A Very Noval Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

There is no better way to celebrate such a day than with a dull and dreary sounding small combo, led by an unidentified singer who can barely sight read, even when the piano is playing the melody along with his vocal. 

"What is Noval Records, Alex?" DING DING DING DING DING!

Here I have that fabulously weird label, producing a typically flaccid record, in this case, a song called "The Voice of Love". I admit for having a soft spot for these records because I genuinely adore vibraphones, and that instrument is sometimes all over Noval releases, including this one. Certainly the vibraphone is the only thing stellar going on here. On the other hand, the Noval male vocalist's inadequacies continue to amaze me. 

Download: No Artist Named - The Voice of Love

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The flip side - a tale of lost love called "The Voice of Love", so still appropriate for today - features a female vocalist, one with more character in her voice and far more accuracy in her ability to find the correct notes than her male cohort. The piano is still copying her melodic line, but it's more buried in the mix and I doubt she needed to have the pianist hold her musical hand in order to perform. And your mileage may vary, but a dreamy vibraphone will make nearly any record listenable for me.  

The interestingly named Ferris Paxton wrote both of these songs. There is a self-published book out there containing the poems of someone by that name, compiled by one of his children. I wonder if that's our man. 

Download: No Artist Named - Waiting For a Dream

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