Leigh Stephens – Another Dose of Life
Leigh Stephens – Drifting
Leigh Stephens – Joannie Mann
Our first dig deep entry of 2010 is this legendary record from Leigh Stephens. Stephens put out this record after his acrimonious split from Blue Cheer in 1968. I first heard this record pretty recently while at Records L.A., the owner was listening to the Akarma reissue of this album in addition to other music and though I passed on the record then, the sound stuck with me and, as is often the case, pushed me towards acquiring an original copy. As luck would have it, I was able to get mine off of Ebay during a particularly productive Christmas buying season.
Recorded in the UK with sessions musicians Red Weather is very much in step with some of the final work Stephens did with Blue Cheer, heavy, but without the fuzz and distortion they were known for, instead it’s more pensive and at times even psychedelically pastoral. This isn’t to say this set does not rock, oh brother does it ever, but it’s a very eccentric production. Stephens’ vocals throughout the record are largely buried beneath the music, obscuring lyrical meaning, but giving a greater somewhat hazy feeling to the overall sound. It’s that sound, layers of guitars, heavy drums, strong bass, crisp piano, that keeps drawing me back to this record again and again. Even though there aren’t any “clean” breaks on here, the moments in between verses on tracks like “Another Dose of Life,” “Joannie Mann,” “Red Weather,” “I Grow Higher,” or the instrumental “Drifting” just sound like ripe for adventurous samplers.
After only a month this record is amongst my favorite releases from that period of time. Now that Sundazed is giving it a proper reissue (apparently the Akarma version had Stephens permission, but he never saw much from it, hopefully the folks at Sundazed will get Stephens his proper due), hopefully many others will find their way to this fantastic album.
Cheers,
Michael