VINCE MARTIN & FRED NEIL "Tear Down The Walls" 1964 & FRED NEIL "Bleecker & MacDougal" 1965

Because of the renown achieved in later years by Fred Neil, it is easy to forget that his partner was much better known at the time Martin & Neil released their sole album in 1964. "Vince Martin With the Tarriers," as they were billed, had scored a Top Ten hit with "Cindy, Oh Cindy" in 1956. Martin possessed the sort of forceful tenor that enabled Glenn Yarbrough to lead the Limeliters to success, and he used it in a similarly dramatic way. It also provided a striking contrast to Neil's bass-baritone. Martin & Neil came along at a time when commercial folk was showing a distinct social consciousness, and their style drew heavily on that of the massively popular Peter, Paul & Mary, particularly on the Neil-composed title song, with its stirring utopian tone ("one world in harmony"), and even Martin's "Red Balloon," a children's song in the tradition of "Puff the Magic Dragon" with some lyrics that later turned up in Jefferson Airplane's "Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil." Accompanied by Felix Pappalardi on the bass-like guitarron and John Sebastian on harmonica, the duo strummed 12-string acoustic guitars and used their strikingly different voices to reinvent traditional songs like "I Know You Rider" and "Lonesome Valley," popular covers like Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew," and some originals. Neil's "Wild Child in a World of Trouble," which he sang alone, looked forward to his career as a solo singer/songwriter, which commenced not long after this album was released. After decades out of print, Tear Down the Walls reappeared in two configurations, as a European two-fer with Neil's first solo album, Bleecker and MacDougal, credited to Neil alone and issued in the fall of 2001, and as a straight reissue from the mail order firm Collectors' Choice Music in early 2002. (Allmusic)Given the late Fred Neil's near mythic reputation as a songwriter, singer, environmentalist, and recluse, the reissue of his 1965 album Bleecker & MacDougal is of historic importance. But rather than being an artifact of the man who wrote "Everybody's Talkin'," "Other Side to This Life" (which appears here), and "Dolphins," this album is made of the material that gave Neil his enigmatic presence. This is a highly evocative and emotionally charged set of material, nearly all of which Neil composed. The lineup on the album was similar to his previous outing with Vince Martin, and featured John Sebastian on harmonica, Felix Pappalardi on bass, and guitarist Pete Childs (who also played dobro and electric on the date -- the latter was heresy for a folk record), with Neil playing 12-string. The pace of the set is devastating, from the greasy blues of the title track to the strolling darkness of "Blues on the Ceiling," the jug band stomp of "Sweet Mama," and the balladic heraldry of "Little Bit of Rain," a dynamic Tim Buckley would bring his own magic to as he emulated it a few years later. In addition, there's the tough Chicago blues meets California swagger of "Country Boy," which Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield would perfect two scant years later. "Other Side to This Life" is its own elegiac painting in sound, with glistening dirge-like textures caressed by Neil's baritone. The tough, battered "Travelin' Shoes" is an early example of folk-rock with a big accent on the word "rock." Yet, on the album's lone cover, a gorgeously wrought and multi-textured rendition of "The Water Is Wide," Neil added spare, haunting jazz overtones to the arrangements, transcending the folk coffeehouse prison the song had been encased in for a decade. In fact, if one listens to Bryter Layter by Nick Drake, it would be easy to hear the connection. The album closes with the winding dobro that sparks "Gone Again," underlining the album's feeling of rambling transience and willful acceptance of both the graces and hardships life offers. In 13 songs, Neil transformed the folk genre into something wholly other yet not unfamiliar to itself, and helped pave the way for an entire generation of singer/songwriters who cared as much for the blues as they did for folk revival traditions. This is -- more so than his fine compilation The Many Sides of Fred Neil (also on Collector's Choice) or his debut Capitol album, Tear Down the Walls -- the Fred Neil record to have. (Thom Jurek, Allmusic)

trax VINCE MARTIN & FRED NEIL "Tear Down The Walls":

01 I Know You Rider 02 Red Flowers 03 Tear Down The Walls 04 Weary Blues 05 Toy Balloon 06 Baby 07 Morning Dew 08 I'm A Drifter 09 Linin' Track 10 Wild Child In A World Of Trouble 11 Dade County Jail 12 I Got 'Em 13 Lonesome Valley

trax FRED NEIL "Bleecker & MacDougal":

14 Bleecker & MacDougal 15 Blues On The Ceiling 16 Sweet Mama 17 Little Bit Of Rain 18 Country Boy 19 Other Side To This Life 20 Mississippi Train 21 Travelin_ Shoes 22 The Water Is Wide 23 Yonder Comes The Blues 24 Candy Man 25 Handful Of Gimme 26 Gone Again

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