Art Garfunkel - Breakaway (1975)

Review  by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

The second time around, Art Garfunkel turned to pop producer Richard Perry, who liked to record in studios rather than cathedrals and who replaced the angelic style of the first album with a lush pop approach. The result was Garfunkel's best-selling album. The title track and a cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You" reached the Top 40 (the latter topped the U.K. charts), though the most prominent song was the Simon & Garfunkel reunion single "My Little Town." But the album was full of wise pop choices, among them Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls," Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)," and Hal David and Albert Hammond's "1199 Miles from L.A." Perry proved that, given the right material and production, the problem of the relative sameness of Garfunkel's vocal approach could be overcome.




Tracks
 
1. I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)
2. Rag Doll
3. Break Away
4. Disney Girls
5. Waters of March (Aguas de Março)
6. My Little Town
7. I Only Have Eyes for You
8. Lookin' for the Right One
9. 99 Miles from L.A.
10. The Same Old Tears on a New Background

LINK

The Meters - Fire On The Bayou (1975)

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Meters' third album for Reprise, Fire on the Bayou, is their best record for the label for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the high quality of material throughout the record and a focus from the band that keeps the music simmering, even if it never quite reaches a boil. That's not a bad thing, because the music IS simmering, always hot and enticing, never lukewarm or too cool. There's not anything that comes out and grabs your throat, the way that "Hey Pocky Way" does, but there never seems to be a concession to mainstream funk, the way Cabbage Alley or Rejuvenation seemed to be. This just keeps things rolling, nice and smooth. There's not anything that separates itself from its partners -- something that's unfortunately true of all of the Reprise albums -- but the overall feel is better than the Meters' other Reprise albums, since it has more grit and presence than its compatriots. [Sundazed's 2000 reissue contains one bonus track, a "long version" of "Running Fast."]




Tracks
 
1. Out in the Country
2. Fire on the Bayou
3. Love Slip Upon Ya
4. Talkin' 'Bout New Orleans
5. They All Ask'd for You Modeliste,
6. Can You Do Without?
7. Liar
8. You're a Friend of Mine
9. Middle of the Road
10. Running Fast
11. Mardi Gras Mambo
12. Running Fast [Long Version]

LINK

The Walker Brothers - Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers (1965)

Biography - by Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

They weren't British, they weren't brothers, and their real names weren't Walker, but Californians Scott Engel, John Maus, and Gary Leeds were briefly huge stars in England (and small ones in their native land) at the peak of the British Invasion. Engel and Maus were playing together in Hollywood when drummer Leeds suggested they form a trio and try to make it in England. And they did -- with surprising swiftness, they hit the top of the British charts with "Make It Easy on Yourself" in 1965. "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" repeated the feat the following year, and the group also had U.K. hits with "My Ship Is Coming In," "(Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me," "Another Tear Falls," and others. For a few months they experienced frenzied adulation almost on the level of the Beatles and the Stones, though in the U.S. (where they rarely performed) only "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" entered the Top 20.

While the Walkers looked the part of British Invaders with their shaggy mop-top hairstyles, they were far more pop than rock. Nor did they play on most of their records. With producer Johnny Franz and veteran British arrangers like Ivor Raymonde (who also worked with Dusty Springfield) and Reg Guest, they favored orchestrated ballads that were a studied attempt to emulate the success of another brother act who weren't really brothers: the Righteous Brothers. Not as soulful as the Righteous Brothers, lead singer Scott Walker's deep croon betrayed strong debts to non-rock vocalists like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. While their biggest hits were covers of songs by American pop songwriting teams like Bacharach-David and Mann-Weil, Scott (and occasionally John Walker) could write brooding originals in a more personal, less overblown style when given the chance.

