"Gordon Giltrap/Portrait" by GORDON GILTRAP – October 1968 and October 1969 UK Debut and Second Studio Albums on Transatlantic Records in Stereo (29 May 2020 UK Beat Goes On Reissue – 2LPs onto 1CD – Andrew Thompson Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Hands Of Fate..."

Originally on Bill Leader's groundbreaking Transatlantic Records, Gordon Giltrap's first two albums of largely instrumental British Folk from October 1968 and October 1969 have been reissued on CD like this twice before. First up was August 1993, then November 1997, and in both cases by Essential Music (part of the Sanctuary Group) as two-albums onto 1CD.

Now it’s the turn of England's Beat Goes On (BGO) with shiny new 2020 remasters courtesy of Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON that make Benchley's best virtuoso guitarist shine anew. This disc sounds gorgeous – those doubled acoustic strings rattling around your speakers with air-bending intent. Here's the Folky beef...

UK released Friday, 29 May 2020 - "Gordon Giltrap/Portrait" by GORDON GILTRAP on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1415 (Barcode 5017261214157) offers his first two albums Newly Remastered onto 1CD that plays out as follows (65:02 minutes):

1. Gospel Song [Side 1]

2. Fast Approaching

3. Don't You Feel Good

4. Birth Of Spring

5. Won't You Stay Awhile Suzanne

6. Wilderness

7. Adolescent Years [Side 2]

8. Saturday Girl

9. Don't You Hear Your Mother's Voice

10. Ives Horizon

11. Blythe Hill

12. Willow Pattern

Tracks 1 to 12 are his debut album "Gordon Giltrap" - released October 1968 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 175 - Produced by BILL LEADER (no US release)

13. Portrait [Side 1]

14. Thoughts In The Rain

15. Never Ending Solitude

16. Tuxedo

17. All Characters Fictitious

18. Lucifer's Cage

19. Careful As You Go [Side 2]

20. Free For All

21. William Taplin

22. Hands Of Fate

23. Confusion

24. Young Love

Tracks 13 to 24 are his second studio album "Portrait" - released October 1969 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 202 in Stereo - Produced by BILL LEADER (no US release)

You get the usual card slipcase on the outside that lends these reissues a wee bit of class while the 16-page booklet features in-depth new liner notes from JOHN O’REGAN. Topics covered are his 18-year old signing to Transatlantic Records in 1968 through to his time with Don Partridge and their band Accolade and on to the commercially successful Prog-instrumental years with The Electric Record Company Label and his 1977 "Perilous Journey" album breakthrough. It even mentions 26 March 2020 when GG played an acoustic gig from his doorstep to benefit Front Line Staff in the NHS during the Coronavirus/Covid 19 lockdown. You also get the album rear sleeve blurbs from Bill Leader (1968) and Don Partridge (1969) and the colour cover artwork for both albums on the front and rear pages of the booklet allowing you to invert the booklet if you want "Portrait" facing out.

However, those expecting the holiday program theme song and hit single "Heartsong" should look elsewhere – these tunes are purely Folk and in some cases feature his vocals which unfortunately wasn’t the greatest of ideas. To the early music of an emerging talent...

The two debut album tracks that highlighted his amazing plectrum picking technique on "The Contemporary Guitar Sampler" budget album of 1969 (Transatlantic TRA SAM 14) are both here - "Fast Approaching" and "Ives Horizon"- the first showing his extraordinary playing talent as the rapid flicks and strums come a screaming out of your speakers in lovely clarity – the second with a wall of doubled guitars. But then comes the voice...

Harmonics ping at the beginning of "Don't You Feel Good" but the lovely song is quickly ruined by his whiny voice that is not the strongest (nor are his lyrics). Again beautiful playing opens "Why Won't You Stay A While, Suzanne?" but his how-I-need-you lyrics and voice render the playing mute – the same for the terribly twee "Adolescent Years". Back to racing up and down the steel strings for the far better "Saturday Night". The debut ends on the short instrumental "Blythe Hill" – another racer full of great ideas but fades out on "Willow Pattern" – more bad singing that really should have been nipped in the bud from the get go.

The 1969 second album opens on the title track "Portrait" – two and half minutes of lovely playing with pretty cascading runs up and down the fretboard. The second song "Thoughts In The Rain" is about jealousy but again his deadpan vocal delivery makes the song hard to listen to – the same for "Never Ending Solitude" and "All Characters Fictitious". The big chunky chords instrumental "Lucifer’s Cage" would be returned to years later for his 1976 "Visionary" album on The Electric Record Company – here it gets a gimmicky flanging from speaker-to-speaker treatment that kind of ruins the track had it been left alone to play out. And on it goes...

