Fastbacks

Artist: Fastbacks

LP: Alone In a Furniture Warehouse [10" EP]

Song: "Eyes of a Child"

[ listen ]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm just now—finally—getting into Fastbacks, the Seattle band that was together from 1979 to 2001. Better late than never!

[ Fastbacks ]

Max Pillar and His Orchestra feat. Sally King

Artist: Max Pillar and His Orchestra feat. Sally King

LP: Where Dreams Come True

Song: "They Don't Care"
[ listen ]

Did you know that the Seattle Space Needle is where dreams come true? They probably come true in the fancy and expensive circular restaurant up there at the top. The entire restaurant rotates a full 360° every 30 seconds or something, so that people will have a panoramic view of the city while they eat their dinner. So if that's your dream, it comes true!

The trouble is, the cover of this 1961 LP by Seattle legend Max Pillar sticks the Space Needle somewhere over in West Seattle instead of at the site of the 1962 World's Fair. It looks like it's right where Salty's is supposed to be. So if you've ever wanted the West Seattle Salty's to be displaced by the Space Needle, well then that dream comes true too. Vocals on two album tracks, including "They Don't Care," are nicely handled by big band singer Sally King, who just passed away last August. Her obituary, with lots of biographical information and some neat photos from her career, can be found here. 

You can go here to read the briefest biography of Max Pillar, go here to read the Seattle Times obituary for Mary Pillar, Max's wife of 38 years, and there's a neat article here from 1993 about the closing of Parker's Ballroom on Aurora, where Max Pillar and His Orchestra used to play regular gigs. Parker's opened in 1930 and was a Seattle music hot spot for decades, but in 1993 it got turned into a sports bar—a sports bar where dreams come true.

 [ Max Pillar: 1913 — 2002 ]

Perennial

Artist: Perennial

EP: You're the Ones

Song: "Rock and Roll Evenings" 
[ listen ]

The derivative early '80s heavy metal band Perennial hailed from Seattle, which explains why they're screaming about "Rock and Roll Evenings" instead of "Rock and Roll Nights." Seattle is still known as a fairly sleepy town where residents go to bed pretty early. Perennial could have even gone so far as to call the track "Rock and Roll Brunch" and it would have made perfect sense around here.

According to the info on the back of their 1983 4-track EP, Perennial's manager, Redvers Watson, worked out of Edmonds, a suburb just north of Seattle. I tried in vain to track Redvers down today, mainly just to ask if they knew what brand of shampoo the group used to produce such stunning highlights. You can read a little about Perennial here, and I've included a video for "You're the Ones" below. It's uncanny in their video how much all four members of Perennial look exactly like Mrs. Welsh, my 4th grade teacher at Robertson Elementary. Except for the wardrobe, of course.

Perennial on YouTube:
[ "You're the Ones" ]

[ Perennial ]

Stephen Whynott

Artist: Stephen Whynott

LP: From Philly to Tablas

Song: "What Have You Seen" 
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There's a lot I'm thankful for this year, including living in a state that's governed by someone who understands the meaning of 'land of the free and the home of the brave,' and not in one of the states being run by a cowardly idiot. I'm also thankful to be able to pull beautiful music out of my record collection that I don't even recognize. Here's something I found in my bins this morning; it's a lovely listen for first thing on a sunny-but-chilly holiday morning. 

There isn't much to be found about Stephen Whynott on the internet (which might be why he's considered one of the unsung heroes of the late '70s music scene), but I did discover that he now resides in Washington state up near Bellingham and that he once even lived right here in Seattle! The following biographical outline is copied from his Facebook page, and below that there are some notes and a photo from the back of his 1977 "From Philly to Tablas" LP. Happy Thanksgiving!

Stephen's career in the musical world has been filled with diverse extremes. He's been named one of the unsung heroes of 1978 by Modern Recording Magazine (along with Bruce Cockburn and Dave Brubeck), and been told how he and his band, "Calico," recorded one of the best unrecognized LPs of the early 1970s. Stephen began his solo career when Gunther Wiel at Intermedia Sound in Boston heard Steve playing some of his original songs and offered the use of the recording studio for as long as needed. The result was "From Philly To Tablas." The recording of that album and those songs sent Stephen on a quest to realize where his true calling would be. City life was rapidly losing its appeal, even though his gigs had introduced him to such notables as Fleetwood Mac, B.B. King, Aerosmith, etc. 

He decided to go across the country to Seattle, where he was signed to a record contract with "Music Is Medicine," the sister company of First American Records, which led to the creation, recording and distribution of his follow-up LP, "Geography." After leaving Boston for Seattle, Stephen's music gradually developed into beautiful instrumental stories about how much his life had changed from the whirlwind craziness of rock & roll, playing with his band "Calico" as the opening act for Tim Hardin, Al Cooper, The J. Giles Band, The Hampton Grease Band (along with other members of Frank Zappa's band "Mothers Of Invention"), Van Morrison, and many others. His recording career had included sessions with oboist Michael Kaman, members of Moby Grape, Tim Moore, Cleve Pozar, mellotron/pianist Dan Frye, bassist/recording engineer/producer Zed Mclarnon (worked with "The Paul Winter Concert"), recording engineer/producer Adrian Barber (recorded "Cream"), and Michael Leary (recorded Harry Nillson, Jonathan Edwards, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Loudon Wainwright, The Steve Miller Band, and Jefferson Airplane). 

