Friday 21 April 2017

Fred Neil – FRED NEIL****

The Dolphins/I’ve Got A Secret/That’s The Bag I’m In/Badi-Da/Faretheewell (Fred’s Tune)/Everybody’s Talkin’/ Everything Happens/Sweet Cocaine/Green Rocky Road/Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga

Self titled debut album from folk guitarist Fred Neil who once worked as a songwriter in the Brill building. Includes his most famous composition Everybody’s Talkin’, later recorded by Nilsson for the Midnight Cowboy movie.

“I may not be one of the biggest fans of this artist's style of acoustic guitar driven folk and folk-rock. But there can be no denying this album is a true classic, not only of the genre, but the entire time period it represents.”

"The Dolphins and Fred's own version of Everybody's Talkin' are stunning. The rest of the songs are of pretty good quality, but none can touch these two standouts. For Neil, it seems simply possessing a cavernously low baritone wasn't enough; he constantly bended notes downward at the end of vocal phrases, employing the far-reaches of his low register to achieve a bluesy effect. He seems to overuse this tool just a bit.”

“A beauty of a folk-rock album, featuring Everybody's Talkin'. And it is a great song, as most of the rest of this is. Fred is a good guitar player and a great singer with a low and spellbinding voice. The album has some nice 60s production, some simple acoustic accompaniment mostly, with the occasional drums and electric guitar, just jammy enough without meandering too much.”

"Dolphins is an incredible song. The lyrics and music combine to capture such a wistful sentiment, and it has become one of my favourite songs. I was surprised at the quality of the rest of the music on this LP. Fred Neil had such a great voice, with an obvious appreciation of the blues.”

“Fred was an icon during the folk music period in the 1960s, though he had done a great deal of work in country prior to his coming to New York. Almost every folk musician and many of the folk rock stars of the period played and sang with Fred. With his amazing baritone voice, the songs on this album are some of his best.”

“This album is full of classic tunes and any exploration of the magic of Fred Neil should begin here. Embrace Neil's unbelievable baritone and 12 string picking, in conjunction with a set of high quality session players: you won't regret it.”

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