Joni Forest

George Hamilton IV - Abilene (1963) & Canadian Pacific (1969) {2on1 Morello Records MRLL 75 rel 2017}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 418 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 148 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 32 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1963, 1969, 2017 Morello Records / RCA Victor / Sony Music | MRLL 75
Country / Country Folk / Folk / Country-Pop / Nashville Sound

A pair of albums from the overlooked George Hamilton IV – back to back on a single CD! First up is Abilene – a seminal album from the great George Hamilton IV – a richly-voiced singer on 60s RCA, and one who was maybe a key link between Nashville and some of the folk boom of the time! George's music is definitely country, but it's also got maybe some of the younger appeal of the other scene – still given some of the RCA polish that Chet Atkins could bring, but delivered with a voice that might have been equally at home in a coffee house. Titles include the classic "Abilene", plus "The Little Lunch Box", "The Everglades", "Tender Hearted Baby", "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy", and "Come On Home Boy".

Unless you frequent Los Angeles clubs like The Baked Potato and La Ve Lee, chances are you haven't heard of keyboardist David Garfield. But you've heard him. Appearing on over a hundred albums, Garfield has worked with artists like trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and guitarist Larry Carlton. He's a co-founder of Los Lobotomys and Karizma, two fusion-based jam bands that have included drummers like Vinnie Colaiuta and Simon Phillips, as well as guitarists Steve Lukather and the perennially-underrated Michael Landau. No recording dates are listed on The State of Things, but Garfield's clearly been working on it for years, given that a third of the tracks feature Carlos Vega—a versatile drummer who appeared on literally hundreds of albums before passing away tragically in 1998. This fusion-centric effort features many of LA's best session players, but in many ways it's as much Landau's disc as it is Garfield's. He pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix on a version of "If Six Was Nine that—as blasphemous as this may sound—might actually be an improvement on the original. While his tone says rock, his lines say jazz as he demonstrates complete facility navigating changes on the swinging version of Miles Davis' "Milestones and a more delicate mainstream take on John Coltrane's "Naima. He exhibits his more textural side on "Me and kicks things into extreme high gear on the greasy funk of "Five Storks and the more overtly rocking "Black Cadillac.