Article on Macey, Gilligan, Roy to follow. Stay tuned
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see DOSCOGS
https://www.discogs.com/Fox-Pass-I-Believed-Prized-Possession/release/7309909
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Bohemia: Jon, you have a band called Hummingbird Syndicate. With clubs currently shut down, how are you and Hummingbird Syndicate keeping the energy together? Writing new songs, recording, considering Facebook Live events?
JM: All the Hummingbird Syndicate gigs were cancelled of course. We had finished a new album and were holding off releasing it until we could play live again, but now that doesn't seem likely for a while so we will be putting out the album by September. I am not sure about live streaming shows yet, but we are working on a new video for the first single.
Bohemia: Mercury Retrograde was June 18 to July 12, 2020, where people tend to plan for the future, but this Covid thing is like a perpetual "Mercury Retrograde" where we are out of our element. Is Hummingbird Syndicate planning a re-launch into the live music scene when this subsides?
JM: We will return!! I intend to play live music as long as I can stand up straight and there are places to play.
Jon Macey from Hummingbird Syndicate Facebook page with Lynn Shipley
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Bohemia: Mike Roy - you put out two solo discs, do you think there will be a Fox Pass reunion concert where you and the bandmates can introduce the solo work into the seminal band?
MR: Anything is possible. Never say never! Me living In the wilds of The Cape 2 hours away from everyone makes it logistically difficult. Still writing and recording all the time. I have plans for an EP release with an LP to follow. If only I can get into a room with actual people some day.
Bohemia: Did Fox Pass play Bohemia and what are your thoughts on the club from Kirkland Cafe to Cantab?
MR: Fox Pass played Bohemia many times. While I did like The Kirkland, with that funky stage, nothing beats the Cantab for that Rock ‘N Roll vibe!
the mighty Paradise Records logo
from an independent label to the best concert club in New England
__________________________ Bohemia: Steve Gilligan is still active on the scene with Kenny Selcer performing at Bull Run in Shirley recently. How was it re-emerging to an audience?
SG: Needless to say, it was wonderful to get out and play for an audience again. The Bull Run is set up for socially distanced outdoor dining, as weather allows, and the tables were all occupied. Kenny Selcer and I were warmly received and will be returning in August.
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Bohemia: Is the duo set different - song wise - from Stompers and Fox Pass?
SG: The songs Kenny Selcer and I play are completely different from The Stompers/Fox Pass/Macey & Gilligan music. We play a blend of Kenny’s original songs and cover songs we both enjoy gleaned primarily from the classic rock catalog.
Bohemia: When things reopen do you think there will be a Stompers reunion, and what do you, Kenny and other performers have in mind for upcoming shows?
SG: I currently play bass for The Stompers, Hummingbird Syndicate, a country rock act named Blame the Whiskey, (with former Outlets guitarist David Alex-Barton), and as both an acoustic duo and an electric with Kenny Selcer. The Stompers have dates booked in Sept. Oct. Nov. and Feb 2021. We don’t know yet whether those dates will be able to be honored but they have yet to be postponed. I’ve also been recording with country singer Rebecca Carter Burke. Rebeca has been releasing the songs throughout the pandemic and the songs have been receiving weekly play on The Bull 101.7 FM
Bohemia: If you took Everything Under the Sun by Macey/Gilligan 12 tracks, Jon's Actuality in Process 15 tracks, Mike Roy's 14 track Eclectricity, 12 tracks on Mr. Roy's The Bright Side, 13 tracks on the self-titled Fox Pass, 15 tracks from Steve Gilligan's Jacob's Well and add The Stompers tracks with Lenny Shea you could have the ultimate Fox Pass family tree with already existing CDs, you realize those albums contain 81 tracks...package them up in a boxed set and charge $50.00 with a Family Tree Booklet and see what happens...
But truly, how does a prolific group generate so many compositions, the question is for anyone...
SG, MR, JM: It’s extremely satisfying to have been a part of such great music over the years. The four months of this pandemic has been the longest I’ve gone without playing live since 1977. I hope we can all get back to it in the near future.
Bohemia: And if you add the Hummingbird Syndicate:
SG, MR, JM: The new Hummingbird Syndicate music is simply incredible. Jon and Lynn Shipley have outdone themselves in writing, arranging and recording the material. I can’t wait to get out and play live again!!!
see DOSCOGS
https://www.discogs.com/Fox-Pass-I-Believed-Prized-Possession/release/7309909
BONUS, JULY 15, 2010 ARTICLE
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NEW ERA HAS ARRIVED FOR FOX PASS
ARLINGTON ADVOCATE JULY 15, 2010
https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/article/20100715/NEWS/307159797
On its website, a quote from the
Arlington veteran group Fox Pass reads, ”[t]he first Fox Pass era ended
before the real explosion of Boston music that came in the early 1980s
and therefore they are somewhat obscure in history, except for those who
were there.”
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The current Fox Pass lineup Steve Gilligan on bass and vocals, Jon
Macey on guitar and vocals, Tom Landers on drums, and Michael Roy on
guitar and vocals.
— Courtesy photo
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On its website, a quote from the Arlington veteran group Fox Pass reads, ”[t]he first Fox Pass era ended before the real explosion of Boston music that came in the early 1980s and therefore they are somewhat obscure in history, except for those who were there.”
“There” was a special place in time for Arlington residents who had already witnessed a favorite son, 25-year-old Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson, performing at Woodstock with his group Canned Heat and singing on Top 40 hits “On The Road Again” and “Goin’ Up The Country.”
Boston proper had Barry & The Remains opening for The Beatles and Willie “Loco” Alexander joining The Velvet Underground, but Arlington, had other musical gifts to offer, including The Prince & The Paupers and, just a few years later, Fox Pass.
Fox Pass and a handful of other groups were that all-important bridge from the old guard to the New Wave in the early 1970s.
In 2010, the band released a new CD/download album “Intemporel” and has been seen around this neck of the woods again performing at Right Turn, an Arlington non-profit that promotes sobriety, as well as a planned event in the autumn of 2010 at the Regent Theater.
The beginning
Jon Macey, who was known back then as Jonathan Hall and eventually changed his name, was taken with music at a young age. According to his website, he began writing songs for the accordion at age 9 and then for the piano before he took up the guitar when he was 12 years old.
While a student at AHS in the early 1970s, Macey began developing folk songs in the style of Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie. In 1971, Macey met another AHS student Michael Roy; together they formed an acoustic duo.
By age 17, Macey was doing his own version of the Velvet Underground/Modern Lovers brand of songwriting and singing. That became the early Fox Pass repertoire, perhaps the start of the musical evolution from when Hall and Roy performed on the Cambridge Commons Concerts, all original songs, precursors to what would become the early Fox Pass style.
By the time Macey and Roy graduated in 1973, they had already become a professional rock band. Other Arlington residents, including Michael’s brother John, were the initial members of Fox Pass.
