Sheridan & Price - This Is to Certify That (Rare Album UK 1970)

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This is one of the better albums coming from the Move family tree. It was released in 1970 though it has a clear 1967/1968 sound and is one of the best albums of its kind. Rick Price entered the Move sometime in the late 60s, contributing bass and guitar to “Shazam“, “Looking On” and “Message From The Country.” Mike Sheridan had previously been leader of the Nightriders which were a Birmingham group that specialized in the merseybeat sound and 50s rock n roll.

The Nightriders were sort of a breeding ground for future Move members, most importantly Roy Wood. During Price’s tenure with the Move, he and Sheridan started writing songs together for the above album. Both Sheridan and Price share vocals and writing chores on an album that veers into power pop, psychedelia, sunshine pop and progressive pop. There are horn and string arrangements on this beautiful album that recall some of Paul McCartney’s soft moments on the Beatles’ classic White Album (think “Martha My Dear” or even the Move’s great ”Beautiful Daughter”). Some of the heavier moments like “Sometimes I Wonder,” “Lamp Lighter Man,” and “Lightning Never Strikes” sound like excellent 68/69 era Move outtakes. 

In fact, “Lighting Never Strikes” was released as a Move single at the tail end of the 60s. Sheridan and Price’s version is just as good though not as trippy, with a splendid backwards guitar solo, slashing acoustic guitars and crashing drums. Other songs such as the string laden pop number ”Davey Has No Dad” or the trippy “Picture Box” have a beautiful child-like, story song whimsy that hints at a Ray Davies influence.

This is an exceptional if little known Move album that will appeal to fans of the Beatles, Kinks and even lovers of soft, sunshine pop sounds.

Rick Price is probably the least-known member of the Move, if only because he never really established a well-defined musical (or personal) identity of his own, as the other members did. In the latter regard, Ace Kefford can be pigeonholed (fairly or not) as a drug/acid casualty, Roy Wood as a genius, Jeff Lynne as a pop genius, Trevor Burton as a frustrated rock & roller, the late Carl Wayne as a pop/rock crooner, and Bev Bevan as one of the two or three best drummers ever to come out of Birmingham. But who, apart from some really inquisitive Move fans, really knows anything about Rick Price? His most visible work from the most widely covered part of his career, the Rick Price & Mike Sheridan collaboration referred to as This Is to Certify: Gemini Anthology, released at the start of the 1970s, seems hardly to have sold at all in its own time. And since then, he's had to stand in the shadow of the similarly named Australian vocalist. 

An astonishingly good collection of the post-Move recordings of Rick Price, both solo and in his collaboration with Birmingham rock singer Mike Sheridan, originally cut for Gemini Records and released circa 1970. The music is an often appealing mix of psychedelia, pop/rock, and art rock, rather McCartney-esque at times but in the best possible way -- think of the production on "Martha My Dear" and "Your Mother Should Know," and the texture of the Move's "Beautiful Daughter" from the Shazam album and you've got the idea...is a vital addendum to the Move's history, and at least as essential listening as the first ELO album.

01. Davey Has No Dad   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:52

02. Lightening Never Strikes   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:38

03. Bitter Sweet   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:40

04. Tracey Smith   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:05

05. Sometimes I Wonder   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler)- 2:42

06. Tomorrow's Child   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:25 

07. Face In My Window   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:15 

08. Will You Leave Me Behind  (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:20

09. Beautiful Sally   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:00

10. On the Moon   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:50

11. Picture Box   (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:10

12. Lamp Lighter Man  (Rick Price - Michael Tyler) - 2:55

+ Bonus Tracks

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 3, Live in Concert (Great Album US 1968)

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Tim Hardin and band are captured here in a fiery performance recorded live in NYC at the Town Hall on April 8, 1968.

Originally titled Tim Hardin 3, this set was recorded live in 1968 with a backing band comprised primarily of jazz musicians. The support crew is a bit tentative; it's evident that they hadn't played much with Hardin, and in places the tempo comes close to breaking down. It's still a good, effective performance; Hardin is in good voice (a condition which apparently couldn't be readily counted on, even in his early days), and on the songs that had already been released on his first two albums, the arrangements vary from the recorded versions in interesting fashions. 

Live in Concert includes renditions of most of his best early compositions ("If I Were a Carpenter," "Red Balloon," "Reason to Believe," "Misty Roses," "Lady Came From Baltimore," "Black Sheep Boy") and half a dozen Hardin originals that didn't make it onto his first pair of albums. The best of these is the Lenny Bruce tribute, "Lenny's Tune," which Nico covered on her first solo album (where it was retitled "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce"). [Source AMG & Wikipedia]

Biography by Brian Mathieson, Plymouth, UK:

Tim was born in Eugene, Oregon, USA on Tuesday, 23 December 1941. He was not a descendent of the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, as has been written about him in many biographies (and as he happily suggested himself). His parents, Hal and Molly, both had musical backgrounds, his mother having been a professional classical musician. Little has been written about his childhood, but it would seem that he didn’t have the best of times. He was dismissive of his father and referred to his home life as being like a prison. He had no great interest in school and he dropped out without graduating at the age of 18, choosing to join the US Marines. This is something that seems a massive contradiction for a slight lad who enjoyed acting. He did, however, show an enthusiasm for music and one of his friends from that time refers to the evening when he sat down at a piano, played some, then said, "I’ve got the music in me. I’ve got the music in me."

