The Collectors - The Collectors

The Collectors

The Collectors

Warner Bros.  WS 1746

1968

This is the debut album by the Canadian band the Collectors who released two albums in the late 1960s before evolving into the better known band Chilliwack. I'm interested in Canadian pop music so I took note of this album in the bins, but it tends to be a bit pricey so I didn't splurge on it until I fell in love with the song "Lydia Purple" which I first heard on Giant Crab's "A Giant Crab Comes Forth."  I bought the album for that song alone, but fortunately the entire album is worthwhile.  The album opens with "What Is Love" which was self-penned by the group, like all the songs on the album aside from "Lydia Purple."  It is a slow moody song with a chamber pop flavor that speculates on the nature of love.  It gradually swells to a dramatic climax before returning to the slowness it started with. "She (Will-O-the-Wind)" is a trippy portrait of the title character.  It is driven by a raga like riff and features lovely vocals and a dynamic flute solo worthy of Ian Anderson.  It is one of my favorite tracks. "Howard Christman’s Older" is the most overtly psychedelic track on the album. It is a portrait of a child genius that is driven by swelling organ riffs and howling guitars. The song evokes the majestic sound of Vanilla Fudge without the bombast.   It is followed by the fabulous "Lydia Purple" by Don Dunn and Tony McCashen which is delivered in a wonderfully atmospheric chamber pop arrangement with strings and elaborate multi-part vocals.   I think one could make a case that the song is condescending to the point of cruelty in its portrait of the alienated and delusional main character, a poor man's "Eleanor Rigby," but I'm not the one to make that case because I love it to death.   I've heard several other versions of the song but this is easily the best one and I find it endlessly compelling.   I played it over and over when I got this album and it still sends me every time I play it.   If there was any justice the song would have been a hit and I consider it one of the best songs of its era.  Side one concludes with "One Act Play" which is a striking depiction of a deteriorating relationship.  The solemn chamber pop sound of the song serves it well and it builds in power to give side one a satisfying conclusion.   Side two is devoted to "What Love (Suite)."  I am generally not a fan of 20 minute rock songs unless they are jams, but this is a pretty solid one.   It is a return to the opening track of side one but elongated and more elaborate.   The song begins with a slow, chamber pop section similar to "What is Love" but with a strong middle-eastern flavor added that gives the lyrics mystical resonance.  Unfortunately the lyrics are not worthy of the exalted music as they explore the deficiencies of human love with half-baked philosophizing that make the Moody Blues sound like Plato.  Lyrics like "what the hell is fate, screw the world, it's raped" or "blood is masculine violence" make me think someone in the band was a big Jim Morrison fan.  To some extent the bad poetry is covered up by outstanding music that moves from chamber pop to psychedelic blasts of organ driven cacophony to a jazzy sax solo and even a groovy flute solo.   The song is melodramatic and pretentious but it holds my interest and I find the changes in texture stimulating. Nonetheless I often just play side one whenever I feel like listening to the Collectors.  I am fond of this record, but I feel like it is a near miss.  It is very ambitious but ultimately it comes up short of being a psychedelic classic.  I mostly blame "What Love (Suite)" for this because side one is uniformly excellent.  This album reminds me of Love's "Da Capo" which similarly had it's brilliant first side undermined by a self-indulgent suite on the second side.  However I am the sort of music fan who respects bands who take chances even if I don't like the results.  I listen to so many albums that I like when someone messes with the formula if only because it is something different.  I recommend this album to Doors fans with a healthy appetite for chamber pop.

Le tour de l'ile - Félix Leclerc

Le tour de l'ile
Félix Leclerc
Polydor 2424 146
1975

Back in 2013 my family was up in Montreal on vacation.  After dinner my wife and I took a stroll and came upon a giant street party in the big plaza downtown.  There was lots of dancing and music along with large cartoonish figures acting out some sort of story.  I found it baffling but fun.  I did figure out that it was a tribute to Félix Leclerc who I had never heard of.  I looked him up when I got back to the hotel and learned he was a French-Canadian pop singer who was a cultural hero and ardent supporter of Quebec nationalism.  A few months later I came across this album in a bin of French vinyl at a record store and bought it.  Leclerc croons in the French chanson style and has a warm, smooth voice.  The music is most interesting to me for its political edge as is evident with the opening track, "L'encan" which is a biting satire of Canada's natural resources and cultural treasures being auctioned off to the rich, including a dig at American interlopers.  The song has a carnival feel to it and Leclerc speaks the lyrics more than he sings them.  "Chant d'un patriote" takes the point of view of an armed rebel attacking his monarch presumably a reference to the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 in Quebec.  The stirring guitar strumming and martial drumming convey a feeling of patriotic urgency which enhances Leclerc's passionate vocal.  It is one of my favorite tracks on the record.  My French isn't good enough to figure out the poetic "Comme une bête" which features a series of metaphors which I believe are meant to convey feelings of loneliness and loss.  The music is romantic with evocative use of strings.  "La complainte du phoque en Alaska" is a cover of a song by Michel Rivard.  It is about a lovelorn seal that has lost his blonde lover or something like that, which apparently is meant to convey the author's own feelings about losing his lover.  The song has a music hall flavor that suits Leclerc well.  I don't really get "L'ancêtre" which seems to be an homage to his ancestor although there are probably some metaphoric or poetic overtones that escape me.  Leclerc's vocal is very spirited on this track.  Side two opens with "Les poteaux" which is a humorous song about utility poles.  It is another music hall style song.  "Le dernier point" was written by Jean-Luc Juvin.  It is a dramatic song full of poetic imagery.  "Sors-moi donc Albert" expresses the frustrations of a woman imploring her spouse or lover to take her out on a date.  It has a cabaret feel to it with jazzy overtones.  "Fatalité" is a lively folk-style song.  "Un an déja" addresses a recently deceased friend.  He inquires about conditions in the afterlife contrasting it with dissatisfaction with current conditions some of which seem specific to life in Quebec.  The music is very subdued as Leclerc recites the lyrics rather than singing them.  The album concludes with the brilliant "Le tour de l'ile" which describes L'Île d'Orléans where Leclerc lived in Quebec.  He describes the beauty and charm of the island, as well as its exploitation by the government and outsiders (including another dig at the United States.)  He compares the island to France and asserts his support for French-Canadian sovereignty in Quebec.  It is a beautiful song bolstered by a sensitive string arrangement and a robust, yet tender vocal from Leclerc.  It is my other favorite track on the record and gives the album a powerful finish.  I don't have the language skills or cultural awareness to fully appreciate Leclerc's work.  I like the music, but I'm mostly drawn to this record by Leclerc's vocals.  I find his phrasing and the timber of his voice very pleasing and he is able to reach me emotionally even when I'm not sure what he is singing about.  I also appreciate the personal and poetic quality of his songwriting despite my limited understanding.  Recommended to Francophile Leonard Cohen fans.

