So on our last trip to Goodwill last Tuesday (Senior’s Day) I made a minor haul, I picked up four albums. Three from favorite artists and one from an artist who has never made it to my music library. Let’s take a look at the albums I found.
Richie Havens – Mixed Bag
While I always enjoyed the music of Richie Havens, only album that’s is in my library is The Great Blind Degree. The Great Blind Degree was released in 1971 at the height of my record collecting years. And while he released twelve albums after that album only four made it on the Billboard top 200. Consquently, those albums didn’t garner a lot of radio air play, which in turn I didn’t hear them!
Anyway, AllMusic says this about Mixed Bag..
Richie Havens’ finest recording, Mixed Bag captures the essence of his music and presents it in an attractive package that has held up well. More at AllMusic
Two of my favorite Richie Havens songs appear on the album. First “Handsome Johnny”, which Havens made famous at Woodstock. And second his cover of Dylan’s “Just Like A Women”. I also like his cover of Billy Edd Wheeler’s “High Flyin’ Bird”
Simon & Garfunkel – Wednesday Morning 3:00 AM
Wednesday Morning 3:00 AM is Simon & Garfunkel’s debut album. It was released in 1964, which was a year I was probably still listening to the Beatles and other British Invasion Bands! I think the first Simon & Grafunkel album that made its way into my collection was 1968’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme,
The album is rough and the only two standout tracks are “You Can Tell the World” and an acoustic version of “The Sounds of Silence” AllMusic’s three star rating is the lowest for any of their albums. But I’m still glad it’s in my collection!
Leslie West “Mountain”
I knew of Leslie Wesr’s guitar playing and of the band Mountain but never bought an album, Here’s what I discovered about the album at AllMusic
Frequently classified as the first album by the group Mountain, which was named after it, Leslie West’s initial solo album featured bass/keyboard player Felix Pappalardi, who also produced it and co-wrote eight of its 11 songs, and drummer N.D. Smart II. (This trio did, indeed, tour under the name Mountain shortly after the album’s release, even performing at Woodstock, though Smart was replaced by Corky Laing and Steve Knight was added as keyboard player for the formal recording debut of the group, Mountain Climbing!, released in February 1970.More at AllMusic
I look forward to listening to the album….
Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
I was a big a Boz Scaggs fan from the time he started with the Steve Miller Band through his first five solo albums.Then I kinda only followed his career on the radio, Of course several of the albums he released between 1974’s release Slow Dancer through 1980’s Middle Man were Boz’s most commercially successful albums. Silk Degrees released in 1976 was the most successful.
I have really enjoyed his more recent releases.Both Memphis and A Fool to Care. I have yet to give a 2018 Out of the Blues a good listen.
Anyway listening to Silk Degrees obviously “Lowdown” and “Lido’s Shuffle” are the standout tracks. But I did also really like “Harbor Lights”