After that spell in the Marines, where it is likely that he expanded the taste for heroin developed as a teenager, he returned briefly to Eugene, before moving to New York in 1961. The American Academy of Dramatic Art didn’t work out, it being too much like school, and after some time developing his musical skills and an interest in performing around Greenwich Village, Tim moved to Boston. There, his performing got him noticed and he was invited to work with up-coming producer Erik Jacobsen. Initial thoughts on musical direction were quickly disavowed when Jacobsen heard him play and an audition was set up with Columbia Records. The demos that made up this session were not considered suitable – or perhaps Columbia realised that they couldn’t handle Tim’s wayward lifestyle – so his contract lasted no more than a year and in that time, no album was released. Oddly enough, those "unsuitable" recordings surfaced some years later as Tim Hardin IV and This Is Tim Hardin.

A move to Los Angeles in 1965 resulted in him meeting an actress from a TV show called "The Young Marrieds". Professionally she was known as Susan Yardley, but her actual name was Susan Yardley Morss. His romance, marriage and life with her form the basis for many of the songs that were to follow. He adapted her name slightly for his songs to Susan Moore, although she wasn’t from Baltimore, but from Vermont and New Jersey. However her father did, in a sense, live the law, being a prosecutor back home. Tim’s previous relationships would suggest that he was there to steal her money – to feed his addiction – but, moving back to New York, he did fall in love with the lady.

By 1966, Tim was signed to Verve Forecast and had produced his first album, a mixture of initial demo material and new recordings. The development of his style from those original blues songs of the Columbia demos to the higher production standards of this first Verve album show an interesting evolution. Indeed, Artie Butler’s strings on his first single, Hang On to a Dream, rely heavily on the work being done by George Martin with the Beatles, although it would seem that Tim was less than happy with their appearance. Tim’s vocals show a wide range of influences and demonstrate his ability to handle blues, country, rock, jazz and ballad.

Tim and Susan were living in Los Angeles when his first album was released and it was there that their son, Damion, was born on 28 February 1967. Using a studio set up in his house, Tim recorded tracks for his second album, sending the tapes back to New York. This time round, the backing tracks were more sympathetically added and as a result it was a more rounded, balanced piece of work. The second album’s release prompted Bobby Darin to record If I Were a Carpenter. It was a massive hit, although Tim was said to be deeply unhappy with it. His first hearing prompted him to stop his car, get out and start stamping on the ground in rage. Tim later denied this story, saying that he had no problems with Darin's version of the song or its release before his version.

 

What Tim failed to do was capitalise on Darin’s success. He developed stage fright and proved to be a most unreliable performer, either arranging gigs, then not turning up or appearing when he was in no condition to go on stage. If he had toured the second album, he could have built up a significant fan base. Instead, one of the most talented singer-songwriters of the sixties was on a pattern of self-destruction. 

One of his biggest chances for international recognition was when he was asked to open Woodstock. The festival was originally planned as a two-day event, but in the later stages this was increased to three days, with the addition of a number of acoustic acts on the Friday evening. Tim's fear of facing an audience without the support of chemicals led to him being in no state to go on, so Richie Havens was bumped up to become first act on. Although clearly stoned, Tim did perform later on the Friday, but nothing of his show made it onto the original film. His performance of If I Were a Carpenter made it onto a three part television series about Woodstock in 2002, issued on DVD as Woodstock Diaries.

He went to live out in Hawaii for a spell, then came back to San Francisco, Los Angeles, then Colorado, supposedly to raise horses. Erik Jacobsen dumped him and it was only after Steve Paul, his new manager, financed a band of jazz musicians to work with him on a live album (Tim Hardin 3) that things came together. The musicians were clearly accomplished and worked well with Tim’s style of music. Indeed, they went on to form the group Jeremy and the Satyrs, making albums and operating as backing musicians for other artists, including Richie Havens.

The success of the City Hall live recording and a desire for the less secluded life led to a move to Woodstock, living on the other side of town from Bob Dylan. A tour of Britain had to be cancelled, the blame for this being placed on pleurisy, and shortly after, his contract with Verve was terminated. Columbia took another chance with him and a start was made on the Suite for Susan Moore album. Tim had a revolutionary way of making this album. He arranged for recording equipment to be placed in a spare bedroom of his home. He brought in a variety of local musicians and recorded the album over a period of a fortnight.  The producer (Larry Klein) and recording engineer (Don Puluse) stayed at an hotel around 20 miles away and came over to the house on a regular basis to make the recordings.  Susan would cater for the Columbia people and the musicians, providing meals and coffees.  Tim seemed very happy and comfortable during this period and, although rather hyper, he was in a good frame of mind.

