Enigmatic rainy day loner garage 45 from California... I've had it for a few years and puzzled over the why's and where's but a friend recently was able to make contact with Danny who lives in New Jersey and recorded the 7" sort of ad hoc on a vacation to Southern California with his family in '74. Still can't quite figure out if this is Buster Jones' "BJ" label which had a number of soul releases and was active more or less when this would have been recorded. A band was provided for the occasion, and that's about all there is to tell. Enjoy the fragile teen ambience on "Lonesome Man" and warbly basement shuffle of "When Will the Sun Shine." It's a rare one!
I had the pleasure of speaking with Philip Lewin recently, a Toronto area song-smith and musician who released two marvelous LPs back in the 70s. I would describe both records as very personal statements from a unique perspective... something all too rare when it comes to self-released folk and rock music from those halcyon days. Phil is that wonderfully dialed voice which possesses a beautifully cynical mysticism, an intellectual drift fallen on hard times, and ragged musical ends that find their home just because they can. I was so caught off guard when I first heard Diamond Love and Other Realities a few years ago that I played it back to back for days in a row, before finally giving Phil a call a year or so later. Upon hearing Am I Really Here All Alone? a bit later the whole picture clicked, and I could see all these fascinating threads weaving in and out of both records... heartfelt, sad music that reached out and commanded everything I had as a listener. Astonishing late night epiphanies that arose from something very familiar and pushed far out into the atmosphere: cerebral moving dystopic visions of love and longing, of magic and holy people moving in tawdry circles, dark and light like the album cover flashing in the fog, all of this - mind you - wed to a canvas of fragile electric leads and accomplished confident song-writing...Watercolors, which I've posted below is a piece of music that has always stopped me dead in my tracks, an epiphany of the slender line between existential ecstasy and dread, as heavy a song as anything you'd call to mind from your 70s folkie pantheon of Tims and Bobs... and so it is I remain rapt and raving! It's my pleasure to present this interview, as I consider myself a true fan and hope a few more people might dig into these records and enjoy Phil's story. I'm surprised too that Am I Really Here has not been reissued on vinyl yet, as it seems like it would go over well with a wide group of folks - in lieu of that, I've posted a track from each record for you to check out... and should you wish to purchase a CD of either album from Phil himself, he can be contacted here. So without further ado... Phil!
Interview with Phil, March 14, 2010
A snap of Brian Gauci and Wyatt MacDonald, from the Diamond Love Sessions
Watercolors from Am I Really Here All Alone?
Diamond Love from Diamond Love and Other Realities
Posts have been light lately... Apologies. So so busy with work right now! Found a copy of this cool garagey rural-ish pounder from the Bronx recently and figured I'd share the sounds. Both sides have that great youthful 60s flashing immediacy... and rightfully so, as I doubt they ever cut anything else. Mysterious label I don't know much about either... thought for a minute when I first picked it up that it was the prolific country studio out of New Mexico, yet a NY address and a production credit to the Maple Syrup Kids (!?) is about all there is to tell. A friend mentioned that this Gold Dust may have had some soul singles out too. If anybody has more info drop a line!
In the micro-genre of local Elvis impersonator LPs there's usually little to write home about... Rick Saucedo managed to pull a real rabbit out of the hat with his soft-psych sublimation of faded crooner vibes into something truly effervescent on the rare Heaven Was Blue LP, but usually it's just a guy with a bad haircut and even worse retreads of the King's hits put alongside glassy-eyed tributes to his departed holiness, in leather may he rest. Bob Harrison's Yellow Moon on the other hand is something completely different, a record that manages to capture a workingman's struggles with the music business and life in general but funneled through the late night vortex of Elvis's loungiest desperado ghost reality. What appears at first to be a novelty based on a jacket that has been well-loved for years by aficionados of weird lost sleeves reveals itself to be an LP's worth of perfect blue collar rockabilly grunge, 11 original songs detailing life in the slow lane of a talented yet strange crooner about 15 years too late for the vibe he's really tapped into - and the honesty of that fade is just remarkably endearing and special. The record opens up in a way similar to the beloved Dane Sturgeon - a man out of time, but perfectly in sync with his own slightly warped reality. Girls, cars, life on the road, lost loves - all pop out of the twilight and into your ears with flangey backing trio hitting such a moody dark persuasion, eerie back-up vocals illuminating the corners and creeping out the back door for another cigarette break. Really beautiful stuff that grows on you, and should appeal to fans of a variety of genres. Can't say I know much about the man aside from a California address that has lead nowhere as far as locating Bob in the 21st century. I have another LP of his from a few years later that showcases him in full impersonator mode - billed as Lil' Elvis - and lacking a little in the creative depth that makes this one so special. Bob if you're out there, certainly get in touch, otherwise hope you enjoy on this yellow moon, and I'll seeya soon.
