"VOYAGES INTO… FOLK-ROCK" Vol. 1

Anyone who loves the jingle-jangle of twelve string guitar and introspective lyrics will love the first volume of the folk-rock set, which features bands like The Unknowns (a Paul Revere and The Raiders side project), The Bows and Arrows, Messengers (the first white band to be signed to Motown), The Tweeds, The Sages, The Underground and many, many others. Talk about your twelve-string jangle! Seems every band was trying to take a page from either the Beatles or the Byrds on this CD, though more often than not the derivativeness is more than made up for by the sheer energy and passion of these artists. This is the best of the best here, uncomped and fresh as a daisy to your ears yet lovingly retro at the same time! So you wanna be a rock and roll star…
(http://www.lostinthegrooves.com/tags/psychedelic)As they put it themselves at the headquarters where these musical voyages are being conducted from, this CD series is “devoted to unearthing rare and intriguing 45’s from the mid ‘60s through the early ‘70s”, with an occasional original album track that has yet to be introduced to the digital era, with the majority of the material being uncomped, and ALL of it appearing on CD for the first time, and also ALL of it delivered in the glorious monophopnic sound!

The Folk Rock volume opens with Mark Lindsay’s side project THE UKNOWNS, providing an alternative version of the “Revolution” track Tighter with a bit of a Brummel-ish country flavour, while LARRY & THE PAPER PROPHETS’ The Only Thing isn’t too far from the same concept neither.

I Don’t Believe It shows THE BOWS & ARROWS as conscientious disciples of the Dylan-through-Byrds school of covers, THE DILLONS and THE SHADOW CASTERS provide us with a pair of power-folk-rocking tunes, if there ever was such a sub-genre, while MESSENGERS, who supposed to be the first white band signed to Motown, offers us “a little bit of” Monkee business.

On the moodier side of things, THE SAGES’ I’m Not Going To Cry is a nice Mersey flavoured ballad, TOMMY & THE TRUE BLUE FACTS go slightlydelic with their punky folk protest tune, and the closing Dancing Girl is what’s usually called the acid-folk, done by 1st CENTURY.

As for the Garage volume, some of the faves might be THE REACTORS’ Do That Thing, worthy of any of the Nuggets/Pebbles volumes, SHANNON CANNON with Right Back, suggesting their fascination with The (US) Outsiders, and also throwing in a Sloan/Barri-like chorus, the closing Come On, Lil Darlin which finds THE MINCY TWINS “searching” for the garage punk genre’s origins as far back as 1963, the Mouse-like Dylan impersonation of LONDON & THE BRIDGES.

While the trio of LARRY & THE PAPER PROPHETS’ (also featured on the folk-rock volume) Can’t Sit Around, THE MIKE MANN OUTFIT’s Twice As Much On Sunday and THE NEW ORDER’s “knickerbocker” length power-pop You’ve Got Me High, all have the genuine HIT SINGLE tag written all over them.

The highlights of the Pop-Psych volume include some genre defining stuff such as the dreamy, sitar-laden Flower Hill by CENTRAL PARK or STAINED GLASS’ Lady In Lace, the cool upbeat sunshiny West Coast harmonizing of MC², the appropriately named UNDERGOUND SUNSHINE, mixing some underground fuzz with baroque styled keyboards, while the Association associated (written by Jules Alexander/produced by Clark Burroughs) JOYRIDE sounds kinda like (guess who?) The Association-meets-Airplane-ish-West-Coast-psych.

POE’s Up Through The Spiral is more like a Harrison-through-Badfinger-ized power pop, which might not be such a surprise, considering that it comes from ’71, D.C.HAWK’s Since You’ve Been Gone (released on UNI right after the Poe single!) is a similarly catchy, semi-acoustic power-pop-sike, and also worth the mention is an interesting, almost loungey, cover of Fred Neil’s The Other Side Of This Life, done by THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BAND.

Though privately pressed, this CD series is an obvious labour of love, with every volume featuring detailed info on all of the tracks/artists, and as a special bonus, each of them is interspersed with cool commercial spots by the likes of The Who, Sopwith Camel, The Blues Magoos, Sam the Sham, Curt Boettcher… [Released by Voyages Records 2005]

INFO

http://popdiggers.com/various-artists-voyages-into-folk-rock-garage-pop-psych/

http://www.lostinthegrooves.com/tags/psychedelic 

trax:

1. Tighter - The Unknowns 2. I Don't Believe It - The Bows & Arrows 3. Window Shopping - The Messengers 4. The Only Thing - Larry & The Paper Prophets 5. What's Your Name - The Tweeds 6. Great Shakes Commercial - The Who 7. February Sunshine - The Giant Sunflower 8. Satisfy'n Sunday - The Underground 9. Let Your Hair Hang Low - Starbuck & The Rainmakers 10. I'll Be There - The Patriots 11. Levis Commercial - Sopwith Camel 12. I'm Not Going To Cry - The Sages 13. Happy Man - These Vizitors 14. Tennessee Stud - Dewayne & The Beldettas 15. Who's Got The Right - Tommy & The True Blue Facts 16. Alcoa Aluminium Commercial - The First Edition 17. Pending - The Truths 18. Simple Way Of Living - The Dillons 19. Walter Right - The Rooney's 20. The Jones - Neal Ford & The Fanatics 21. The Longshoreman's Hall Trips Festival Commercial - Longshoreman Commercial 22. Your Time's Up - The Gass Co. 23. Playing In The Sun - Vern Clark & The Rainy Rivers 24. But Not Today - The Shadow Casters 25. Someone I've Got My Eyes Upon - Peter & The Rabits 26. Coke Commercial - The Seekers 27. Get Him Out Of Your Mind - The Underground 28. Girl From The North Country - The Plymouth Rockers 29. No One - The Sunrisers 30. Dancing Girl - The 1st Century

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