Action,” and a take on “Leave My Woman Alone” that adds a psychedelic edge to the Everly Brothers earlier interpretation. Real Gone’s twenty-three track collection pulls together the Columbia album and singles and adds a self-produced one-off single for Amy that backs Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” with the Byrdsian original “I Don’t Want Nobody But You.” The post-LP singles include an emotional cover of “To Know Her is to Love Her,” a rave-up medley of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and a lite-psych version of Tommy Roe’s “Everybody.”

Despite a promising start and continuing success as a musician and songwriter, Allison’s solo career never really took off. His work with the Raiders can be heard on several albums, starting with 1968’s Hard ‘n’ Heavy, and he turned up on tracks by Al Kooper, Johnny Rivers, The Dillards and others. He dabbled in acting (including a bit part on The Love Boat!), and has recently gigged with the Waddy Wachtel Band, but the quality of these mid-60s sides suggest there was something more to be had. Stardom is a fickle mistress, and though Allison had the talent and a shot, the stars simply didn’t align. Lucky listeners can now cast themselves back and ask “what if?”Â [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Keith Allison Info Page

The Everly Brothers: Songs Our Daddy Taught Us

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2014 expanded reissue of the Everlys’ deepest roots

The Everly Brothers second full-length album is extraordinary in many different ways. In addition to its basic triumph as roots music, its exposition of traditional folk and country songs was a nervy artistic statement by a duo that was helping build the foundations of rock ‘n’ roll. A string of hit singles written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, including “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do is Dream,” “Bird Dog” and “Problems,” had made the Everlys international stars, and after an eponymous album that also included tunes from Little Richard, Ray Charles and Don Everly, a simply arranged and tenderly sung collection of songs learned from the Everlys’ father was far from the obvious follow-up.

A decade later the pair would record Roots, another album of country standards, but in a country-rock vein that was of its time. In 1958, amid the explosion of rock ‘n’ roll, the acoustic guitar, stand-up bass and harmony duets of Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, reached back to both the material and performance style that were the Everly’s actual roots. These are the songs that Ike Everly sang with his sons on their 1940s radio show, and the boys’ affection for the material is evident in the gentle harmonies they lay upon lyrics of deep sentiment and surprisingly dark themes.

Varese’s reissue adds alternate first- and second-takes of four of the album’s titles and an eight-page booklet of photos and liner notes by Andrew Sandoval. The alternates range from slightly imperfect performances of the same arrangements used on the masters to an electric-guitar backed idea for “Down in the Willow Garden” that didn’t make the original album. It’s a mark of the Everlys’ deep background as live performers that the alternates are basically good enough to have passed as masters. Snippets of studio dialog and strumming give a feel for the dynamic between the Everlys and producer Archie Blyer, the latter of whom seems to have mostly let the brothers roll.

Songs Our Daddy Taught Us didn’t sell in large numbers at the time of its issue, but neither did its artistic detour interrupt the brothers’ string of hit singles for Cadence. The album’s been reissued many times, including a 1962 retitling as Folk Songs of the Everly Brothers that landed in the middle of the folk revival. Late last year the album was reissued with a second disc of earlier and original recordings, and the album’s track list was re-recorded by Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones as Foreverly. The on-going attention received by the album further demonstrates the brothers’ artistic prescience and the project’s continued resonance. Varese’s expanded reissue is a great introduction and a worthy upgrade. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

The Everly Brothers’ Home Page

Sid Selvidge: The Cold of the Morning

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Itâ€™s safe to say that Big Star wasnâ€™t the only 1970s Memphis act that didn’t find the contemporary recognition they deserved. They werenâ€™t even the only 1970s Memphis act produced by Jim Dickenson to sail in that uncharted boat. Singer-songwriter Sid Selvidge, having been reared in Greenville, MS, followed the migratory trail to Memphis in the early 60s and continued to steep in the music of his native South. He fell under the tutelage of Furry Lewis, made friends with Dickenson and Don Nix, waxed an album for a Stax subsidiary and after a multi-year stint in academia, returned full-time to music to make art rather than commerce.

