LYLE & PEAKE - Lyle & Peake [USA xian folk, rock, psychedelic 1978] Rebirth Songs AMP 1003

Jeremy Lyle grew up on the music of the sixties and early seventies and knew he wanted to play guitar and sing. After playing in various secular bands over the years, he decided to dedicate his life to Jesus and started to play in church where he formed a christian music band called Rebirth. Kenny Peake had a similar background when he started attending the same church as Jeremy. Kenny joined Rebirth as their drummer. Jeremy and Kenny would get together to write songs and decided it was time to record their original tunes. The other members from Rebirth couldn't make the sessions so Jeremy and Kenny played all the parts themselves. Recording took place over the course of a few weeks in a small studio in Prunedale, California. Jeremy played acoustic 6 or 12 string guitars and overdubbed the Bass and electric lead guitar parts. Kenny also played 6 or 12 string acoustic guitar and overdubbed the drum parts. Kenny sang lead on "Daniel" and "Jesus Is Savior" while Jeremy sang lead on the other songs. Both musicians overdubbed harmony vocal parts. The only other person to contribute to the record was friend David Powell who happened to stop by a recording session just in time to lend a harmony vocal part to "Daniel" The album was titled "White Dove" and was released to little fanfare but has gone on to become hugely popular in the Christian Rock, XIAN genres. Below is a review of the album from the Standin' At The Crossroads website:

Jeremy Lyle and Kenny Peake's custom lp is an exceptional mix of hard-edged garage rock, jangly hippie folk and dreamy acoustic songs. The electric stuff will blow you away, rugged basement rhythm guitar coupled with stinging electric leads, bringing a rough Jefferson Airplane kind of sound to 'Armageddon Blues', 'Get Your Life In Tune', 'Jesus Is Savior' and 'Open Your Heart', all of which have extensive fuzz guitar soloing. Bass and drums are in there, too (no keyboards). The twosome is equally effective in the unplugged format, their 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars creating soft impressionistic folk/psych moods within titles like 'White Dove'. The delicate acoustic ballads 'Such A Long, Long Time' and 'Jesus Gave Us Life For Free' have a fragile sincerity that is intensely moving. A touch of harmonica on 'Daniel 2:20', soft Byrds-like jingle-jangle on 'Love Still Remains'. More climactic fuzz can be found building up the closing ballad 'We Are The Stillness Of Silence'. An outstanding record and a prime candidate for Christian monsterhood. Nice cover painting of a dove. Recorded in Monterey, California.

Lyle - Peake

 

 

TREE TOP - Goin' The Other Way [USA rock, folk, country 1984] Treetop Rock Records - no number

Private press published in 1984 by this group of christian folk rock and melodic psychedelia. An interesting album for your collection.

Tree Top

MICHAEL YONKERS BAND - Lovely Gold [USA psychedelic, rock, folk 1977] 2010 Drag City DC428GZD-004

 

Recorded in 1977 on a four-channel "tube type" tape recorder that Michael built himself by combining parts of other machines, Lovely Gold wasn't released until now - a true crime for all the prior generations, because it is an exotic work of homespun brilliance, perhaps the most multi-faceted work de Yonkers. It was meant to be the fourth LP in a trilogy - and now it is.

Lovely Gold

NEIL YOUNG - After The Gold Rush [Canada rock 1970] 2020 Reprise Records 093621889588

 

Originally released on 19 September 1970, songs on the album include classics like ‘Tell Me Why’, ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’, ‘Southern Man’ and ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’.

The After the Gold Rush reissue includes the album's original 11 songs, plus two versions of the outtake "Wonderin'." The first version was recorded in Topanga, California, in March 1970, and originally was included on Young's The Archives Vol. 1: 1963-1972 box set. The second was recorded at Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood in August 1969 and is previously unreleased.

Young

FAIRPORT CONVENTION - What We Did on Our Saturday [UK folk rock 2018] Matty Grooves MG2CD055

 

What We Did On Our Saturday offers 25 cuts, all but three dating from 1967 to 1973 and just one – the pleasant Our Bus Rolls On – from the last 20 years.