The build up
Music lovers began to take notice. Fox Pass was performing at Tufts University, The Club in Cambridge, The Paradise, Olivers (now the Cask ‘n’ Flagon), and many other venues. They also had a big plus, which was the envy of other groups in the region, a local businessman named Bruce Miner began managing them.
The band’s first 45 RPM recording, “I Believed” b/w “Prized Possession,” was released in 1976 and created a buzz.
That recording helped the group get into the pages of Playboy Magazine in 1978 as one of Boston’s five best bands. The interest in the band began to spread beyond the fans and directly into the eyes of the media, specifically The Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Real Paper and other publications.
Macey and Roy’s Fox Pass emerged from the Arlington and Cambridge circuit and went on to become a major draw in the New England area.
But the Fox Pass saga is one of the strangest in rock history. Shortly after being named one of Boston’s five best bands, Fox Pass disappeared.
“We broke up the first time because we realized we had missed the Punk Rock trend,” Macey said. “We were too ahead of it and too young to see that we could have easily rode the wave. So, instead we moved to New York City and reinvented ourselves.”
In 1979, both Macey and Roy had moved to New York City. They joined up with RCA recording artist Tom Dickie and signed with Mercury Records for two albums as Tom Dickie & The Desires, culminating in a regional and semi-national hit “Downtown Talk” and openings for Hall & Oates and Cheap Trick.
While the band’s first single was released in 1976, it took another 29 years until a debut album was released, a self-titled CD appearing in 2005.
The return
The journey from Arlington to New York and back was long, intense and noteworthy on many levels.
Fox Pass took a hiatus of almost 30 years or so, but after the variety of projects, they have reconnected, creating a new era for the band.
“The second Fox Pass era began in 2002 when Mike Roy and I reunited while recording my solo project, the ‘Actuality in Process’ CD,” said Macey. “We began to write songs together which led to live performances and two CDs since then.”
“Intemporel,” the bands follow-up to their self-titled “debut,” is a vibrant set of recordings, which succeeds in its simple mission statement: To entertain.
With cascading jangle guitars that The Flamin’ Groovies and R.E.M. helped establish in the post-60s garage rock era, when garage got more sophisticated (but still stayed away from hotel lounges), Fox Pass comes up with some new material while also dipping into their back catalog.
The CD opens with “Hurry Cherie,” an older song from their repertoire. This is a hard-driving pop song where Macey finds himself “dreaming of you...hurry Cherie,” and though it is not the long-promised “first album” of material from when Fox Pass released its first single, these industry veterans are still “mining the vaults” and coming up with 17 tracks that show the band still has it, and is still evolving.
“Fly Away (From Me)” and “Front Page Girl” keep the party going while the stylish “Cool Dreamer” slinks in for almost eight minutes, followed by an almost five-minute piece “She Dreams Of Me.”
Earlier this spring, the group performed next door at Winchester’s “Wincam” public access station and played material from across its career along with many selections from “Intemporel.” That performance showed Roy shouldering some of the lead vocals, sometimes co-singing harmonies with bassist Steve Gilligan and Macey as on the “The Spark.”
For those who have followed the band and its various spin-offs, the most recent music has continuity to projects from long ago, but Fox Pass isn’t detouring “back to the future” as much as getting the music onto a familiar track.
“We still perform ‘Amtrak’ and ‘Wanda,’ both written in 1973,” Macey said.
On the latest Fox Pass CD “The Sacred Mountain Is Falling” could be a Sgt. Pepper out-take. And the band is exploring longer titles a la early Mott The Hoople, this track going more than nine minutes, and “A Long Goodbye” clocking in at more than six minutes.
For Fox Pass fans, the latest disc provides short pop-bursts and extensive essays, perhaps a stream of-consciousness approach by industry veterans who continue to do what they love.
For more information about Fox Pass, or to purchase a CD, visit foxpassmusic.com, CD Baby, iTunes or amazon.com.
Joe Viglione can be reached by e-mailing recordreview2001@yahoo.com.
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Jon Macey and Barry Marshall on Visual Radio #303
https://youtu.be/k-Z2-9NpFfs
Review: Michael J Roy – The Bright Side
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2018/72588/review-michael-j-roy-the-bright-side
Track 2, “Same Old Thing,” brings the jangle back, but dips it into Gene Parsons territory, something Tom Petty made a career out of. Interesting in that Roy’s partner-in-Fox-Pass, Jon Macey, has gone full-out with the Hummingbird Syndicate embracing Sonny Bono/Jack Nitzsche “Needles and Pins” guitar sound. “Impossible Ways,” track 3, could be a modern-day Searchers in fact, with “Mr. Berserk” taking a similar sound down into the dark side. That’s the interesting force at play here, Mr. Roy’s optimism in Fox Pass taking a turn into Lou Reed downer territory with vocal work reflecting the titles, “The End,” “Mr. Berserk,” interestingly finding Reed’s Blue Mask emotions than the “bright side” of life, but an album does give one the opportunity to stretch out.
With over forty-seven minutes of music, we’ll give Mike that latitude. “World Run Wild” shows the Boston area veteran artist his Billy Squier side, the emphasis on hard rock feels like a sequel to “The Stroke” from former Sidewinder Squier’s 1981 Don’t Say No album. Now this critic is referencing lots of musical textures from other artists, but that’s just for the reader to get an idea. Mike Roy is an original and he draws from a bountiful palette to offer something distinctly different from the work that he’s known for, the music of New England area legend Fox Pass. “Point of No Return” at four and a half minutes is Hugo Montenegro meets the Doors and a strong track. “Thin Air” pierces the speakers after the mellow verse while
“Barely There” takes George Harrison’s amazing descending line from Cream’s “Badge” – and a good chunk of side 2 of the Beatles Abbey Road – with a folk/poet’s reading over a most Beatle-esque spirit. While most of the tunes are in the four-minute range, track 10, “A Reason To Live” is the shortest at 2:37, poppy and anthemic, Joan Jett or the late Ben Orr could both have a ball with it.
Once upon a time New Rose Records’ Fan Club imprint put out Sons of the Dolls, an intriguing look at songs from members of the New York Dolls. If one takes the accumulated tracks of the Fox Pass family tree – 12 songs here, the Stompers, the Jon Macey/Steve Gilligan project, Gilligan’s own solo cd’s, Hummingbird Syndicate and more, you are talking over a hundred compositions from a talented set of musicians. A digital boxed set of the future, perhaps. The Bright Side presents more than just a follow-up to the previous Electricity disc, it is also the musical other side of a musician away from the focus of a working band.
