I had no knowledge of who the Rowan Brothers were before I bought this.
The sleeve looked vaguely “country” so I assumed they were hopefuls hitching their horse to the country rock wagon.
Pardner, forgive me for that twee imagery.
As it turns out, I was right.
Since the dawn of commercial music the record sleeve has given an indication of what music was inside. In the days before the internet, when musical criticism seemed to live around the Top 40 acts, and, before musical histories became available or easy to find, punters like me would use cover art as a tool to deciding what the music was like inside.
It was an important tool.
In import record shops you had word of mouth but the cover art could sway you into plonking down a week’s pay at Woolies for some (overpriced) imported piece of vinyl.
Op shops were cheaper but you were on your own there. The cover art and whatever other information you could get from the label is all you had to go on.
Even now, knowing what I know, I still sometimes stand in the middle of an op shop, scratch my balls, then my head, and wonder if I should buy an album.
I’m not going to pull out my fucking iPhone, bring up google, enter the band and album title in and then search page after page.
I just don’t have the time or patience.
The reality is that any search won’t be quick anyway. If I don’t know, or have never heard of, the band there is a good chance they aren’t that well known. They are not going to be on page 1 of the searches, if you know what I mean.
And when you do find something on-line you end up at some half-assed site where you don’t find out anything about the band.
A bit like this site where people googling “The Rowan Brothers” have ended up reading the ranting of some half pissed prick complaining about the (lack of) usefulness of the internet in temporal and immediate situations.
Well for those people and to my few (very few) loyal readers I will turn to The Rowan Brothers …..and crib (and credit) what I can from other sites.
Wikipedia: “The Rowans (later “The Rowan Brothers”) is an American country-rock group, originally formed by the brothers Chris Rowan and Lorin Rowan. They were joined by another brother, Peter Rowan, for their second, third and fourth album. Chris and Lorin were still playing together in 2009….Chris and Lorin were raised close to Boston, but in the beginning of 1970, they moved to the West Coast to pursue their music. In 1971, they opened for Grateful Dead as their first gig in San Francisco”.
Boston, country rock ? wtf?
allmusic says “Chris and Lorin Rowan (both guitar, vocals) began working together as a duo in San Francisco, California, USA, during the early 70s. They were helped by Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia who occasionally played with them live.”
California, country rock. That makes more sense.
Maybe it was a familial thing.
Their older brother, Peter, who joined the “Rowan Brothers Band” after this album, had gotten into old timey and country music in the early 60s and had become a well-established and seasoned musician in rock (Earth Opera and Seatrain) and bluegrass (he was one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the mid-60s).
Fuck, that was a long sentence.
Anyway he isn’t on this album.
I suspect thought that the Rowans here, Chris and Lorin, came under the musical spell of their older brother and fell in love with country music.
Certainly they were skilled enough in the genre to get a deal, win praise, and release an album, this album.
Allmusic: Released in 1972, the Rowan Brothers’ eponymous debut arrived with a great deal of hype, including an ad featuring a quote from Jerry Garcia in which he stated that Chris and Lorin Rowan “could be like the Beatles. They’re that good.” Produced by Bill Wolf and David Grisman (credited as David Diadem), the first effort from the Stinson Beach, CA, duo never even came close to living up to such lofty praise
Allmusic go on to offer this opinion about the album: “Ignored at the time and somewhat dated today, The Rowan Brothers is another forgotten relic from the late-’60s and early-’70s San Francisco music scene”
“Somewhat dated today” doesn’t mean it will be dated tomorrow. Likewise, there is California vibe on the album but you can tell there is something else going on from places elsewhere. It’s not the straight country rock you hear from California country rock bands of the time. Perhaps they got more country later (I haven’t heard any of the later albums) but here they vacillated between country rock, folk rock, and early 70s pop.
Country with harps, flutes, moogs, saxophones, cellos, and violins.
There are some duff pastoral hippie “at one with nature in mind and body” type lyrics as well as duffer (?) lyrical appearances by mystical wizards and dancing dwarfs but I assume drugs were involved.
Still, even with all that, this album is pretty good and the music is quite country folk pop rock slick. The good session work from Buddy Emmons , Jerry Garcia, Jim Keltner, and Peter Rowan and others no doubt helps.
There is sureness in the pop and the country melodies are gentle and quite evocative. Think Paul McCartney’s Wings goes country.
Certainly the album is no worse, and frequently better, than a lot of Poco albums.
Tracks (best in italics)
- Hickory Day – The use of the word “hickory” in a song means instant country rock. A good song and quite catchy.
- All Together- hmmm, this is stylistically different from the last song. Early 70s pop rock with some sort of religious overtones, though I could be wrong because I’m not sure what is happening in the lyrical narrative.
- Best You Can – a ballad which is (not surprisingly) very early 70s. This is the type of thing Roger Daltry or Rod Stewart (or Paul McCartney) would knock out on their solo albums. It’s pretty good.
- One More Time – an up-tempo ballad and quite nice.
- Lay Me Down – A slower ballad, and more than a little dull. It’s meant to be a little otherworldly and spiritual but there is no musical hook to keep you sucked in.
- Wizard – it starts off with a catchy chunka a lunk a lunk guitar but the lyrics are a little naff …”the wizard brought to me…” , yadda yadda yadda. Vocally, the Rowan Brother singing, sounds a little like Peter Gabriel here.
- Mama Don’t You Cry – another country rock type number
- Gold – a bigger ballad. Catchy.
- Love Will Conquer – another ballad with a little more tempo. Nice use of mandolins (?) trying to sound a little otherworldly
- Lady of Laughter – hmmmm
- Move on Down – more country rock and quite rustic and catchy
- Singin’ Song – This is catchy but it sounds like something else. I can’t think of what right now. Perhaps “Lovin You” by Minnie Riperton from 1975? (thanks Sive for the ears)
And …
Hmmm, touch and go. But, there are much more good points than bad … I’ll keep it.
Chart Action
Nothing nowhere.
Sounds
Hickory Day
a great early 70s clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6kwhPWyKw&list=PL7CDC5E9489DF5B7F
MP3 attached
Best You Can
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHFLpM45L9s
One More Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vs9yawGEpU
Mama Don’t You Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQINjsIjPZM
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=552sNtGSK30&list=PL7CDC5E9489DF5B7F
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-RwQt6jwiw
Review
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-rowan-brothers-mw0000233343
http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/rowan-brothers-self-titled-review/
Bio
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-rowan-brothers-mn0000489983
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rowans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rowan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKBQWlajZBk
Website
Trivia
- The brothers also play regularly with David Gans in the Beatles tribute band “Rubber Souldiers” but use a “Beatles vocabulary with a Grateful Dead syntax”
The gatefold:
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