Monday, May 29, 2023

Bonnie Graham on Preview

First, I was alerted to the fact that this site was recently added to a site called "The 35 Best Obscure Music Blogs and Websites". This is part of a larger website called Feedspot. I'm hoping - and pretty sure - that they mean the music I share here is obscure, and not that the site is obscure. Both statements are probably true, however. In looking around the internet, I've found multiple references to Feedspot, a couple of which say it is a scam of some sort. If anyone out there has information about this, please let me know and I will remove this section of the post and the link. 

Anyway....

I am surprised to find that I have gotten through 14 years of this song-poem project without ever featuring Bonnie Graham. I know I own a least a few of her two dozen or more releases on Preview, but perhaps I've found, over the years, that those have been shared elsewhere (I try not to feature music that's already been posted). I'm really not sure. I posted one record which an online site claimed featured her, but a quick listen to that record proved that it wasn't her, and, in fact, that it was likely a different singer on each side of the record! You can read about Bonnie Graham (aka Charlotte O'Hara) here

Anyway, here's today's offering: 


I really enjoy both of today's sides, for different reasons, and had a hard time deciding which one was stronger. I ended up with "The Future of My Heart". I don't want to overlook the stellar vocals, although that's pretty much a given on a Bonnie Graham record. But yeah, this is really great singing. But I also love what's going on behind her - particularly the flute part, and that loose snare sound that recurs on many of the better Preview records of this period. This has Rodd Keith written all over it. Plus, if you listen closely - in headphones - you will hear a few moments where members (or perhaps one member) of the band call out, perhaps in excitement, perhaps for other reasons. I hear three shouts between 0:40 and 0:53. Then there's a shout at 2:03, followed by another a few seconds later, and they continue here and there for the rest of the track. Those moments add a feeling of being in the studio, at least for me. Last, but hardly least, these are better lyrics than you're going to find on most song-poems, and whoever set them to a melody did a damn fine job. 

Play:  

The flip side appealed to me immediately because of the backing track used. Those who have the song-poems compilations (released some 20-25 years ago now) will recognize this track immediately, and I'm going to guess many of those who do have greatly fond memories of the Rodd Keith records in which it was previously used. Aside from that, Bonnie Graham's most excellent vocal performances are again the star of the show here. 

Play:




3 comments:

Stu Shea said...

Thank you for posting both of these! Like you said, better than average lyrics and nice melodies, too. I kept waiting for the gong crash at the end of "I Need You," but I guess we can't have everything! xo

snoopy said...

I'm going to go out on a limb and trust that the records you post are genuine and not a scam.

Sammy Reed said...

Wellll, it depends on who you talk to. Some strange-music sites DO call the song-poem biz a "scam", and others who understand that you send words and some money, and you get a recording of your words put to song, and that's it - not so much. But it depends.