Tim had the most incredible sense of both pitch and time. This meant that he could sing one segment of a song and commit it to tape, then a day or two later – perhaps after a binge on alcohol or methadone – he would sing the rest of the song. The two parts would match up perfectly in the edit. The resulting album was wonderful. As a thematic piece of work, it is perhaps the most personal and self-analysing recording ever made. Love for his family and exasperation at his own helplessness ooze from every note, word, nuance and inflection. This album, above all, was Tim Hardin’s masterpiece.

At the height of the heroin addiction, Susan took Damion and left Woodstock for LA. Tim continued to live in Woodstock for a while, writing fragments of songs, but clearly missing the person who was his inspiration. Other relationships flourished for short spells, but he had dried up as a songwriter. He still had a wonderful voice, though, full of expressiveness and longing, with phrasing that other singers could kill for. Thus, when it came to the second Columbia album, although there were only six self-penned pieces, there were other numbers that could easily have been written with Tim in mind.

The producer, Ed Freeman, operated in a way that was completely complementary to Tim’s approach. The backing tracks were produced in a way that allowed him free rein and musicians were rarely ever in the studio at the same time as him – his level of reliability being acknowledged and accepted. Tim had moved beyond the regular concept of what a song should be, having moved towards a freer form that was a combination of classical explorations of a theme, with jazz intonations.

A further change in management and a move to London, where, as a registered addict, Tim could get free methadone, led to the final Columbia album, Painted Head. There were no original songs and the album was somewhat heavy-handed in its production. What I originally put down to a possible speech defect, which added a certain charm to the Hardin sound, was obviously a breathlessness, caused by his smoking-related chest problems. Despite this, the album produced some of his finest performances, all appropriate to Tim’s musical style and perceived personality.

That saw the end of the CBS years and a move to the GM label, where the album Nine was made. GM was owned by Billy Gaff, Rod Stewart’s manager, and this deal may have been a kindly act of repayment for the success Rod had achieved with Reason To Believe. The album was well produced and had some extraordinarily accomplished vocals on it. The feature track, Shiloh Town, although credited to Tim, had been recorded by Richie Havens some ten years before (as Shadow Town) and was a traditional piece. Susan got back with Tim for a short spell in the UK, but his drug abuse and drinking were beyond any tolerable level. He teamed up with another expatriate, Tim Rose, whose career had been much more successful in Europe than in his home country, and the pair did a spot of touring. They performed at around a dozen gigs, but the project was unsuccessful, again due to Tim Hardin’s dependency. In speaking to Tim Rose many years later, he was quite circumspect about his experiences, but I always found that he would never say a bad word about those he had worked with. He merely referred to them as "difficult times".

By 1976, it was back to the States and living in Seattle. There, he seemed to clean himself up, staying clear of the drugs and booze. A move to Los Angeles allowed him to be near Susan and Damion again, his Hollywood apartment being just a short distance from Damion’s school. He had put on weight (200 pounds) and lost his hair, but his voice was strong and mature. It was there that Phil Freeman, an old school friend, met up with him and persuaded him to take the trip to Eugene to record a TV documentary and a concert. The latter led to the release of the Homecoming Concert album in which much of his early material is viewed in a different light. His relaxed manner with the audience and the accomplished readings of his songs make it all the more sad to note what followed.

Tim worked on in Los Angeles, meeting up again with Erik Jacobsen and working with Don Rubin. However, a reformed addict should never return to the circumstances that led to or provoked his problem. Back in the recording studio and creating music, Tim returned to the heroin that had wrecked his life. His contacts with Susan caused her further pain, especially when he used threats of suicide as a way of forcing her to meet with him. She took Damion and moved on, yet again, to be away from Tim.

He died of a heroin/morphine overdose in his apartment at 625 Orange Drive, Hollywood, on Monday 29 December 1980, having just turned 39. He had been living there for some time with his partner, Janet. It is probable that he miscalculated on the dosage, as Tim Buckley is said to have done, having been clean for a spell. That he didn’t fit the system is clear. That the system swallowed up his unique talent and ignored his true needs is also clear. The music business owes Tim Hardin a massive debt and we fans of his music need to acknowledge that our pleasures in listening to him over the years were at a massive personal cost to him.

   

Before his death, in the video made by Phil Freeman, Tim spoke of his feelings of having been ripped off by his managers. He reckoned he had earned some $22 million in his time, but had been left with nothing. He suggested that his manager had sold off the rights to his songs against his wishes, threatening him with IRS extradition from England. He did, however, acknowledge that the deal had ensured financial security for Susan and Damion. Although he had given up heroin for a spell, there was no doubt that he was not enjoying the withdrawal and he fully anticipated returning to it. He spoke of the pleasure he got from addictive drugs, while stressing that he would never encourage anyone else to take up the habit. He appeared to acknowledge that the damage was there before the drugs took over.

