5 STARS *****
Some background first. I worked for 20-years of aural servitude (shouldn't that read penal) in "Reckless Records" in Islington's Upper Street and Soho's Berwick Street as a Rarities Expert and Mail Order Manager. There are still three shops in Chicago and Berwick Street is closing on its 40-plus Anniversary as a primo one-stop for music of all kinds – especially VINYL and CD. In short - Plainsong's lone 1972 album "In Search Of Amelia Earhart" on Elektra Records is exactly the kind of collector's beast I traded in - and on a weekly basis.
Like so many albums from those early Seventies years - "...Amelia Earhart" took it's sweet time sneaking it's Folk-Country-Rock way into the hearts of fans. Gaining stature in the 90s to 10's - by the time we now reach 2022 – 50-years after the event - Plainsong's loner has gained an almost legendary status with a dose of mythical thrown in for good measure.
A full version review of the superb 2CD reissue/remaster "Plainsong" from May 2005 on Water Records WATER 149 (Barcode 646315714920) is on this Blog.
Here are the bare bones for info purposes...
1. For The Second Time [Side 1]
2. Yo Yo Man
3. Louise
4. Call The Tune
5. Diesel On My Tail
6. Amelia Earhart's Last Flight [Side 2]
7. I'll Fly Away
8. True Story Of Amelia Earhart
9. Even The Guiding Light
10. Side Roads
11. Raider
Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "In Search Of Amelia Earhart" - released October 1972 in the UK on Elektra K 42120 and October 1972 in the USA on Elektra EKS 75044. Produced by SANDY ROBERTON (Engineer Jerry Boys) - it didn't chart in either country. All songs are IAN MATTHEWS originals except the following five - "Yo Yo Man" by Rick Cunho, "Louise" by Paul Siebel, "Diesel On My Tail" by Jim Fagan and "Raider" by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester
PLAINSONG was:
IAN MATTHEWS - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar and Percussion
ANDY ROBERTS - Lead Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Dulcimer and Kriwaczek String Organ
BOB RONGA - 6 and12-String Acoustic Guitars
DAVID RICHARDS - Bass and Piano
with
Timi Donald - Drums (except on "Call The Tune" - Dave Mattacks)
Martin Jenkins of Dando Shaft - Mandocello on "Diesel On My Tail" and "Raider"
With its choice of five obscure cover versions that straddled US Folk, Americana, Old Timey and even Appalachian music - running alongside six new songs by Ian Matthews steeped in all those Dulcimer traditions - the resulting album on Jak Holzman's Elektra Records almost presaged the return-to-roots feel of the Coen Brother's film "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" in the year 2000 - a full 28-years prior. And with The Liverpool Scene guitarist/quality solo artist Andy Roberts out front with Ian Matthews - Holzman must have thought for a short time that maybe he'd hit upon another money-making singer-songwriter machine like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - but sadly the band imploded just weeks after the album hits the shops 6 October 1972 – doing their last gigs and BBC material in December 1972 – almost one-year to the day they'd formed in Matthews' flat in London.
Which brings us by circuitous route to this brilliant and infuriating book "In Search Of Plainsong" by IAN CLAYTON - published September 2022 on Route Publishing in Hardback. If I'm giving this book a solid 5-stars - why is it 'infuriating'? I should explain. The book isn't infuriating - their 'ramshackle warning-story' is. And as their story unfolds through eyewitness accounts - you begin to realize that this is exactly what happened to so many promising acts in those halcyon years - bad management - inexperienced record company execs – what genre are we - is it a concept album – is it Folk Rock – can they get an identity as just Plainsong rather be just a band-extension of Ian Matthews who'd had a worldwide No. 1 hit with Joni Mitchell's "Woodtsock" in 1970? The infuriatingly mistakes - honing the material live instead of honing the actual studio LP everyone was supposed to buy - internal musical differences - squabbling that poisoned the vibe just as the platter is released - and on it goes. The reviews too were all glowing – Charles Shaar Murray for the NME, Ray Hammond for Sounds, Karl Douglas for Melody Maker – but the public either didn’t know who they were and became disinterested once they imploded in bitter acrimony only months after the album arrived.
