The Wailers "Outburst" - 1966

Not long after the The Wailers released their R&B comeback LP “Out of Our Tree” in early 1966, a young songwriter from Louisiana via Bremerton by the name of Ron Davies walked into their office at Etiquette Records with a guitar and a paper bag full of demo reels. After listening through, they liked what they heard, especially of the song “It’s You Alone”, a love ballad. They liked it so much that they decided to record it and release it as their next single in April of 1966. While they had trouble getting local airplay, United Artists Records took an interest and picked up the single, backed with another Davies’ composition, “Tears” for national distribution and it did moderately well, hitting #5 on the charts in San Francisco and doing well enough that United Artists asked for an album to back it up...
...The Wailers traveled to California where they would record at Western, the same studios where The Beach Boys were recording their ill-fated Smile project. Having become fast friends with Ron Davies and loving his material, they decided to record ten of his songs, practically the whole album! His compositions were a mix of standard pop/rock songs that really jam (“You Won’t Lead Me On”, “Bad Trip”, “Hold”) and more introspective stuff (“It’s You Alone”, “Sit in my Room”, “I Want to Talk With You”) played in a sparse style very much like Davies himself. The Wailers only included one new band composition on the album, the hard and heavy “Turn and Run”. The remaining slot was filled by a previous hit, the blaring “Out of Our Tree”, to give it more exposure, I guess. In conclusion, ‘Outburst’ is a bit more consistent than their previous efforts, which relied heavily on songs from their live repertoire that could never be captured the same in the studio. They show a much better handle on pop music then on their first attempt, 1965’s “Wailers Wailers Everywhere.” The songwriting is obviously more consistent as well coming from mostly one very skilled songwriter. The musicianship is a lot tighter as well. Instead of screaming, we get crooning and harmonizing. Instead of pounding Little Richard piano, we get a harpsichord! The saxophone is toned way down as well. New guitarist, Neil Andersson, lifted from The Bootmen after the departure of founding member Rich Dangel, really shines on this album, playing a clean but heavy garage style reminiscent of The Kinks and bringing a little bit of psych to the mix. It’s a refreshing change from their earlier thrashing sound.
trax:
01 You Won't Lead Me On 02 I Want To Walk With You 03 Think Kindly Baby 04 Out Of Our Tree 05 It's You Along 06 Bad Trip 07 Hold 08 My Girl 09 Turn And Run 10 Sit In My Room 11 Tears Don't Have To Fall 12 I'm Looking Down At You