San Francisco Bay Blues - The Halifax Three

San Francisco Bay Blues
The Halifax Three
Epic BN26060
1963 

Several years ago I was browsing through the new arrivals bin at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo when this record caught my eye.  I was initially attracted to it by the group's name because I'm interested in Canadian folk music and also because I'm a fan of the title track.  Looking at the cover I realized one of the guys looked familiar and after a moment I realized it was Denny Doherty of my childhood faves, the Mamas and the Papas.  So I bought it not expecting much, but I have no regrets.  The group was basically a knock-off of the Kingston Trio with a similar sound featuring an emphasis on three part harmonies.  Doherty did most of the lead vocals along with Pat La Croix and Richard Byrne did all the arrangements as well as playing guitar.  The record begins with Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues" which they deliver in a slick corny style that reminds me of a barbershop quartet or something you'd see in a variety show.  The record improves with a dramatic arrangement of the traditional work song "Rocks and Gravel."  My favorite version of this song is the one by Ian and Sylvia on their debut album, but this one is nearly as good with some wonderful vocal harmonies.  "Little Sparrow" is another traditional song also known as "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies."  There are numerous recordings of this song, but this one is quite pretty with another strong vocal arrangement.  "San Miguel" was written by Jane Bowers and it was previously recorded by the Kingston Trio.  This version has a beefed up vocal arrangement that makes it more romantic and engaging.  Their version of Mike Settle's "Sing Hallelujah" likewise benefits from dynamic vocal harmonies.  Side one ends with the much covered traditional song "East Virginia."  The group's version sounds like the one Joan Baez cut on her debut album.  They are both moody and atmospheric although I'd give Baez the edge for being more expressive.  Side two opens with "I'm Gonna Tell God" which is credited to Bob Gibson who recorded it with Hamilton Camp but it is actually derived from the old spiritual "The Welcome Table."  The trio offers up a lively performance, but gospel music wasn't their strength, they don't sound convincing.  "Rubin Had a Train" is a traditional song that has been recorded by a lot of bluegrass groups under the title "Reuben's Train."  The group gives a fast paced rendition that is one of my favorite tracks on the record.  The record slows down for "A Satisfied Mind" by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes which was a big hit for Porter Wagoner.  I prefer his version as well as the one by the Byrds on "Turn! Turn! Turn!" although the vocal on this track is very lovely.  "The Man Who Wouldn't Sing Along with Mitch" is the kind of novelty folk song that the Kingston Trio used to record such as "M. T. A.".  It is the most commercial track on the record and was released as a single.  I dislike it enormously.  The trio atones for it with the classic traditional folk song "The Great Silky" which is one of my favorite Child ballads.  There are better versions around, but I find this one melodic and appealing although lacking in the haunting quality that Joan Baez gave it on her second album.  "He Call Me Boy" was written by Richard Byrne, the only original song on the record.  It is extremely derivative being a fake slave ballad but it has a dramatic sound that at least gives the record a stirring finish.  Obviously this is a minor record that will likely only appeal to folk buffs but if you like the Mamas and the Papas and in particular Denny Doherty's voice as much as I do, you may want to pick this up if you stumble across a cheap copy.  The material is mostly ordinary but the singing is first rate.  Recommended to Kingston Trio fans.

