The heyday of American baroque pop - or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock'n'roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it. Baroque pop's musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-up in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with string quartets, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions. You can trace it back to the Left Banke who created a sound that was soft but insistently sad - where were the guitars! Their guitarist Rick Brand claimed their lyrics "were written as rather self-consciously beautiful musical whimsy, as you find in the latter 18th-century Romantic music, pre-Beethoven". They had a huge hit with 'Walk Away Renee' and effectively invented a genre before combusting after just one album. Splinter group Montage produced a very rare album and singer Steve Martin Caro an equally rare single - both are represented on "American Baroque".Though the baroque sound was quickly forced into a corner by the back-to-basics stance of power trios like Cream and Blue Cheer, many musicians weren't yet ready to ditch cellos and harpsichords. Some groups like the Blades of Grass aimed their minor key melodies at an early or even pre-teen following. And others like Emmit Rhodes' Merry-Go-Round, H.P. Lovecraft and Appaloosa simply loved the feel of string quartets and woodwinds and continued to explore orchestral pop further, into the early seventies. In doing so, they created this tapestry of delights. There was no single blueprint for the American baroque sound - it could be bordering on the gothic (Russ Giguere of the Association's extraordinary 'My Plan') or as small and precise as a music box (Tom Northcott's 'Other Times').

Tracklist:

You're a Very Lovely Woman -
The Merry-Go-Round
I Shall Call Her Mary - the Montage
Raggedy Ann - John Randolph Marr
Tulu Rogers - Appaloosa
Turnaway - the Pleasure Fair
Different Drum -
The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt
Emily's Illness - Nora Guthrie
Barefoot Gentleman - the Association
Land of Sensations ; Delights - J.K. ; Co
Blue Jack of Diamonds - H.P. Lovecraft
Time - Bonnie Dobson
Satin Slipper - the Blades of Grass
My Silent Symphony - Chris ; Peter Allen
Mr Webster - the Monkees
Again Again - Eternity's Children
My Plan - Russ Giguere
The Fairest of the Seasons - Nico
Other Times - Tom Northcott
You Lied - the Neon Philharmonic
Close to Carmel - the Fun ; Games
Home Before Dark - Nora Guthrie
I Have Been Alone - the Common People
Two By Two (I'm Losing You) - Steve Martin
Lorelei - Rosebud

UPC: 029667025416
Label: Ace Records Uk
Release Date: 2.7.25
Format: Vinyl Record

American Baroque: Chamber Pop & Beyond 1967-1971 - American Baroque: Chamber Pop & Beyond 1967-1971 [LP]