The first half of his career and those songs written in a room of Lenny Bruce’s home in the early sixties remain the dominant aspect of Tim’s life to most people. As a result, he is known by many as simply the songwriter who wrote hits for Bobby Darin, the Four Tops and Rod Stewart. To me, Tim Hardin was a wonderful vocalist, incorporating varied styles into his voice. He was the best interpreter of his own songs and he had an immense skill of taking other people’s songs and personalising them into the myths that his character had become. There are few singers of any generation who are capable of singing of the pain of love (for wife and family) in a way that is so expressive and so wrenchingly beautiful.

Susan & Damion:

Many people write to ask how Susan and Damion are. Please remember that I live in the UK and have no direct connection with Tim's family or his record labels. However, I can report that both are well. Susan occasionally responds to postings on the discussion board at Yahoo Groups - http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/timhardin. This is a fascinating way to get to know all the fans of Tim who chat on a range of topics. Susan has written to me to say that she is happy with the content of this website, although ultimately, she would like to develop an official site.

Damion is living in South Florida, where he has been involved in music, but his main focus is his day job in real estate.  Over and above that, Damion is a talented artist and, for a while, he had a website to act as a showcase for his art.  This no longer seems to be available, so I have put thumbnail versions of some of his work on my photos page. If you would like to purchase any of his work, contact me and I'll pass the information on. [Source, Brian Mathieson: http://www.songsinger.info/index.htm]

 

Personnel:

♦ Tim Hardin – vocals, guitar, keyboards 

♦ Eddie Gomez – bass 

♦ Warren Bernhardt – piano, clavinet 

♦ Daniel Hankin – guitar 

♦ Mike Mainieri – vibraphone 

♦ Donald (Beautiful) McDonald - Drums 

01. "The Lady Came from Baltimore" – 2:40 

02. "Reason to Believe" – 2:42 

03. "You Upset the Grace of Living When You Lie" – 4:27 

04. "Misty Roses" – 4:47 

05. "Turn the Page" – 3:21 [*] 

06. "Black Sheep Boy" – 2:15 

07. "Lenny's Tune" – 6:57 

08. "Don't Make Promises" – 4:10 

09. "Danville Dame" – 6:29 

10. "If I Were a Carpenter" – 3:41 

11. "Red Balloon" – 3:33 

12. "Tribute to Hank Williams" – 4:03 

13. "Smugglin' Man" – 3:43 

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Vanilla Fudge - Selftitled (1st Album US 1967)

Size: 83.2 MB

Bitrate: 256

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Found in OuterSpace

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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Vanilla Fudge (Atco 33-224/mono, SD 33-224/stereo) is the first album by the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. Released in summer 1967, it consists entirely of half-speed covers and three short original instrumental compositions.

The album was Vanilla Fudge's most successful, peaking at #6 on the Billboard album charts in September 1967. An edited version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was released as a single and also charted.

In a debut consisting of covers, nobody could accuse Vanilla Fudge of bad taste in their repertoire; with stoned-out, slowed-down versions of such then-recent classics as "Ticket to Ride," "Eleanor Rigby," and "People Get Ready," they were setting the bar rather high for themselves. Even the one suspect choice -- Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang" -- turns out to be rivaled only by Mott the Hoople's version of "Laugh at Me" in putting Bono's songwriting in the kindest possible light. 

Most of the tracks here share a common structure of a disjointed warm-up jam, a Hammond-heavy dirge of harmonized vocals at the center, and a final flat-out jam. Still, some succeed better than others: "You Keep Me Hanging On" has a wonderfully hammered-out drum part, and "She's Not There" boasts some truly groovy organ jams. While the pattern can sound repetitive today, each song still works as a time capsule of American psychedelia.

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their psychedelic renditions of popular songs. The band's original lineup—vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice—recorded five albums during the years 1966–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band has reunited in various configurations over the years, and is currently operating with three of the four original members, Mark Stein, Vince Martell, and Carmine Appice with Pete Bremy on bass for Tim Bogert who has retired from touring. The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal".

Stein and Bogert played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging sound and floods of organ of The Rascals they decided to form their own band with Martell and Rick Martin's drummer, Joey Brennan. Originally calling themselves The Pigeons, they changed the name to Vanilla Fudge in 1966, after the replacement of Brennan by Appice. 

The group was then "discovered" and managed by reputed Lucchese crime family member Phillip Basile, who operated several popular clubs in New York. Led Zeppelin, then an emerging band, was the opening act on their American tour. Produced by Shadow Morton who the band met through the Rascals. Morton had a gift for melodramatic productions in the studio.

The band's biggest hit was its cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On", a slowed-down, hard rocking version of a song originally recorded by The Supremes. This version featured Stein's psychedelic-baroque organ intro and Appice's energetic drumming.

