Jug Band

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.

The Incredible String Band - The Incredible String Band
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 302 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Strange Days Records # POCE-1032 | Country/Year: Japan 2006, 1966
Genre: Rock, Folk | Style: Folk Rock

…While this album is a tremendous launch pad for potential enthusiasts, be aware that every Incredible String Band recording is also extremely individual and reflects the current membership of the group.

The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band is a compilation of Austin’s most dedicated blues players including members Mark Hays, drums (Seth Walker, Smokin Joe Kubek & Bnois King), J.P. Whitefield, bass (Founding member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Angela Strehli Band and the original Antone’s house band), and Willie Pipkin, guitar and vocals (South Austin Jug Band, Toni Price, Warren Hood).

Symphonion Dream was the last album recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band before Jim Ibbotson left and the band began to move away from its traditional jug band/bluegrass roots. The big question is why in 1975, when the rest of the First Division of country-rock practitioners – the Eagles, Poco, Souther-Hillman-Furay et al – had been travelling for some time in the direction of simplified, stadium-friendly AOR, the NGDB went the other way and produced what I think is the best, and surely the quirkiest, psychedelic country album ever.

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band are actually a trio – the Reverend Josh Peyton on primitive slide guitar, harmonica, and vocals; his wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and backing vocals; and Aaron "Cuz" Persinger on percussion (often buckets and trash cans) and background vocals – but the sound is big indeed, a boozy, uncontained noise in which jug band, country, blues, and down-home boogie tumble around in a joyous, uplifting cacophony……

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's second album is a masterpiece. From the opening bars of Jackson Browne's "Shadow Dream Song," the high spirits overflow the grooves (or ones and zeros, on the CD) of the record. The singing and playing are more confident, and some of the songs - including the bluesy "Ooh Po Pe Do Girl" and the hook-laden "I'll Search The Sky" by Jeff Hanna, and Copeland and Noonan's (the "Buy for Me the Rain" team) "Tide of Love" - are as solid as anything coming out of California. Even the kazoo-dominated "Coney Island Washboard" and "Happy Fat Annie" and the nostalgic '20s-styled Jackson Browne-written "It's Raining Here in Long Beach" fit well into the mix, reflecting the full range of the band's influences…

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's second album is a masterpiece. From the opening bars of Jackson Browne's "Shadow Dream Song," the high spirits overflow the grooves (or ones and zeros, on the CD) of the record. The singing and playing are more confident, and some of the songs - including the bluesy "Ooh Po Pe Do Girl" and the hook-laden "I'll Search The Sky" by Jeff Hanna, and Copeland and Noonan's (the "Buy for Me the Rain" team) "Tide of Love" - are as solid as anything coming out of California. Even the kazoo-dominated "Coney Island Washboard" and "Happy Fat Annie" and the nostalgic '20s-styled Jackson Browne-written "It's Raining Here in Long Beach" fit well into the mix, reflecting the full range of the band's influences…

Forty years ago, this original of this album almost appeared on Island Records, and therein lies a tale almost as interesting as the record itself. Ian A. Anderson, as he was then known, almost shared a name with Jethro Tull's frontman. The band's management decided the label wasn't large enough for two Ian Andersons and the newcomer was shuffled off elsewhere. As an anecdote it's priceless, but so is this artefact of the British blues boom of the late 1960s. It was, perhaps, great hubris on Anderson's part to believe he could write blues songs equal to those of the greats (and he probably cringes these days over "Short Haired Woman Blues"), but in many ways they hold up well, and he's helped out by some excellent musicians, notably the great Bob Hall on piano, while Chris Turner turns in some stunning harmonica performances…