Customer Reviews

Rowan Brothers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've looked for The Rowan Brothers 1972 debut album on CD for years. Another Columbia hype gone bad (Moby Grape being the other that comes to mind), which left an excellent debut album in it's wake. I love the unique sound of the production (David Grisman). No, it's not a folk sound; it is what I call pop/folk/psych ala 1972. Some albums have unique production sounds (Sunflower by The Beach Boys and Supersnazz by The Flamin' Groovies for example). The songs are strong, particularly The Best You Can, All Together, Move On Down (with Beatle vocal bits for fun) among others. I enjoy the music and the story behind it (good liner notes by Mick Skidmore).

Great to see this on CD. Lovely and high minded. A little known capsule of the true Hippie sentiment. It still resonates after all these years. A bit all over the place, with some psychedelia, some folk and some rock, but so were those days. We thought any avenue could and would bring us truth. Sit back and dream a little dream of freedom. Above all, enjoy!

Despite their good intentions-----or possibly the record co.'s marketing strategy at the time, this record IS as bad as you may have heard it was. Both of these guys have done worthy work over the course of their careers but this is not some of it. They had a stellar cast of session musicians -and Jerry Garcia said of them and this record,"They could be as good as the Beatles" Well, Jerry played on this record but these guys gained nothing from the experience. A truely embarrassing piece of work from an era noted for embarrassments.