Find The Bright Side on
CD Baby https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/michaelroy1
Reverb Nation https://www.reverbnation.com/michaeljroy/songs
Website: www.mj-roy.com
Release Date: August 6, 2017
Label: Blue Room Records
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
Review: Eclectricity by Michael J. Roy – A Burst of Creative Energy
The 4 minutes plus of “On a Sunday” bring another brooding moment which blends into the uptempo “Your Own Way.” Roy seems to be looking back on these songs, and they would have been nice additions to the Desires albums for sure. “The Difference” and “In a Well” both clock in at four minutes and seventeen seconds each, “In a Well,” perhaps, the most likely candidate to be re-cut by Fox Pass for an album sometime in the future. “Wherever You Are” features the background vocals of Nancy Francis (not to be confused with long-time Fox Pass associate Nancy Neon) and that’s it for musicians, Shea, Gilligan and Francis buoy this extremely good solo recording from Mike Roy who plays every other instrument himself, a kind of Emmit Rhodes / Paul McCartney break-away from the full band Roy co-founded.
“Heartless” has fragments from the Crowded House hit “Something So Strong” – the first line of “Heartless”, “How can I begin” mirroring “Love can make you weep.” But it diverts quickly before going into “He’s So Fine’/”My Sweet Lord” territory so Tommy Mottola won’t have to come calling… Outside of the opening track (3:27,) “Heartless” (3:04), song 11 “Say Goodbye” (not Fox Pass classic “When I Say Goodbye) and track 13, “Wired to Wonderland” (2:38) the material veers mostly into four minute territory. There are many songs that are extremely appealing, but the 5:35 “Water from the Moon” is my favorite, thus far.
With bassist Steve Gilligan releasing multiple CDs, and Jon Macey’s Actuality In Process, Intenion and collaboration with Gilligan, Everything Under the Sun, it’s amazing that this is Michael J. Roy’s solo debut. “You’re Own Way” and “Water from the Moon” are catchy and memorable, so much material to absorb in what is certainly a burst of creative energy. Can’t wait for the next.
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REVIEW
EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN
Jon Macey and Steve Gilligan
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Steve Gilligan and Jon Macey are two veterans of the Boston music scene as well as half of the band Fox Pass, and their debut CD as a duo, Everything Under the Sun,
features a dozen fine original compositions that are democratically
split -- five from each songwriter with two collaborations. The title
track is one of those co-writes and it features an uptempo Everly Brothers harmony à la the Beatles on "Two of Us" from the Let It Be
CD, and is one of the poppier episodes before the singers touch upon
the other musical worlds they fancy. With longtime producer Barry Marshall intentionally keeping the production sparse, it allows Gilligan's superb use of mandocello, mandolin, Dobro, and harmonica -- as well as Jon Macey's
dulcimer playing -- to shine under the perfect guitar strums. When
experienced live in concert, it is those exotic instruments coupled with
the strong songwriting that help the pair create a magic that their
friend and colleague Jonathan Richman sought when he traded the loud underground rock in for the flamenco guitar. But where Richman tells his song-stories from the protagonist's point of view, Macey and Gilligan indulge their passion for the music of Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, the Louvin Brothers, and, deliberate or not, Bob Dylan, in a reverent way that keeps their personalities from overpowering the material. It's a dramatic departure from Fox Pass, where the writing is solely from the pens of Jon Macey and his longtime collaborator, Mike Roy -- a pair who toured with Hall & Oates
(they had the same manager), so the major-league polish and approach on
a simple composition like "You Will Know Them" is crafted from decades
of walking the path.
Religious overtones abound, and former Stompers bassist Gilligan's solo voice on "Harrison Ave. 2am," before the harmonies kick in, gives the album another sort of definition -- this is not a Jon Macey solo project -- and the exciting sounds of the Old World instrumentation that sparkle on-stage translate perfectly to CD. Producer Marshall compared old mixes from the Louvin Brothers to keep the sound authentic, or as this duo (trio with their producer) calls it..."timeless." It works, especially on the disc's longest track, the eight-minute epic "Emma and the Dance," with its lovely instrumental opening. Less is more here, because these minstrels are so proficient at working their stringed instruments and, clearly, are in it for the art, as evidenced by "Watchin' You Go By" and the neo-rockabilly of "Roy Orbison gone folky" that is "All You Gotta Do." Even the packaging reflects the care put into the recordings: the vintage look of the back photo and the color schemes on both the inside panel and the CD face. Picture Aztec Two-Step or Batdorf & Rodney exploring new territory by going back to the future; a lot of ground is covered by keeping it simple and touching upon as many of their influences as possible. Everything Under the Sun is a pleasant and highly effective departure from what the Fox Pass fan base would expect, and for those familiar with Jon Macey and Steve Gilligan's rock & roll efforts, hearing "Gordon's Daughter" would certainly confuse during a blindfold test -- and impress, as this album does from start to finish.
Religious overtones abound, and former Stompers bassist Gilligan's solo voice on "Harrison Ave. 2am," before the harmonies kick in, gives the album another sort of definition -- this is not a Jon Macey solo project -- and the exciting sounds of the Old World instrumentation that sparkle on-stage translate perfectly to CD. Producer Marshall compared old mixes from the Louvin Brothers to keep the sound authentic, or as this duo (trio with their producer) calls it..."timeless." It works, especially on the disc's longest track, the eight-minute epic "Emma and the Dance," with its lovely instrumental opening. Less is more here, because these minstrels are so proficient at working their stringed instruments and, clearly, are in it for the art, as evidenced by "Watchin' You Go By" and the neo-rockabilly of "Roy Orbison gone folky" that is "All You Gotta Do." Even the packaging reflects the care put into the recordings: the vintage look of the back photo and the color schemes on both the inside panel and the CD face. Picture Aztec Two-Step or Batdorf & Rodney exploring new territory by going back to the future; a lot of ground is covered by keeping it simple and touching upon as many of their influences as possible. Everything Under the Sun is a pleasant and highly effective departure from what the Fox Pass fan base would expect, and for those familiar with Jon Macey and Steve Gilligan's rock & roll efforts, hearing "Gordon's Daughter" would certainly confuse during a blindfold test -- and impress, as this album does from start to finish.