Summertime Dream - Gordon Lightfoot

Summertime Dream
Gordon Lightfoot
Reprise Records MS 2246
1976

Last summer we took a Canadian road trip and visited all five of the Great Lakes.  As we were motoring along Lake Ontario, I had my Ipod plugged into the car stereo and the Dandy Warhols' cover of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (off "The Black Album") began playing.  It was the wrong lake of course, the ship sank in Superior, but it reminded me that Lightfoot's classic song had inspired my infatuation with this part of the continent back in my teens, an infatuation that has never diminished.  Out here in the west, our lakes are pretty modest, even the Great Salt Lake seems tame to me.  The idea of a lake big and ferocious enough to swallow up a great freighter fascinated me when I was younger and even now the majesty and size of Superior impresses me.  Back when this song came out I didn't care much for Lightfoot.  I only knew him from his hit singles "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway."  I thought of him as a dull singer/songwriter, the Canadian James Taylor.  "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" opened my eyes to his talent and a bit later via Ian and Sylvia I became aware of his 1960s work and turned into a fan.  "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a great song, my favorite of all of Lightfoot's work.  It has a compelling folk-rock melody that sounds timeless and it is driven along by atmospheric stinging guitar licks from Terry Clements.  The lyrics are brilliant, using Native American references and an abundance of poetic detail to give the wreck an epic and mystical quality.  The song is full of vivid language and descriptions, lines like "old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams" and "the wind in the wires made a tattletale sound" really send me.  I've heard the song countless times and I still love hearing it.  In a way the song is too good.  It completely overwhelms the rest of the record.  When I first got the record I just played that song over and over, ignoring the rest of the record.  There are other good songs on it however.  I particularly like "Race Among the Ruins" which is a bright folk-rocker with a country rock flavor courtesy of Pee Wee Charles' steel guitar work.  The song is about optimism in the face of life's difficulties and the challenges of finding love.  There is some suggestion that the person the song addresses is delusional, but it is delivered with compassion so it doesn't seem mean or judgmental.  "Summertime Dream" is another sparkling tune that celebrates a summer tryst out in the country with colorful and expressive descriptions.  I also am impressed by "Protocol" which reminds me of Richard Thompson with its ringing guitar riff and evocative lyrics about heroism.  I'm not sure what "Too Many Clues In This Room" is driving at but it sounds nice.  The rest of the album is less inspired but still pleasant to listen to.  "I'd Do It Again" is a punchy country rocker about a musician with more solid guitar licks from Clements.  "The House You Live In" is full of moralizing that I find a little tedious.  "I'm Not Supposed to Care," "Never Too Close" and "Spanish Moss" are quiet songs about the foibles of love.  They are kind of ordinary but Lightfoot sings them with enough feeling to hold my interest.  The man has a terrific voice, its deep timber and resonance gives his songs a richness and gravity that sets him apart from most of his singer-songwriter peers.  Recommended to fans of Ian Tyson.

Cowboyography - Ian Tyson

Cowboyography
Ian Tyson
Sugar Hill Records SH-1021
1986

This is the 1987 American release of the Ian Tyson solo album originally released on Stony Plain Records in Canada.  I have been reading Tyson's memoir "The Long Trail."  I was primarily interested in reading about Ian and Sylvia, but Tyson has very little interest in that period of his life and career as it is confined to a little more than a chapter.  Most of the book is devoted to his childhood, his solo career and most particularly his experiences with horses.  He distances himself from Ian and Sylvia suggesting that it was not really his style or vision, observing that "our duo was based on Sylvia's concept of harmony."  I was not happy reading about his ambivalence about that music, because I idolize Ian and Sylvia and treasure their albums.  This is the album Tyson seems most proud of and I like it too, but I would not trade any of my Ian and Sylvia albums for it.  As you can probably tell from the title, the record is about cowboys and their lives and beliefs, something Tyson greatly identifies with.  The record opens strongly with "Navajo Rug" which Tyson co-wrote with the country singer, Tom Russell.  In the song, Tyson reminisces about a love affair with a diner waitress that took place on the titular rug.  It has a jaunty tune and a warm vocal from Tyson.  Ian and Sylvia cut a folk rock version of "Summer Wages" in 1967 on "So Much For Dreaming" and then a country rock version in 1971 on "Ian and Sylvia."  Tyson delivers a straight country version of it on this album.  I prefer the 1971 one myself but I don't mind him taking another crack at it, it is one of the best songs he ever wrote.  The fiddling on this tune is very pretty.  "Springtime" is a detailed description of life on his ranch and in the cattle country on the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies up in Alberta.  In "Fifty Years Ago" Ian sings about a guy nostalgically recalling a youth spent busting broncos and wooing the prostitute he was in love with back then.  It is an upbeat song driven by some lovely piano lines.  Tyson slows things down for the similarly themed "Rockies Turn Rose" in which the subject of the song finds himself in Texas missing the girl he once loved up in Calgary.  Tyson's evocative vocal reminds me of the great Lefty Frizzell.  The side concludes with "Claude Dallas" written by Tyson and Tom Russell.  It is based on a true story in which a poacher, Claude Dallas, murdered two game wardens in Idaho and then escaped from prison after being convicted.  The song is sympathetic to Dallas and suggests that he may not have been in the wrong.  I suppose that might be true, aside from Dallas the only guys who really know what happened are dead.  Nonetheless my sympathies are with the families of the men Dallas murdered, I have no use for songs that glorify criminals.  I don't care for the lyrics, but musically this is one of the best songs on the record.  It has a compelling melody that gives it a lot narrative drive.  Side two opens with "Own Heart's Delight" which Tyson wrote about his second wife, Twylla, and their life together on his ranch.  It is a romantic song sweetened with lyrical steel guitar and fiddle lines.  "The Gift" was inspired by a painting by Charles Marion Russell that Tyson viewed in the Montana state capitol building in Helena.  The song celebrates Russell's life and his art.  In "Cowboy Pride" he admonishes a fellow cowboy who has left his wife and ranch to run off with an underage waitress to go back home.  He attributes his behavior to his "cowboy pride" but it sounds more like a mid-life crisis to me.  There may be a little autobiography in this song, Tyson did a little wild living in his 40s and Twylla was 17 when he met her in a bar where she served the food.  The tune is a little too mellow for my taste, but it gives Tyson plenty of opportunities to display the wonderful resonant tones of his voice.  "Old Cheyenne" is about rodeos and bull-riding.  It is another remake, dating back to the final Ian and Sylvia album, "You Were on My Mind."  I prefer the original which is more uptempo, but I think Tyson sings better in the remake.  The rider in this song is shaken after seeing his friend get killed riding a bull and he's looking for his lover's help to get out of that life.  Tyson sings the song with a lot of feeling and Adrian Chornowol's piano playing at the end of the song gives the song a graceful finish.  The album ends with "The Coyote & The Cowboy" in which a cowboy compares his life with that of the coyote with the coyote coming out on top.  The song is done as a quasi-live sing-a-long with plenty of comments and noises from the audience.  It ends the album on a warm, light-hearted note.  This is a very likeable record with a consistent theme and tone that I find very appealing, that is one of things I like about albums.  It is almost a concept album in that regard.  Musically I like my country music to be a little rawer and have more bite, this is kind of slick, but Tyson is such a great singer that he can deliver some of the punch that the music lacks.  Recommended to people who think that if a country singer wears a cowboy hat, he ought to know something about being a cowboy.  I doubt that there are any in Nashville that know more about it than Tyson. 