The members of Vanilla Fudge were great admirers of The Beatles, and covered several of their songs including "Ticket to Ride" and "Eleanor Rigby". The self-titled debut album quotes "Strawberry Fields Forever" at the end, with the line "there's nothing to get hung about".

On March 14, 1970, Vanilla Fudge played a farewell concert at the Phil Basille's Action House. After that, Bogert & Appice departed to form another group, Cactus (In 1972, they left Cactus and formed Beck, Bogert & Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck). Stein, left on his own, tried to keep the group going with two new players, Sal D'Nofrio (bass) and Jimmy Galluzi (drums) (both of whom had been members of a Poughkeepsie, New York group known as 'Dino & The Cavemen'). But when nothing came from this, Stein ended up forming a new group, Boomerang, instead with Galluzi.

A recording of the Pigeons was released in Germany in 1973 under the title of 'While the World was Eating Vanilla Fudge'.

Following the band's breakup in 1970, the band has reunited several times. In 1982, they reunited in support of the Atco Records release, Best of Vanilla Fudge. This resulted in another album of fresh material in 1984 called Mystery. Martell was not included in this initial reunion and Ron Mancuso played guitar on Mystery instead, along with Jeff Beck, who guested under the moniker "J. Toad". Two reunion tours followed in 1987/1988. with Paul Hanson on guitar. Lanny Cordola was guitarist when the band took the stage on May 14, 1988 for the Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary Celebration. After that, the individual members went their separate ways once again to pursue other projects.

In 1991 Appice revived the Vanilla Fudge name for a tour with Ted Nugent's former band members Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Martin Gerschwitz (keyboards, vocals) and Tom Croucier (bass, vocals), which resulted in the album The Best of Vanilla Fudge – Live.

Personnel:

♦ Carmine Appice - drums, vocals

♦ Tim Bogert - bass, vocals

♦ Vince Martell - guitar, vocals

♦ Mark Stein - lead vocals, keyboards

Studio albums:

♣ 1967 Vanilla Fudge

♣ 1968 The Beat Goes On

♣ 1968 Renaissance

♣ 1969 Near the Beginning

♣ 1969 Rock & Roll

01. "Ticket to Ride" (Lennon–McCartney) – 5:40

02. "People Get Ready" (Curtis Mayfield) – 6:30

03. "She's Not There" (Rod Argent) – 4:55

04. "Bang Bang" (Sonny Bono) – 5:20

--->Side 1 of the album ends with: "The following is a series of high-frequency tones..."

05. "Illusions Of My Childhood - Part One" – 0:20

06. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Eddie Holland) – 6:42

07. "Illusions Of My Childhood - Part Two" – 0:23

08. "Take Me For A Little While (Trade Martin) – 3:27

09. "Illusions Of My Childhood — Part Three – 0:23

10. "Eleanor Rigby" (Lennon–McCartney) - 8:10

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Tom Rush - Selftitled (Great Folk Album US 1970)

Size: 74.5 MB

Bitrate: 256

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Another self-titled album, this time for CBS, finds Tom Rush continuing to mine the fertile vein of folk-rock songwriters the likes of James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Canadian Murray McLaughlin. Standouts include David Wiffen's "Driving Wheel," McLaughlin's "Old Man's Song" and "Child's Song," and Browne's "Colors of the Sun." Also, there appears to be a hint of country sneaking into the arrangements. A very solid effort.

Tom Rush is the 1970 album from pioneer Folk rock musician Tom Rush. He covers songs from fellow folkies Jackson Browne, Murray McLauchlan, James Taylor and David Wiffen. Guest musicians were David Bromberg on Dobro and Red Rhodes on Steel Guitar.

Tom Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.

Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the adopted son of a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after having graduated from the Groton School. He majored in English literature. Many of his early recordings are versions of Lowland Scots and Appalachian folk songs. He regularly performed at the Club 47 coffeehouse (now called Club Passim) in Cambridge, the Unicorn in Boston, and The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Rush is credited by Rolling Stone magazine with ushering in the era of the singer/songwriter. In addition to performing his own compositions, he covered songs by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Murray McLauchlan, David Wiffen and William Hawkins, helping them to gain recognition early in their careers.

Bob Dylan is reputed to be the "Roosevelt Gook" credited as playing piano on the 1966 Elektra album Take A Little Walk With Me, though many believe it was Al Kooper under another name to collect a second musician's fee.

His 1968 composition "No Regrets" has become an acknowledged standard, with numerous cover versions having been recorded (Rush did two radically different versions himself). These include The Walker Brothers, who gave Tom Rush a belated Top Ten exposure as a songwriter on the UK singles chart, Emmylou Harris, who included the song on her 1988 album Bluebird, and Midge Ure whose cover also made the UK Top Ten.

A video of his performance of Steven Walters' "The Remember Song" was placed on YouTube and to date (June 2012) it has received over 6 million plays. 

