Missionaria Protectiva

  GRAVY TRAIN  Staircase To The Day  (Dawn,1974) - Progressive rock       While Gravy Train never moved to the premier league with the likes of ELP and Yes, their BJH-styled approach is understated but equally as gripping. Hence, the psych-tinged chorale of opener Starlight Starbright is redolent of Yes, while Bring My Life On Back To Me is akin to BJH’s The Great 1974 Mining Disaster, which can’t be bad. Never Wanted You is a psych-leaning number with harmonica wails, while Staircase To The Day has pastoral flute and mellotron. TRACKLIST: Starbright Starlight                          Bring My Life On Back To Me                          Never Wanted You                          Staircase To The Day                   ...

        Knechtel shared a Grammy for his work with Simon and Garfunkel on the timeless classic "Bridge over Troubled Water," a track he played piano on. He also played bass guitar and harmonica, among other instruments, and performed in the studio and live with artists such as the Mamas and the Papas, Neil Diamond, Hank Williams Jr., Randy Newman, the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello and, most recently, the Dixie Chicks. He played keyboards on the Chicks' Grammy-winning album, Taking the Long Way , and toured with the band to support the album.       Larry's résumé is a history lesson in great American music all unto itself. MAMAS & The PAPAS The Papas & The Mamas Dunhill, 1968 https://www.sendspace.com/file/5e9jo1h6

  SPACE  Just Blue  (Vogue,1978) - Electronic       The title track is a gentle throb, a pseudo-classical gander across a well-trodden disco path, but one with huge, echoey reverb on the bass synth, while Blue Tears is spectrally deep, a sighing cosmic breath from within a dusty, wood-covered, button-heavy synthesizer. Then there's Symphony, which redefines bombastic: this is a hands-in-the-air, multi-voiced oddity that breaks down to tick-tock tremulously along its timeline before being elevated by a glorious robot choir. Secret Dreams features two wildly contrasting (and both beautifully horrible) synth noises that rub up against some twinkling bells before breaking down into a Comfortably Numb-like axe-a-thon. But it's our old friend Final Signal that's the killer jam here featuring, as it does, a heavily processed fretless bass going buckwild over a decidedly Moroder-esque throb and a heavily stereo-panned keyboard - it is ludicrous and wonderful disco-...

  SAILOR  Sailor  (Epic,1974) - Pop       Sailor’s 1974 self-titled debut album is a delightful mix of light hearted, red light district folk tunes such as “Blue Desert” “Josephine Baker” “Sailor’s Night On The Town” and “The Girls Of Amsterdam” with its nod toward the ladies of the night in the nation where the group was to enjoy its greatest success, with the album containing no less than four Top Five hits there. One of them, the gorgeous acoustic, vocal harmony filled “Traffic Jam” was selected by Epic Records to be the band’s first UK single as well as the opening track for the album. Unfortunately the tune did not draw the attention at home that it did in the Netherlands. “Sailor” also includes some excellent cabaret style tunes, “The Street” “Blame It On The Soft Spot” to name but two. TRACKLIST: Traffic Jam                       Blue Desert                ...

  CHANTER SISTERS  First Flight  (Polydor,1976) - Soul, Funk, Pop       What if Dusty in Memphis , but glam? That’s the improbable synthesis suggested, if not entirely executed, behind the bold pop-art colors of the Chanter Sisters’ 1976 album First Flight . That cover is hard to look away from, but how can this kitschy bauble be at all listenable, much less a work of art? Yet sisters Doreen and Irene Chanter deliver an album loaded with vocal chops, heart and invention, saturated hues and big soulful pipes providing a consistent entertainment, with curious bona fides. TRACKLIST: Cuckoo-Cuckoo                         Darlin'                         Side Show                         Hound Dog                         Band O...

  GROVER WASHINGTON Jr.  The Best Is Yet To Come  (Elektra, 1982) - Jazz       As with Washington's earlier WINELIGHT, the collection includes an irresistible single; the title track is driven by one of Patti Labelle's best-ever vocals. While Bobby McFerrin is also among the guest singers (“Things Are Getting Better”), it's the instrumental work by Grover and company – bassist Marcus Miller, keyboardist Richard Tee and percussionist Ralph McDonald are among the players here – that keeps the grooves flowing. Mellow, soulful and featuring a variety of tempos and arrangements that are always light on their feet, THE BEST IS YET TO COME is a terrific display of Washington's talents as songwriter, producer and performer. TRACKLIST: Can You Dig It                         The Best Is Yet To Come                         More Than Meets The Eye ...