After an early 70s album for Elektra was shelved, Selvidge teamed with Dickenson to record this 1976 release for the local Peabody label. Unluckily for Selvidge, the label chose that very moment to go out of business (echoing Big Star’s trouble with Stax a few years earlier), returning the master and an initial press run that had no distributor. Luckily for Selvidge, the album was strong enough to gain notice with only haphazard distribution of a small number of copies. But with big city eyes upon him, Selvidge discovered that New York showcases and major label interest wasnâ€™t what he was looking for. Instead of pursuing these leads, he returned to Memphis, revived the Peabody label as a going concern, toured and released sporadic albums of his own.

Though The Cold of the Morning garnered some critical notice at the time of its release, it fell out of print more than twenty years ago and drifted into the memories of the few who discovered its original issue or lucked into a word-of-mouth recommendation. The same could be said of Selvidge’s sporadically released later albums: treasured by a small number of in-the-know fans, but physically elusive to the larger audience of blues and guitar listeners who would have enjoyed them. The track lineup include three fine originals (“Frank’s Tune,” “The Outlaw” and “Wished I Had a Dime”), but it’s the album’s cover songs that fully reveal Selvidge’s breadth and interpretive depth. The set opens with superbly selected and rendered take on Fred Neil’s “I’ve Got a Secret (Didn’t We Shake Sugaree),” sung a shade more upbeat to Selvidge’s solo finger-picked backing.

The album’s other mid-60s gem is Patrick Sky’s “Many a Mile,” a song whose wistfulness is amplified by the purity of Selvidge’s voice and guitar playing. Reaching further back, George M. Cohan’s “Then I’d Be Satisfied with Life” retains a turn-of-the-century tone in Selvidge’s vocal slides and ragtime guitar. The jazz age “I Get the Blues When it Rains” is augmented by the piano and washboard of Mud Boy Slim and the Neutrons, and “Miss the Mississippi and You” is sung with an introspective lilt that’s less sentimental than Jimmie Rodgers original. Omnivore’s 2014 reissue adds six bonus tracks, each of which matches the quality of the original dozen. The traditional “Wild About My Lovin'” and Charley Jordan’s mid-30s blues “Keep it Clean” are especially fine, but truth be told, Selvidge picked great songs and made great recordings of each one.

Selvidge balances the nostalgia of older material with a timeless folk presentation of guitar and voice. Mud Boy and the Neutrons lend support for two tracks (“Wished I Had a Dime” and “I Get the Blues When it Rains”), but Selvidge’s picking and singing (including a cappella and yodeling) are so musically complete that the production really benefit from the clarity of his presentation. The productions are spare, but the complex interplay of voice, guitar, melody and lyrics is filled with subtlety and depth. Omnivore’s reissue includes a twenty-page book filled with photos and extensive liner notes by Bob Mehr. If you managed to miss out on this album over the past thirty-eight years, this is a perfect chance to get acquainted. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Sid Selvidge’s Home Page

The Mamas and the Papas: A Gathering of Flowers

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This 1970 anthology, reissued on CD for the first time, is a one-of-a-kind time-capsule of the Mamas and the Papas. In addition to their first six Top 10 hits, the track list adds non-charting singles, B-sides and album tracks, carefully selected and ordered to show off the many sides of the group’s talent. In addition to the harmonies that graced the radio, there’s also the tight jazz work of “Once Was a Time I Thought,” thoughtful originals and keenly interpreted covers. Knitting it all together, and elevating this collection above a simple recitation of hits, are interview clips with John Phillips and Cass Elliot interspersed among the tracks. Their dialog reflects on the group, their producer, sessions and songs, and though the spoken words overlap the instrumental lead-ins of a few tracks, they’re surprisingly unobtrusive.

Several of the original tracks are also enhanced with bits of session chatter, vocal outtakes and rehearsals, providing listeners a few moments in the studio. The songs are organized as a musical program, rather a strict chronological run-through, which gives the set a holistic, album-like flow that’s unusual for an anthology. Though released after the group split in 1969, the tracks only cover through 1967’s Deliver; nothing from 1968’s The Papas and the Mamas (and their 1971 contractual obligation release, People Like Us) is included, which leaves out Elliot’s solo-career launching “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” But even without the last chapter and afterward, this set does an excellent job of telling the group’s story.