Found this obscure longhair college compilation this December in a junk store back east, and was really pleased with some tracks on here, as well as that unruly monster bird adorning the jacket! Montgomery Community College has other LPs, as I understand it, but this one has stayed buried longer for some reason. Hailing from what would seem like the winter of '74-'75 come 9 stoney moss-covered pieces of tranquil atmospheric hippie folk. Really nice stuff, overall. Love the opener by Samuel John McCullough Jr. which reminds me of the magnificent Jackdaw LP by Larry Conklin, Diana Donahue's "Colors in the Wind" is a great comp-able piece of haunting female folk-psych, Paul Franzo's guitar soli instrumental is actually kind of devestating in the context of the album's play-through (2nd to last song) - just takes it nicely to a space beyond voices and narrative like you're leaving behind all that for a higher reflection into something else, and finally the ultra-light-Deadhead-panache of "The Drifter" by Mitch Schuck - the only cut that really breaks out into electric rock though granted it's super subtle and a treat if you like low-key doped local Dead-sound-alikes. Perfect atmosphere for a record like this, and a good one for this time of the year when it seems like everything stalls and your mind wants to freeze up like the rest of it... Cheers, J
Easily my favorite 45 I came across last year was this total mystery science head-scratcher from presumably Indiana... A copy surfaced on eBay and got sold to a friend of mine and somehow I wound up with this beater a few months ago. Suffice it to say, I need an upgrade! But anyhow, those kinds of details are marginal, and the real intrigue with Tracks is primarily based on how outrageously good the 45 is... two sides of absolutely smoking 70s biker-psych, the kind of stuff heads dream about all day long - and on LP there is virtually nothing on this level left kicking around to be uncovered anymore. "Lady of Darkness" is the real meat and potatoes of this claim, a brooding melancholic dirge with psychedelic guitar runs spasming all across your radar. It's a really powerful piece of music, as well as a full on sonic attack. The flip "Let Me Play," which is actually the A-side, is a little more straight-ahead in a sort of phasy hard-rock mode, but to my ears an equally monumental slab with searing leads and deranged harmonica playing. My daydream is that somewhere out there Tracks are sitting on a box of tapes... if this 45 is any indicator it would be some wicked wicked stuff. As of yet, we're not even sure if the record is actually from Indiana - the closest we get is that it was issued under the auspices of "Wanamaker Productions" which for the moment is an equally mysterious entity as Tracks themselves! So I leave you with some soundfiles from my toasted copy... and if anyone related to the project or label runs across this please, please, please get in touch...
It’s been a few years since I first heard Billy Ashe’s unheralded 1971 debut “You in You” (Thanks, JC!) but the album has only grown for me as a wonderful piece of warm and talented local folk music. It’s the kind of LP private press hounds crave, a very homemade unassuming atmosphere that is both low-key and sincere at the same time. The catch here for me, is that unlike 4 million other guys with guitars, Billy wrote some excellent songs and captured a really unique vibe that I just can’t quite tie to any other major musician of the era. Sure, you can pick up a piece of Dylan here or there - without the sarcasm though, and maybe a sliver of Buckley in the lilt, but for the most part Billy really shoots from his own rustic hip - and it’s great (I will say, something about the title track distinctly reminds me of the Mayo Thompson sound on Corky's Debt to his Father!). Hailing from Salado, TX, Ashe made the LP just for the sake of putting a few songs out there, though according to a friend who spoke with him, most copies didn’t make it much further than Billy’s dry and dusty neck of the woods. There’s a wonderful late-afternoon feel to the proceedings, very mellow thoughtful stuff that moves from verdant finger-picked guitar passages to lyrical soliloquies verging on the dream-like and nocturnal, reflections on life in the setting sun. The bottom line, like so many works, is love. It’s everywhere here, in all of its shades. Complex, mature stuff that definitely deserves some more listeners - so here‘s hoping you enjoy it. I’ve included some scans from the lengthy mimeographed booklet with illustrations and lyrics that came with the LP. Beautiful work!
Enigmatic rainy day loner garage 45 from California... I've had it for a few years and puzzled over the why's and where's but a friend recently was able to make contact with Danny who lives in New Jersey and recorded the 7" sort of ad hoc on a vacation to Southern California with his family in '74. Still can't quite figure out if this is Buster Jones' "BJ" label which had a number of soul releases and was active more or less when this would have been recorded. A band was provided for the occasion, and that's about all there is to tell. Enjoy the fragile teen ambience on "Lonesome Man" and warbly basement shuffle of "When Will the Sun Shine." It's a rare one!