All the virtuoso guitar playing in the world doesn’t help if you don’t have the tunes or in this case – the voice. For his formative years, Giltrap hadn’t really got either. There are undeniably beautiful instrumentals on both records, but suffering the others may prove a step too far for the uninitiated. Fans will love it for sure – especially the great audio – but others should grab a listen first before purchase...

"Five Albums On Three Discs" by MIKE COOPER (22 March 2019 UK Beat Goes On Compilation - 5LPs Remastered onto 3CDs Plus Bonuses) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review And 212 Others Is Available In My AMAZON E-Book 

 

BOTH SIDES NOW

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Your Guide To Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters

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"...Looking Back..."

How here's a treat, and a lot of it too. Hailing out of Reading in Berkshire, our Guitar-playing Harmonica-ingesting British hero MIKE COOPER sees his first five platters between 1969 and 1973 be given the BGO treatment - New Remasters, Digipak presentation and even three bonus tracks – rare stand alone single sides from 1970 and 1972 on Dawn Records.

His musical styles and influences progressed from Roots Blues, Folk and Americana in 1969 (on Pye) through to 1971’s Folk and Country Rock aided and abetted by guest players taken a hiatus from their day jobs as Jazzers in groups like Mike Westbrook’s Quintet, Nucleus and The John Dummer Band. The very Neil Young "Places I Know" set from 1971 is a collaboration album with Michael Gibbs and his next ensemble group 'The Machine Gun Co.' Playing superb 12-string guitar on one of Cooper's 'you never see them' British singles "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" is none other than Chris Spedding (it's the first of three bonus tracks tail-ending on Disc 3). There's a wad of open tunings to wade through, so let’s get at it...

UK released Friday, 22 March 2019 (29 March 2019 in the USA) - "Oh Really?!/Do I Know You?/Trout Steel/Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper/Bonus Tracks" by MIKE COOPER on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1371 (Barcode 5017261213716) offers 'Five Albums On Three Discs' plus Three Bonus Single Sides and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (73:30 minutes):

1. Death Letter [Side 1]

2. Bad Luck Blues

3. Maggie Campbell

4. Leadhearted Blues

5. Four Ways

6. Poor Little Annie

7. Tadpole Blues [Side 2]

8. Divinity Blues

9. You're Gonna Be Sorry

10. Electric Chair

11. Crow Jane

12. Pepper Rag

13. Saturday Blues

Tracks 1 to 13 are his debut album "Oh Really?!" - released February 1969 in the UK on Pye Records NSPL 18281 in Stereo and in the USA on Janus JLS-3004. Mike Cooper on Vocals and Guitar with Derek Hall on Second Guitar.

14. The Link [Side 1]

15. Journey To The East

16. First Song

17. Theme In C

18. Thinking Back

19. Thinks She Knows Me Now [Side 2]

20. Too Late Now

21. Wish She Was With Me

22. Do I Know You?

23. Start Of A Journey

24. Looking Back

Tracks 14 to 24 are his second studio album "Do I Know You?" - released March 1970 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3005 and 1970 in the USA on Janus JLS-3021. Mike Cooper on Guitar, Vocals and Slide with Harry Miller of The Mike Westbrook Quartet on Double Bass

Disc 2 (70:40 minutes):

1. That's How [Side 1]

2. Sitting Here Watching

3. Goodtimes

4. I've Got Mine

5. A Half Sunday Homage To A Whole Leonardo Da Vinci (Without Words By Richard Brautigan)

6. Don't Talk Too Fast [Side 2]

7. Trout Steel

8. In The Mourning

9. Hope You See

10. Pharaoh's March

11. Weeping Rose

Tracks 1 to 11 are his third album "Trout Steel" - released November 1970 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3011 (no USA issue)

12. Country Water [Side 1]

13. Three-Forty Eight

14. Night Journey

15. Time To Time

Tracks 12 to 15 are Side 1 of his fourth album "Places I Know" credited to Mike Cooper with The Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs - released November 1971 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3026 (no USA issue)

Disc 3 (75:35 minutes):

1. Paper And Smoke [Side 2]

2. Broken Bridges

3. Now I Know

4. Goodbye Blues, Goodbye

5. Places I Know

Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of his fourth album "Places I Know" credited to Mike Cooper with The Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs - released November 1971 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3026 (no USA issue). "Night Journey" and "Paper And Smoke" feature The Machine Gun Company [Co.] - Alan Cook on Piano, Bill Boazman, Geoff Hawkins on Saxophone and Pipes, Jeff Clyne of Nucleus, John Van Derrick, Laurie Alan, Les Calvert on Bass and Tim Richardson on Percussion with Chorus Vocals by Gerald Moore of Reggae Guitars, Jean Oddie and Jazz Vocalist Norma Winstone

6. Song For Abigail [Side 1]

7. The Singing Tree

8. Midnight Words

9. So Glad (That I Found You) [Side 2]

10. Lady Anne

Tracks 6 to 10 are his fifth studio album "The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper" - released November 1972 in the UK on Dawn DNLS 3031 (no USA issue).

