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US AND THEM - 1973
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"...Lost Highway..."
It's not really a balls-to-the-wall masterpiece but Andy Roberts' Ry Cooder-ish looking fourth studio album "Andy Roberts And The Great Stampede" is a lovely reissue of a sadly forgotten Folk/Country Rock LP gem from the Seventies that deserves far better recognition than its ever received. And England's Fledg'ling Records seem to think so too, giving it a genuinely warm reappraisal on this beautifully remastered CD from 2007 done by the award-wining Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering.
I suspect (like most) many won't know who Andy Roberts even is. A short bio includes guitar on Scaffold recordings – sessions with Jimi Hendrix and Graham Nash - produced by Paul McCartney - toured with Led Zeppelin - had the drummer from Jethro Tull in his band and was involved in four Liverpool Scene albums. Then a stint with the short-lived Everyone group in 1971 on B&C Records - another for the revered Plainsong ensemble with Iain Matthews (on Elektra Records) and then on top of all that managed three solo albums by the time he got to great stampeding in 1973 (one of those trio of LPs was actually issued in two different versions).
Andy Roberts had been around, bubbling under so to speak and after this (his last solo outing) – he joined his old muckers in the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band offshoot Grimms on two of their three albums between 1973 and 1976 on Island and DJM Records - "Rockin' Duck" and "Sleepers". Which brings us back here...his Folk and Country Rock LP from 1973 with an Jamaican-influenced lean on some of the tracks...
The LP "Andy Roberts And The Great Stampede" was supposedly scheduled for October 1973 with publicity prepped and ready (The Great Stampede was also the name of his new band) - his second album on Elektra Records after the well-received "Urban Cowboy" in June of 1973. But as the oil-crisis limited what vinyl was priority, it got delayed until December 1973 because of the Fabs. In April 1973 - EMI and Apple had unleashed on a very willing world the Red and Blue double-albums by The Beatles - "1962-1966" and "1967-1970". I can remember the phenomenon they both were - selling cartloads all year long and for years afterwards. So EMI Blighty apparently informed our hero that due to pressing demand for the Red and Blue 2LP sets, his fourth solo LP on Elektra K 42151 would have to wait until December 1973 for release and even then would only see 1,500 copies pressed (if he was lucky) - two months after adverts for an album that didn't show. It tells you all of this in the exemplary new 16-page liner notes penned by the artist . Time to list this reissue's finer details...
UK released 23 April 2007 - "Andy Roberts And The Great Stampede" by ANDY ROBERTS AND THE GREAT STAMPEDE on Fledg'ling Records FLED 3064 (Barcode 5020393306423) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (51:28 minutes):
1. Speed Well [Side 1]
2. Clowns On The Road
3. Lord Of The Groves
4. Bottom Of The Garden
5. Kid Jealousy
6. The Great Stampede [Side 2]
7. High Time
8. Home In The Sun
9. (53 Miles From) Spanish Town
Tracks 1 to 9 are his fourth studio album "Andy Roberts And The Great Stampede" - released December 1973 in the UK LP on Elektra Records K 42151 (unissued USA). Produced by SANDY ROBERTSON - it didn't chart.
BONUS TRACKS:
10. Home At Last
11. Lost Highway
12. Living In The Hills Of Zion
13. New Karenski
14. Having A Party
The Great Stampede included:
ANDY ROBERTS - Lead Vocals, Guitar and Rumba Bass
ZOOT MONEY (of Dantalian's Chariot and Centipede) - Organ and Piano
MICK KAMINSKI (of Electric Light Orchestra) - Electric Violin
B.J. COLE (of Cochise) - Pedal Steel Guitar and Dobro
PAT DONALDSON (of Dantalian's Chariot, Poet And The One Man Band and Fotheringay) – Fender Bass
GERRY CONWAY (of Fairport Convention) - Drums
Guests:
OLLIE HALSALL (of Patto and Kevin Ayers Band) - Lead Guitar on "Speed Well"
SONNY FRANCIS - Organ on "Lord Of The Groves"
RAY WEHRSTEIN - Soprano Saxophone on "High Time"
Housed in a pretty card digipak that repro's the original British LP artwork along with a period photo of the guitarist and singer on the inner flap - the 16-page booklet is oversized – the length of the digipak. That allows Roberts to fill it with photos of Jamaica where he had holidayed. That honeymoon sojourn with his wife Jacqui influenced all the songs up to the point where he has even provided a polaroid of the street sign that inspired the song that ends Side 2 – a signpost that is literally painted with the words "53 Miles From Spanish Town" (Spanish Town being the old capitol of Jamaica). In the large amount of text, Roberts also gives us candid paragraphs to the meaning of each song – talks of the impressive line-up of musicians too including their quirks, talents and sometime dodgy personal habits (see list above). But what gets you most is the glorious upgrade in Audio. I had this album for decades and it has never sounded this good.
