Various Artists - Country Funk 1969-1975 & Country Funk II 1967-1974 (2012-2104 Light In The Attic LITA 083 & LITA 116)

Intrepid record label Light in the Attic offers us another theme-based compilation we didn't know we needed until they did it. Previous examples, Listen Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1967-1974, the two volumes of Thai Funk, and Our Lives Are Shaped by What We Love: Motown's MoWest Story 1971-73 to name a few, were standard bearers; they highlighted essential sounds few but collectors owned. Country Funk: 1969-1975 brings together 16 sides from the catalogs of artists well-known and marginal, whose works all share mercurial qualities: their Southern rural roots actively engage emergent funk. Tony Joe White and Jim Ford are obvious choices, but their representative tracks aren't. In the former case, it's the swaggering "Stud Spider," and in the latter's it's raw gutbucket "I'm Wanta Make Her Love Me." Nostalgic memory and longing for Southern locales are addressed in numerous places such as in Johnny Adams' "Georgia Morning Dew" and John Randolph Marr's "Hello L.A - Bye Bye Birmingham." Set opener Dale Hawkins celebrates it all in "L.A., Memphis, Tyler, Texas" as Tower of Power-styled horns meet Stax guitars and Canned Heat's laid-back boogie. Elsewhere, the deep, funky, electric blues connect Gray Fox's reading of Buzz Clifford's "Hawg Frog" and Johnny Jenkins' take on Dr. John's classic "I Walk On Gilded Splinters"; their choruses and production quite literally mirror one another. Urban Blues, bluegrass, and country gospel make their appearance in Link Wray's "Fire and Brimstone." Bobbie Gentry's "He Made a Woman Out of Me," with its wah-wahs, shimmering strings, and shiny horns offers the sultry Delta blues underscored by massive breaks. And speaking of breaks, one of the stone killers in this set is Dennis the Fox's "Piledriver," with its thoroughly urban look at a country female trucker. Bobby Darin's "Light Blue" has a smoldering bassline that is brought right to the front line just as it is in Bobby Charles' "Street People." While Cherokee's "Funky Business" fits the theme, it has as much of the Byrds in it as it does Joe South. Mac Davis' "Lucas Was a Redneck" is a little too close to Tony Joe White for comfort, but that's a small quibble. Country Funk: 1969-1975 illuminates a brief but fruitful period where genre lines blurred, and both genres benefitted mightily.

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THE GRUESOMES - Live In Hell [Canada garage recorded live 1989] 2007 Ricochet Sound RSCD - 002

Consisting of teens who dressed like they were stuck in the '60s -- including bowl haircuts -- the Canadian group known as the Gruesomes formed in 1985 in Montreal. Original members were guitarists and singers Bobby Beaton and Gerry Alvarez, and a pair of brothers, drummer Eric Davis and bassist John Davis. Drummer John Knolls replaced John Davis a couple of years later. The Gruesomes recorded three albums in the '80s and made a couple of music videos.

When the members of the Gruesomes first came together, they had very little musical experience -- at least in performing. Somehow they managed to build a fan base through local clubs, and to put together a debut EP, Jack the Ripper, all within the first year of the group's existence. The debut was quickly followed by another EP, Unchained. Both were released under the Primitive Records label.

In 1986, the Gruesomes recorded their first full-length album, Tyrants of Teen Trash, switching over to the Og Music label. The local fan base had expanded greatly in that first year and the album did well, not only in the group's Canadian homeland, but also in the United States and Europe. In the middle of a heavy touring schedule, the group put out two more albums over the next two years, Gruesomania and Hey! Even with a number of its songs landing on the charts, and a continuous growth in popularity, the band called it quits in 1990.

For the new millennium, the members of the Gruesomes reunited. The group was welcomed back with open arms in Canada, and found itself playing for a sold-out audience in Toronto, even though it had been a decade since the guys had shared a stage together. Along with a large live audience, the show was also taped for television. There was a new album for 2000 as well, Cave-In.

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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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VIOLETA DE OUTONO - Violeta de Outono [Brasil psychedelic 1986-89] 1995 Plug 74321 28442 2 - compilation

The band Violeta de Outono was formed in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1984, by Fabio Golfetti, Angelo Pastorello and Claudio Souza, building their own sonority by mixing the current tendencies of that time with Pink Floyd/Beatles psychedelia, and they rapidly gained attention from audiences and the media. Along more than 25 years down the road, the band stayed apart from the mainstream, achieving a cult reputation and international acknowledgement. Their concerts are known for a hypnotic atmosphere and spatial sounds, and became the band's trademark. Their first LP, the homonymous release from 1987, featured a shadow-encased psychedelia that managed to attract fans of prog, postpunk and dark/gothic music.