Real Gone’s reissue reproduces the 20-track double-LP lineup on a single sixty-six minute disc, and includes the original album’s photo-rich 16-page booklet, shrunk down to CD booklet size. This leaves the lyrics and Andy Wickham’s liner notes to be read with a strong magnifying glass (or find the latter here). In addition to a brief recounting of the group’s formation, Wickham also provides illuminating detail on the men who formed Dunhill Records. The disc was remastered from the original tapes by Mike Milchner at SonicVision, and shows off the rich sound that producer Lou Adler got out of the Wrecking Crew at the famed Gold Star studio. There are more complete sets (e.g., Gold and All the Leaves are Brown) but not even the Complete Anthology tells the story in the same novel way as this collection. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Buck Owens: Buck ‘Em

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50 prime hits, B-sides, alternates, live tracks and rarities from 1955-1967

Proving himself as savvy in business as he was innovative in music, Buck Owens wrested control of his masters from Capitol Records in a 1970s legal battle. His ownership led to a CD reissue program on Sundazed that stretched from 1995 through 2005 and encompassed nearly two dozen original albums. Add to that multiple box sets [1 2 3 4], greatest hits discs, pre- and post-Capitol anthologies [1 2 3], and a collection of tunes recorded for Hee Haw, and you have to wonder if there’s anything left to say. The answer provided by this new double-disc set is a definitive yes. Compilation producer Patrick Milligan has done an expert job of assembling singles, album sides and rarities into a compelling fifty-track exposition of Buck Owens’ key years before and with Capitol. The set tells a familiar story, but with an idiosyncratic selection of tracks that deftly balances the many elements of Owens’ extensive catalog.

Starting with a few mid-50s sides for Pep, the collection traces Owens’ rapid evolution from a country singer with steel guitar, tinkling piano and fiddle to the king of an exciting new Bakersfield Sound. As Owens developed his unique brand of country music, the Buckaroos grew into one of the world’s premiere bands and live acts. With so many sides to their commercial success, it’s tricky to find a compelling point between the shorthand of a single-disc hits collection and a Bear Family-length box, but Omnivore’s done just that. The set succeeds by combining a well-selected helping of singles (both charting and non-charting), B-sides, live performances, duets, alternate and early takes, previously unreleased, unreleased-in-the-US and unreleased-on-CD tracks, stereo album cuts and appearances on rare compilation albums.

In addition to well-known hits rendered in their original radio-ready mono, the set includes the non-charting “Sweet Thing,” the B-side “Til These Dreams Come True,” and a sprightly early version of “Nobody’s Fool But Yours” that stands side-by-side with the better-known master. Other early versions are closer to the masters, but tentative and not yet fully gelled. It’s a treat to hear the works-in-progress and compare them to the refinements of the final takes. The early version of “My Heart Skips a Beat” is already a great song, but without Owens’ opening lyrical cadence and Mel Taylor’s tom-tom rolls, it’s not yet an indelible hit record. The alternate arrangement of “Where Does the Good Times Go” includes a happy-go-lucky string chart (courtesy of future Bread main man, David Gates) that was dropped from the final release.

By 1964 the classic Buckaroos lineup had solidified around Owens, Don Rich, Doyle Holly, Tom Brumley and Willie Cantu, and it’s this group that powers the last three tracks of disc one, and all of disc two. The quintet punched up the beat for “Gonna Have Love,” “Before You Go” and “Getting Used to Loving You,” with guitars and drums that no longer held the line on “Opry polite.” The group’s live sound has been documented across more than a half-dozen live albums (including the legendary Carnegie Hall Concert, represented here by “Together Again” and “Buckaroo,” and In Japan! represented by “Adios, Farewell, Goodbye, Good Luck, So Long” and “We Were Made For Each Other”), but Omnivore’s dug deeper to pick up a 1963 Bakersfield performance of “Act Naturally” from the rare Capitol release Country Music Hootenanny, recorded in surprisingly clear stereo.

The song list is given mostly to Owens’ terrific originals (including the instrumental “Buck’s Polka,” with Owens picking lead), but adds a good helping of gems he selected from other songwriters’ catalogs, including Eddie McDuff and Orville Couch’s “Hello Trouble,” Tommy Collins’ “Down, Down, Down,” Red Simpson’s “Close Up the Honky Tonks,” Eddie Miller and Bob Morris “Playboy,” and Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison’s “Act Naturally.” Owens’ work as a duet singer is touched on briefly with Rose Maddox on “Sweethearts in Heaven,” but his more extensive collaboration with Susan Raye fell beyond the set’s designated ending point in 1967. The end of that year saw Willie Cantu leave the fold, and the classic lineup of the Buckaroos come to an end.

