Saturday, July 2, 2011

Fred. 1971-1973 USA-Pennsylvania (archival)


For an archival release, this one has an amazing sound, with a sophistication you rarely hear from this period - in the USA that is. The songwriting is first class, as is the harmony work. In fact, some of this reminds me of the absolute best of Crosby, Stills and Nash. These guys were clearly schooled in music academia. They were from Bucknell University in central Pennsylvania, and perhaps not surprisingly, violin is a major part of their repertoire. The violin is definitely from the Appalachian school of folk music, and not a classical riff in sight. When present, it reminds me of those PBS specials on the history of 1800's America. Some vicious fuzz guitar leads are really awe-inspiring in this setting. Interestingly enough, the band has two more archival releases, and they're both in the Mahavishnu Orchestra jazz rock arena. So these guys definitely had chops to go with their songwriting skills. There is no other album like this that I know of anyway. It's post-psych, pre-progressive with a touch of Appalachia rural. I could see this one continuing to grow as the sound is a bit unfamiliar still.

CD: 2001 World in Sound (Germany)

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