Tuesday, April 7, 2009

PERTH COUNTY CONSPIRACY -ALIVE 1971

Recorded in concert (though at 53 minutes, it's short for a two-disc set), Alive finds this Canadian band mainly offering unexceptional early-1970s drumless folk-rock. Most of this has obvious debts to laidback singer-songwriters of the period; "Sailboat" can't help to recall early-'70s James Taylor, while other songs, and the vocal harmonies in general, carry a strong whiff of Crosby, Stills & Nash. Some female vocal backup and piano flesh out the arrangements a little, but generally these are bland derivations of some of the leading lights of the era. One wonders if "I Spun You Out" would ever have been written, for instance, if Stephen Stills' "4 + 20" hadn't already appeared on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Deja Vu album. Throw in the Band as inspiration as well, with "Uncle Jed" emulating the easygoing roots music of that group, down to the gospel-like choruses. If you're looking for a more exotic reference point, "Tractor Song" sounds kind of like the country-rockish songs that Sal Valentino sang with the Beau Brummels in the late 1960s. Breaking up the tracks is some self-indulgently humorous spoken patter, including a couple of unfunny hammy theatrical spoken pieces that are jarringly out of place. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Tracks :

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Sailboat
Broken Wing
Take a Look at the Light Side
Stratford People
People Are Out of Tune
Hezekiah
Stories of Old
Pilgrim
Welcome Surprise
I Spun You Out
Tractor Song
Uncle Jed

Link : @

Ripped By : EMB
Artwork Included

10 comments:

  1. That review is overly harsh. In a time when most everybody was influenced by most everybody else its hardly fair to call anyone derivative. Perth Counry's Freek creds hold up quite as well as CS&N.
    As for the padding to make a double album, I seem to recall this resulted in the band firing its major label and releasing their final album independantly, tho' I may have the sequence muddled.

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  2. Has anyone else had trouble with this link? My first attempt only downloaded 6 songs and subsequent tries have never done more than 11. I don't know if its the link, my computer. or rapidshare but something seems to be amiss.

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  3. Check again , the link is fine , i just tried it and it works...

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  4. It works but I'm still coming up two tracks short.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. It's true, Roldo. There are only 11 tracks. I've tried to match with the official tracklist but it doesn't. At least two songs are missing.

    "Perth County Conspiracy Alive" track listing:
    (side 1)
    1.) You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Bob Dylan) - 3:30
    2.) Sailboat (Terry Jones) - 4:23
    3.) Broken Wing (Cedric Smith) - 5:32
    (side 2)
    1.) Take a Look at the Light Side (Richard Keelan) - 5:30
    2.) Stratford People (Cedric Smith) - 3:38
    3.) People Are Out of Tune (Richard Keelan) - 3:52
    (side 3)
    1.) Hezakaiah - 3:14
    2.) Stories of Old (Terry Jones - Richard Keelan) - 4:10
    3.) Pilgrim (Cedric Smith) - 5:35
    4.) Welcome Surprise (Richard Keelan - Cedric Smith) - 5:35
    (side 4)
    1.) I Spun You'out (Milton Acord - Cedric Smith) - 3:03
    2.) Tractor Song (Cedric Smith) - 5:28
    3.) Uncle Jed (Billy Batson) - 5:12

    Please Evermore, could you re-up...? Thank U very much!

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  7. It's all there. 13 tracks = 11 tracks
    track 5 combines Stratford People and People Are Out Of Tune
    track 8 combines Pilgrim and Welcome Surprise
    Have listened to this many times when it first came out.

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  8. Opps...that'll teach me to listen first, which I'll go do now.

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  9. I did the album live in 1971. When on stage, the band realy drove me crazy as they just walked away from the microphones on one number while still singing. They didn't tell me they were going to do it, so we had strong words about how a fade is done back in the studio. I was told "we sing for the audience not for some recording engineer". We finally did get some great performances on the multitrack and some memorable mixes in the studio.HS

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