DENIS BLACKHAM has Remastered Mick Greenwood's catalogue, Ireland's Horslips, England's Fairport Convention offshoot Fotheringay, the 3CD "Meet On The Ledge" Box Set for Island Records in 2008, the Topic Records 7CD Book Set "Three Score And Ten..." from 2009, Robert Plant's solo catalogue "Nine Lives" Box Set, the "Acoustic Folk Box" and even Talk Talk's gorgeous 1986 masterpiece "The Colour Of Spring". And thems is serious credentials in my book. Blackham is an Audio Engineer I seek out - one who gets a natural clarity to his transfers – the music becoming clear without ever being over-amped for the sake of it – and so it is here. Let's get to the songs...
Roberts quite rightly waxes lyrical about the natural ability to amaze of Liverpudlian Ollie Halsall who plays rawkin' guitar on Side 1's opener "Speed Well". The ex Patto axeman would contribute mind-blowing pyrotechnics the following year to Kevin Ayers fifth album track "Didn't Feel Lonely Till I Thought Of You" on "The Confessions Of Dr. Dream And Other Stories" album released May 1974 on Island Records. I mention this track alongside 1973's "Speed Well" because both are not love/misery songs about ladies - but drugs - Amphetamine Sulphates to mention but a few - which would finally do for OH in 1992. I like the song - first fast - then slow - but those lyrics about the pure as snow being the only friend he knows now feel so ominous. "Clowns On The Road" is the first to exude those 'island' rhythms before BJ Cole's Pedal Steel and Mick Kaminski's violin turn it into a Country Rock lurch about bands on the road (not my fave on the album really).
Better is five and half-minutes of "Lord Of The Groves" which feels the most Plainsong tune on the LP until it descends into an ill-advised island rhythm about cocoanut trees and the 'Yellow Disease' that was slowly killing them. Sonny Francis plays 'authentic' Reggae Hammond Organ on the track. "Bottom Of The Garden" clocks in at just 2:19 minutes, a fiddle and Dobro ditty (BJ Cole on Dobro) with Zoot Money on Electric Piano. Back to some great slide Dobro on "Kid Jealousy" - the Bluesiest tune on the LP - Gerry Conway of Fairport on Drums.
And on it goes to a slew of extras some of which appeared in versions on his first LP for Elektra "Urban Cowboy" released June 1973 in the UK on Elektra Records K 42139. As I said earlier, Andy Roberts would be with Grimms for two albums of their catalogue including their largely risible third and last LP called "Sleepers" on DJM Records in November 1976 - his song "Bluebird Morning" being just about the prettiest thing on that record (Sanctuary Records featured it on their 2CD Anthology set "Just For The Record..." that covered all of AR's career - see my review).
"Andy Roberts And The Great Stampede" is not as I said earlier a lost masterpiece by any means, but there is something about his voice and his playing and his way with a melody that makes me return to his stuff again and again - a sort of Plainsong mates with the lilt of McGuinness Flint by way of The Band - all of which sounds to me like a damn good musical combo of influences. And the boys at Skye Mastering have done his recorded legacy proud with this Reissue and Remaster.
So while you might not want to trample over women and children and small baby seals to get to "...The Great Stampede", I'd consider a leisurely stroll to its aural delights at the very least. Lovely - investigate and enjoy...