In the intensely competitive days of 1967, the Walkers' brand of pop suddenly become passé, and the group disbanded in the face of diminishing success and Scott's increasingly fruitful solo career. Scott ran off a series of Top Ten British solo albums in the late '60s, which have attracted a sizable cult with their idiosyncratic marriage of Scott's brooding, insular songs and ornate orchestral arrangements. Gary Walker released a few singles and an album with his group the Rain in a much harder-rocking guitar-oriented format. The Walkers reunited for a while in the mid-'70s, which produced a final British hit ("No Regrets"). Much of the Walkers' story is retold in the biography Scott Walker: A Deep Shade of Blue, published only in Britain.





Tracks
 
1. Make It Easy on Yourself
2. There Goes My Baby
3. First Love Never Dies
4. Dancing in the Street
5. Lonely Winds
6. The Girl I Lost in the Rain
7. Land of 1000 Dances
8. You're All Around Me
9. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
10. I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore
11. Here Comes the Night
12. Tell the Truth
13. Love Her
14. The Seventh Dawn
15. But I Do
16. My Ship Is Coming In
17. Looking for Me
18. Young Man Cried
19. Everything's Gonna Be Alright
20. I Need You

LINK

The Artwoods - Art Gallery (1965)

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The Artwoods' only album was an enjoyable mixture of club-oriented soul, R&B, and jazz with a strong organ spice, although it found them falling seriously behind their contemporaries in the British R&B scene in a crucial respect. Not one of the dozen tracks was a group original, and their vocal and interpretive ability was not so strong as to make that shortfall an irrelevance. Still, it did give them a chance to stretch into some jazzy workouts and rave-ups that probably couldn't have been contained on 45s, particularly the swinging cover of "Walk on the Wild Side" (with excellent jazz organ by Jon Lord); Allen Toussaint's "Can You Hear Me," with an arrangement reminiscent of the Spencer Davis Group; and Bobby Bland's "Don't Cry No More," one of their best R&B covers. Once a plum British Invasion rarity, the LP has been reissued on CD by Repertoire and doubled in length with the addition of 14 bonus tracks, including most of their non-LP singles and all four songs from their rare 1966 EP Jazz in Jeans. That EP and their two post-Decca 1967 singles (also present on the disc) haven't been reissued elsewhere, and while this material isn't up to their best recorded output and is occasionally lame, there are some good moments among those rarities, such as the 1967 single "What Shall I Do" and the moody jazz-blues organ instrumental "Our Man Flint" (from Jazz in Jeans). It doesn't quite stand as the complete work of this minor British R&B/rock band, as it's missing four songs that only appeared on singles, including their very best track, 1965's "Oh My Love." For that reason, the Edsel best-of LP 100 Oxford Street still remains the best introduction to the band. And if you already have that LP and this CD, you don't quite have every last thing the Artwoods recorded, as the 1966 B-side "Molly Anderson's Cookery Book" doesn't appear on either of those releases.

Tracks
 

1. Can You Hear Me?
2. Down in the Valley
3. Things Get Better
4. Walk on the Wild Side
5. I Keep Forgettin'
6. I Keep Lookin'
7. One More Heartache
8. Work, Work, Work
9. Be My Lady
10. If You Gotta Make a Fool of
11. Stop and Think It Over
12. Don't Cry No More
13. Sweet Mary
14. If I Ever Get My Hands on You
15. Goodbye Sisters
16. She Knows What to Do
17. I Take What I Want
18. I Feel Good
19. What Shall I Do
20. In the Deep End
21. These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
22. A Taste of Honey
23. Our Man Flint
24. Routine
25. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
26. Al's Party
27. Molly Anderson's Cookery Book (bonus track)



LINK

Brinsley Schwarz - S/T (1970)