Collapse ↑
Review:
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
The mark of craftsmanship on songs like "Hit or
Miss," "Saving Grace," and "Dream Inside Your Heart" would be hard to
find on many "debut" albums, and 32 years after their 1972 formation in
Arlington, MA, Fox Pass
bring insightful lyrics and strong melodies to the world on their first
full album. Of course having released a classic indie single with "I
Believed" in 1976 -- a year that saw them opening for Roxy Music in Boston -- with the duo of Mike Roy and Jon Macey heading off to Mercury Records to record two albums with Tom Dickie & the Desires in the early '80s, well, this debut is actually more like a diamond hewn from decades in a business rife with uncertainty. Barry Marshall's production crystallizes the performances -- taking a "Sometime Saturday Girl" to bring that Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart vibe into the new millennium. Marshall has known the group almost since its inception and truly understands the work of Jon Macey and Mike Roy better than Ed Sprigg and Martin Rushent did for the Tom Dickie albums -- all due respect to the highly competent Sprigg and Rushent. The chemistry between the artist and the producers on those Desires
albums just wasn't there. And with no label pressures the band is free
to come up with fine pop tunes like "The Easy Way," material that
effortlessly flows from their repertoire. Roy sounds like Ben Orr of the Cars singing the exquisite "Heavy as a Heartache" with neo-doo wop vocals from Macey
and bassist Steve Gilligan. While the group's influences are very well
disguised on this set -- you'll hear pieces of sounds you just can't
place -- the key is that the music seems more original because the band
is plagiarizing its own riffs from years past. Some of the ambience of
the Jon Macey/Barry Marshall tune "Comical" from 1993's Too Much Perspective
disc is reinvented on "Dream Inside Your Heart" -- a terrific hook over
a gliding and airy bed of pop riffs and chord changes. Its complexities
are vast compared to "Wanda," the closing song that the band has
performed since it was written back in 1973. "Hit or Miss" might come in
at close to six minutes, but it has the groove and guitars suspended in
space to be radio-friendly, playing perfectly on an album where songs
like "In a Dream" come in from out of nowhere, sparkling pop created by a
band that was doing it years before R.E.M. formed and brought this style into vogue.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/fox-pass-mw0000762549
https://www.allmusic.com/album/actuality-in-process-mw0000317458
Intention
“Trapped (By My Own Creation)” – the Frankenstein complex gone pop – opens Intention, the Fox Pass co-founder taking things to a different space – a big departure from his work with Steve Gilligan on 2007’s Everything Under The Sun, veering off into a Velvet’s Third direction and away from the powerful sound generated by Fox Pass. And therein occurs the dilemma for long-time Fox Pass fans, with the band tight and solid my preference would be for less gigging and more recording. Intention seems to cry out for the full band sound, the songs here like black and white sketches of what could be. Take “Fourth Time’s the Charm” for example, the pretty guitars beg for accompaniment. Perhaps the band can take these performances and go for that mystical 3rd Velvet Underground sound, the muted guitar, the jazz-band feel behind some of Lou Reed’s most introspective deliveries after the onslaught of “Sister Ray” the album before.
“As the Twig is Bent” could come to life with a slippery bass line and throbbing Moe Tucker boom boom sounds. The seven and a half minutes of “Jefferson County, Early November” seeming like a cross between Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 Nebraska and Bob Dylan’s The Great White Wonder bootleg, certainly parallel to the influences that Fox Pass draws from, but not fully finding the sparkle. “All These Ghosts” and “This is Just a Song” would both benefit from additional guitars, a Badfinger sound backing up the essayist to delight the audience that is drawn to this type of poetry put to music. The 5:37 of “Paris Street” seems like a man lamenting something but not quite sure of what’s absent in his life, the melancholy picked up quickly by the 3:46 of “Look Both Ways.” With Fox Pass taking one track here, maybe “Right in Front of Your Eyes” or “Look Both Ways”, and seeking a “hit single” (whatever that is in the 21st century), the message would get out to a wider audience. Spruced up and ready for radio is what some of these titles cry out for. The CD Baby site notes that the disc is “Veteran Boston songwriter/producer’s new solo album featuring philosophical folk rock minus the rock.”
This long-time listener wants the artist to put the rock back in.
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2012/40237/review-jon-macey-intention-cd
Steve Gilligan of The Stompers and Fox Pass has put together one of the most musical albums of the year, a lengthy 15 track disc that covers multiple genres. I call it New Wave Celtic Folk, pretty sounds from stringed instruments with the perfect performances we expect from this veteran Boston area musician and his friends. Two tracks feature a Stompers reunion (WMWM DJ Doug Mascott loves that!) while an instrumental, “Niki’s Blue Waltz,” sounds like an out-take from September Song or Lost in the Stars, two notable Kurt Weil tributes discs “Little Willow” could be a lost Jethro Tull track while “Waiting for Winter” is drawn from Neil Young’s Harvest “well.” And while the collection is most consistent the final chapter, “Wounds”, seems a bit out of place, almost going into a quasi-Velvet Underground third album moment in conflict with most of the other music presented here.. “What’s a Little Rock & Roll Between Friends” also throws you for a curve, a sort of rockabilly moment amidst the borderline classical sounds.
The title, Jacob’s Well, probably references the karstic spring located in Texas Hill Country north of Wimberley Texas (according to Wikipedia), not to be confused with Jacob’s ladder. Eleven of the fifteen tracks are under four minutes, most of them short bursts of joyous ideas that features playing which is simply exquisite. Conspicuous in their absence are the members of Fox Pass, though Mr. Gilligan may have wanted to stretch a little and present a different side of his personality. When added to the duo CD with Jon Macey, Everything Under the Sun, and work with folk trio City of Roses as well as Fox Pass, Jacob’s Well – along with FP frontman Jon Macey’s current release, Intention (15 more tracks – even lengthier than Jacob’s Well), one gets a clearer since of the vibrant and knowledgeable parts that make up the endearing New England groups Gilligan, Macey and their comrades are part of.
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WINTER RAIN review by Steve Tomasetti
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2015/67134/cd-review-steve-gilligan-winter-rain
Steve Gilligan’s Winter Rain doesn’t believe in sorcery, at least that’s what he says on track 2, “All That You Are.” The CD Baby site notes that this album is a ” blend of contemporary acoustic based music, with hints of Celtic within an Americana framework.”
“The Dawn of Bitter Moons” is not from the repertoire of John Philip Sousa, less military and leaning towards old world, permissible in the wild west when minstrels hailing from the emerald isle serenaded the fruited plain . “Tangle” is another gentle track, a sort of Gordon Lightfoot meets Kenny Rankin with Gilligan’s enormous talents and imagination taking it into new territory.
Where colleague Mike Roy offers 14 tracks on his Eclectricity release, there are 13 on this 2014 CD from Gilligan where its predecessor, 2012’s Jacob’s Well, gave the world 15. That’s 28 songs between Jacob’s Well and its sequel and quite a bit of music to absorb and comprehend. “Lesson In Gray,” track 11 off of of the Jacob’s Well release fits nicely into “Tangle” from this disc, while “Change,” track 10, is sort of like The Band backing Dylan if Dylan had as good a voice as Gilligan. “The Thunder Rolling By” has a true authenticity with European flavors while “I Let Her Go” is pure Americana. Steve Gilligan’s catalog of live work with Kenny Selcer, groups like The Stompers and Fox Pass, his pairing with Jon Macey in a duo, is staggering, and this huge collection of new material over the two cds, Winter Rain and Jacob’s Well, show his versatility and imagination.
Steve Gilligan’s comments on CD Baby:
Winter Rain is the follow up to my debut CD, 2012’s ‘Jacob’s Well’. This collection is more acoustic based, with beautiful violin/fiddle work, cello, and heart felt vocals to convey the lyrical stories.
