Missionaria Protectiva

        They weren’t British, they weren’t brothers and their real names weren’t Walker, but Californians Scott Engel, John Maus and Gary Leeds were briefly huge stars in England, and small ones in their native USA, at the peak of the British Invasion .       In March 1965 their first single – Pretty Girls Everywhere – emerged on the Philips label. The record flopped, but in June, Love Her (a Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil number) put The Walker Brothers into the Top Twenty for the first time.       The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore repeated the feat the following year, and the group also had UK hits with My Ship Is Coming In , (Baby) You Don’t Have To Tell Me , Another Tear Falls and others.       While The Walker Brothers looked the part of British Invaders with their shaggy mop tops, they were in fact far more pop than rock – and they didn’t play on most of their records.       In April 1967, some months af...

  DANNY O'KEEFE  Breezy Stories  (Atlantic,1973) - Folk rock       Such a bizarre album. Very heterogeneous and reminiscent of so many other artists at the same time! If you like Mike Nesmith (big influence!), Boz Scaggs, Tim Buckley, Steely Dan or Geoff Muldaur, it's all mixed up in this bowl. Some excellent musicianship is displayed on this album but it takes a while to absorb it all. Not in a bad sense, mind you... TRACKLIST: Angel Spread Your Wings                    Magdalena                    Junkman                    Portrait In Black Velvet                    She Said Drive On, Driver                    Steppin' Out Tonight                    If Ya Can'...

  IAN MATTHEWS  Some Days You Eat The Bear...  (Elektra,1974) - Country rock       Ian Matthews moved away from country rock on Some Days You Eat The Bear and Some Days The Bear Eats You, and switched between the LA country sound, the West Coast Sound and soft rock. The music was slick, polished and radio friendly. That was no surprise, given the personnel that played on the album. They provided the perfect accompaniment for Ian Matthews. Especially on his rueful cover of Tom Waits’ Ol’ 55, and soul-baring covers of I Don’t Wanna Talk About It and Tried So Hard. There was also a cover of Steely Dan’s Dirty Work, where Ian Matthews and his all-star band stay true to the carefully crafted original. Then on Wailing Goodbye, Keep On Sailing and Home Ian Matthews’ showcased his talents as a singer and songwriter. However, he had kept one of his finest songs until last. The melodic and memorable strains of The Fault closed Some Days You Eat The Bear and Some Days...

  AL KOOPER  Easy Does It  (Columbia,1970) - Rock       After his unceremonious ouster from Blood Sweat & Tears Al Kooper embarked on several different projects including a handful of concerts with Mike Bloomfield and a string of critically acclaimed but generally commercially unnoticed solo albums.       Easy Does It a double LP set, was Kooper's third solo endeavour. The fact that this is not only a double album, but also an exceptional one without a single track that would be described as "filler" is a testament to Kooper's many talents. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and master arranger-- all hats that Kooper wore for this exceptional set. TRACKLIST LP 1:  Brand New Day / Piano Solo Introduction / I Got A Woman / Country Road / I Bought You The                                     Shoes (You're Walking away In) / Introducti...

  BLUE VAMP  Blue Vamp  (Vamp,1973) - Hard/Glam rock       The group consists of Jean-Pierre Bucolo and Bernard Madelin on guitars, Helios Vidal on vocals, Jean-Pierre Bellanger known as "Bel" on bass and Stéphane Ficarelli on drums.       Today, I still listen to Blue Vamp with just as much pleasure, and while it's not an essential work, it proves to be a very good Glam/Hard Rock album and deserves a reissue today! TRACKLIST: Le Serpent Bleu                      Lady Bentley                      Ephebes                      La Decade                      La Veuve Noire                      Le Michetonneur                   ...

  WACKERS  Shredder  (Elektra,1972) - Folk/Rock       The Wackers' third album has a distinctly British pop sensibility, both in Randy Bishop's faux-camp vocals and its stripped-down production. "Eventually, Even You Even Me" sounds both like early David Bowie and a template for the Britpop explosion of the 1990s, while the tropical textures of "The Beach Song" recall mid-period Kinks, and "It's My Life" rivals the Raspberries in its pure unashamed pop exuberance. TRACKLIST: Day & Night                       Hey Lawdy Lawdy                       I'll Believe In You                       Puttin' Myself To Sleep                       Eventually, Even You Even Me                       C...