Obscure Singer-Songwriter LP's 1968-1973 | Acid Folk, Folk Rock, Psych | #vinylcommunity

Wow! A veritable blast from my past, Marc Brierley

Always like to find music from that period that I have missed,this was very interesting and well organised with a study of sleeve,label,artist , accompanying musicians and excerpt of music.THANKS

My favorites are Keith Christmas, "Fable of the Wings" and Jimmie Spheeris, "Isle of View."

Hi from Wales. Yes Robin Scott is the same guy from M.

Great video, Jonas. I am fascinated by this topic. All of the artists that you featured are new to me. I collected many albums by obscure singer-songwriters from the 1960s and 70s, and honestly, many of them were quite forgettable. It seems as if record companies were signing just about any guitar-strumming song-poet they could find, in the hopes of landing a new Bob Dylan or Paul Simon. Nevertheless, a few artists whom I think stand above the crowd include: - Buzzy Linhart. Enjoyed moderate fame in the Greenwich Village folk scene, and as the co-writer of Bette Midler's hit Friends, but faded largely into obscurity by late 1970s. - Bill Puka. Recorded one album for Columbia in 1970, with a noticeable Laura Nyro influence. - Michael Wendroff. I can't find much information on this singer-songwriter other than he recorded at least four albums in the 1970s including the pleasantly MOR Southpaw, and that he sang backup vocals on Lou Reed's album Coney Island Baby. - John Buck Wilkin. Recorded one album of slickly-produced country folk: In Search of Food, Clothing, Shelter and Sex. I admit it; I bought it just for the title.

Grand stuff, thank you!

Thank you for this presentation. I will certainly check out the ones I don't know. I'm glad that you speak fondly of Marc Brierly. I never understood the negative review he got on Allmusic.

Just stumbled upon you I have subscribed and I enjoyed your videos you have certainly let me hear music that I'm not familiar with and I appreciate you giving samples of that music and I think he did a very good job Thank you again and can't wait to see you next video back where you

Hi Jonas. Some interesting records there. I’m familiar with a couple of them. I’ve got a later Randy Burns album from 1971, called Randy Burns and The Sky Dog Band. It’s the same personnel, but they had ditched the psych folk and embraced country rock. It doesn’t have fiddle and pedal steel, but it’s still quite rootsy. I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the late 60s fey psych folk, it come across as a bit too twee for my taste. I’m definitely more of an Anne Briggs guy than Vashti Bunyan…(Although I enjoyed reading in Rob Young’s Electric Eden of her journey through England and Scotland in a gypsy caravan, on her way to live on a remote Scottish island owned by Donovan.) I tend to like a more rootsy sound. For example, unlike most people I don’t really like Mighty Baby’s first album, but but love their second, A Jug Of Love. I’m just odd that way. I’ve got an album on Tumbleweed by Danny Holden, who plays guitar on that Robb Kunkel record, which…You guessed it…Is a kind of a rootsy psych country rock record. Funny to think that shortly after Tumbleweed folded, Bill Szymczyk made his name producing the Eagles. Cheers - Hedley

All killers, no fillers! Peace ✌ ☮ 🕊

Jonas, interesting video. I have heard of several, but don't own any of these albums. The Karen Beth might be the first one I look for, but also interesting that you referenced John Cale for a different album. Thanks, Chris

Good to see some non mainstream vinyl presented. Keep up the interesting work

Great video 👍 Love that kind of thing too. Looking forward to seeing more videos!

I enjoyed your video. I'm not familiar with these artists but I will definitely check them out. If you don't know the album Isle of View by Jimmie Spheeris (1972) please take a listen. It's great.

I took a chance on that Karen Beth album some time ago. Really like it. Interesting stuff, nice showcase! / Jens

great feature Jonas. Randy Burns is one I would still be hoping to find. Know the lp, at least the ESP pressing. The Robin Scott is the one I'm most interested in acquiring since I have the first Mighty Baby and really love it. I had the reissue of the Brierley but sold it, I dig enjoy it though and the brass were actually a welcome addition. I also used to have the Robb Kunkel but sold it as well. Was a little inconsistent to me but nice moments. And haha, don't think I made it past the first track on that Karen Beth. Gonna have to track that one down again. Thoughts on the Goldberg "misty flats" record? like it?