My music making career has spanned over 30 years, first as a member of Mercury and Boardwalk recoding artists The Stompers and then branching out with the folk trio City of Roses, the pop-rock band Fox Pass, and the Americana duo Jon Macey & Steve Gilligan. All of these artists have music available from CD Baby, iTunes, many and other music distribution outlets. Thanks for listening! Peace – Steve
About 13 years ago Willie “Loco” Alexander, contemporary of
Steve Gilligan and friends, released the excellent Dog Bar Yacht Club. A
baker’s dozen spins of the earth around the sun and Gilligan’s Spider
Farm – a veritable super group of people on the folk scene – issues this
12 song disc.
With a nod to Loco’s hero Kerouac Spider Farm opens the album with a terrific pop tune, “The Sun Belongs to Anyone” which flows with the best elements of Americana wrapped up in hit record dressing. It’s just superb and deserves a huge audience. “She Was My Girl” clocks in at 4:15 and could be Rock E. Rollins, the alter ego of Gilligan’s bandmate from the Stompers, Sal Baglio. “Roline” and “Halfway to Wichita” are short bursts at 3:12 and 3:13 respectively, and what exudes from the stylistically different pair is the fun that this ensemble puts into the playing.
Drummer Lenny Shea (percussion, glockenspiel, and vocals) and Dave Friedman (Piano and organ) – both Stompers themselves – join Kenny Selcer – a local legend who didn’t need to perform with presidential candidate Jill Stein to be famous, though he did when they were in a duo Somebody’s Sister. Bird Mancini’s Billy Carl Mancini along with fiddle player Jackie Damsky and guitarist John Gibson add to the full sound.
It’s one thing to perform on bills with the bands your friends are in, another to blend all these veteran musical talents into one CD that has so much to offer from so many different styles. “I Wanna Know” has bending guitars borrowing from the Ventures, but adding that sound to a different dimension the Ventures dare not go, specifically Beau Brummels and Searchers territory.
“Dead End Angel” could be the Everly Brothers joining George Harrison’s Bangla Desh multitude, and perhaps that’s the key to the charm at play here. Harrison brought together divergent talents from Dylan to Badfinger to Phil Spector, and it worked in a new and refreshing way.
Steve Gilligan and Spider Farm, comprised of so many masters that have emerged from our under-appreciated music scene have crafted a stunningly beautiful set of essays that enlighten and entertain. Then they turn on a dime with “Would You Kiss Me Now,” stripped down pop where the embellishments pop up at opportune times. Things turn around again with “The Other Side of the Rain,” great music but as jarring as Santana’s 1999 Supernatural disc which had a broad scope that, somehow, people were able to adjust to.
How did Clive Davis get fired for being too old when he put out the biggest record in the world is just one aspect of the music industry that keeps things…interesting. “The Great Beyond” asks the eternal, perpetual questions and “Heaven Allows” states the obvious at five minutes and nineteen seconds…with delicious harmonica. “A Little Lovin’ Tonight” at 4:19 bridges the gap with songs that go from three minutes and under to Richard Harris Top 40 territory. “Rain Don’t Fall” concludes this excellent set with sounds of the old west, as recaptured by Peter Calo on his “Cowboy Song” disc, but with the added twist of religious overtones and neo-gospel.
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2016/71064/review-dog-patch-garage-by-steve-gilligan-spider-farm
Tom Dickie and Susan with Ricky Bird
1981 Competition
The Eleventh Hour
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-eleventh-hour-mw0001195248
The members of Hummingbird Syndicate are a pure pop
collective and their opening track to the Pop Tricks album, “Romance,”
is as sweet a confection as you’ll find. Jon Macey’s production work
for Elektra records as well as his two albums with Tom Dickie and the
Desires on Mercury – along with his perfect ear – oversees a project
that Archies vocalist and Barry Manilow producer Ron Dante would have
totally immersed himself in during the ‘60s. Lynn Shipley as creative
partner helps bring the harmonies and melodies in sync with the lyrics,
and they generate a full and entertaining sound.
“After Stephen Foster” switches hats from that exquisite pop to pure Americana with the harmonies of Shipley, Mary Jaye Simms and Jennifer Lewis Bennet adding some gospel to the acoustic number.
Seven of the dozen songs are under four minutes, which makes for extended play when it comes to a serious and happily light-hearted outfit whose CD Baby page declares proudly: “ABBA meets the Ramones, Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris… Mamas & Papas sing the Velvets” and it’s so true, with the Abba leanings more geared towards Don Kirshner pop. “You Don’t Know (Much About Me) wander into territory owned by The Band with Marianne Faithful on vocals, splendid guitars bring it all to life in a wonderful way. As much as the music stretches over the individual artist careers of the parts that make up this whole, to anyone aware of Boston rock and roll, it is Macey who is the central figure with Stompers/Fox Pass rhythm section Lenny Shea and Steve Gilligan who add their talents along with Tom Hostage of Macey’s Parade, with the string slingers indulging in “electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, mandolas, 12-strings, and B-Benders” according to the group bio. To that point, “Haley” is pure Macey’s Parade, more so than Fox Pass and Hummingbird Syndicate, which is fine, because this amalgam of Shipley/Macey/Gilligan/Hostage/Shea/Bennet/Simms etc. modern rock mixed with the long-established (over four decades) sounds these performers and recording artists have developed can shape-shift and blend in the communal spirit that their name indicates. A music mafia of colorful birds with iridescent feathers – which is why this review is in the Arial font…I think.
Along with the 12 songs on Pop Tricks there is also a CD single “Waterfall Away” b/w “I Want You To Stay” on Actuality Records. You can find the two additional songs on Soundcloud and they are as vibrant and exciting as the music on the full lengthy. As stated, the production is as state-of-the-art as the musicianship. With Chris Maclachlan of Human Sexual Response, L.A. guitarist Dan Coughlin, Andy Hollinger and Pop Gun’s Jim Melanson it is more like the Mamas and the Mamas and the Papas and the Papas, an ensemble that has delivered music distinctly different from anything on the New England music scene, a wonderful invention of multiple chefs drawing from the same palette in unison, never stepping on anyone else’s space. Remarkable.
MACEY'S PARADE
https://www.allmusic.com/album/fox-pass-mw0000762549
https://www.allmusic.com/album/actuality-in-process-mw0000317458
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Actuality in Process is the first solo album from Jon Macey, one of the pioneers of the '70s Boston music scene, on the curve during, between, and right after the Modern Lovers and Orchestra Luna. It is, perhaps, the most advanced disc of his career up to its release in 2002, and though Actuality in Process
still isn't the grand slam the journeyman musician is capable of, the
15 tracks certainly are a good representation of his personal songs and
artistic expression. In the nine years between the release of Too Much Perspective by Macey's Parade comes an evolution of sorts. Actuality in Process
is an interesting extension as well as a combination of many of the
musical partnerships experienced by the singer/songwriter/producer. John
Jules, the drummer from Macey's '70s outfit, Fox Pass, provides the percussion, while guitarists Michael Roy from the '70s ensemble, and Tom Hostage of the '90s group Macey's Parade, form the nucleus of the players here. Sal Baglio of the Stompers adds his guitar to "Wasted on You," while Tom Dickie from Macey's '80s band, Tom Dickie & the Desires, co-writes and is "present" on "Hidden Behind the Words," a dreamy Velvet Underground "third album" type soft electro-rocker. You get the picture that this is the Byrds-meet-the Velvet Underground, before reading the lengthy essays on www.jonmacey.com pertaining to this disc Those scribblings expose a side of Macey
not quite visible inside the tunes -- he's an extremely smart writer.
