Seatrain - Seatrain (1970/1990)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist: Seatrain
Album: Seatrain
Released: 1970
1990 CEMA/One Way Records
Genre: Folk/Roots/Country Rock
Track listing: 1) I'm Willin'; 2) Song Of Job; 3) Broken Morning; 4) Home To You; 5) Out Where The Hills; 6) Waiting For Elijah; 7) 13 Questions; 8) Oh My Love; 9) Sally Goodin'; 10) Creepin' Midnight; 11) Orange Blossom Special.
Note: not to be confused with the band's 1969 debut album, which, for some perverse reasons, was also named Seatrain. Somebody please go and tell Peter Gabriel that if he thought he was being original with his first three records, well, he can just go sulk in the corner.
The most bizarre thing about this record and the follow-up, though, is probably that they were both produced by George Martin - assigned to work with these guys by Capitol. Now I would be the last person to associate George Martin with a definitely American, definitely roots-rock band like Seatrain, but then again, it's hardly more surprising than Frank Zappa producing Grand Funk Railroad. And Martin does a great producing job anyway, giving the band a clean, sharp, very distinctive sound, perhaps even too clean for their own good.
For roots rock aficionados, Seatrain will be a terrific acquisition - I may be a little bit cold about it because music like this ain't generally my cup of tea, and frankly, I don't see a whole big bowl of songwriting talent about these guys. But even without a huge amount of hooks, the album still has a lot going for it. A: it all sounds nice and perfectly inoffensive, not at all rednecky (and where it does sound rednecky, it's appropriately tongue-in-cheek). B: the band is highly professional and skilled, although the only player I'd perceive as a total virtuoso is violinist Richard Greene. C: most important of all, the band tries to get something going, with many of the tracks being unpredictable and unformulaic. Plus, guitarist Peter Rowan at least knows how to pen a good ballad.
Actually, just so as not to let you wonder why the hell did I bother with the record in the first place, I'll state that there are only two songs out of eleven that I don't really give a damn about: 'Broken Morning' is a totally bland mid-tempo folk-rocker whose nice instrumentation (chimes, bits of flutes, angelic vocal harmonies, etc.) doesn't help it register in my memory nohow, and the choice of Goffin/King's 'Creepin' Midnight' as one of the covers is surprisingly lame - surely Carole King has a lot of better songs behind her belt, or is it just that these guys massacre some brilliant idea I'm not aware of? (I haven't heard the original, whoever it was recorded by in the first place).
Especially since the other cover is great: there couldn't have been a better album-opener candidate than Lowell George's "I'm Willin'", and they give the song a great arrangement with interlocking violin/wah-wah lines, too. The song's only flaw is that as an opener, it gives you a slightly warped impression of the band - they're not, by any means, generic (even if good generic) Southern rock, it's just one part of their interests. Because the very second song already takes the entire Book of Job and shoves it into a six-minute musical narrative - a cool musical narrative, too. Great idea, because what is there more "soulful" in nature than the story of Job, and how can you bypass this opportunity when it liberates you of the necessity of writing a bunch of hooks of your own? Instead, you pick one menacing midtempo groove, retell the story your own way, add punctuating touches like, say, a furious violin scream when 'Satan' comes in, chant the name of 'Jehovah' in an authentic Jewish way (isn't the catch here that you're not allowed to pronounce the name in any way, though?), and hoopla, you got a cool thing on the way.
I am, however, a bigger sucker for two pretty Rowan ballads: 'Home To You' is more stately slow-tempo roots-rock culminating in a really attractive and well-sung chorus, and the fun, boppy 'Oh My Love' is the closest thing to pure pop they offer us on here. Then there's, uh, an attempt at major rock pomposity, complexity, and "roots-progginess" in the lengthy multi-part suite 'Out Where The Hills' (it even ends on a seriously operatic note!), which has its moments but is perhaps a little bit overlong. As well as a short rocking single, '13 Questions', which even briefly charted in the States, apparently due to the inspired melodic hook and the extra funkiness provided by the violin - this might just be the only case I've ever heard of a violin playing a syncopated funky rhythm (and then Greene adds a wah-wah violin solo, but some of these I did hear already).
However, Greene's performing genius (which actually kicks off the record - with a highly unusual, almost "astral" violin solo on "I'm Willin'") can't be fully appreciated until the closing 'Orange Blossom Special', which you might have heard in a Johnny Cash version. If you thought all country fiddle players sounded the same in the first place, take a listen to the mindblowing soloing of this guy on this track, chugging along at a monster pace, never taking a break, picking up more and more steam just as you think it was finally going to slow down. Take Greene out of the band and you'd be left with a solid, but thoroughly unspectacular roots rock band along the lines of a hundred others; put him back in and you have a strong basis for selecting Seatrain out of this hundred.
In short, an album well worth hunting for, although I repeat that unless you're a real sucker for this kind of music, it probably won't make you a convert. But even if you're not, be sure to track down at least 'Song Of Job', for its novelty value, and 'Orange Blossom Special' for some of the best fiddle ever captured on tape.
|