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine - allmusic.com

Brinsley Schwarz's eponymous debut is the stuff of rock legend because it is the punch line to a great story. It arrived after a disastrous publicity blitz, where the band's management arranged for prominent British journalists to cross the ocean to hear the Brinsleys' showcase performance at the Fillmore East. In a series of mishaps that would shame Spinal Tap, the band arrived in New York hours before their show and the journalists, who dipped heavily into the courtesy bar when their plane nearly crashed, arrived minutes before the concert. The press was underwhelmed to say the least and savaged the band and the record. Listening to Brinsley Schwarz, it's easy to see why they weren't turned on by the Brinsleys: this is a bizarre, naïve blend of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dylan & the Band, and Buffalo Springfield, with a heavy dose of early Yes. It's filled with awkward steps and bad judgments, fueled by the group's romanticized view of Californian hippies. Consequently, it's hard not to cringe or chuckle by their hippie affectations, whether it's the lyrics ("she was my lady/had no plans to make her my wife") or the a cappella folk-rock harmonies that come out of nowhere on "Lady Constant" (it doesn't help that they sing "colored serpent coiled around your waist") or the bongo solo that ends "Shining Brightly." But, amidst all this hippie posturing, there some weird touches, like the multi-octave chromatic guitar break on "Hymn to Me" or the heavy prog jam of "What Do You Suggest?" and "Ballad of a Has-Been Beauty Queen" that illustrate how English the Brinsleys still were at this stage. All of this adds up to a debut that's decidedly uneven and unsure, but in retrospect, it's easy for sympathetic listeners to be charmed by their eccentricities.




Tracks
 
1. Hymn to Me
2. Shining Brightly
3. Rock & Roll Women
4. Lady Constant
5. What Do You Suggest?
6. Mayfly
7. Ballad of a Has Been Beauty Queen

LINK

The Greatest Show On Earth - The Going's Easy (1970)

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

As had been the case with the Greatest Show on Earth's (GSOE) debut long-player, Horizons (1970), the follow-up, Going's Easy (1970), made very little impact despite their originality and certainly better-than-average material. The band's rather auspicious origins were the invention of EMI Records subsidiary Harvest, who set out to manufacture a British version of Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago -- both of whom successfully fused a brass and woodwind section into the framework of a rock & roll combo. After a less-than-stellar initial outing, GSOE returned to the drawing board and reconvened with a disc of longer and more jammed-out sides. They had also been listening to their stateside counterparts. The extended track "Borderline" is a group-credited composition that seems to lift several distinct features from the David Clayton Thomas version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Colin Horton Jennings' (vocals/flute/guitar) bluesy lead vocals seem to practically mimic Thomas'. In fact, GSOE even goes one better than Blood, Sweat & Tears with an exceedingly heavier rock vibe. The acoustic and lilting "Magic Touch Woman" as well as the dark, pastoral "Storytimes & Nursery Rhymes" include some well-crafted harmonies that could easily be mistaken for latter-era Hollies. This is particularly interesting as the Hollies actually scored a minor hit with "Magic Touch Woman." "Love Magnet" is another lengthy track that features some of the band's best ensemble work. Mick Deacon's (vocal/keyboard) electric organ solo is especially noteworthy, giving GSOE a really jazzy workout. Lacking consumer or industry support, GSOE disbanded by mid-1971. Even while the group was able to sell out shows throughout the rest of Europe, the total lack of interest back home inevitably sealed their fate.




Tracks
 
1. Borderline
2. Magic Woman Touch
3. Story Times and Nursery Rhymes
4. The Leader
5. Love Magnet
6. Tell the Story
7. Mountain Song

LINK

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Here They Come! (1964)

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

It took Columbia Records two years after signing Paul Revere & the Raiders to release this label-debut LP. In the interim, the group had released a string of singles that were only regional successes in the Northwest. Producer Bob Johnston had taken them into the studio to try to recreate their dynamic live show before an invited audience, but Columbia sat on the results until the group's coming residency on ABC-TV's Where the Action Is prompted this release. The first side of the album displays the Raiders as the raucous club band they were, grinding through R&B dance tunes like "You Can't Sit Down" and "Oo Poo Pah Doo." The second side previews their evolution into more of a pop group in the mid-'60s, although with songs like "Fever," it still retains something of their early R&;B flavor.




