Great Speckled Bird

Great Speckled Bird Artist: Great Speckled Bird
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


EAN: 5050159103225
ASIN: B00004YU4G


Release Date: 2000-10-23

Related Categories:

General General
Related | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
General General
Related | Folk | Styles | Music
Folk Rock Folk Rock
Related | Rock | Styles | Music
Country Rock Country Rock
Related | Rock | Styles | Music
Contemporary Contemporary
Related | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music
Folk Folk
Related | Imports | Stores | Music

Listmania:

  1. Favorite Americana

Tracks:

  1. Love What You're Doing Child
  2. Calgary
  3. Trucker's Café
  4. Long Long Time to Get Old
  5. Flies in the Bottle
  6. Bloodshot Beholder
  7. Crazy Arms
  8. This Dream
  9. Smiling Wine
  10. Rio Grande
  11. Disappearing Woman
  12. We Sail
  13. New Trucker's Café [Live][*]

Similar Items:

  1. Movin on 1967-68

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Forgotten Country Rock Classic.......2001-06-04

It is probably fair to say that this is Ian & Sylvia's most important album, and yet it was never sold under their name. It marks an astonishing intersection of roads, bringing together the well-known folk duo, drummer N.D.Smart III (already of Barry & the Remains and Mountain and later a Gram Parsons sideman), two Canadian newcomers who would enjoy higher profile careers afterward (Buddy Cage and Amos Garrett) and Todd Rundgren as producer while Nazz was still in business. This high-powered concoction yielded one of the best country rock albums of all time.

Released in 1969 on the Ampex label for the five minutes that this old recording equipment manufacturer flirted with running a record company, "Great Speckled Bird" immediately sank without a trace and remains a genuine dark horse today. A search of "Ian & Sylvia" will not pull up this release on Amazon; you have to already know about it even to think of buying it.

And buy it you should. Propelled by the toughest country rock sound anybody was doing in 1969, Ian Tyson brings together a handful of timeless classic songs seldom matched, particularly "Calgary," "Long Long Time to Get Old," "Flies in the Bottle" and "Rio Grande." Sylvia's contributions are suprisingly modest here but her "Truckers Cafe" is a classic country woman's lament.

It's tempting to imagine what might have become of this record if it had been released on a proper record label and if it had been billed as "Ian & Sylvia & the Great Speckled Bird." Surely it would now be on every record shelf that also holds "Sweatheart of the Rodeo," "Nashville Skyline" and Michael Nesmith's first few solo albums.

Music CD:

  1. Atlantic Bridge ~ Rothfield, Carr
  2. Up the Shirkers ~ The Tansads
  3. Fall From Grace ~ Les Sampou
  4. California Traveler ~ California Traveler
  5. Perishable Fruit ~ Patty Larkin
  6. Tunes from the Tides
  7. Songs of Conscience & Concern ~ Paul & Mary Peter
  8. Rev. Gary Davis at Newport ~ Rev. Gary Davis
  9. Stories ~ Ellis Paul
  10. Folklore de Bolivia, Vol. 3 ~ Ukamau

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

In the meantime... ~ Divine Maggees

Northern Journey ~ Ian & Sylvia

Epilogue ~ To Die for

Night of the Living Shred ~ Joe Stump

Music from Bolivia ~ Various Artists

Celtic Charmers ~ Various Artists

Looking Out My Window ~ Carl Weathersby

Heavy Hitters ~ Michael Schenker Group

Fox

Megarave ~ Various Artists