THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (REISSUES AND ANTHOLOGIES) By Michael McDowell

 CD AND LP REISSUES / ANTHOLOGIES (PLUS BOOKS)

(REVIEWS ARE POSTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY ARTIST)

POSITIVELY FOURTH STREET: Bob Seger And The Last Heard, Eric Andersen, Billy Joe Royal, Johnny Winter, Dion DiMucci, Ferre Grignard, P.F. Sloan and David Blue are among the many fine artists fearured in Bear Family's He Took Us By Storm, a twenty-five track CD collection of original material inspired by BOB DYLAN. Editor/Publisher Michael McDowell takes a closer look at this landmark release below (Click on above imaege to enlarge). 

CHILDREN OF THE LORD -

Silver

(Gear Fab)

To paraphrase Sam Cooke, by the mid-1970s, it was inevitable that a change was gonna come again.

Not the sort of all encompassing societal change that Cooke envisioned in 1964. Rather a decisive move away from what the late Michael Nesmith once referred to as the Grand Ennui in terms of the musical mainstream. 

Thankfully, that change came via a collective of like minded artists from a variety of musical disciplines. Initially, they coalesced under the so-called punk/new wave banner. However, the rich diversity at play necessitated a more all encompassing frame of reference. Hence the indie distinction that ultimately defined it. 

In that pre-internet era, such good news traveled at a relatively slower pace. Thankfully, an indie press industry arose to serve as the bearer of that good news. Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People remains the lone still active voice from that movement. 

While those cottage industries sought to find their footing, there remained a number of geographical reservoirs of talent that had not yet heard the call to arms. As such, many labored on with only the inspiration of that which immediately preceded them. For the moment, that prompted a handful of bands to persevere in the hopes of becoming the next arena rock front runners. 

Still armed with the tools of that trade, a number of those bands put together enough original material to issue an independent album. Almost invariably, they hoped their efforts would catapault them onto center stage alongside their respective inspirations. 

One of the few bands that at least succeeded aesthetically in that respect despite making their mark at the tail end of that movement was Silver. This 1975 debut was one of only three releases on the (presumably) Wisconsin-based Grammi Fonics label (the other two being by the Tony Brown Band). 

Sadly, the surviving data provides little in the way of elaboration. Issued in a generic promotional sleeve, Children Of The Lord offers no information regarding personnel, session data and the like. 

Ultimately, that leaves the material to speak for itself. Herein are seven presumably original compositions that follow the party line: lyrics taking issue with the system, sung largely in minor chords for dramatic effecf and embellished with enough keyboard and guitar flourishes to state the case for the band's advanced technical capabilies. 

To their considerable credit, in Silver's case, that approach works quite well. The title track opens the proceedings in all of its Black Sabbath / Uriah Heep bombast. Lyrically, the band then shifts gears into a relatively compssionate mood with Shoulder To Dream On (think Savage Grace's Come On Down) before asserting themselves with the prerequisite strut in Fail Dragger (complete with true to form guitar flourishes) and immersing themselves in period proclamations of solidarity with Dandylion Wine. The band finally affords a degree of reluctant deference to the title track via Fallen Angel before wrapping up the proceedings with the aptly titled Back From Space.

As one of the world's most prolific reissue labels since the closing days of the twentieth century, Roger Maglio's Gear Fab Records has consistently sought to outdo itself by taking the road least traveled and confounding expectations in the process. And with this renewed availability of one of the era's most curious releases, Gear Fab has in turn taken decisive steps back towards what Silver astutely termed the Long Way Back To Sunnyside.

LIVE IN FRANCE -

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

(Deep Digs)

Much of which was taken for granted in the second half of the twentieth century was in reality the result of the foundational work of visionary artists in the first half.

To wit, the Heidelberg Quintet, the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots set the standard for vocal group harmony and interplay. In the process, they raised the bar to the degree that it has yet to be surpassed. 

In turn, giants such as Charly Patton, Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Hank Williams immeasurably enriched the musical landscape with their formidable acumen as composers and vocalists. Moreover, game changing bands such as the Almanac Singers and the Weavers brought into the mix an emphasis on the cerebral approach within their art, paving the way in the process for everything from the folk boom to first generation garage rock.

One such visionary who elevated the state of the art and made an enormous impact in the process was composer, guitarist, vocalist and Cotton Plant, Arkansas native Rosetta "Sister Rosetta Tharpe" Nubin. Profoundly impacted by Gospel music, Tharpe began playing guitar at the age of six at the Church Of God In Christ, where her mother Katie (who was also a gifted vocalist and mandolin player) served as both a deaconess and missionary.

By 1938, Tharpe had signed with Brunswick Records, where she made her debut with the monster classic Rock Me / Lonesome Road single. Over the next several years, she cut a string of game changing singles for Brunswick and Decca, including God Don't Like It, This Train and Bring Back Those Happy Days. Tharpe joined forces with Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra in 1941, which elevated her profile among the rank and file exponentially. 

Tharpe spent a signigicant amount of time touring both North America and Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. Thankfully, a number of those performances were preserved on film. However, it was only in the late 2010s that this remarkable collection (recorded on 11 November 1966 at the Grand Theater in the city of Limoges in the Haute-Vienne department of west central France) was discovered by historian Zev Feldman in the Institut National de L'audiovisuel archives. It now makes its offical debut here in both the vinyl and CD configurations. 