Writing on his website, Rush said, "I've been waiting 45 years to be an overnight sensation, and it's finally happened! A video clip of my performance of "The Remember Song" has 'gone viral.' I felt terrible at first, thinking I was being accused of being a musical equivalent of Ebola, but my children explained to me that this was a good thing." One of the earliest music videos produced (1968) for an artist by a record company, Elektra, can be found at his website, www.tomrush.com. It was used to promote his signature song, "No Regrets" for "The Circle Game" album. A number of recent videos from a 2010 concert performed in Old Saybrook, CT can be found on the video website Vimeo under a search for Tom Rush.

Tom Rush is married to author Renée Askins and was formerly married to singer Beverly Rush.

Over the years Tom Rush has used a number of guitars on stage, his current primary one a handcrafted acoustic made by Don Musser. In February 2012, Rush appeared on stage in Colorado with a new instrument, a cedar-top Dreadnought with an inlay of a snake wrapped around a reclining nude woman. The guitar, crafted by McKenzie & Marr Guitars is a "re-incarnation" of one of Rush's earliest acoustics - the famous "Naked Lady."

On 28 Dec 2012 Rush appeared at Boston Symphony Hall to celebrate fifty years in the music biz.

Tom Rush is a gifted musician and performer, whose shows offer a musical celebration...a journey into the tradition and spectrum of what music has been, can be, and will become. His distinctive guitar style, wry humor and warm, expressive voice have made him both a legend and a lure to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the rib-aching laughter of terrific story-telling, the sweet melancholy of ballads and the passion of gritty blues.

Rush's impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the '60s and the renaissance of the '80s and '90s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. James Taylor told Rolling Stone, "Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences." Country music star Garth Brooks has credited Rush with being one of his top five musical influences. Rush has long championed emerging artists. His early recordings introduced the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, and in more recent years his Club 47 concerts have brought artists such as Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin to wider audiences when they were just beginning to build their own reputations.

Tom Rush began his musical career in the early '60s playing the Boston-area clubs while a Harvard student. The Club 47 was the flagship of the coffee house fleet, and he was soon holding down a weekly spot there, learning from the legendary artists who came to play, honing his skills and growing into his talent. He had released two albums by the time he graduated.

Rush displayed then, as he does today, an uncanny knack for finding wonderful songs, and writing his own - many of which have become classics re-interpreted by new generations. (It is testimony to the universality of his appeal that his songs have been folk hits, country hits, heavy metal and rap hits.) Signed by Elektra in 1965, Rush made three albums for them, culminating in The Circle Game, which, according to Rolling Stone, ushered in the singer/songwriter era.

In the early '70s, folk turned to folk-rock, and Rush, ever adaptable, saw more room to stretch out. Recording now for Columbia, he toured tirelessly with a five man band, playing concerts across the country. Endless promotional tours, interviews, television appearances, and recording sessions added up to five very successful but exhausting years, after which Tom decided to take a break and "recharge" his creative side at his New Hampshire farm.

01. "Driving Wheel" (David Wiffen) – 5:22

02. "Rainy Day Man" (James Taylor, Zachary Wiesner) – 3:07

03. "Drop Down Mama" (Sleepy John Estes) – 2:33

04. "Old Man's Song" (Murray McLauchlan) – 3:22

05. "Lullaby" (Jesse Colin Young) – 3:45

06. "These Days" (Jackson Browne) – 2:40

07. "Wild Child" (Fred Neil) – 3:13

08. "Colors of the Sun" (Jackson Browne) – 3:51

09. "Livin' in the Country" (Day, Winsted) – 2:31

10. "Child's Song" (Murray McLauchlan) - 4:09

1. Tom Rush

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2. Tom Rush

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Various Artist - A Pot of Flowers (Great Garagerock & Psychedelic Rock US 1967)

Size: 161 MB

Bitrate: 320

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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock

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When it first appeared in 1967, With Love: A Pot of Flowers was an enigmatic relic of the early San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, comprised of a dozen tracks by groups that never made a national impact. The 2010 CD reissue on Chiswick does much to make its place in the history of San Francisco rock more comprehensible, due both to the addition of 14 bonus tracks (more tracks, in fact, than were on the original LP itself) and compiler Alec Palao's customarily thorough and lengthy historical liner notes. These explain how the Mainstream label made a concerted effort to get into the action of the early San Francisco Bay Area rock scene in the mid-'60s, resulting in the numerous recordings by the obscure bands on this CD, though none of the groups they signed would make it big save one (Big Brother & the Holding Company, who are not represented on the compilation). While the hope was, of course, to have hits, viewed from a distance it's almost like a documentary snapshot of some of the more notable bands that never made it, and indeed might have rarely or never gotten inside a recording studio if not for Mainstream's interest.

All that noted, the dozen songs on the original LP (presented as the first 12 tracks on this CD) are more typical early San Francisco rock than they are brilliant, often showing more of a garage rock influence than a psychedelic one. There's also a folk-rock feel, especially in the tracks by Wildflower, with some echoes of the Byrds and the Beau Brummels, though the trademark bittersweetness of the San Francisco sound is part of the mix too. 