The slick ten-page booklet emphasizes the importance of this project to
the artist, and "This Is Where You've Been," a collaboration between Baglio and Macey, re-emphasizes it. Arguably the album's best track, it has elements of the Beach Boys
if they made records in the new millennium with the same seriousness of
"Do It Again." Though there's no "Song for T" or "Comical," from the Too Much Perspective
phase (phenomenal pop songs with staying power), there are pleasant
moments like "Affair of the Mind," co-written with longtime friend and
co-engineer Ron Doty. It is Macey in his most Lou Reed-meets-Dylan
style, and being such a devoted disciple of both icons, it is done with
exquisite sincerity. "Junk Mail" and "Cool Dreamer" are also strong
compositions that deserve a place on the inevitable "best-of" collection
from this artist. Concluding with the solo folk ending of "The Road of
Destiny," Jon Macey stretches across his career and creates a serious overview. What's missing is the tongue-in-cheek humor of his friend, Willie "Loco" Alexander. Add that element and Macey can give John Mellencamp and Billy Joel a good run for their money.
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Review: Jon Macey Intention CD
“Trapped (By My Own Creation)” – the Frankenstein complex gone pop – opens Intention, the Fox Pass co-founder taking things to a different space – a big departure from his work with Steve Gilligan on 2007’s Everything Under The Sun, veering off into a Velvet’s Third direction and away from the powerful sound generated by Fox Pass. And therein occurs the dilemma for long-time Fox Pass fans, with the band tight and solid my preference would be for less gigging and more recording. Intention seems to cry out for the full band sound, the songs here like black and white sketches of what could be. Take “Fourth Time’s the Charm” for example, the pretty guitars beg for accompaniment. Perhaps the band can take these performances and go for that mystical 3rd Velvet Underground sound, the muted guitar, the jazz-band feel behind some of Lou Reed’s most introspective deliveries after the onslaught of “Sister Ray” the album before.
“As the Twig is Bent” could come to life with a slippery bass line and throbbing Moe Tucker boom boom sounds. The seven and a half minutes of “Jefferson County, Early November” seeming like a cross between Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 Nebraska and Bob Dylan’s The Great White Wonder bootleg, certainly parallel to the influences that Fox Pass draws from, but not fully finding the sparkle. “All These Ghosts” and “This is Just a Song” would both benefit from additional guitars, a Badfinger sound backing up the essayist to delight the audience that is drawn to this type of poetry put to music. The 5:37 of “Paris Street” seems like a man lamenting something but not quite sure of what’s absent in his life, the melancholy picked up quickly by the 3:46 of “Look Both Ways.” With Fox Pass taking one track here, maybe “Right in Front of Your Eyes” or “Look Both Ways”, and seeking a “hit single” (whatever that is in the 21st century), the message would get out to a wider audience. Spruced up and ready for radio is what some of these titles cry out for. The CD Baby site notes that the disc is “Veteran Boston songwriter/producer’s new solo album featuring philosophical folk rock minus the rock.”
This long-time listener wants the artist to put the rock back in.
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2012/40237/review-jon-macey-intention-cd
Music Review: Steve Gilligan – Jacob’s Well
Steve Gilligan of The Stompers and Fox Pass has put together one of the most musical albums of the year, a lengthy 15 track disc that covers multiple genres. I call it New Wave Celtic Folk, pretty sounds from stringed instruments with the perfect performances we expect from this veteran Boston area musician and his friends. Two tracks feature a Stompers reunion (WMWM DJ Doug Mascott loves that!) while an instrumental, “Niki’s Blue Waltz,” sounds like an out-take from September Song or Lost in the Stars, two notable Kurt Weil tributes discs “Little Willow” could be a lost Jethro Tull track while “Waiting for Winter” is drawn from Neil Young’s Harvest “well.” And while the collection is most consistent the final chapter, “Wounds”, seems a bit out of place, almost going into a quasi-Velvet Underground third album moment in conflict with most of the other music presented here.. “What’s a Little Rock & Roll Between Friends” also throws you for a curve, a sort of rockabilly moment amidst the borderline classical sounds.
The title, Jacob’s Well, probably references the karstic spring located in Texas Hill Country north of Wimberley Texas (according to Wikipedia), not to be confused with Jacob’s ladder. Eleven of the fifteen tracks are under four minutes, most of them short bursts of joyous ideas that features playing which is simply exquisite. Conspicuous in their absence are the members of Fox Pass, though Mr. Gilligan may have wanted to stretch a little and present a different side of his personality. When added to the duo CD with Jon Macey, Everything Under the Sun, and work with folk trio City of Roses as well as Fox Pass, Jacob’s Well – along with FP frontman Jon Macey’s current release, Intention (15 more tracks – even lengthier than Jacob’s Well), one gets a clearer since of the vibrant and knowledgeable parts that make up the endearing New England groups Gilligan, Macey and their comrades are part of.
____________________________________________________
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2015/67134/cd-review-steve-gilligan-winter-rain
Steve Gilligan’s Winter Rain doesn’t believe in sorcery, at least that’s what he says on track 2, “All That You Are.” The CD Baby site notes that this album is a ” blend of contemporary acoustic based music, with hints of Celtic within an Americana framework.”
“The Dawn of Bitter Moons” is not from the repertoire of John Philip Sousa, less military and leaning towards old world, permissible in the wild west when minstrels hailing from the emerald isle serenaded the fruited plain . “Tangle” is another gentle track, a sort of Gordon Lightfoot meets Kenny Rankin with Gilligan’s enormous talents and imagination taking it into new territory.
Where colleague Mike Roy offers 14 tracks on his Eclectricity release, there are 13 on this 2014 CD from Gilligan where its predecessor, 2012’s Jacob’s Well, gave the world 15. That’s 28 songs between Jacob’s Well and its sequel and quite a bit of music to absorb and comprehend. “Lesson In Gray,” track 11 off of of the Jacob’s Well release fits nicely into “Tangle” from this disc, while “Change,” track 10, is sort of like The Band backing Dylan if Dylan had as good a voice as Gilligan. “The Thunder Rolling By” has a true authenticity with European flavors while “I Let Her Go” is pure Americana. Steve Gilligan’s catalog of live work with Kenny Selcer, groups like The Stompers and Fox Pass, his pairing with Jon Macey in a duo, is staggering, and this huge collection of new material over the two cds, Winter Rain and Jacob’s Well, show his versatility and imagination.