American Woman - The Guess Who

American Woman
The Guess Who
RCA LSP-4266
1970

As a teenager I was a fan of these guys, I even liked "Clap For The Wolfman," a song that now makes me wince.  This was my favorite of their studio albums although I rarely listen to it (or any of their other records) anymore.  I can't remember why I liked them so much back then but I've always been a sucker for a good riff which was guitarist Randy Bachman's forte.  He left after this album eventually forming the riff-happy Bachman-Turner Overdrive another band I really liked back then.  The album kicks off with the title track which was a massive hit.  I loved the song as a kid, such a compelling riff, but the grown-up me has problems with its misogyny and anti-American lyrics.  As I've mentioned in past posts, I'm a huge Canadaphile.  I love it up there in the Great White North, but I still resent it when a bunch of jackasses from Winnipeg come down here and start ragging on the people buying their records and making them rich.  Furthermore blaming women for the American military industrial complex and institutionalized poverty makes as much sense as blaming Haiti for global warming.  This is an obnoxious song that makes the band sound like a bunch of sexist yokels.  Unfortunately it is also insanely catchy and powerful which has kept it on classic rock radio for more than 40 years.  The entire band gets songwriting credit for "American Woman," but the next song "No Time" is written by Bachman and lead vocalist Burton Cummings who paired up to write all the rest of the songs on the album except "Humpty's Blues" which is another group composition.  "No Time" is less offensive than "American Woman" but just as obnoxious.  It is a callous kiss off to a lover of the so-long-babe-I-gotta-ramble variety only crueler.  Despite its vicious tone the song is melodic and musically pleasant with another catchy riff that helped make it the second hit single off the album.  "Talisman" is a respite from riffs and misogyny.  It is a slow moody song played on an acoustic guitar with a piano emerging at the end playing some lovely lines.  Its trippy lyrics represent the point of view of Native Americans.  Bachman's "No Sugar Tonight" is blended with Cummings' "New Mother Nature" to close out the first side.  This is my favorite part of the album.  I've always liked the little acoustic guitar run that opens the song and reappears in the segue between the two songs.  The rest of the tune is driven by hard rock riffing.  The sugar in Bachman's song refers to sex and Cummings' tune is more about dope than ecology.  Side two kicks off with Bachman's "969 (The Oldest Man)" which is an instrumental.  It starts out rocking with plenty of bluesy guitar runs and then slows down for a flute solo from Cummings.  It is kind of weird but I like it and at least there are no dumb lyrics to annoy me.  "When Friends Fall Out" has the same heavy/light dichotomy.  Most of the song is driven by a ponderous riff played on a fuzz guitar but the center and end of the song revert to a very poppy and melodic passage reminiscent of the Association.  "8:15" is a fast tempo song with a hard driving guitar line and a percussion-based instrumental break in the center and at the end.  The song's alluring mixture of rock power and pop accessibility provide me with a clue of why I liked these guys so much back in the 1970s.  "Proper Stranger" features a return to heaviness with a sluggish fuzzy riff and a get-down growling vocal from Cummings as he intones feelings of alienation and confusion living in the big city.  Time to get back to Winnipeg, kid.  The album ends with the heaviest tune of all "Humpty's Blues" which is a straight blues dominated by Cummings' screechy vocal and harmonica playing supported by a lethargic guitar solo.  At the end of the song there is a brief reprise of the acoustic part of "American Woman" from the beginning of the song which has a nice bookend effect for the album.   I'm starting to remember why I used to like this record and this group, they definitely knew how to rock a riff and had enough pop smarts to stand out among the bland hard rock of the early 1970s.  If the lyrics on this record were smarter (or nicer) I'd probably still be playing it.  Recommended to Steppenwolf fans who have issues with their girlfriends.