The Harbinger Complex's "My Kind and Dear Sir," in contrast, sounds something like a mid-‘60s, country-rock Kinks, and is a standout in both its quality and its relatively unusual approach in these surroundings. The 14 bonus tracks are a mixture of rare singles on the Mainstream label and its Brent subsidiary, along with some unissued cuts and mono single versions of songs from the original LP. While these generally aren't up to the level of the cuts on the original album, they have their moments, especially the New Dawn's "Slave of Desire," one of the most accurate Animals imitations ever (though it borrows quite liberally from the Animals' "Inside Looking Out"). Other sides among the bonus material are yet even more raw and more undeveloped than those in the main program, with future Big Brother & the Holding Company singer Kathi McDonald taking lead vocals on Thee Unusuals' "I Could Go On." [AMG]

“With Love: A Pot Of Flowers” was originally issued in late 1967 by Mainstream Records. It is testament to the quality of the groups and songs included, not to mention the A&R proclivities of Mainstream head honcho Bob Shad – as irascibly indefatigable as anyone you might choose in the hothouse atmosphere of the independent record business of that era – that the album plays so well and, if you’ll pardon the pun, really grows on you. That in hindsight it also plucked four bands from within the vortex of 1966 nascent psychedelia and places them in a historically fascinating context, is equally remarkable. This expanded version of “A Pot Of Flowers” includes additional material by other relevant groups released on Brent or Mainstream from 1965 to 1967, as well as the mono single mixes of selected tracks from the album and some unreleased cuts.

The collection was amongst the first of a swathe of rock albums that Mainstream issued towards the end of the 1960s, the result of a remarkable A&R odyssey conducted by Shad across the United States, in much the same fashion as the location recording expeditions the producer had made to the south in the late 1940s in search of blues and R&B acts. Whether by luck or design, Shad decided to make one of his first ports of call San Francisco, which in early 1966 was well into the honeymoon period of its own socio-cultural renaissance, with the entire Bay Area awash with rock’n’rollers of all shapes and sizes. 

As our extensive liner note details, he had initially issued several unsuccessful singles by Bay Area groups on both Mainstream and Brent, but by subsequently collecting the best of these together on “A Pot Of Flowers” he unwittingly created one of the more satisfying surveys of the scene at the time. The acts in question were the Wildflower, pioneering folk-rockers who were an early fixture at the Fillmore and Avalon; San Jose’s popular garage band the Otherside; legendary East Bay punks the Harbinger Complex; and, from southern California via Texas, the idiosyncratic Euphoria, whose pathfinding, off-beat take on psychedelia has given the group a cult reputation. 

The bonus material included on this Big Beat reissue doubles the track list of “A Pot Of Flowers” y adding appropriate folk-rock and proto-psych sides from other West Coast acts on Mainstream such as the New Dawn, the Word, the Ariel and Thee Unusuals, the latter a Northwest group featuring blue-eyed chanteuse Kathi McDonald, who would later to take Janis’ spot in Big Brother & the Holding Company (who were also signed by Bob Shad during his California sorties). We are also proud to include several stellar unissued garage rockers from the Ban and the Montells, as well as the original mono singles mixes of selected tunes. 

Mainstream has a particular cachet with aficionados of late 1960s psych, and thanks to assiduous research conducted in the label’s vaults, we are proud to announce an exhaustive Mainstream pop-psych anthology forthcoming on Big Beat. Stay tuned. [Ace Records]

Album Tracks 1967:

01. The Wildflower - Baby Dear   02:21 

02. The Wildflower - Wind Dream   02:16 

03. Euphoria - Hungry Women   03:18 

04. The Other Side - Streetcar   02:17 

05. The Wildflower - Coffee Cup   02:16 

06. The Harbinger Complex - I Think I'm Down   02:24 

07. The Wildflower - Jump In   02:45 

08. The Other Side - Walking Down the Road   02:21 

09. The Harbinger Complex - When You Know You're in Love   02:11 

10. Euphoria - No Me Tomorrow   03:09 

11. The Harbinger Complex - Time to Kill   02:08 

12. The Harbinger Complex - My Dear and Kind Sir   02:24

 

Bonus Tracks:     

13. The New Dawn - Slave of Desire   02:31 

14. The Word - Now It's Over   02:45 

15. The Ban - Thinking of Your Fate   02:16 

16. The Montells - I'm Lonely   02:54 

17. Thee Unusuals - I Could Go On   02:01 

18. The Ban - Bye Bye   02:48 

19. The Ariel - It Feels Like I'm Crying   02:02 

20. The Word - So Little Time   02:40 

21. The Montells - You're Wrong to Think It   01:52 

22. The Ban - Place of Sin   02:38 

23. The Wildflower - Wind Dream (Mono Single Version)   02:16 

24. The Other Side - Streetcar (Mono Single Version)   02:19 

25. Euphoria - Hungry Women (Mono Single Version)   03:01 

26. The Harbinger Complex - I Think I'm Down (Mono Single Version)   02:26 

1. Pot of Flowers

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Early Moods - Early Moods (Great Heavy Hardrock US 2022)