Owens and the Buckaroos continued to have both commercial and artistic success well into the mid-70s, when the death of Don Rich seems to have sidelined Owens’ initiative. With a wealth of post-67 hits and ever more far-reaching albums left to sample, hopefully Omnivore has a second volume up their sleeve. For the period they’ve selected, however, they’ve created a fresh view that expands upon shorter hits anthologies, but abbreviates the full albums into a compact telling of Owens’ most successful commercial period. There are too many essential hits missing for this to be a complete view of Owens’ genius, but as an introduction to his plain-spoken, naturally brilliant and stylistically diverse brand of country music, it’s a winner.

Those new to Owens’ catalog will be entranced by the ease with which he moved from tearful heartbreak to light-hearted humor. The album tracks don’t always match the “wow” of the missing hit singles, but they help paint the picture of an artist whose well of creativity was a great deal deeper than the two-and-a-half minutes radio would play. The accompanying 28-page booklet includes liner notes excerpted from Owens’ posthumously published, like-titled autobiography, along with several full-panel photos and cover reproductions. All of Owens other reissues – the hits collections, the box sets, the album catalog – are worth hearing, but if you want an affordable, compelling overview of his prime years, this is a great place to start. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

Liverpool Five: The Best Of

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Mid-60s Northwest Râ€™nâ€™Râ€™nâ€™B from ex-pat British Invasion band

The most honest part of this groupâ€™s name is â€œFive,â€ as they were indeed a quintet. The â€œLiverpoolâ€ part, however, seems to have been stuck on them by a manager in an effort to ride the Beatlesâ€™ coattails. All five members were from England, but apparently none from Liverpool, and their greatest success came after relocating to Spokane, Washington. The band toured the country as an opening act for U.S. hit makers and visiting British musical royalty, appeared on teen television shows, and recorded a pair of albums for RCA. There are remnants of the British Invasion to be heard in their RCA sides, but more on the London R&B side than Liverpool Merseybeat. More deeply the band was informed by the hearty sounds of Northwest rock and touched by the buzz of the American garage. Sundazedâ€™s 18-track collection (originally issued on CD in 2008 and reissued for digital download by RCA/Legacy) cherry-picks from the groupâ€™s RCA recordings, sprinkling a couple of band originals among a wealth of well-selected, interestingly arranged and often wonderfully rare covers. Oddly, the groupâ€™s one brush with the charts, a cover of Chip Taylorâ€™s â€œAny Way That You Want Me,â€ is omitted. Still, Sundazedâ€™s done a wonderful job of resurrecting the core catalog of this undeservedly obscure transatlantic British Invasion transplant. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]

The Brook Brothers: Warpaint – The Pye Anthology

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The Everly Brothers of England!

As much as the Hollies or Peter & Gordon might have traded on the â€œEverly Brothers of Englandâ€ tag early in their careers, no British act so fully embraced the famous American duoâ€™s harmonies as did the Brook Brothers. Graduating from skiffle music in the late â€˜50s, the brothers (Geoff and Ricky) refashioned themselves in the image of the Everlys and scored a minor off-shore hit with a cover of the Brothers Fourâ€™s â€œGreenfields.â€ They subsequently signed with Pye, scored a top 5 with the Brill Building â€œWarpaint,â€ recorded an album, toured with pre-Beatle crooners, appeared in a teen film and recorded sessions with Tony Hatch before fading into obscurity amidst the British Invasion. This 42-track set collects the brothersâ€™ output on Pye, including follow-up UK hits â€œAinâ€™t Gonna Wash for a Week,â€ â€œHeâ€™s Old Enough to Know Better,â€ â€œWelcome Home Babyâ€ and â€œTrouble is My Middle Name,â€ and a wealth of B-sides and album tracks that are incredibly charming. Yes, itâ€™s heavily derivative of the Everlys, but itâ€™s written, sung and played so well, youâ€™ll be swept away. [Â©2014 Hyperbolium]