The Best of Ian & Sylvia - Ian and Sylvia

The Best of Ian & Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Columbia  G32516
1973

Is this really the best of Ian and Sylvia?  Of course not, anyone who is even a casual fan of the duo knows that the best of Ian and Sylvia was recorded for Vanguard Records.  If you read the fine print on the back cover you will see that this double record set repackages Ian and Sylvia's two albums for Columbia Records, "Ian & Sylvia" and "You Were On My Mind."  Neither album sold many copies, so presumably some weasel at the record company decided to recoup the losses by deceptively marketing the albums as a greatest hits package.  Being a huge fan of Ian and Sylvia, I knew this was a rip-off when I bought it, heck that is part of the reason I bought it.  I like to collect examples of the major record labels' greed and evil chicanery.  Mostly I bought it because it was really cheap and when I found it in a Pasadena record store many years ago, I had yet to acquire a copy of "You Were On My Mind."  I figured I would buy it and then discard it when I finally did acquire a copy of "You Were On My Mind."  However when that finally happened, I found that I didn't want to part with it, just one of those irrational collector things.  The album is not entirely without value to someone who has the two Columbia albums already.  Bob Palmer's lengthy liner notes are quite good and you get a bunch of leftover photos from the photo session for "Ian & Sylvia," but really I just keep it because I'm a completist.  I've already blogged about the two Columbia albums, so I won't rehash them here, but even though this music is marginal compared to the classic Vanguard albums, it is still worth having, especially if you like country rock.  If I was making up a double record set of Ian and Sylvia's best recordings, I'd probably try to squeeze on a few of the Columbia tracks, in particular the remake of "Summer Wages," "Barney," "Bill (Won't You Please Take Me Home)," and especially "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye."  Recommended to Ian and Sylvia fans who can't find copies of "Ian & Sylvia" or "You Were On My Mind." 

You Were On My Mind - Ian and Sylvia and The Great Speckled Bird

You Were On My Mind
Ian and Sylvia and The Great Speckled Bird
Columbia KC 31337
1972

The end of the road for Ian and Sylvia Tyson after a long and wonderful journey.  Appropriately their final album was recorded at Toronto Sound in Toronto the city where they first met and began their career together.  They revived the name of their country-rock group, the Great Speckled Bird, for this album but only drummer N. D. Smart remained from the line up that recorded "The Great Speckled Bird" album.  The record gets off to a rousing start with a cover of Robbie Robertson's "Get Up Jake."  The Band recorded it for their album "The Band" but left it off the record and it was later a B-side on one of their singles.  Ian and Sylvia always had excellent taste in their choice of outside music to cover and this is no exception.  They give it a rollicking country-rock treatment with Ian delivering a thunderous lead vocal and Sylvia providing the sweet harmony vocal for the chorus.  I greatly prefer their version to the version by the Band.  Ian's "Old Cheyenne" is an evocative rodeo song, the sort of song Ian has always excelled at.  It is country-folk until the chorus where Peter Ecklund's trumpet kicks in, giving it more of a pop feel.  Sylvia sings lead on the joint Ian and Sylvia composition "Antelope" which is indeed about antelopes.  I find her plaintive vibrato-laden vocal very touching as she delivers her ecology-themed lyrics.  Sylvia also sings lead on her song "Miriam" which is one of the more unusual songs in the Ian and Sylvia catalog.  She is accompanied solely by a piano and a quartet of cellos giving the song a chamber pop sound as she sings about her lost friendship with the title character.  The traditional gospel song "Lonesome Valley" gets a funky country rock treatment notable for Jim Colegrove's big bass groove and some slinky guitar riffs from David Wilcox and Ben Keith.  The Tysons trade lead vocals on the verses and sing the chorus together backed up by harmonies from the band for a very energized and vigorous sound.  Side two opens with a new version of Sylvia's famous song "You Were On My Mind" which the duo first recorded on their classic 1964 album "Northern Journey."  The new version is a bouncy country rock version punctuated with some piercing steel guitar lines from Ben Keith and trumpet riffs from Peter Ecklund.  I can't say I prefer it to the original but it is definitely more lively.  Sylvia's "Joshua" is a traditional style folk song, although with Sylvia playing harpsichord and chimes it has a chamber pop feel to it.  Ian's "You're Not Alone Anymore" returns the album to country music.  Ian delivers a very robust and romantic vocal for this love song.  Ian also wrote "Salmon In the Sea" which is another ecology-minded ode to nature akin to "Antelope."  It is a folk song with a lovely combined vocal from the Tysons.  The joint composition "The Beginning of the End" is pure country with an emotional vocal from Ian and a beautiful harmony vocal from Sylvia.  It is a song about heartbreak and separation and I'm tempted to think it is about their impending break-up like "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" on "Ian & Sylvia," but it lacks the personal quality of that song.  The song that I think most reflects the state of their marriage is the album closer, Sylvia's "Bill (Won't You Please Take Me Home)" which is my favorite original song on the album.  It is about a married couple who go to a party where the husband meets up with an old flame from the past.  She sees them dancing and realizes that he loves his old girlfriend more than he loves her.  The party in the song may be fiction, but the poignant quality of Sylvia's heartbroken lead vocal suggests to me that the feeling of loss she is expressing is real.  I find it very moving.  It is a powerful song that gives the album a strong finish.  I'm consistently engaged and entertained by this album, but it is bittersweet to me since it was their final record.  Since I first heard Ian and Sylvia as a teen, I've always felt a deep emotional connection to their music, they are among my very favorite pop artists.  I enjoy their solo records too, but they don't have the same resonance for me as their joint work.  The beauty, the idealism and the passion expressed in their work as a couple is inspiring to me and I'll always treasure their records.  This album is a very worthy addition to their wonderful catalog and I'm happy at least that they ended their partnership with such a fine record.  Recommended to fans of Gordon Lightfoot.