Proceedings open with a storming Time Will Show The Wiser from the 1967 debut album, reuniting original vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews and featuring Richard Thompson’s sublime guitar work. Fairport’s 1969 folk-rock classic Liege & Lief is represented almost in its entirety, with Chris While channelling the late Sandy Denny most effectively, and Thompson is heavily featured on a string of tracks from the follow-up Full House.

Ralph McTell performs a moving White Dress while Sally Barker, PJ Wright and Maartin Allcock pay tribute to the late Trevor Lucas with a rousing rendition of the Fotheringay track The Ballad of Ned Kelly.

There’s the usual Fairport ending of Meet On The Ledge, performed by practically everyone who has been involved with the band over the last 50 years (and are still alive) and supported by the massed vocal talents of the Cropredy crowd. We’ve heard it so many times before but those Thompson lyrics – “When my time is up I’m gonna meet all my friends… it all comes round again” – still bring a lump to the throat.

This is both a worthy document of an obviously successful festival and a fitting celebration of half a century of great music – Fairport could say Farewell, Farewell now and this recording would provide a fine finale.

Fairport

JESSE COLIN YOUNG - On The Road [USA rock 1976] 2008 Forever Young WPCR-75432 - Japan

On a series of solo albums, Jesse Colin Young had developed a strong musical rapport with a group of players including drummer Jeff Myer, keyboard player Scott Lawrence, and especially horn man Jim Rothermel, whose flute and soprano sax lines duetted with Young's tenor vocals. Adding David Hayes (one of several bassists who had appeared on his studio releases) and his wife Suzi on harmonies, Young produced this excellent live album, on which he mixed Youngbloods favorites ("Sunlight") with some of his better solo material ("Peace Song," a 12½-minute version of "Ridgetop") and some well-chosen covers (a medley of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby") for a varied program that emphasized his eclectic talents.

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THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS - People Like Us [USA rock, folk 1971] 2013 Geffen Records UICY-75708

The Mamas & the Papas broke up in 1968, but they still owed an album on their contract with Dunhill Records (later absorbed by MCA). So, three years later, they reunited to make People Like Us and complete their obligation. The result isn't as bad as that scenario might suggest, though the songs have more in common with John Phillips' 1970 solo album than with the group's hits of the 1960s. But the release did not rekindle interest in the Mamas & the Papas, and this was their last new album.

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RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON - Shoot Out The Lights [UK folk rock 1982] 2010 Rhino Handmade RHM2 523875

Richard & Linda Thompson's marriage was crumbling as they were recording Shoot Out the Lights in 1982, and many critics have read the album as a chronicle of the couple's divorce. In truth, most of the album's songs had been written two years earlier (when the Thompsons were getting along fine) for an abandoned project produced by Gerry Rafferty, and tales of busted relationships and domestic discord were always prominent in their songbook. But there is a palpable tension to Shoot Out The Lights which gives songs like "Don't Renege On Our Love" and "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed" an edgy bite different from the Thompsons' other albums together; there's a subtle, unmistakable undertow of anger and dread in this music that cuts straight down to the bone. Joe Boyd's clean, uncluttered production was the ideal match for these songs and their Spartan arrangements, and Richard Thompson's wiry guitar work was remarkable, displaying a blazing technical skill that never interfered with his melodic sensibilities. Individually, all eight of the album's songs are striking (especially the sonic fireworks of the title cut, the beautiful drift of "Just The Motion," and the bitter reminiscence of "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed"), and as a whole they were far more than the sum of their parts, a meditation on love and loss in which beauty, passion, and heady joy can still be found in defeat. It's ironic that Richard & Linda Thompson enjoyed their breakthrough in the United States with the album that ended their career together, but Shoot Out The Lights found them rallying their strengths to the bitter end; it's often been cited as Richard Thompson's greatest work, and it's difficult for anyone who has heard his body of work to argue the point.

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