Steve Gilligan’s comments on CD Baby:
Winter Rain is the follow up to my debut CD, 2012’s ‘Jacob’s Well’. This collection is more acoustic based, with beautiful violin/fiddle work, cello, and heart felt vocals to convey the lyrical stories.
My music making career has spanned over 30 years, first as a member of Mercury and Boardwalk recoding artists The Stompers and then branching out with the folk trio City of Roses, the pop-rock band Fox Pass, and the Americana duo Jon Macey & Steve Gilligan. All of these artists have music available from CD Baby, iTunes, many and other music distribution outlets. Thanks for listening! Peace – Steve
Review: Dog Patch Garage by Steve Gilligan & Spider Farm
With a nod to Loco’s hero Kerouac Spider Farm opens the album with a terrific pop tune, “The Sun Belongs to Anyone” which flows with the best elements of Americana wrapped up in hit record dressing. It’s just superb and deserves a huge audience. “She Was My Girl” clocks in at 4:15 and could be Rock E. Rollins, the alter ego of Gilligan’s bandmate from the Stompers, Sal Baglio. “Roline” and “Halfway to Wichita” are short bursts at 3:12 and 3:13 respectively, and what exudes from the stylistically different pair is the fun that this ensemble puts into the playing.
Drummer Lenny Shea (percussion, glockenspiel, and vocals) and Dave Friedman (Piano and organ) – both Stompers themselves – join Kenny Selcer – a local legend who didn’t need to perform with presidential candidate Jill Stein to be famous, though he did when they were in a duo Somebody’s Sister. Bird Mancini’s Billy Carl Mancini along with fiddle player Jackie Damsky and guitarist John Gibson add to the full sound.
It’s one thing to perform on bills with the bands your friends are in, another to blend all these veteran musical talents into one CD that has so much to offer from so many different styles. “I Wanna Know” has bending guitars borrowing from the Ventures, but adding that sound to a different dimension the Ventures dare not go, specifically Beau Brummels and Searchers territory.
“Dead End Angel” could be the Everly Brothers joining George Harrison’s Bangla Desh multitude, and perhaps that’s the key to the charm at play here. Harrison brought together divergent talents from Dylan to Badfinger to Phil Spector, and it worked in a new and refreshing way.
Steve Gilligan and Spider Farm, comprised of so many masters that have emerged from our under-appreciated music scene have crafted a stunningly beautiful set of essays that enlighten and entertain. Then they turn on a dime with “Would You Kiss Me Now,” stripped down pop where the embellishments pop up at opportune times. Things turn around again with “The Other Side of the Rain,” great music but as jarring as Santana’s 1999 Supernatural disc which had a broad scope that, somehow, people were able to adjust to.
How did Clive Davis get fired for being too old when he put out the biggest record in the world is just one aspect of the music industry that keeps things…interesting. “The Great Beyond” asks the eternal, perpetual questions and “Heaven Allows” states the obvious at five minutes and nineteen seconds…with delicious harmonica. “A Little Lovin’ Tonight” at 4:19 bridges the gap with songs that go from three minutes and under to Richard Harris Top 40 territory. “Rain Don’t Fall” concludes this excellent set with sounds of the old west, as recaptured by Peter Calo on his “Cowboy Song” disc, but with the added twist of religious overtones and neo-gospel.
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2016/71064/review-dog-patch-garage-by-steve-gilligan-spider-farm
Tom Dickie and Susan with Ricky Bird
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Susan
was the hard rock band that got the gigs at the Rat in Boston in the
'70s. Their thunderous sound was created in no small part by John Kalishes, who could have passed as Leslie West's little brother. Kalishes would join the late Ben Orr to create a Led Zeppelin-meets-the Cars group toward the end of the '90s. It is that powerful sound that is missing from Falling in Love Again. The original Susan
was documented on the Live at the Rat album and those two tracks give a
hint of their significance. By the time they landed a management
contract with Tommy Mottola, Ricky Byrd had replaced Kalishes and despite Byrd's enormous talent -- he would eventually join Joan Jett & the Blackhearts -- the change came too quickly. This album sounds like a band in transition rather than a strong debut. Byrd shines on "A Little Time," one of two strong tracks on side one, but the band's performance on another Byrd composition, "I Was Wrong," is downright embarrassing for a group once so mighty. "Marlene," which features Marlene Dietrich, and "Falling in Love Again" have that "Be My Baby" drum sound and comes closest to what Susan was all about. The Leland brothers were a phenomenal rhythm section, and Charles Leland had that Bowie look down pat. It was Leland who was the star during their club days, but on this debut, Leland doesn't fit with the Tom Dickie
and "Ricky Bird" material he has to work with. Dickie brings some life
to the record with his vocals on "Really Gonna Show," but the material
is still substandard. Tom Dickie
maintained his relationship with the Mottola organization, moving over
to Mercury to record two albums as Tom Dickie & the Desires. Falling
in Love could have been so much more -- it's a document of a band
recording after their prime, and even decent songs like "Don't Let Me
Go" and "Love the Way" aren't strong enough to carry this disappointing
and fragmented production.\
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1981 Competition
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Tom Dickie reinvented his formula after the failure of Susan on RCA. He brought half of Boston's underground band Fox Pass on board -- guitarist Mike Roy and singer/songwriter/poet Jon Macey (formerly Jon Hall, who changed his name to Macey to avoid confusion with John Hall, leader of the group Orleans). "Downtown Talk" kicks off the Competition
LP and remains the best song by this pop band. Resplendent with drug
references, "Downtown Talk" has a hard-hitting riff and catchy melody.
The title track's calypso feel is a nice diversion from the rest of the
LP. "Waiting, Waiting" has a boss riff and is perhaps the album's best
performance. With Champion Entertainment and Tommy Mottola to open doors for Tom Dickie & the Desires, including gigs with Hall & Oates and Cheap Trick, this band had multiple opportunities, but Competition
is a pastiche of sounds, and the record misses the mark. The very
creative album cover, with the band members looking in and out of
mirrors, hints at the potential. "Downtown Talk" was a regional hit, but
the great underground songs that Macey and Dickie
forged in the '70s playing Boston area clubs are conspicuous in their
absence. "You've Lost" and "Count on You" have melodies and are catchy
pop, but something is missing. Perhaps producer Martin Rushent was miscast for this recording. The Velvet Underground/Tommy James roots, so much a part of the regional success of Fox Pass, have been traded in as the Desires emulate .38 Special and Survivor. The result is much too calculated and homogenized for these talented people.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/competition-mw0000845171
https://www.allmusic.com/album/competition-mw0000845171
The Eleventh Hour
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-eleventh-hour-mw0001195248
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
With a crisper sound than its predecessor, the Competition LP, Ed Sprigg's production of The Eleventh Hour helps the revamped Tom Dickie & the Desires, but not enough. Singer/songwriters Tom Dickie and Jon Macey as well as guitarist Mike Roy are all playing synthesizers, replacing Gary Corbett from the first album. Mickey Currey has departed, and Chuck Sabo handles the drums and percussion on this disc. With the band having a chance to jell since Competition,
the songs are more concise, perhaps even a little more determined, yet
they are hampered by the big '80s sound, which was not what these pop
fellows were about. "Victimless Crime" is probably the best-known song
from this collection, presenting the baseless philosophy that drug abuse
creates harm only to the addict and no one else suffers effects from
it. Interesting that, years after writing this, Macey
became a drug counselor preaching the tenets of Narcotics Anonymous.