But now he was truly a solo act; living in a new land, with new faces and new ideas. Nature became his companion of choice, and his music began to reflect the depth of that decision. The beautiful instrumental CDs "Apology to the Animals" and "Lost Land" are the culmination of all that Stephen has experienced during his travels through this unrelentingly exquisite and painfully humorous journey called life.  

[ Stephen Whynott ]

Vivian Williams and Barbara Lamb

Artist: Vivian Williams and Barbara Lamb with Tall Timber

LP: Twin Sisters
Song: "Leather Britches"
[ listen ]

Before there was Macklemore and Ryan Lewis...before Pearl Jam and Nirvana... probably even before Heart! Before any of that, the fiddling Twin Sisters were paving the way by rocking the Seattle music scene in 1974! I found this still-sealed copy of Vivian and Barbara's LP at the Goodwill store in Bremerton yesterday on my way to my youngest sister's college graduation ceremony. (Congratulations, sis!) It's a lot harder than you might think to find records in Bremerton. Info from the back of the album is included below, plus you can read about Twin Sisters here and buy MP3s of all the songs on this record here—which may be the only way you'll ever get to hear "Leather Britches," since DivShare has been broken for weeks!
PS: They're not really sisters...or even twins.

[ Twin Sisters: Vivian Williams and Barbara Lamb ]

Jennifer

Artist: Jennifer

LP: I Can Remember Everything

Song: "Sunny Day Blue"
[ listen ]

A few weekends ago I helped a friend move from Ballard to Kirkland, and afterwards I figured I'd stop by the Half-Price Books store located in nearby Bellevue. As I was looking up the address on my phone, a new and surprising blip appeared on my radar—a record store in Kirkland! I figured it would probably be one of those poorly-stocked suburban record stores that have way too many overpriced copies of old Richard Marx LPs, but I was wrong. Vortex Music & Movies is stuffed to the gills with so much interesting stock it's impossible to rummage through everything in a single visit. Owner Daren Compton (who was there when I stopped by—very friendly guy) has been collecting records for decades and had always dreamed of owning a record store...so, voila! You can read more about Daren and his Vortex on the Kirkland Reporter website here. 

This mysterious hippie record by Jennifer is one of the things I found in Kirkland on that fateful summer day. A bit of amateur online sleuthing this evening led to a cascade of startling revelations: This LP is the 1968 debut of Jennifer Warnes, the same lady who sang "Up Where We Belong," the love theme from AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, which I performed with Jessica at the West Valley Junior High talent show in 1983! Not only that, but Jennifer was born right here in Seattle, and she's best friends with Leonard Cohen! Further shocking revelations about the artist formerly known as "Jennifer" can be found on Wikipedia right here.

 

[ Jennifer Warnes, nowadays-ish ]

[ Vortex Music & Movies — Kirkland, Washington ]

The Sneed Family

Artist: The Sneed Family

LP: Meet The Sneed Family

Song: "Danny Boy"
— feat. Billy Goodman —

[ listen ]

Song: "Brush Me From Your Shoes"
— feat. Marvin Cave —

[ listen ]

Song: "Wil-aWa"
— feat. Leslie Sneed —

[ listen ]

Song: "Call Me Up"
— feat. Don Sneed, Jr. —

[ listen ]

Song: "The End of the Week"
— feat. Suzie Sneed —

[ listen ]

Song: "My Uncle Ralph"
— feat. Danny Sneed —

[ listen ] 

This rollicking hillbilly music turned out to be just what I sneeded to get me up and moving this cold, grey, and lonely Valentine's morning. The sensational singing Sneeds of Spanaway (it's near Tacoma) apparently got started in the early 1950s when Papa Sneed and his three young sons began making appearances at halls and on TV throughout the Pacific Northwest. You can find photos and info at The Sneed Family's Hillbilly-Music.com page here, see a neat photo of the group from the early days here, and find a German-language Sneed Family Wikipedia entry here. A partial discography and another neat picture of the group can be found here. In order to be sure I wasn't discriminating against a single Sneed, or Marvin or Billy either for that matter, I've included a track here featuring each and every one of them—Suzie, Leslie, Marvin, and Don, Jr. on vocals, and Danny and Billy on their instruments. In the words of Cascade Recording Company vice president I.P. Gadd, "relax and listen to some versatility that you do not find on the average record, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this album to the fullest extent." If anyone out there has more info about The Sneed Family—or if you yourself are a Sneed—I'd love to hear from you!

[ The Sneed Family, plus two other guys. ]

Dave & Susanne

Artist: Dave & Susanne

LP: Walking In the Sunshine

Song: "Walking In the Sunshine"

[ listen ]

Song: "Little Green Apples"

[ listen ]

My good friends John & Aine (how about starting a singing duo, guys?) gave me this lovely made-in-Seattle Dave & Susanne LP for my birthday back in August. Not to be confused with the globe-trotting duo who were last seen in Poughquag, NY, this Dave & Susanne released their first album in 1969 just a few months before I was born. Not only is the copy Aine & John found for me actually signed by Dave & Susanne themselves, but it also evidently once belonged to Dick Bell, who contributed to the album's cover photo and artwork. I can't find any info about Dave & Susanne Phillips-Lamplighter on the web, so if they or anyone who knows or knew them is reading this, I'd love to hear what they're up to nowadays and learn more about the making of this record and about their music careers. The LP liner notes, photos, and artwork are included below, and go here to read a 1992 Seattle Times review of The Legend Room restaurant and lounge, where Dave & Susanne once performed.