Friday, May 25, 2007

A *big* thanks to Mike Gilbert...

...who ripped his own vinyl copies of the first and third Lamb albums and let me have them to share with you all.

So far, 19 people have downloaded 'Cross Between' since I reposted it (I can't get in to my old Rapidshare.de account so have no idea how many people got it the first time round).

Last time I only referenced the AllMusic biog, but here I'll quote the whole thing:

The minor San Francisco group Lamb tend to be remembered only for their appearance on the Fillmore: The Last Days concert album, where they were one of several non-star artists on a set dominated by bigger names like the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Boz Scaggs. The band did actually put out three albums in the early 1970s, however, and were quite an interesting group. Not only were they not readily comparable to other acts on the San Francisco rock circuit, but it's debatable whether they could be fairly categorized as a rock band at all. Their music blended jazz, folk, singer-songwriter pop, gospel, and even some classical and avant-garde influences. Certainly the dominant figure was singer Barbara Mauritz, whose bluesy and earthy vocals had considerable resonance, but which could also traverse the band's frequently mystical, poetic lyrics with much delicacy and nuance. Reminiscent in spots of such varied artists as Tim Buckley, Judy Collins (in her art-song phase), David Ackles, and Savage Rose (in that band's most gospel-soaked period), their records were ultimately idiosyncratic enough to defy ready comparison to anyone. And they were, too, ultimately too inaccessible to make much commercial impact, despite plenty of tracks of considerable power, beauty, and enigma.

Lamb were formed by the duo of Texan singer Mauritz and multi-instrumentalist (though primarily guitarist) Bob Swanson, who with Swanson (writing both separately and together) was responsible for the band's material. They attracted attention in San Francisco when they opened for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for a few nights at Winterland in November 1969. Impresario Bill Graham became their manager, and producer David Rubinson, who had worked with notable groups such as Santana and Moby Grape, acted in that capacity for their first record. Their debut album on the Fillmore label, A Sign of Change, was perhaps their most uncompromising and experimental, relying largely on jazz-folk acoustic arrangements and spotlighting Mauritz's impressive voice on impressionistic, dream-like lyrics. They moved over to Warner Brothers (while retaining Rubinson as executive producer) for the follow-up Cross Between, which moved toward slightly more mainstream rock arrangements and a more pronounced gospel feel on several tracks. Yet others were throwbacks to the first album in their obscure but enchanting poesy, sometimes owing more to a classical-influenced art song tradition than conventional pop music.

Lamb went yet further toward gospel-rockish material on their third and final album, Bring Out the Sun, which was their most mainstream outing, though hardly mainstream overall, with a couple of tracks again giving vent to their more experimental jazz-folk-classical side. The LP was co-billed to Lamb and Barbara Mauritz, though Swanson was still involved as a composer and instrumentalist on much of the material. Whether or not this co-billing was intended as a transition from Lamb to a solo career, Mauritz was soon recording as a solo, putting out Music Box for Columbia. Her solo career didn't take off, however, although she continued to perform and write (composing the music for many commercials). In the mid-1980s, Bob Swanson returned full-time to photography. [The Lamb founded by Swanson and Mauritz, incidentally, had no relation to either the Christian rock band Lamb that began to record later in the 1970s, or the drum'n'bass duo Lamb that began recording in the late 1990s.] ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

That's about all you need to know. I've had 'Cross Between' for years but never managed to track down the other two albums until now. Thanks again to Mike Gilbert.

I've also found a live recording from 1971, posted at http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com - I hope the owner of that site won't mind me sharing what he's already chosen to share.

And I hope that Barbara and Bob get some credit - and money - somehow. If their albums are ever re-released I will delete these links and buy them immediately, as I hope you will too after hearing them.

OK, here are the albums.

(Note: somehow I uploaded these without logging in to my premium account - that means the files will be deleted in 30 days! If I get time I'll re-upload them properly but I may not - so - Grab them now!)

Lamb - A Sign Of Change (1970)

01 - Traveler's Observation
02 - Adventures of the Incredible
03 - In My Dreams
04 - Barbara's Soul
05 - The Odyssey of Ehram Spickor
06 - Preacher's Holiday
07 - Where I'm Bound

Link here

Lamb - Cross Between (1971)

01 - Flying
02 - Now's Not The Time
03 - Cross Between
04 - Sleepwalkers
05 - Reach High
06 - Ku
07 - While Waiting
08 - Floatation
09 - Milo And The Travellers

Link here

Lamb - Bring Out The Sun (1971)

01 - Old Fashioned Remedy
02 - The Wish
03 - Rap With Rhyme
04 - River Boulevard
05 - How Am I Gonna Manage
06 - Visions of Blackbirds
07 - Salty
08 - The Vine
09 - Live to Your Heart

Link here

Lamb - Live at the Fillmore West, July 1st 1971

Picture taken from Robert Altman's site - hope he doesn't mind!

NB - this is exactly as I downloaded it, I haven't split the tracks so it's one long mp3

01 - Hello Old Friend
02 - Reach High With Your Life
03 - Want To Love
04 - Joshua
05 - Visions Of Blackbirds
06 - River Boulevard
           (band introductions)
07 - Together
08 - Paper Aeroplanes
09 - I Need A Man To Be Good To
10 - Real Believers
11 - Old Fashioned Remedy

Link here

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hello

great blog...

can u re up that gem

bowles brothers+roger buys a fridge

thanks

10:52 am  
Blogger GarColga said...

Man thanks for these Lamb releases - talk about hard to find!!

2:40 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi, I just want to say thanks for the Lamb albums, I've been looking for them forever

Oh and the Live at Fillmore one is gone now, too bad!

2:35 am  
Blogger houseinrlyeh aka Denis said...

Thanks for those. The Lamb records are terribly hard to find.

10:23 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank YOU so much for such hard to find material...I have been looking for a long long time
Cheers,
Doc

4:34 am  
Blogger Tony said...

Been looking for the Lamb LPs for decades! Now I've found all three together PLUS a live concert. I only had reel to reel recordings of odd tracks from the radio in the early seventies. Amazing! You've made my day...in fact, lots of days. Thank you.

8:17 am  
Blogger blockfluter said...

I still have the copy of A Sign of Change that I bought while in High School. It made an impression, and for some reason I just googled the title and I found this. It seemed like mysterious and obscure music then, and I haven't listened to it in years (my turntable is long gone). It will be fun to hear it again.

11:07 pm  
Blogger Canaan C. said...

I've been looking for Lamb everywhere. I still have the LP(extremely scratched) of one of their albums, but the cover doesn't match any of the one's you show? Could it be an oddball? It's looks like white clay with Lamb written in raised letters on it.

3:53 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

canaansland their was a christian rock band named lamb who put out material i the early to mid seventies too

12:37 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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7:34 am  
Anonymous cgm said...

Wow. What a voice! Unclassifiable and all the better for it - thanks for posting these terrific records. On checking it looks like Wounded Bird re-released the first album last year - so I'm off to get a copy.

6:24 pm  
Blogger Nick said...

Just found your blog with these... I bought the first Lamb album on a lark a while ago and enjoyed it a lot, but I never knew about the follow-ups. Thank you for posting these!

7:28 pm  

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