For songs tinged with drug innuendo when they aren't being blatant about
it, there is none of the abandon that marked groups from the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith to Blue Cheer
when they invoked psychedelic privilege. "Stolen Time" may be the best
example of where the record goes wrong, with its poppiness mired in '80s
production that, as stated, hardly fits this band. "Gone to Stay" is
nice enough, but where are the guitars? For three musicians who are
proficient with their axes, the album has a singular guitar sound. "Our
Eyes" would be a nice album track for Brian Hyland, a summery pop song covered in too much technology, a bit reminiscent of Macey's
'70s song "When I Say Good-bye" without the bite. "So Mystified" has
experimentation, which the record needs more of (and not just the songs
that dabble in it on side two). This track could have been the band's
"I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" with a little more time in the
incubator. "Don't Want to Live Without You" cries for the jangly guitars
to be up in the mix, but it's the drums that slap back from this clean
production. "What Happened" has clever riffs, but Trevor Horn could have made it more radio-friendly. Therein lies the problem with the second Desires
album: it is closer to where the band should be, but it still misses.
"What Happened" is the question. "Patience Is a Virtue" has an eerie,
almost Beatlesque ambiance; it picks up where "House of Mirrors" from
the first album left off. "They Don't Know Anymore" could be from the Velvet Underground's Loaded album, and as The Eleventh Hour
comes to a close, the band members start providing some of the sounds
that they love so much. But there is no breakthrough hit, no single
identifying sound or song. "If I Could Paint" is a nice idea and
indicative of the songs and performance here. Good ideas that never
quite jell, music that needed a stronger personality to help in its
creation. A Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, or ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson -- someone these musicians have respect for -- could have helped shape the sounds and get the performances. Both albums by Tom Dickie & the Desires showed promise and have their moments, but they could have been so much more.
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Review: Hummingbird Syndicate – Pop Tricks
“After Stephen Foster” switches hats from that exquisite pop to pure Americana with the harmonies of Shipley, Mary Jaye Simms and Jennifer Lewis Bennet adding some gospel to the acoustic number.
Seven of the dozen songs are under four minutes, which makes for extended play when it comes to a serious and happily light-hearted outfit whose CD Baby page declares proudly: “ABBA meets the Ramones, Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris… Mamas & Papas sing the Velvets” and it’s so true, with the Abba leanings more geared towards Don Kirshner pop. “You Don’t Know (Much About Me) wander into territory owned by The Band with Marianne Faithful on vocals, splendid guitars bring it all to life in a wonderful way. As much as the music stretches over the individual artist careers of the parts that make up this whole, to anyone aware of Boston rock and roll, it is Macey who is the central figure with Stompers/Fox Pass rhythm section Lenny Shea and Steve Gilligan who add their talents along with Tom Hostage of Macey’s Parade, with the string slingers indulging in “electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, mandolas, 12-strings, and B-Benders” according to the group bio. To that point, “Haley” is pure Macey’s Parade, more so than Fox Pass and Hummingbird Syndicate, which is fine, because this amalgam of Shipley/Macey/Gilligan/Hostage/Shea/Bennet/Simms etc. modern rock mixed with the long-established (over four decades) sounds these performers and recording artists have developed can shape-shift and blend in the communal spirit that their name indicates. A music mafia of colorful birds with iridescent feathers – which is why this review is in the Arial font…I think.
Along with the 12 songs on Pop Tricks there is also a CD single “Waterfall Away” b/w “I Want You To Stay” on Actuality Records. You can find the two additional songs on Soundcloud and they are as vibrant and exciting as the music on the full lengthy. As stated, the production is as state-of-the-art as the musicianship. With Chris Maclachlan of Human Sexual Response, L.A. guitarist Dan Coughlin, Andy Hollinger and Pop Gun’s Jim Melanson it is more like the Mamas and the Mamas and the Papas and the Papas, an ensemble that has delivered music distinctly different from anything on the New England music scene, a wonderful invention of multiple chefs drawing from the same palette in unison, never stepping on anyone else’s space. Remarkable.
MACEY'S PARADE
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Boston based singer/songwriter "Jon Hall" changed his name to Jon Macey so there wouldn't be any confusion with Orleans' bandleader John Hall. After he performed production work for Elektra Records in the '80s, and toured with Polygram artist Tom Dickie & the Desires the poet/artist returned to Boston and put together Macey's Parade. Their 1993 release, Too Much Perspective opens up with one of Macey's
best numbers, "Song for T," a touching and lovely tribute to "the best
friend" he ever had "in those days" -- his cat. Substance abuse was a
major part of the singer's story -- so much so that some of the
immediate press for this album ignored the songs and focused on that.
The desperation of those times and the image of T's little eyes is as
haunting as it is heartwarming. But the record doesn't stop there. Along
with LaVern Baker's producer, Barry Marshall, they hit another home run with "Comical," as exquisite a pop number as Brian Wilson and Roger McGuinn could ever hope to conjure up. It's as if Randy California's Dr. Sardonicus character came to life to laugh in the face of life's tough breaks. There is immense power in the music, and Macey
delivers one of his best vocal performances. Had the album concentrated
on these moments there is no doubt it could have made a bigger splash,
and though the "Sweet Jane" riff that permeates "The Clinic" harkens
back to the singer's roots, the anti-methadone anthem feels out of place
here. It disturbs the flow of songs like "The Last New York Train" and
the poppy "Home." The band worked overtime on this album and that is
also a drawback -- rock & roll can't be too calculated, and some of
the earlier demos have more of a vibe than the finished product. Boston
scene-maker and booking agent, the late Mickey O'Halloran,
commented that some of the best material was utilized on various Boston
compilation albums and should have been included on this project. He
had a point. "She's Got Me Souled" and "Sail Away" were two tracks
recorded during this time that would have enhanced Too Much Perspective: an album whose title rings so true. Mastered by Bob Ludwig in Maine, the group put their best foot forward and, as noted, hit a couple out of the park. A re-release of Too Much Perspective
with bonus tracks could bring new attention to material like
"Sometimes," music from an artist who averages about one album a decade.
There's much depth to the better songs here on a record that was
acknowledged by TV, press, and radio upon its release in Boston, and
deserves another chance to be heard.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/too-much-perspective-mw0000317460
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