"...My Town..."
Back in August 2004 and part
of their '2 Classic Elektra Albums' Series that started in late 2001 and
continued into 2007 – Rhino had touched on these rather gorgeous Paul Siebel
albums in real style. But that entire series is now long in the deleted mist
and most titles within it gaining nasty price tags ever since.
Being no strangers to the
Elektra Records back catalogue with their extensive reissues of Judy Collins,
Tom Paxton and The Incredible String Band to name but a few - England’s Beat
Goes On have clearly seen this reissue gap and are filling it. The draw on this
May 2020 CD reissue is not just the truly gorgeous audio for both albums but
Two Rare Bonus Tracks – interviews with Siebel from a 7” single that was
included in promotional press kits for his debut album "Woodsmoke And
Oranges" in 1970.
Musically and a little like
fellow Folky Fred Neil – New Yorker PAUL SIEBEL made rather gorgeous but
commercially unsuccessful albums and then left the industry abruptly. His two
lone LPs "Woodsmoke And Oranges" (1970) and "Jack-Knife
Gypsy" (1971) are firmly in the Country Rock vein with occasional
flourishes of Folk Tunes and singer-songwriter Rock (think Guy Clark, Dan
Fogelberg, John Prine, Gram Parsons and so on). His two albums have been
compared both vocally and stylistically to Bob Dylan's "Nashville
Skyline" from 1969 where the Bobster embraced Country Music big time – and
that’s an accurate comparison (steel guitars and melodies ahoy). And at three
seconds short of eighty-minutes, you can’t say that this new BGO version is
shirking it on the value front either. Let's get to the nasal details...
UK released Friday, 15 May
2020 – "Woodsmoke And Oranges/Jack-Knife Gypsy Plus Bonus Tracks" by
PAUL SIEBEL on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1406 (Barcode 5017261214065) offers his two
albums from 1970 and 1971 with Two Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks and
breaks down as follows (79:57 minutes):
1. She Made Me Loose My
Blues [Side 1]
2. Miss Cherry Lane
3. Nashville Again
4. The Ballad Of Honest Sam
5. Then Came The Children
6. Louise [Side 2]
7. Bride 1945
8. My Town
9. Any Day Woman
10. Long Afternoons
Tracks 1 to 10 are his debut
album "Woodsmoke And Oranges" – released February 1970 in the UK and
USA on Elektra EKS 74064. Produced by PETER K. SIEGEL – all songs were written
by Paul Siebel.
PAUL SIEBEL – Acoustic and
12-String Guitar
DAVID BROMBERG – Acoustic,
Electric Guitar and Dobro
DON BROOKS – Harmonica (on
"Then Came The Children")
RICHARD GREENE – Violin (on
"Miss Cherry Lane" and "The Ballad Of Honest Sam")
JEFF GUTCHEON – Piano And
Organ
WELDON MYRICK – Pedal Steel
Guitar
GARY WHITE – Bass
JAMES MADISON - Drums
11. Jasper & The Miners
[Side 1]
12. If I Could Stay
13. Jack-Knife Gypsy
14. Prayer Song
15. Legend Of The Captain’s
Daughter
16. Hillbilly Child [Side 2
– see Note]
17. Pinto Pony
18. Miss Jones
19. Jeremiah's Song
20. Uncle Dudley
21. Chips Are Down
Tracks 11 to 21 are his 2nd
album "Jack-Knife Gypsy" – released March 1971 in the UK and USA on
Elektra EKS 74081. Produced by ZACHARY – all songs were written by Paul Siebel.
Note: Side 2 of original UK
and US vinyl LPs had the track running order as follows 21, 17, 16, 20, 18 and
19. For some unexplained reason the CD track list lines them up in a different
configuration (as listed above).
PAUL SIEBEL – Rhythm Guitar
And Vocals
BOB WARFORD and CLARENCE
WHITE – Lead Guitars
JIMMY BUCHANAN – Violin and
Viola
BUDDY EMMONS – Pedal Steel
Guitar
DAVID GRISMAN – Mandolin
RALPH SCHUCKETT – Piano and
Organ
BILLY WOLFE – Bass
RUSS KUNKEL – Drums
Other Sidemen – Paul Dillon,
Peter Ecklund, Doug Kershaw, Peter Kuvashka, Bernie Leadon (of Dillard &
Clarke, Flying Burrito Brothers and Eagles), Ralph Lee Smith and Gary White
BONUS TRACKS:
22. Up 'Til Now (3:34
minutes, LP song and conversation)
23. From Here On In (3:33
minutes, LP song and conversation)
Both interviews were pressed
onto the A&B-sides of Elektra PS-1 (an American promo-only 45) and issued
late 1969 with Press Kits in the Promotional copies of his American Debut
"Woodsmoke And Oranges" on Elektra Records EKS-74064.