BONUS TRACKS:

11. Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2) - UK 1970 7" Maxi EP single on Dawn Records DNX 2501, A-side, Non-Album

12. Time In Hand - UK 1972 7" single on Dawn Records DNS 1022, A-side, Non-Album

13. Schaabisch Hall - UK 1972 7" single on Dawn Records DNS 1022, B-side, Non-Album Instrumental

Tracks 11, 12 and 13 featuring Chris Spedding on 12-String Guitar

As far as I know this is only the second time BGO has used fold-out digipaks (Sonny & Cher was the other in 2018) and I must say I miss the classiness of the outer card slipcase because the four-panel digipak is a bit weedy and although every see-through tray has original artwork beneath it – this is one of those cases where you wish they’d done a Grapefruit Records reissue and stuck three card sleeves in a clamshell box with a bigger booklet. At 24-pages you get all the original artwork and new liner notes from noted writer JOHN O’REAGAN – but I think it ‘feels’ like one of those crappy Universal Deluxe Editions without the plastic titled slipcase.

And in 2006 when Japan reissued his most popular album "Trout Steel" on a SHM-CD with original repro artwork – they included both seven-minute sides of his 1970 Dawn Records single as two Bonus Tracks - "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" with its B-side "Watching you Fall (Part 1 & 2)". I mention this because "Watching you Fall (Part 1 & 2)" is not here – a damn shame because as you can from the total playing time for Disc 2, there was room for one more important inclusion. But these are minor complaints because the real spoils lie in new 2019 ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters that lift up the primarily acoustic-based music beautifully. This threesome sounds gorgeous and the music deserves it too.

The first album is pure Folk Blues – Acoustic one-man renditions by way of Scunthorpe – all songs originals except for the two openers – a cover of the Son House doomy classic "Death Letter" and a Blind Boy Fuller song called (not surprisingly) "Hard Luck Blues". The debut is a beginning and you can hear it – the whole album quietly good, but more functional than inspiring. But when Cooper hit the second platter "Do I Know You?" – it’s like he suddenly found his voice – the songs more distinctively him than copyist styling of some Americana dream. The most immediate comparison is Michael Chapman over on Harvest Records (the playing and voice) – the opening instrumental "The Link" getting a huge acoustic sound (like a 12-string). That promising entrée is followed by an impressive Roy Harper-ish duo of tunes "Journey To The East" and "First Song". Birdies and Froggies chirp and croak for the intro of "Them In C", a Bluesy Slide Acoustic with treated vocals that sound like Ray Dorset discovering the Delta as it segues into "Thinking Back". Other winners include the pretty but painful "Too Late Now", the panned Gallagher & Lyle acoustic guitars of "Wish She Was With Me" and the tidal wash of "Start Of A Journey".

Everything has changed Cooper sings on "That’s How" – another familiar acoustic strummer that opens album number three "Trout Steel". Stefan Grossman and Bill Boazman guest on guitars as do Mike Osbourne, Alan Skidmore and Geoff Hawkins on varying Horns. Very cool acoustic soloing on "Sitting Here Watching" while the run-together title "Goodtimes" feels like jolly Gallagher & Lyle or Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance rehearsing some slide acoustic melodies. The eleven-minutes-plus of "I’ve Got Mine" feels like experimental John Martyn, a bedroom of acoustic picking jabbed by Jazz musicians who know how to feel out something special – probably the album’s best moment – and something even Prog Folk lovers will crave.

After the acoustic-based Blues and Folk variations of the first three albums, the overtly Country-Rock of "Places I Know" feels like you’ve stumbled on Plainsong making their debut album - only a year earlier. At times "Three-Forty Three" even feels like Neil Young circa 1970 or Lindisfarne contemplating the Fog On The Tyne. While the Bluesy groove of "Night Journey" is uncomfortably close to Dylan and his Blonde On Blonde gem "Pledging My Time" – even the way the sliding guitar strings build. But Roy Harper type greatness comes in the epic 8:30 minutes of the Side 1 finisher "Time To Time" – all strummed acoustics and Alan Cook giving us aching piano echoing in the background only to be joined by gorgeous Norma Winstone and Chorus ooh and aahs as the strum builds – you don’t know, the way she can be from...

