Goldebriars

The Goldebriars made a couple of obscure pop-folk albums for Epic in 1964. The group is notable not for their pleasant yet lightweight music, but for the inclusion of a few members who subsequently went on to much more significant projects in rock after the band broke up. The most prominent of these was Curt Boettcher, producer and performer of some of the most highly esteemed California sunshine pop of the '60s with the Association, Sagittarius, and the Millennium. Future Music Machine drummer Ron Edgar was also in the Goldebriars briefly in their final days, although he did not play on either of their albums.

The Goldebriars' debut album is clean-cut folk-pop with bright, high female-male harmonies, sometimes foreshadowing the searing high harmonic blends typical of group member (and arranger) Curt Boettcher's later rock productions. At other times it sounds innocuous in a dated way, and redolent of those musical acts that straddle the line between wholesome school assembly entertainment and choruses for commercial jingles. That's a criticism that could be levied at some of Boettcher's more famous work, too, but it's much more pronounced here.

The Goldebriars' second album is not folk-rock, but there's an expansiveness to the production that is definitely leading the music in the pop and even rock direction. You can hear a little drums (albeit of the sort where it sounds like someone's placed a towel over the kit), keyboards, and pop/rock rhythm. Unfortunately, the ambition of the arrangements is not matched by the material, which can digress into kind of corny folk-ethnic numbers along the lines of "Zum Gale Gale" (a song-chant familiar to anyone who attended Jewish summer camps) and "Joy, Joy, Joy." The non-traditional material, too, can be stultifyingly awkward.

Warner Music Presents Softrock Nuggets Vol.1: Silver And Sunshine album 24 original hits by the original artists. Includes tracks by the The Goldebriars, The Rascals, The Coronados, Tommy James & The Shondells,The Holy Mackerel, The Vogues, Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends, and more.