All Pearls, No Swine Vol. 2 - Electric Boogaloo!

Okay, I lied in the subtitle here. Time for round two, though realistically there's not much electricity here, but a bunch of acoustic stuff, again from the obscure corners of the 1970s music scene (and, you know, Youtube). The line-up this time around includes some more known and recognizable names like Jonathan Edwards, Gallagher and Lyle or Manassas, and - if you're into deep cuts - maybe guys like Chris Darrow. Manassas' song is interesting, as it is the only true example of the 'cuban bluegrass' that Stephen Stills once described his band as. Except, you know, they never really played cuban bluegrass. They either played bluegrass, spearheaded by secong banana/right hand man extraordinaire Chris Hillman, or they played latin rock courtesy of Stills. This is the first of many stabs Stills had at "Thoroughfare Gap" (Manassas also cut a more traditional version) before finally releasing it on the album of the same name in 1978. And it is an interesting mix of the two, with Joe Lala going crazy on percussion while Hillman fires up the ol' mandolin. Maybe not a hundred percent succesful (which might've gotten it shelved for six years), but certainly intriguing! 

There are again a whole bunch of folks who either recorded on private press vanity labels or tiny independents, so information on a lot of these is shaky at best, and in some cases inexistant. There's a bunch of Canadians on here: Billy Mysner is a folkie with one self-released record to his name, while the Perth County Conspiracy (who supported Bob Burchill, from Vol. 1) was, seemingly, a mix between a hippie commune and a psychedelic folk-singer/songwriter collective from Stratford, Ontario. Also from Ontario hails Bob Carpenter, on whom I'll have a lot more to say and post, including his fight with the record company establishment that he unfortunately lost. Speaking of lost: Jim Sullivan, an obscure Californian songwriter, got lost in the New Mexico desert, never to be heard from again. After releasing an album called U.F.O. his more obsessive (and, uh, possibly altered by use of narcotics) fans - all five of them - swear he was abducted by aliens. 60,000,000 Buffalo (who will also be featured here later) was a contry/blues rock troupe led by Judy Roderick and Bill Ashford. Cayenne (also coming up!) was a local San Francisco country rock bar band. The Seabird Band was a local favorite in North Carolina. I don't know anything about the Sweet Magnolia Band other than that the song featured here is the best song The Grateful Dead circa American Beauty never recorded. Fantastic stuff. 

So, there you are. Hopefully a lovely hour and change of some sweet sweet Seventies music, better than any algorythm on Spotify could offer you. Oh, before I forget: For weirdos like me (and others out there, I C U, C!) who still burn stuff on CDs, all volumes of APNS will be timed to fit on a standard 80 minute recordable CD, if you desire to engage in such outdated fashions of using outdated technology. Then again, you are listening to thoroughly outdated music. Like we all should. Enjoy.