Size: 139 MB

Bitrate: 320

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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock

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The self-titled full length debut of Los Angeles quintet Early Moods is a marriage of classic underground doom like Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Pentagram, Trouble and Saint Vitus, paired with traditional “big box” Heavy Metal melodies and song structure. These two contrasting aesthetics may seem incongruous, but the skilled musicianship of Early Moods — some of whom have played music together since their early teens — manages to find the perfect balance between grit and gloss.

“From the beginning, the purpose for this band was to incorporate our love of traditional doom metal with a heavy metal approach,” guitarist Eddie Andrade says. “We wanted to show that heavy doom can be complemented with melodies and harmonies. Black Sabbath meets NWOBHM is what we aim for, really.”

The band was founded in 2015 by Andrade and vocalist/keyboardist Alberto Alcaraz after a few years of playing in thrash and death metal projects before the two realized that the classic doom that they’d grown up with was what they really wanted to explore. Going through a few lineup changes while delving deeper into the diverging influences that were calling, Early Moods arrived at the sound and lineup that grew their fanbase locally. The band soon captured the attention of German label Dying Victim Productions, who released their debut EP, Spellbound in 2020. Early Moods is Oscar Hernandez on lead guitar, Chris Flores on drums, Elix Felciano on bass, Alcaraz on vocals/synth and Andrade on guitar.

Early Moods was recorded at 7th Street Studios in downtown L.A. by Carlos Cruz (Warbringer, Chris Poland, Power Trip) from October to December of 2021. It was mixed by Allen Falcon of Birdcage Studios and mastered by Brad Boatright of Audio Siege who has worked with bands like Sleep, Obituary, and High On Fire.

The album opens with a slow fade of ringing feedback that builds into the main motif, an infectious trilling Iommi-esque guitar line of “Return To Salem’s Gate” that turns on a dime into a double time gallop and just as quickly back again, all the while building subtle harmonies of vocals and guitars. “Live To Suffer” nods to the swinging denim doom of Trouble while “Funeral Rites” takes a more grunge leaning tack with syrupy guitars and Pentagram style narrative structure. The band’s namesake song “Early Moods” begins as an eerie ballad with chorus-soaked guitars playing a sinister riff that slowly grows as Alcaraz sings of tortured souls. Then suddenly it all breaks into a chugging charge with a gloriously simple but effective hammer-on melodic guitar line that soon transforms into a scorching lead. Throughout, the band deftly shows its skill with refined prowess. 

The first thing that came to my mind when I listened to Early Moods was: “Fashion changes, but style endures”.

I know that a quote by Coco Chanel is one of the most unlikely opening lines you expect to read in a traditional doom metal album review, but I cannot find a better way to express my conviction that, despite all the evolution and the branching out of metal in the last 50+ years, the back-to-basics style will always be a winner, but only when done rightly and respectfully.

Early Moods have not reinvented the wheel. Au contraire, they are using a formula that has been done time and time again. They take the trad riffs and the groovy rhythms of bands like Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, and Trouble, they spice it up with some Iron Maiden and Angel Witch melodies, they have a darker Sean Harris (Diamond Head) to sing on top, and the end product, leaning more to the doom metal side rather than the heavy metal one, is irresistible. You cannot go wrong if you go classic, provided that the style is not the only thing that is right on the money. The songs have to be worthy of that classic sound, too.

From the upbeat opener “Return To Salem’s Gate” to the epic closer “Funeral Macabre”, the band puts down quality riff after quality riff and gripping solo after gripping solo. The guitars are lightly fuzzy and the vocals have some reverb, so that the album showcases a little bit of a stoner-y character, but not too much, thankfully. The song “Early Moods” is a highlight, following the Black Sabbath paradigm of having the same band name, song title, and debut album title, but my personal favourite is “Damnation”; it sounds as if Alice In Chains are doing an alternate take of the main riff of Metallica’s “Sad But True”, and it has a magnificent solo.

Everything about this release is cool: the black and white band photo, the actual look of the band members (check out the vocalist’s afro), the ‘70s-style logo, but, most importantly, the music. I am a sucker for this type of doom metal, but I am also very difficult to convince because the best of this has already been done, in my opinion. This is why most bands that just go for the retro sound, without the songwriting chops and the musicianship to justify the throwback, end up in my trash bin. Early Moods’ debut will end up in my year-end list instead.

01. Return To Salem's Gate

02. Live To Suffer

03. Early Moods

04. Defy Thy Name

05. Memento Mori

06. Last Rites

07. Curse The Light

08. Damnation

09. Funeral Macabre

1. Early Moods

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