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SPIRIT - Tent Of Miracles [USA rock, psychedelic rock 1990] 2020 Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22717

Tent of Miracles is one of the best Spirit albums by the trio version of the act, the Randy California/Ed Cassidy ensemble which carried on with the name. This time the third member is bassist Mike Nile, and the album works because Nile gets to be more than a sideman, he actually contributes as the original group did, with results that are most satisfying. Tent of Miracles is a wonderful album title, and the disc opens with Ed Cassidy's jungle drumbeat instrumental "Borderline," typical of the band's bold 1990s sound. More serious and refined than the Mercury records releases in the mid-'70s, decades on the road touring, along with having those highly experimental albums behind them, make this a very musical and mature chapter. "Zandu" is your Randy California "Kahauna Dream"-style exotic guitar with its mechanical metallic stomp, a song similar to but lighter than Roxy Music's "Manifesto." California's co-write with stepdad Ed Cassidy, "Stuttgart Says Good-bye," is "Eight Miles High" gone tribal and expands the theme. This 1990 album has an inadvertent concept which is a delight to the legion of Spirit fans who cared enough to seek it out. The title track is an eerie "I Want Candy" redux with the real stunner being that it is a Mike Nile original, a major contribution from a Spirit member not originally part of the group. The almost six minutes mesmerize and are everything Spirit was ever about. It follows in the dreamy quagmire that is "Stuttgart Says Good-Bye" and the earlier "Love From Here" style. "Love From Here" has elements of the later 1994 track "One By One," a Randy California original which outdoes the excellent "Love From Here," providing insight that the late singer/songwriter was in a groove and in a good creative state, despite lack of major label support for his latter-day efforts. The band actually becoming a full unit with serious contributions from the bass player adds a cohesion missing from some of the '70s work. Mike Nile's originals not only keep pace with Randy California, they seem to give Randy and this version of the band focus. The final of the dozen songs, Nile's "Deep in This Land" holds to the theme and sound of the title track, as well as Nile's other originals, "Old Black Magic," "Ship of Fools," and the tune all three bandmembers composed, "Imaginary Mask." "Tent of Miracles" holds many secrets and is that extension of The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus that California was seeking for so many years.

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NICK GRAVENITES AND JOHN CIPOLLINA - Live In Athens At The Rodon [USA west coast rock blues 1987-88] 1991 Music Box International CD 40421.2

Nick Gravenites also worked extensively with John Cipollina after producing the first Quicksilver Messenger Service album. He and Cipollina formed the Nick Gravenites - John Cipollina Band, which toured across Europe. This album is an example.

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TOM VERLAINE - Dreamtime [USA rock underground 1981] 2008 Collectors' Choice Music CCM-950

Tom Verlaine's second album as a solo artist after disbanding Television is not groundbreaking or innovative as much as it is consistent. What is distinctive about Dreamtime, aside from its thick guitar fortifications, firm stance, and unwillingness to modify a sound he believed in, are the issues surrounding the making of these recordings. The first session was marred by the usage of poor quality reel-to-reel tapes, barely yielding only half an album. Other songs had to be re-recorded with different players, due to the original band's unavailability. There's also a strong connection with Patti Smith, who Verlaine toured with when leading Television. First session bassist Fred Smith, also from the original Television group, keyboardist Bruce Brody, and drummer throughout, Jay Dee Daugherty, are major contributors to the uniform texture of the tunes. It's hard to pin down a single highlight, but several rank as distinctive. "Without a Word" is molded in the classic Television style, with repeat guitar lines from Verlaine and Ritchie Fliegler, "There's a Reason" is self-explanatory and prototypical, while "Fragile" revises Byrne's distant vocal foresight, with Verlaine claiming someone "stole my secret," and further adds the repeat guitar hooks. "Penetration" is likely the rave fave, at once propelled, strutting, and plodding with the sparest of diffuse guitar, and inferences -- sexual or otherwise -- galore. "Always" sports the kind of cooled, ambiguous message under no frills rock & roll, with Verlaine exclaiming he has a clue on "the best kept secret in town." Then there's the effeminate singing of "Down on the Farm," evocative of Dave Thomas and his stressed out style, the slow funky R&B elements of "Mary Marie" enhanced by the organ work of Bruce Brody, and a choogling Creedence Clearwater Revival ramble during the mainly instrumental jam "The Blue Robe." Perhaps the most advanced track, "A Future in Noise" epitomizes the disarmed CBGB's vibe with slightly built intensity, resolutely controlled. Not so much a set of tidy, trimmed concepts when one listens closely, as it is a vision of an artist laying it all out from the bottom of his heart. Many would easily admit Dreamtime is Tom Verlaine's shining hour.

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