Ian & Sylvia - Ian and Sylvia

Ian & Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Columbia C 30736
1971 

There are no bad Ian and Sylvia albums.  If you are a fan of the duo, you should buy all of them, but I wouldn't make this one a priority.  It is actually not all that easy to find since it did not sell much when it was originally released.  It was their first album for Columbia Records and the penultimate studio album in their career.  The duo had moved from folk and folk-rock to a more country rock sound that suited them extremely well although they did not abandon their folk roots completely.  The album opens on a positive note with David Wiffen's "More Often Than Not."  Wiffen also wrote one of my favorite Tom Rush songs, "Driving Wheel."  It is a sparkling country-pop tune sung by Ian with vocal sweetening from Sylvia that describes the life of a musician on the road.  It is a terrific song, one of my favorites on the album.  The album takes a nose dive with the sappy love song, "Creators of Rain."  It is credited to Smokey which is a pseudonym for a guy named Larry Mims who had recorded it with his sister back in the 1960s under the name Smokey and his Sister.  Ian and Sylvia sing it beautifully but it is still a crummy song and the corny string arrangement doesn't help it any.  According to John Einarson's book on Ian and Sylvia, Columbia Records executive Clive Davis forced them to record the song against their will which I can easily believe since Ian and Sylvia normally have unfailingly excellent taste in covers.  The album rebounds with Ian's "Summer Wages" which is a remake of a song he recorded back in 1967 in a folk-rock version for "So Much For Dreaming."  I don't know why he chose to record it again, but I have to admit that the country flavored version on this album is more satisfying.  Ian sings it with a lot of feeling and Sylvia's harmony vocal on the chorus is divine.  The song is about bumming around and the transience of love narrated with very evocative imagery.  I think it is one of Ian's best all-time songs and it is my favorite song on the album.  Sylvia sings lead on her composition "Midnight" which is a slow bluesy love song.  Her sensuous vocal really sends me and there is a nice sultry guitar solo from David Wilcox as well.  Ian and Sylvia co-wrote "Barney" which is a gut-wrenching autobiographical account of him shooting his favorite horse to put it out of misery.  It has a stark arrangement, largely driven by Sylvia's piano playing that puts all the focus on Ian's heartbreaking vocal.  It is an incredible song, one of the most moving and powerful songs in their long career.  Side two kicks off with Ian's "Some Kind of Fool" which is a charming country rock love song forcefully sung by Ian.  Ian's "Shark and the Cockroach" is a goofy country-rocker with a swamp rock flavor that features a gritty vocal from Ian embellished with some yodels.  Next is a cover of John Dawson's "Last Lonely Eagle" which appeared in a superior version on the debut album by the New Riders of the Purple Sage.  Ian and Sylvia sing it as a mournful duet with sparse accompaniment with a little instrumental color coming from Weldon Myrick on steel guitar.  Of course Ian and Sylvia sing it great, I'd listen to them sing just about anything but I still find the song kind of boring.  I don't really care much either for "Lincoln Freed Me" which was written by singer/songwriter David Patton.  As you can probably tell from the title it is written from the point of view of a freed slave.  Ian and Sylvia duet on this as well accompanied only by David Wilcox on guitar.  It galls me to write this, but I prefer the version by Joan Baez on "Blessed Are..." not because she sings it better than them (as if!) but because of the more elaborate instrumental arrangement on her version.  Sylvia takes a solo turn on Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death."  It also only features Wilcox on guitar for instrumental support but it is such a strong song that it really doesn't need anything more than that.  Sylvia sings it with a lot of feeling and this is one of my favorite versions of that oft-covered classic.  The album concludes with Sylvia's "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" which is about breaking up.  It is a majestic tune driven by a strong organ line and some tasteful strings.  The heartbreaking lyrics are so strong and vivid I feel like Sylvia must be writing from her heart envisioning the imminent end of her marriage and partnership with Ian.  I've loved Ian and Sylvia since I was a teenager, it really tears me up to listen it, almost as if I were listening to my own parents breaking up.  It provides a beautiful and emotional conclusion to the album.  This album is too spotty to rank with the best Ian and Sylvia albums but it still features some of the best music they ever did.  I would include the remake of "Summer Wages," "Barney" and "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" among their very best songs and the album is worth seeking out just for them.  Aside from "Creators of Rain" even the weaker songs have much merit.  Ian and Sylvia may have been nearing the end of their road together, but this album shows that they still had plenty of vitality and creativity.  It deserved a better fate, it was largely ignored upon its release failing to even crack the top 200 albums chart in sales.  I like it better than a lot of the other albums that came out in 1971 and recommend it to anyone who values emotional honesty in music.