The card-wrap that
accompanies all of these Beat Goes On Reissues lends the release a very classy
feel. The 12-page booklet features most of the original artwork for these two
rare early Seventies albums - the track lists, musician credits and a new
appraisal of the reclusive singer by JOHN O'REGAN with Internet references
provided. It doesn't provide lyrics to "The Ballad Of Honest Sam" and
"Louise" which the Rhino/Elektra issue did in 2004 nor that outtake -
but as it was only all right, it's not a great loss.
But as with the
Rhino/Elektra 2004 variant, the really big news for fans is the re-emergence of
a truly gorgeous High Definition transfer by BGO’s resident audio engineer
ANDREW THOMPSON. This CD sounds stupendous – clear, warm and never over-amped
for the sake of it. When you play the two stunning acoustic-only tracks on
"Woodsmoke And Oranges" – "My Town" and "Long
Afternoons" – the audio can only be described as perfection.
Aged 32, Siebel was already
an old-hand troubadour of Greenwich Village gigs when "Woodsmoke And
Oranges" was released in February 1970. He spent years in New York
crafting the songs as he worked in a photographer's studio (dark room work) and
also spent hellish hours shaving wood for a pram manufacturer. Side 1 opens on
the hick Country-Rock tip of "She Made Me Loose My Blues" that rams
the Pedal Steel of Weldon Myrick to the fore – not my fave and not a great
start in my book but Flying Burrito Bros fans will eat it up. We then get a
little Randy Newman with "Miss Cherry Lane" which was actually put
out as a single in the UK (B-side) in March 1970 on Elektra EKSN 45085 with
"Bride 1945" on the A-side. Of all the Country tracks on here my
personal fave is "The Ballad Of Honest Sam" – a song about a card
cheat who fooled sad-eyed losers by appearing to be 'honest' (Siebel sounds
identikit to Dylan on "Nashville Skyline" – a good thing in my book).
Both of his lovely songs
"Louise" and "Any Day Woman" got cover versions by an
astute 18-year old friend of Siebel - Bonnie Raitt (as well as others after
her). But my crave on this superb debut album is the two acoustic-only tunes –
"My Town" and "Long Afternoons" – both as gorgeous as
Seventies singer-songwriter gets. "My Town" laments a friend who gave
his life in Vietnam (Johnny died over there for us all as Miss Delia marches at
home with a torn flag and a face of shame) while "Long Afternoons" is
a straight-up love-song about a lady with a kindly touch and "...soft
brown hair in the sun on long afternoons..." Siebel's lyrics are deep too.
Take the genuinely moving "My Town" – it won't take many long to
start throwing up Dylan comparisons for rhyming sentences like "…Somewhere
a bugle is blowing…and the drummer is moving the dust…I've broken my pencils
and paper…while the church bells go silent with rust…" But the debut album
belongs to his most famous song "Louise" – Linda Ronstadt and
Plainsong joining the ranks with Bonnie Raitt of people who dug its lyrics and
music and then did superb cover-versions of it.
Despite the larger crew of
musicians (some big names too) - the second LP is weaker in my eyes than the
first. On the upside you get “Prayer Song” where he successfully mixes Pedal
Steel with Richard Green strings – a lovely builder of a song. “Pinto Pony”
jaunts along nicely too while “Chips Are Down” pours on the melodrama about
being a man when the "chips are down". In fact, Siebel's nasal whine
and the over-reliance on Country Rock with Pedal Steel can make some of the
songs seem repetitive – but that first album “Woodsmoke And Oranges” has magic
on it more than once or twice - it really does.
The Promo seven (clearly
dubbed off a 45 but still very clean) uses the heard-those-fiddles-play music
of "She Made Me Lose My Blues" to lead in a discussion with an
intelligent interviewer (not identified) – they talk of his years in New York –
how he crafted songs and melodies. Side 2 of it opens with "Bride
1945" (she was a young lady and he was a soldier) and further discussion
about trademark tunes including why people react to songs like "Bride
1945" so intensely. Its very interesting stuff and a supercool Bonus.
This is a smart 2020 reissue
for Beat Goes On making available again music that deserves its hour in the
summer sunshine. And with that gorgeous audio and those powerfully humane
lyrics – BGOCD1406 is a shoe-in to touch your heart more than you would guess.
Dig in (again) and enjoy...