Tracks
 
1. You Can't Sit Down
2. Money (That's What I Want)
3. Louie, Louie
4. Do You Love Me
5. Big Boy Pete
6. Ooh Poo Pah Doo
7. Sometimes
8. Gone
9. These Are Bad Times (For Me and My Baby)
10. Fever
11. Time Is on My Side
12. A Kiss to Remember You By


LINK

The Pozo-Seco Singers - I Can Make It With You (1967)

Review - by Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

The group used slightly fuller and more pop-savvy arrangements on their second LP, without tinkering much with their basic approach. This is especially apparent on the album's two hit singles (the title track and "Look What You've Done"), which sound like attempts to invest coffeehouse folk with the grandiose pop-rock structure of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." The similarity of both tracks to that Righteous Brothers classic is really too evident to escape comment, especially given that the trio had covered the song on their previous album. Elsewhere they opted for more up-to-date cover material than they had for their debut LP, offering versions of songs by Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, and Gordon Lightfoot. In 1996, I Can Make It with You was reissued on CD in tandem with their previous album, Time.




Track Listing:


1. I Can Make It With You (2:19)
2. If I Were A Carpenter (2:32)
3. Johnny (2:53)
4. Changes (2:35)
5. Forget His Name (1:54)
6. Mary Jenkins (2:08)
7. Look What You've Done (2:51)
8. Almost Persuaded (3:10)
9. Diet (1:35)
10. Ribbon Of Darkness (2:22)
11. Blue Eyes (2:40)
12. I Believed It All (2:45)
13. Louisiana Man (2:21)

LINK

Charline Arthur - Welcome To The Club (1996)

Biography - by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Charline Arthur didn't play by the rules. During the '50s, country music wasn't particularly receptive to rowdy, racy material sung by females, much less one who refused to submit to the orders of her record company or promoters. No matter how much pressure Arthur received, she didn't change her ways. With a raging temper, she was difficult to work with, particularly angering her producer, Chet Atkins. Nevertheless, her music was frequently impressive. In some ways, Arthur was a forerunner of rockabilly, with her bluesy, raw hillbilly music and her wild stage shows. She was the first female singer in country music to perform in pants and she used the extra freedom to prowl the stage. While her career was extremely brief -- she recorded for RCA for three years -- her music gained a cult following over the years, as proved by the appearance of Bear Family's Welcome to the Club compilation in 1986.

The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, Charline Arthur (born Charline Highsmith, September 2, 1929, in Henrietta, TX) began singing in church while she was in school. At the age of seven, she earned enough money collecting empty bottles to buy a guitar for six dollars. Influenced by the hardcore honky tonk of Ernest Tubb, she wrote her first song, "I've Got the Boogie Blues," when she was 12. By the time she was a teenager, she was performing on a local Texas radio show. Arthur won a spot on a traveling medicine show in the mid-'40s, yet her parents refused to let her leave home. She countered by marrying Jack Arthur, who would later play bass on her records.

In the late '40s, she began singing in honky tonks and nightclubs across Texas, which eventually led to a single with Bullet Records, "I've Got the Boogie Blues"/"Is Love a Game." After she recorded the single, she and Jack moved to Kermit, TX, where she was hired by a radio station as a DJ. Soon, Charline assembled a band. Performing in local clubs and the radio, Arthur gained a fan base. In 1950, she recorded a single for the small label Imperial. During this time, Eddy Arnold and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, heard Arthur perform. Impressed with what they heard, they directed Julian and Gene Aberbach, owners of the Hill and Range music publishing company, toward the singer. The pair signed her to a publishing deal and landed her a contract with RCA Records in 1953.

Arthur made her first record for RCA early in 1953, recording with session musicians who included Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins. Her contract with RCA led her to appearances with the Louisiana Hayride, the Big D Jamboree, and the Ozark Jubilee. During this time, she frequently performed on the same stage as Elvis Presley, whose mother was a big fan of Arthur. All of her performances were gaining her acclaim -- in 1955, she was the runner-up to Kitty Wells in Country & Western Jamboree magazine's DJ poll.

