Nancy Priddy – You've Come This Way Before
Nancy Priddy – Ebony Glass
Nancy Priddy – We Could Have It All
Sorry to have once again seemingly disappeared on you all. Been a very busy time on the home & work front but I should be back to normal after this week. Thought I’d come back strong here on Record Store Day with a real deep LP that I recently ran into at the mecca of all things funky, the venerable Groove Merchant in San Francisco. 
On the rare occassion these days that I make it to Groove Merchant I try to spend as much time as I can perusing the various bins before checking out the super rare records that are on the wall as a finale before I get ready to split. This record caught my eye not because I knew anything about it, but because it seemed a little out of place. It really doesn’t look like much, just a standard 1970s singer-songwriter kind of looking cover, you’d expect acoustic guitars and maybe some soft strings.
After passing by the unassuming record several times, and finally concluding, “well if Cool Chris has this on the wall, there must be something good on it,” I decided to drop the needle on the LP and promptly had my mind blown. This record could be the poster child for why it’s so important to never judge a record by it’s cover. I don’t even know how to accurately describe the variety of sounds contained on this album, they are undeniably funky, clearly sample worthy (I’m sure Madlib has made great use of this already), at times off the wall, but always interesting. Musically, the songs float from sort of late-sixties hippie funk, as on the title track, to darker tracks like “Ebony Glass” that could have easily found their way onto a David Axelrod album. Priddy’s voice also does a lot of interesting things, going from a seemingly innocent girlish-ness to a bit of backwoods country phrasing to projecting assured womanly confidence. While there are clearly additional singers used at times on the album, (including a pretty creepy kid on “Ebony Glass”) it’s amazing how many different voices it seems Priddy uses throughout the album.
What’s even more interesting is the story of Nancy Priddy, who Chris would tell me is actually the mother of well-known actress Christina Appelgate and apparently the inspiration behind the Buffalo Springfield song “Pretty Girl Why.” She had a varied career, working as a model, actress and a singer, first with the Bitter End Singers, and then on her own. Unfortunately Priddy didn’t record much more than this LP, a few vocals on some Astrology albums are all the credits I can find after this recording, and she spent a long time away from music, only to pick up recording again somewhat recently (likely after finding out how revered her sole album was amongst collectors).
A remaining mystery is who are the players on this album. I’m not familiar enough with Dot records to know who their favored sidemen were. The record has been reissued on CD, so perhaps there are some clues in there. All I’ve read is that Bernard “Pretty” Purdie makes an appearance (incidentially, it’s too bad Nancy & Bernard didn’t form a group called Pretty Priddy Purdie, THAT would have been outstanding!) and the drums on the LP do sound as if they could be him or a similar heavyweight. I’m just surprised that I’d never heard this record before, I’m sure over the years of digging in stores all over the country, I’ve passed this record over thinking it wasn’t anything special…which just underscores yet again what a treasure a fantastic record store, like Groove Merchant, truly is for music aficionados. Support your local Record Stores and keep “Record Store Day” going throughout the year.
Cheers,
Michael