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Valerie Carter – That girl could sing

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The Dodgers have made a recommendation for me of a new release – Ooh Child by the late Valerie Carter. It’s her two albums from the 70s “Just A Stone’s Throw Away” and “Wild Child”. I’d not heard them, so had a listen to the first one earlier. It’s an excellent production, very tasteful, superb playing from various members of the then LA scene including Jackson Browne, Lowell George and Linda Ronstadt. The trouble is, it just doesn’t have the overall heft to make it an essential purchase. It’s just very pleasant. But I can’t question the quality of her voice, which is why she was a first choice for people like Jackson Browne as a backing singer. And JB did compose an excellent song dedicated to her – That Girl Could Sing. She is also supposed to be the inspiration for Steve Winwood’s Valerie. Though as the lyrics are by Will Jennings, I’m not wholly convinced about this. I’m sure you know it, but there’s no harm in listening to it again, despite that ever so 80s production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbKNICg-REA

However as this is a thread about Valerie Carter, it would be remiss to ignore her, so this is the » Continue Reading.

Gordon Jackson – psychedelic musician

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I’ve been listening to the magnificent Chris Wood box set Evening Blue, which covers Chris’s career including, naturally, Traffic, unreleased solo work and sessions he did for various bands and artists, some well known (Free, John Martyn and Nick Drake) and others not so well known. One of the lesser known artists is someone called Gordon Jackson. Not the actor from Upstairs Downstairs, The Professionals and The Great Escape (the dumb ass, falling for “the oldest trick in the book”) but a guy who was apparently well regarded in the Midlands’ music scene at the end of the 60s. Until listening to this collection I’d never heard of him before (or if I had, I’d totally forgotten about him). He seems to have produced one album only Thinking Back, and then disappeared. There are three tracks on Evening Blue which feature all of Traffic. Other musicians involved were Jim King and Pole Palmer of Family and Julie Driscoll. It’s all very much of its time, but I rather like the tracks I’ve heard. I’ve posted a link to Song For Freedom. He was still living a couple of years ago, because there is a YouTube film of hm talking about » Continue Reading.