I didn't really know what to expect here Jonas but I didn't expect to have heard of none of the artists...maybe I've just forgotten them. Albums that came to mind include Al Stewart's Bedsitter Images, Shawn Phillips' Second Contribution or maybe anything by Michael Chapman or Roy Harper. Possibly these aren't obscure enough. I liked your selection and also liked Karen's Beth's voice. My only reservation is your advice to skip tracks. If the artist thought they were good enough to include on an album, then I'm going to listen to them. If you don't like certain tracks Jonas, it doesn't follow that others will also dislike them.

Ace showing VS!! That burns lp is fantastic. Reminds me of Duncan browne a bit. Love the Kunkel and quick lp too. Cheers

Try a cat from LA in 70’. His name is Philamore Lincoln. Heavy production that will blow your mind. Always on the prowl for new material. Dig your scene. 🖖🚀

Some fahcockta algorithm thought I'd be interested in your posts to U. of Tube, Jonas, and in this case Al GoRhythm was correctamundo. Also love your writing and presentation style along with these artists and clearly hipper than me base of reader\listener support dating back to the Vinyl Age and festishistas of that geo-logical aural epoch! I'm mid-60's age and had a hefty Vinyl Age library I shlepped across North America seeking a stable gig that would allow me to pay the spiraling rents. Wage Stag-Nation did me in along with most of the so-called developed world that over decades since the 1960's have been concentrating all human wealth with little regard to the subject matter of these mostly idealistic idyllic indulgers of escapism and part of the pacification machinery of our personally indebted Debtor Nations and HIGH FINANCE or HI FI Feudal Lords that made those turntables of RCA and Philips spin. I will be listening carefully to every post Jonas and others from generally more culturally attuned Scandinavia. Fact is that despite my sizable vinyl and later smaller discs and traded self-blendt cassettes and mix tapes various, I've not heard the majority of recording\performing artists named by you and the even more interesting sounding artists referenced by the knowledgeable listeners contributing terrific comments below and above. I've had relatives in Canada that I've visited from my yoot who also turned me on to cultural stuff (books, records, indie films, theater and a very dry style of stand-up comedy) that never got much media exposure here in United States of Amnesia (thanks to Gore Vidal for that truism). One I'd like to hear you or readers comment on that doesn't quite fit in Acid Folk or Acid Jazz genres and is more of a blue collar Foster Home Drifter bard troubadour of what author Batya Ungar-Sargon (she is also an Op-Ed editor at Newsweek magazine) now calls the SECOND CLASS as the title of her new book on the immaterial MUDDLE CLASS by now reflects of social critiques and observations in a Studs Terkel kind of oral his\herstory of the past half-century of WAGE STAG-NATION, Food Stamp Nation, Financialization, Privatization, De-Regulation (or willful lack of enforcement of the few regulations that remained on the books after the Neo-Liberal E-CONomics bid-net model was so warmly embraced by the Social and Militaristic Neo-Conswervatives). Meanwhile, Wealth Concentration abetted by Bank Secrecy legislation and the soaring homeless rates of even the Working Class cuz Real Estate is among the great magnets of money-laundering and tax avoidance of often mobbed-up and HI FI'd up ill-gotten gains and hoarded non-investment capital from White Collar crime: https://www.city-journal.org/article/review-of-second-class-by-batya-ungar-sargon Struggling, Floating, Rising by Aaron M. Renn May 14, 2024 "Batya Ungar-Sargon’s portrait of the working class contains useful policy prescriptions." "Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women, by Batya Ungar-Sargon" (Encounter Books, 232 pp., $29.99) The Canadian foster home drifter laborer, merchant marine with acoustic guitar and access to Vancouver and BC's studio and performance scenes who so impressed me with his only 2-3 albums of fine inner-ear lit muses small combo and acoustic ensemble interplay was Bob Carpenter: http://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=718 "Silent Passage Reprise - 1975 by Mike Milner "Guitarist Bob Carpenter was a Canadian folk singer and songwriter active in the early 1970s. Carpenter was born and raised in the North Bay area of Ontario but is generally associated with the West Coast. Although not well known, even during his performing years, he was well respected by his peers, with artists such as Emmylou Harris and Billy Joe Shaver recording his songs. "His early years are somewhat murky. When he was two, his family split up and Carpenter grew up in foster homes. He would later join the navy, but was discharged for mischievous conduct while drunk on leave in Edinburgh. He would eventually make his way to Toronto, and like many other Canadian 'folkies' - Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Gordon Lightfoot to name a few - he started out in the city's bustling