Back to the roots with All Pearls, No Swine

After having a couple of APNS volumes that strayed into different decades or included a resonable number of reasonably known artists, this version of All Pearls, No Swine goes back to the roots: tons of great tracks from micro-label or self-published artists. Looking at the track list, I'd say maybe Justine (with Laurie Styvers) and the hidden-all star Alpha Band are more widely known, but that's already a bit of a stretch. The rest are very talented folk who never made it particularly big. Oh, and Cheryl Dilcher had two of her albums on A&M, so she's technically a major label artist, I reckon. "Cotton Eye Joe" is from her debut on Ampex, though. And unfortunately those two A&M platters sold nothing, so by album four she was indeed with the self-publishing crowd. And, as the cover might indicate, there's another sense of going back to the roots, as we wander back deeply into country and folk territory, some of the most fertile grounds for pearls from the 1970s. 

If you are a fiend of little to unknown country rock, like your friendly neighbourhood blogger OBG, you'll be happy to find Colorado outfit The Black Canyon Gang looking for "Acapulco Gold". Barry Zell, né Barry Pagliaroli, was part of the - don't laugh - New Jersey country rock scene and was backed on his one record by One Buck Records faves and one-album wonders Lakota. Fellow one-album band Mantra from Montreal mixed folk and country rock influences together, with "Tomorrow Without You" more the former than the latter. Crowfoot (below) are on the outer periphery of country rock, dipping into everything from light psychedelia to soft rock and some folk-ish stuff as well. 

Could these dudes possibly look any more like hippies?

Speaking of folk-ish stuff: U.K. artist Baby Sunshine is Ian Scott Massie who gave up music after one album to focus on writing and watercolour painting. For some more internatioonal flavor we have aussie Gino Cunico (yeah, with that name I would've thought he's from New Jersey, also...) giving the softest of soft-rock treatment to the Goffin-King classic "Goin' Back" and Spanish pop trio Nubes Grises. And back over in ol' Cali, folk-rockers Saltcreek bravely named their first record I, probably in the hopes of many more to come, which unfortunately didn't happen. Folkie Rod Abernethy joined Arrogance as lead guitar player for a while in the late 70s and 80s before becoming a hugely successful composer of music for computer games. His compilation closer "Cavalry" comes from a various local artist compilation LP recorded and issued in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1973.  

So, this is it, folks. All Pearls, No Swine up to its old tricks in its old hunting grounds. Relaxed, countrified sweetness for a warm summer's eve on the back porch, or your living room. Enjoy.