However, things weren't going smoothly for Arthur. Although she appeared on the "Prince Albert" portion of the Grand Ole Opry, her material was frequently rejected on the grounds it was too racy. At RCA, Chet Atkins followed Steve Sholes as her record producer, and the two musicians could not get along. Furthermore, she was having no success with any of her records. After her contract expired at the end of 1956, she left RCA for Colin, but she had a similar lack of success there. Shortly after her record label switch, she parted ways with her husband, Jack.

Charline formed a trio with her sisters, Betty Sue and Dottie, but the teaming was unsuccessful. By 1960, she was broke. Arthur moved to Salt Lake City, where she met Ray Pellum, a nightclub and record label owner who landed her a regular singing job in Chubbuck, ID. During this time, she also recorded for his Eldorado label. In 1965, Arthur headed out to California. Between 1965 and 1978, she recorded for three small labels -- Rustic, Wytra, and Republic -- with Alice M. Michaels as her manager. Suffering from debilitating arthritis, she went back to Idaho in 1979, and stayed there until her death in 1987. Charline Arthur lived long enough to see her RCA material reissued by Germany's Bear Family Records in 1986.




Track Listing:


1. Burn That Candle
2. Just Look, Don't Touch, He's Mine
3. I Love Him Better Than You Do
4. How Many Would There Be?
5. What About Tomorrow?
6. Welcome to the Club
7. I'm Having a Party All by Myself
8. Honey Bun
9. Looking at the Moon and Wishing on a Star
10. He Fiddled While I Burned
11. I Heard About You
12. Leave My Man Alone
13. Flash Your Diamonds
14. I Was Wrong
15. Too Long, Too Many Times
16. (I'm in Love With) Someone's Used to Be
17. Waltzing
18. The Good and the Bad
19. Heartbreak Ahead
20. Soft Hearted Gal
21. For Old Times' Sake
22. Later On
23. Double-Crossed My Love
24. Kiss the Baby Goodnight
25. Anything Can Happen
26. I Kept It a Secret
27. Please Darlin' Please
28. Hello Baby
29. Cryin' Alone
30. I've Got the Boogie Blues
31. Is Love a Game
32. Dreaming of You

LINK

Robert Michum - That Man, Robert Mitchum Sings (1967)

Review by Greg Adams-allmusic.com

Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent. Music was never anything more than an occasional sideline to his acting career, but he recorded sporadically throughout the years. That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings collects all of his commercial recordings from the '50s and '60s, including the complete albums Calypso Is Like So (1957) and That Man (1967), plus the hit single "Ballad of Thunder Road." The latter, a song Mitchum wrote for his film Thunder Road, charted twice for him and once for the bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse, who covered it for the country market in the late '60s. Calypso Is Like So is one of many albums of its era designed to cash in on the calypso craze, but is a cut above the typical offering because of Mitchum's obvious fondness for the style and the humorous songs, most of which comment on the war between the sexes. "What Is This Generation Coming To" addresses rock & roll and the generation gap, and "From a Logical Point of View" is based on the same calypso tune as Jimmy Soul's later hit "If You Wanna Be Happy." In a completely different vein, That Man is a country album Mitchum cut for Monument Records after hearing Charlie Walker's "Little Ole Winedrinker Me," which Mitchum included on the album. That song became a big country hit for Mitchum, and the rest of the album is just as good. He sings an assortment of pop and country hits, a new version of "The Ballad of Thunder Road," and a lovely pop ballad he composed, "Whippoorwill," all in a style similar to Dean Martin's country recordings.

Tracks

 

1. You Deserve Each Other

2. Walker's Woods

3. Wheels [It's Rollin' Time Again]

4. In My Place

5. Ballad of Thunder Road

6. That Man Right There

7. Little Ole Wine Drinker Me

8. Ricardo's Mountain

9. Sunny

10. Little White Lies

11. Whippoorwill

12. Gotta Travel On

LINK