The strangely deflated mellow of "Song For Abigail" opens "The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper" album – the whole LP apparently supposed to have been the second half of the double-album "Places I Know". The fourteen-minute John Martyn Guitar and Rock Fusion noodle that is "So Glad (That I Found You)" is either going to test you or thrill you. But as much as I try to like the tunes, few move me and I can’t help thinking this half of the double was canned for a reason. Way prettier and a reminder of his fresh-faced genius is the ultra-rare 1970 single Mike Cooper "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" with Chris Spedding elevating its seven minutes to gorgeousness by way of his 12-string guitar playing – Michael Gibbs directing the cello. Given a picture sleeve (repro’d on Page 16) – it was a Maxi single that played at LP speed and along with "Time In Hand" and its piano-ballad B-side "Schaabisch Hall" end Disc 3 on a high.

For sure not everything here is undiluted Mike Cooper genius (Michael Chapman or Roy Harper would thrash him song-wise any day of the week). But there is also a great deal to love and it’s been decades since I heard it all sound so well. Maybe next time though BGO – go for that clamshell box and some tasty card sleeves...

"How Come The Sun (1971) + Tom Paxton EP (1967)" by TOM PAXTON (November 2018 Beat Goes On 'Expanded' CD Reissue - Andrew Thompson Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Little Lost Child..."

Having punched out no less than seven albums (a debut in 1962 Gaslight Records and six on Elektra) - "How Come The Sun" was the US Folkie's first set of studio recordings for his new signing Reprise Records - capitalising on the popular double-album "The Compleat Tom Paxton: Recorded Live" issued in March of 1971 that preceded it.

Strangely for such a high profile singer-songwriter - July 1971's "How Come The Sun" is only now seeing the CD light of day (47 years after the event) and this time by England's Beat Goes On (BGO) who have chucked the 4-track EP "Tom Paxton" [aka "The Marvellous Toy EP"] from 1967 on Elektra Records onto the end as a Bonus Item (a UK-only release at the time). This forgotten LP has been a firm fan want for decades and while I don't think it's the lost masterpiece some say it is - there's much to love here and BGO have once again done its subject matter the reissue the business. Let's get to radiant details...

UK released 23 November 2018 (30 November 2018 in the USA) - "How Come The Sun + Tom Paxton EP" by TOM PAXTON on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1364 (Barcode 5017261213648) offers the 9-Track 1971 LP and a Bonus 4-Track 1967 EP (issued only in the UK) that plays out as follows (44:07 minutes):

1. I Had To Shoot That Rabbit [Side 1]

2. Icarus

3. Little Lost Child

4. General Custer

5. She's Far Away

6. Prayin' For Snow [Side 2]

7. Louise

8. A Sailor's Life

9. How Come The Sun

Tracks 1 to 9 are his 8th studio album "How Come The Sun" - released July 1971 in the USA on Reprise RS 6443 and July 1971 in the UK on Reprise K 44129. Produced by TOM PAXTON and DAVID HOROWITZ - Tracks 2, 8 and 9 are co-writes between Paxton and Horowitz (all others are TP originals) and the album peaked on the US LP chart in August 1971 at No. 120 (didn't chart UK).

10. The Marvellous Toy [Side 1]

11. Beau John

12. Deep Fork River [Side 2]

13. My Dog's Better Than Your Dog

Tracks 10 to 13 are the UK-only 4-Track 7" single EP "Tom Paxton" [aka "The Marvellous Toy" EP] released 1967 on Elektra Records EPK-802

The outer card slipcase always lends these BGO reissues a classy look and the new 16-page JOHN O'REGAN liner notes illuminate much of Paxton's hugely productive career to his 80th birthday in 2017 (a total of 63 albums) - but its the ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters that will be the big draw here. The LP had a cast of six or seven musicians so it feels like a Folk-Rock record more than just a straight-up Acoustic picker - this Remaster picking out the lovely playing and better melodies like the gorgeous "She's Far Away" that ends Side 1 or the aching-melodica lament that is "A Sailor's Life" over on Side 2. The EP is stark (I'd swear its Mono) - straight up Acoustic renditions and although I can understand that its on here as a UK-only release - its sound and (childish) themes seem a world away from the 1971 album. Still it all sounds great. Other LP highlights are "Little Lost Child" and the Fred Neil timbre of "Deep Folk River" on Side 2 of the EP.

After a mid July 1971 release, by the very end of that month the "How Come The Sun" LP was bubbling under at No. 213 on the US Billboard Album charts. Come 14 August 1971 his LP had pushed up to No. 120, stayed there another week and then sank out of the listings rather quickly. Paxton would go on to "Peace Will Come" in 1972 and "New Songs For Old Friends" in 1973 - completing his Reprise run of studio albums - two more rarities that remain firmly off the digital radar some four and a half decades after release. 

For sure Tom Paxton's voice was never the strongest and admittedly some of the 1971 material may be dated in 2019 - but having waited so many decades, fans will adore this reissue (especially the quality presentation) and the curious will learn why he's held in such esteem...