Mixed Bag – RICHIE HAVENS***

High Flyin’ Bird/I Can’t Make It Anymore/Morning Morning/Adam/Follow/Three Day Eternity/Sandy/Handsome Johnny/San Francisco Bay Blues/Just Like A Woman/Eleanor Rigby

An early album from Ritchie Havens who transformed the folk songs of others into his own personal style. He would achieve fame by becoming the opening act at the legendary Woodstock festival. (US:182)

“The LP takes the sound of folk music and adds Richie's gruff singing style and his unique acoustic guitar strumming. This album leaned more toward outside writers like Dylan and Lightfoot. Of course his Beatles covers were all the rage later but here he does a strange take of Eleanor Rigby.”

“Richie Havens is a very original artist even if he often covers other people's songs. He has a rich deep voice which he uses to express warmth and depth, only occasionally allowing it to blast away full throat, which makes those moments all the more effective. More distinctive yet is his guitar style, which is some sort of open tuning. This results in some great rhythm playing to accompany his voice.”

“This album is mostly folk music, usually with a decidedly jazzy edge expressed via the arrangements and an excellent combo of backup musicians. Havens himself strums along on acoustic guitar using a type of open tuning he himself invented. But by far his best work is when he hits you with tunes, self-penned and otherwise, that hardly anyone's heard before.”

"What Havens established in Mixed Bag, was a deep emotional bond of intimacy with the listener that few have been able to create since. It is the perfect after-hours album, because it is at once, melancholic and cathartic.”

“With intelligence, a strong sense of music and just sheer originality Richie Havens sings and plays with the timbre of a troubadour and an artist in full command of his instruments. His ability to make each song he did not pen his own is masterful, yet his originals are the most compelling: lyrically elusive, yet emotionally evocative.”

“He has one of the most soothing voices I have ever heard. His versions of Just Like A Woman and Eleanor Rigby are unreal. Richie Havens reaches deep into the heart and soul with this album of intensely thought provoking songs. A must have for any folk music collector.”