Yorkville neighbourhood in the mid-sixties. "In 1970, he somewhat mysteriously appeared at a farewell party for the Festival Express, the cross-country drugs-and-alcohol-laced rock and roll adventure that featured, among others, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Ian and Sylvia's Great Speckled Bird. Carpenter's performance was impressive enough to merit special recognition in Rolling Stone. "After the final Festival at Calgary, a young guitarist mysteriously showed up at the York Hotel where the farewell party was taking place," Rolling Stone's correspondent wrote, "and with the deep and painful voice of some Ancient Mariner performed songs of unbelievable dignity. No one knew his name. He said: 'It doesn't matter the kind of music I play. Your mind sort of melts and becomes that one place of beautiful bliss which is the only place to be.'" "Carpenter did some demos in Toronto in the early seventies with Neil Young's producer, David Briggs. He also spent time with Briggs in Southern California, hanging out with the likes of Spirit and Buffalo Springfield, and taking in local live acts like Taj Mahal, the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. In 1972, Carpenter, then 26 years old, spent the winter in a remote cabin in British Columbia. When he emerged, he started performing his new songs to rapt audiences, becoming as one record company bio described him a "familiar figure with the Canadian coffee-house circuit". He signed a contract with Warner Brothers in 1974, which led to recording sessions in Los Angeles with noted Canadian producer Brian Ahern. The result was the cult classic LP, Silent Passage. "For the recording of Silent Passage, Ahern had assembled a first-rate group of musicians to support Carpenter. Among them, there was Little Feat's Bill Payne and Lowell George on piano and slide guitar, respectively, and guitar ace Buddy Cage on pedal steel. Session musician-extraordinaire Lee Sklar supplied bass and Russ Kunkel helped out on drums. Emmylou Harris, Dianne Brooks and Anne Murray (yes, our Anne Murray) supplied backing vocals. "On listening to Silent Passage, it seems one could not have found a more sympathetic musical partner than Ahern. The production is not lush, but the instrumentation provides support and context to Carpenter's sparse guitar and vocals. His voice has to be heard; the gentle intensity and sincerity is stunning. Comparisons do not come easily. Perhaps one can detect a hint of Harry Chapin here and some Bob Dylan there, but really, Carpenter was his own man, and these are his songs. "He was not at all a technical singer. But the songs on Silent Passage were written to provide a vehicle for the stories he wanted to tell, and the ability to tell those stories through his own voice was his strength. Although all the tracks are outstanding, the title cut simply knocks it out of the park. 'Silent Passage' is a meditation on wanderlust and self-discovery, which Carpenter delivers in his typically fragile, achy vocal. It is a wonderful tune, in which he sings of his need to travel, only to realize in the end that "it's only coming home that brings you near [and] it's only coming home that brings the tears". "For whatever reason, Silent Passage was not issued at the time (though a few copies on Reprise did manage to slip out). But Carpenter had his supporters, and in 1984 the album finally saw the light of day, thanks to Holger Petersen and his Canadian label, Stony Plain Records. It has since been reissued on CD and again on vinyl. "Carpenter was a very spiritual person, and it seems in the years after the recording of Silent Passage, he decided to move on from the music business to pursue a more religious life. He died quite tragically and far too early to cancer when he was only 50. I am a very recent convert, and so I admit I may lack objectivity. But Silent Passage really is extraordinary and the music on it definitely deserves recognition." Thank you reviewer and folk-lorist of muse-laden Second Class citizens that emerged from our rather short span of Middle Class opportunities represented by these Northern Americas, by now the wealthiest if most stratified continents on earth as the poverty porn of our Empire Cities, States and Provinces reveal when scanning the return to Great Depression Normalization of Homelessness and mostly BUST rather than BOOM TIMES (that used to be regulated by an unwritten Social Contract, long since torn to shreds by our Corporate Overlords and Oily or Uranium or Water\Air\High Tech Lords of Cyberia and hyper E-CONS of extraction and Wealth Management Portfolios for the few and bread, circuses and Weapons of Mass Distraction provided by Daddy Warbucks' weekly Wage Slave and Privately Contracted National Security States of de-industrialized paternalistic welfare and calorically calculated Supplemental Nutrition Allowance Program or SNAP (as in Food Stamp Nation) allowance to pacify the kinder of crushed bodies and spirits in the wreckage of celebratory Uber Continents of natural resources to extract. Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers) Media Disc-US-sion List\Looksee