What is also less obvious about the book is its scope. Because Ian Matthews had exited Fairport Convention after their first album and done three studio sets with his own Matthews Southern Comfort (all in 1970) and Andy Roberts had been though The Liverpool Scene and so many other projects up to 1972 (Everyone, PC Kent and more) while the other two band members Dave Richards and Bob Ronga provided uncanny vocal harmonies - the book is actually a microcosm of the FOLK-ROCK SCENE stretching from 1969 through 1973 (Steeleye Span, The Woods Band, The Dillards, John Martyn, Judy Henske, Utah Philips, John Hartford and more) - and therefore has a huge reach beyond just one album by a cult band that (let's face it) few even in 2022 know about.
The book has contributions from Richard Thompson, Roger Swallow (original drummer with Matthews Southern Comfort), Karl Dallas of the Melody Maker, a 15-year-old Cameron Crowe writing for his local San Diego music press, Producer Sandy Roberton (gushing and embittered in equal measure), Jonathan Clyde of Elektra Records UK who signed the band at the tender age of 23 - tales of vans shared with a then newly formed Eagles recording their debut with Glyn Johns in early 1972 - a rare day off spent giggling and smoking with ex Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band frontman Vivian Stanshall - master of ceremonies at the end of Side 1 on Tubular Bells in 1973. There are passages about an American tour with 50's and 60ts Wanderer legend Dion, a disastrous date with Donny Hathaway whose fans weren't really there for Mellow Folk-Rock and finally with an emerging Randy Newman making waves with songs on Warner Brothers.
Clayton is smart enough to step out of the way too - you don't get passages detailing his critic viewpoints - grandstanding - instead the bulk of the book is hugely detailed first-hand interviews - so the people who were there in England, Europe and the USA for the year Plainsong existed - all get their views printed. It goes deep - Derek Asletts who designed the cover art that looks lovely but actually doesn't tell you much about the band or the LP which I personally think did for sales (what is this - that kind of thing?) - Stuart Lyon of the Hampstead Country Club where they gigged - Ed Kelleher of Cash Box Magazine in the USA who let Andy Roberts root through the unused review copies of LPs in their cupboards where he stumbled on cover versions that would end up on the LP (Mason Williams and Rick Cunha) and the Laramie album track "Farewell First Lady Of The Air". There is even stuff about taking their clogs off in the studio because their clacking made too much noise during recordings while that’s dotted in-between main-man Ian Matthews explaining and at times apologizing (with real sincerity) for all manor of band-related problems and personal disasters that cost him, his career and his loved ones dear.
There are tour dates, fan remembrances, passages on the gestation of the band and their LP, discussion on all the recordings, Matthews' obsession with all things American Elektra Records - the aborted second studio album done in November 1972 provisionally called "Now We Are 3" after a nursery rhyme (seven songs of the unreleased Elektra K 42136 ended up on further solo albums much to the chagrin of others for royalty payments owed under the Elektra contract). You get stuff on the counter culture - Bernard Stone's Turret Bookshop in London where Andy Robert used to hang out on a Saturday and therein stumbled on a whole section of books on Aviation - in particular Fred Goerner's book "In Search Of Amelia Earhart". Supplied by the shop, Elektra gave out mint copies of that book at the showcase October 1972 gig for Plainsong's album release - attended by both Harry Chapin and Mickey Newbury who were jointly plugging their own albums "Heads & Tails" and "'Frisco Mabel Joy". Heady days indeed...
Across its 240-pages and 16 chapters (up to Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts touring a version of Plainsong in August 2021 to ecstatic reviews) – you might think an obscure band that sold reputedly less than 4000 copies of their lone LP doesn't really warrant such lavish attention. But the story is so riveting, the background and histories and musical landscapes so relevant even to this day (50 years on) – I would argue that if you like Folk-Rock and tales of drunk drummers disappearing in fields and hookers with a huge heart (Paul Siebel's "Louise") – then this is the twin-prop for you. And God Bless you Amelia Earhart wherever you are – heroine of the skies and influencer of men with long hair and questionable moustaches...
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