Barry Goldberg – Sittin’ In Circles
Barry Goldberg – Strung and Young
Barry Goldberg – Another Day
Back in my early college days I hosted a blues show called Crossroads on Album 88 in Atlanta. In learning about and searching for music I started to gain a big appreciation for the revivalist sound of the 60s out of Chicago, including white artists from the windy city like Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel, Nick Gravenites and Barry Goldberg. I’ve already featured one record that features many of these players, Harvey Mandel’s debut, of the records of that period I think this one from Goldberg is my favorite, just because of the sound. Partially it’s the diversity of sounds on this album, the group is allover the map, performing Dylan meets the Velvets numbers, bloozy Southside strutters, wah-wah heavy rock and even a couple of country psych joints.
Mainly my love for this record is all about the way it’s produced. The sound on this record is big, so big I like to call it the Chicago Wall of Sound record. Everything just washes over you on the better tracks, the slightly echoed drums from a mellowed “Fast” Eddie Hoh, slightly reverbed bass, gorgeous clean lines from Mandel (or groovy wah-wah psych outs), floaty horns and organ. You can hear this especially on the slow burners like “Sittin’ In Circles,” “Another Day,” and the instrumental “Strung and Young” and the mostly instrumental “I Think I’m Gonna Cry.”
Of that bunch, “Sittin’ In Circles” has to be one of my favorite songs from this period of time. One of the other groups Goldberg was associated with, The Electric Flag, also recorded a version of this song, but this one is light years away from that one, sounding like a hazy drugged out summer night of sound once those drums shuffle the whole group in and Goldberg lazily sings his lines…just slays me every time.
Cheers,
Michael