We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
The early 70’s were the hey-day for progressive rock music. Yes, ELP, King Crimson and dozens of other bands were working in the genre. Well, how about a progressive-folk-rock band? Introduce yourself to McKendree Spring.
The band, founded at Adirondack Community College in 1968, had already recorded and released two albums before the aptly named “3” came out in 1972.
It’s an interesting mix of originals and covers highlighted by a solid version of Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River”. They also cover “Heart Like A Wheel” from Kate & Anna McGarrigle that would shortly be the title track of a Linda Ronstadt album. They also do a nice turn on Arlo Guthrie’s “Oh, In The Morning”.
There are some pretty good originals two including the acoustically beautiful “Fading Lady” and the uptempo “Flying Dutchman” (not the polka).
The band featured the guitars Fran McKendree and Martin Slutsky, and the Moog, mellotron and especially the electric violin of Dr. Michael Dreyfus. Some of this stuff with the violin sounds sort of like Kansas lite.
The album ends with a 9 minute workout called “God Bless The Conspiracy” which includes some spacy synths and some long passages of screeching violin.
It’s a mixed bag but you might find some of this interesting as you probably missed it the first time around.
1. Down Boy The River [0:00] 2. Fading Lady [5:50] 3. Flying Dutchman [11:19] 4. Heart Is Like A Wheel [17:37] 5. Feeling Bad Ain’t Good Enough [21:07] 6. Hobo Lady [26:43] 7. Oh In The Morning [30:55] 8. God Bless The Conspiracy [35:07]