Ellis Island - The Paupers

Ellis Island
The Paupers
Verve Forecast  FTS-3051
1968

The second and final album by the Canadian band, the Paupers.   I first learned of the Paupers as a teen in Lillian Roxon's "Rock Encyclopedia" which suggested that they were a major group that somehow never really made it.  I was intrigued by her description and when miraculously their debut album turned up in my crappy hometown's sole used record store I pounced on it.  The liner notes of that record, "Magic People," described how they stole the show from the Jefferson Airplane when they opened for them in New York in 1967.  I gave the album a spin expecting to be blown away and was decidedly underwhelmed.  It was a decent record but nothing special.  I dismissed them as a product of music industry hype and forgot about them for a few decades.  Then a couple of years ago I was browsing on Amazon and I was surprised to see a CD comp of the band selling for a highly inflated price.  This made me wonder if I had misjudged the band and I decided to track down a copy of their second album which wasn't all that hard to find.  I've listened to it a few times and I'm still underwhelmed.  I don't think it is as good overall as the first album, although a couple of the tracks I think are among the band's best work.  In fact the opening cut, the 8 minute long "South Down Road" is my favorite Paupers track.  Bassist Brad Campbell and drummer Skip Prokop lay down a hypnotic rhythm track on top of which Chuck Beal fires off stinging guitar lines while rhythm guitarist/keyboardist, Adam Mitchell or guest keyboardist, Al Kooper, plays psychedelic organ lines with orchestral overdubs offering some extra oomph.  It is a noisy, hard rocking psych extravaganza reminiscent of bands like Fever Tree only better.  Great stuff.  Unfortunately the rest of side one sounds nothing like this.  The gentle, piano driven "Cairo Hotel" sounds like a different band entirely, namely the Bee Gees.  Lead singer Mitchell had howled his way through "South Down Road" but now he is sweetly crooning the words.  The song is heavily orchestrated which adds to its sappiness.  "Can't Go On" opens up with a sizzling guitar solo but then goes pop the rest of the way.  "Another Man's Hair on My Razor" is a country-style song played for laughs.  Side two opens with "Numbers" which is a return to hard rock.  It is almost as good as "South Down Road" with the band going to work on top of a steady driving riff.  Lots of great guitar noise on this one.  A song like this helps me believe the hype about their live act.  It really cooks.  Once again they shift gears entirely for the soft rock love song "Oh That She Might."  Prokop takes the vocal on this one and shows he can be just as sappy as Mitchell.  "Yes I Know" is another slow one, but at least it is loud with its fuzz guitar and big majestic organ lines reminiscent of Vanilla Fudge.  Mitchell's growling, passionate vocal makes the song one of the more memorable ones on the album.  "Ask Her Again" is the oddest song on the album.  Mitchell's vocal is slightly distorted and Prokop plays koto on it which makes it sound Japanese although it is basically just another sappy, orchestrated soft rock song.  The album ends with "Julliana" which is a pseudo 50s rock and roll type song.  I'm all for eclecticism but this is a bit much.  Even though the album is entirely self-penned (mostly by Mitchell) it has little consistency or flow with all these shifts in tone and style.  I'm drawn to the three psychedelic rock songs "South Down Road," "Numbers" and "Yes I Know."  It is not just that I like that genre of music, it seems to me that they play to the band's strengths.  I find their soft rock unconvincing and their lyrics are too bland to make the songs interesting.  The one thing that most impresses me about the Paupers' two albums, is that even though they sound like a lot of different bands at various times, there really aren't many rock albums from the 1960s that resemble these two albums.  The Paupers' versatility and shifting directions make for a unique listening experience.  The band's instrumental prowess is beyond question, but unfortunately it wasn't matched by their songwriting abilities.  If they had featured a first rate songwriter, they might have lived up to all the hype.  Recommended to people think it would be cool if Steppenwolf jammed with the Grassroots. 