By the time of this recording, Tharpe had long been acknowledged as one of the founders of rock and roll. Artists from Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley to Little Richard and long time Herman's Hermits rhythm guitarist Frank Renshaw (who had attended a Therpe live performance in the mid-1960s) have sung her praises, while guitarists from Eric Clapton to Keith Richards have hailed her influence in their own work. 

In this release, Tharpe sings the praises of God as few could, with a fervor that continues to motivate and inspire. Herein, she revisits a number of classics that also found a home in the repertoires of her musical peers and disciples, including Didn't It Rain (Evelyn Freeman and the Exciting Voices; Mahalia Jackson), Down By The Riverside (the Weavers) and When The Saints Go Marching In (the Kingston Trio), as well as a few of her own signature tracks (This Train, Bring Back Those Happy Days, Moonshine) and a closing number that had also graced the repertoires of Blind Willie Johnson, the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama and Nina Simone, Nobody's Fault But Mine.

Sadly, Tharpe suffered a stroke in 1970, which led to a diabetes-related amputation of a leg. Despite her valiant attempts to rebound, Tharpe suffered a second and fatal stroke on the eve of a planned recording session in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in October 1973. She was 58.

With a wealth of archival material and rare photos, as well as a comprehensive essay by Tharpe biographer Gayle Wald and insights from Bonnie Raitt, Moving Sidewalks / ZZ Top co-founder Billy Gibbons and actor / former Black Flag lead vocalist, Henry Rollins, Live In France is indeed nothing short of answered prayer.

HE TOOK US BY STORM -

Various Artists

(Bear Family)

And a quiet storm it was not.

Given the wealth of covers afforded Bob Dylan material during rock and roll's peak creative period (from the Turtles' It Ain't Me Babe and the Vacels' Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window to Rick Nelson's She Belongs To Me and Peter Antell's The Times They Are A Changin'), it would have been a fairly straightforward process to issue a CD comprised of the best such endeavors.

But in keeping with Dylan's consistent endeavors to confound expectations, Bear Family herein instead has gathered twenty-five tracks that drew their inspiration from his work. The rich diversity of artists represented in He Took Us By Storm speaks volumes, from Dion DiMucci (Two Ton Feather), Billy Joe Royal (covering Joe South's These Are Not My People) and Donovan Leitch (his Hickory-era Universal Soldier single) to Bob Seger And The Last Heard (their landmark January 1967 Persecution Smith single for Hideout), Barry McGuire (his much loved Dunhill-era Don't You Wonder Where It's At) and Leon Russell (Everybody's Talking About The Young). First rate gems by Eric Andersen, P.F. Sloan, David Crosby, Tom Rush, Johnny Winter, Bobby Darin, Boz Scaggs, Ferre Grignard and Dino Valenti round out the remainder of the set.

Featuring an insightful commentary by the late John Sinclair (a one time member of Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People's production team) and extensive sleeve notes by Philippe LeBras and others, He Took Us By Storm is most assuredly a decisive step towards taking the far reaching impact of one of the twentieth century's premier wordsmiths and Bringing It All Back Home.

KINGS, QUEENS AND JOKERS  -

Victoria (Gear Fab)

Remarkable is the reissue project that enjoys deluxe treatment in its third incarnation.

Such is the case with the 1971 debut album by the New Jersey band, Victoria. Recorded between 1969 and 1971, the original album featured eight original compositions by band co-founder Greg Ruban.

In reality, the album was a joint venture between Victoria (Ruban, along with Sharon Barton, Maureen Deidelbaum and Cheryl Simpson), in tandem with the Dirty Martha Band. Logistics prevented the band from performing live, but they did manage to capture this lone extraordinary effort in the studio. 

As a composer, Ruban (who also served as producer for this project) demonstrated remarkable vision and depth during that deceptively fallow creative period. To wit, the original album featured ambitious psychedelic workouts such as Village Of Etaf, which would have been right at home within the fertile boom period that produced the likes of Tintern Abbey, Grapefruit and the Soft Machine a scant few years earlier. 

In turn, the curious Cumberland takes its cue in parts from the Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning, while Gevaro avails itself as a latter day reimagination of Frankie Laine's Jezebel. Moreover, Ride A Rainbow serves as an extension and/or answer of sorts to the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Purple Haze, while the opener, Peace sports some refreshing acoustic guitar in its intro that falls in solidarity with the like minded overtures found in Lighthouse's One Fine Morning. The rare profession of candor that is the aptly named Never Knew Blues brings it all full circle; paradoxically drawing as it does from the tension that graced the template of Billy Roberts' often covered 1962 standard, Hey Joe.

Curiously, Kings, Queens And Jokers did not make it past the demo stage at the time of its recording. Nonetheless, it did finally see a limited release of two hundred copies in the early years of the twenty-first century. Out of print since 2005, it now enjoys a deluxe CD reissue on the Gear Fab label. For this deluxe third appearance, label president Roger Maglio has included seven heretofore unreleased Ruban compositions that were drawn from master tape and acetate sources, highlighted by the Gospel-tinged Mister Let Me Go, Child Of A Princess and an alternate take of Cumberland.

Sadly, Greg Ruban passed away in 2008. Nonetheless, his unique vision brings a most welcome addition to Gear Fab's extensive catalog of reissues of the rarest independent releases. Incentive to Ride A Rainbow indeed.