Hey Joe

This is one hell of a debut album, especially for a group that only lasted for about a year after its release. The Leaves perform some superb folk-rock in a Byrds/Beatles vein ("Just a Moment," "Girl From the East"), excellent lyrical garage punk ("Words," "Tobacco Road"), and solid hard rock ("Hey Joe," "Too Many People"), and cross swords with the Rolling Stones ("You Better Move On," "Back On the Avenue" – the latter a ripoff of the Stones' "2120 South Michigan Avenue") and Bob Dylan ("Love Minus Zero"). The sound isn't exactly consistent, given the gamut of influences at work here, from Bo Diddley ("Dr. Stone") to primitive psychedelia ("War of Distortion"), but there isn't a bad song on the disc, and the CD reissue has about the best sound ever heard on this material, bringing out the guitars in a genuinely crisp and vivid fashion.

'Otis Taylor's fourteenth album presents a meticulously crafted collection of songs and instrumentals and is only akin to his preceding recordings in that the music again resists easy categorization. Blues and Folk elements are a key part of this, but Taylor's cutting edge approach also draws on Psychedelic Rock, Jazz and Americana to create a hybrid that he calls Trance Blues.