Northern Journey - Ian and Sylvia

Northern Journey
Ian and Sylvia
Vanguard  VSD-79154
1964

Ian and Sylvia's third album.  I first discovered Ian and Sylvia via the We Five's cover of Sylvia Fricker's "You Were On My Mind."  My stepmother had the first We Five album, "You Were On My Mind," and I listened to that one song many times as a teenager.  I became curious about the original and sought it out.  I started with an Ian and Sylvia comp but the song first appeared on this album which I picked up a few years later.  After Dylan, Ian and Sylvia are my favorite folkies, at least as far as North America is concerned.  There are many reasons for this, starting with my obsession with Canada.  Their albums feature many songs about Canada and listening to them made me yearn to visit the great white north.  Secondly, Ian and Sylvia had excellent taste in songs and were both good songwriters also.  I believe that all of their Vanguard albums are worthwhile.  They were talented singers as well, Ian Tyson has one of the best voices in North American folk music, I think only Tom Rush is better and Sylvia Fricker is a brilliant harmony singer, that vibrato in her voice always sends me.  Finally, I have to admit, I had a crush on Sylvia Fricker.  When I saw her picture on the comp I bought, I was instantly smitten.  As a youth I totally idealized her and what I thought she and Tyson represented - integrity, bohemia and the true north strong and free.  According to the album's liner notes the album title reflects the folk scene in Canada or more particularly the way Anglo-American songs traveled there from England and the United States.  Many of the songs are either about Canada, from Canada or collected in Canada.  The album begins with "You Were On My Mind."  When I heard the We Five version (which altered the lyrics) I thought it was about a depressed person who was cheered up thinking of her love, but my error became clear when I heard the Ian and Sylvia version and realized that the narrator is depressed because she is heartbroken, she is trying to forget the person on her mind.  Despite the sad subject matter, I'm always elated when I hear this song, it makes me feel good to be alive.  The lyrics sound like a blues song but the music is almost joyous.  There is a rich string sound in the performance which features two guitars, a bass and Fricker on autoharp.  This is characteristic of most of the album aside from the autoharp.  All but one of the songs features a bass and most of the songs feature a second guitarist.  The resulting richness of sound is very appealing.  My two other favorite songs were both written by Tyson.  "Some Day Soon" is a classic song about a girl in love with a rodeo performer.  It is set in the United States, but given Tyson's background in rodeo I would assume that the song is a little autobiographical as well.  With no less than three guitars and a bass it has a very dynamic sound and boasts a terrific duet vocal.  It would later be a minor hit for Judy Collins although I greatly prefer this version.  Tyson's other song is "Four Rode By" which describes the exploits of the criminal McLean gang in British Columbia in 1879.  The song is mostly neutral in its perspective, ignoring the various social and political aspects of the events.  It is a very propulsive tune with some stirring guitar work from John Herald.  The remaining songs are all traditional.  I particularly like the compelling "Nova Scotia Farewell" which is about the hardships of the life of a sailor.  The mournful dirge, "Brave Wolfe" recounts the battle of Quebec between the French and the British in 1759 and celebrates the valor of James Wolfe, the British general killed in the battle.  "The Moonshine Can," another Canadian folk song on the album, could not be more different than "Brave Wolfe."   It is a frenetic tune recounting moonshining activities in Newfoundland and features some fast-paced picking from Monte Dunn on mandolin and John Herald on guitar.  The haunting ballads "The Jealous Lover" and "The Ghost Lover" feature subject matter typical of Anglo-American folk music.  Anyone who is familiar with the Child ballads will recognize their tales of the man who kills his true love mistaking her for someone else and the dead lover who pays one final ghostly visit to his love.  "Green Valley" also covers familiar territory, that of the young woman wronged by a false lover, but it is apparently unique to Canada and Ian and Sylvia credit the New Brunswick traditional singer, Marie Hare, as their source for the song.  The song is given a charming country treatment with Dunn's mandolin providing much of the instrumental color.  Although collected in Nova Scotia, "Captain Woodstock's Courtship" is an old Scottish ballad that Child included in his anthology.  It is an amusing series of riddles sung by Fricker and responses sung by Tyson.  For an old folk song, it is kind of sexy.  The remaining songs are less connected to Canada.  The acappella performance of "Texas Rangers" and the lively gospel tune "Swing Down, Chariot" are obviously American and "Little Beggarman" is a rollicking Irish tune that the duo picked up from Tommy Makem.  They are all good songs but I don't see how they fit into the concept of the album except perhaps as a display of the diversity of music popular in Canada.  I love this record, this music has been the soundtrack for many of my Canadian road trips.  Recommended to people who'd rather make a journey to Halifax than Hollywood.

Love, Luck N' Lollipops - The Bells

Love, Luck N' Lollipops
The Bells
Polydor PD 5503
1971

The third album by the Canadian pop group, the Bells.  I'm a little embarrassed by my fondness for the Bells, I can't even explain why I like them so much.  I do have a thing for Canada, I sometimes think I must have been switched with a Canadian baby at birth: I like cold weather, maple syrup, hockey, bacon and above all Canadian pop groups.  Like most Americans I first encountered the Bells via their hit single "Stay Awhile" when I was a kid.  I thought that Jackie Ralph had the sexiest voice and that song really sent me.  Many years later I came across their second album "Fly Little White Dove" and jumped on it.  It is a really good record and I thought I had all the Bells music that I needed until I came across this at a flea market.  Despite the cheesy album cover, I decided to get it and I have no regrets, but I'm not all that impressed by it either.  I could make a claim that their second album was sunshine pop, but this is basically soft-rock.  It is dominated by cover songs and their choice of covers is pretty spotty.  Mac Davis' "Half N' Half" is basically bubblegum and as annoying as most of Davis' songs.  They do a medley of Kris Kristofferson songs as well.  Kristofferson was an infinitely superior songwriter to Davis and an infinitely worse singer than the Bells so the medley should be worthwhile but I think it is too pretty.  This music sounds better with a little roughness.  Their cover of John Sebastian's "She's A Lady" is typically lovely but adds nothing to the original.  I dislike their slow version of Simon and Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" which I find totally lifeless. The only cover I have much use for is their version of Phil Spector's "To Know You Is To Love You" which they deliver in a surprisingly gritty version.  It is still sappy, but it has a rock feeling to it.  Instead of all these dull covers, I wish there were more songs like "Gifts" and "Lady Dawn" which play more to the band's strengths.  They are gentle, quiet songs made memorable through the group's sweet vocals.  "Lady Dawn" was the single off the album.  It was a stiff, but more because of its lack of commercial appeal than its lack of quality.  The leader of the Bells, Cliff Edwards, came up with the best song on the record, "Easier Said Than Done" which sounds a bit like latter day Paul Revere and the Raiders although the instrumentation is softer, I could do without the strings and brass.  Ex-Bell Frank Mills contributed two songs to the record.  "Sweet Sounds of Music" is given an oddly funky treatment, I don't think it works but it is does vary the record's texture a bit.  "For Better For Worse" is more successful, it has a more convincing rock flavor and is one of the more appealing songs on the album.  I can't really say this is a good record, but it has its virtues and if you have a taste for soft-rock you probably will find it enjoyable.  Recommended for people who prefer the Carpenters to the Cowsills.