Sutherland Brothers & Quiver

Sutherland Brothers & Quiver - Slipstream

Slipstream was a complete unknown for me when I found it in the bin. It looked interesting and the back cover was one of those weirdly ubiquitous band shots with floating bust shots of the band looking off into space were supposed to give a sense of mystery - or something. How would I know? I was 13 when this came out. The album cleaned up amazingly well.

I didn't initially recognize any of the names on the back cover. I had assumed based on the names that The Sutherland Brothers were Iain and Gavin, two Scottish lads (yeah, I went back a rewrote some of my initial meanderings after I looked the band up), and Quiver were drummer Willie Wilson, and guitarist Tim Renwick.

This is really tight soft rock and feels like a lot of other stuff from 1976 and was pretty enjoyable. As good as any of their contemporaries in my opinion. First time through nothing really rose above the rest in terms of standout tracks - that isn't meant to be a shot. The whole album is full of good songs. I'm sure another pass will have the cream rise to the top.

I did play the album a couple of times before looking them up. Apparently they did have some success in the UK with the song "Secrets" breaking into the top 40 singles, and the album broke into the top 50. I was actually surprised that the band released "Secrets" as a single, it's a good song, but having listened through a couple of times the song that actually really blew me away was the "The Prisoner" it's as close to a rocker as they album comes and has a great groove and killer guitar work. Then there's the album's closing instrumental "High Nights" that truly showcases Tim Renwick's guitar work (I wonder if Mark Knopfler heard this). I suppose I should call out his solo on "Something's Burning" (I have no idea what this song is about) is a pretty close second. It's interesting that their other single from the album "If I Could Have Your Loving" didn't chart as to me this was the better of the two. I have a feeling the more I play this the more things will start to stand out. I love albums like this.

Speaking of the guys from Quiver, Tim Renwick seemed to have a lot of credits from his work with Al Stewart on his big albums Year of the Cat and Time Passages. Not to mention his touring work with both Roger Waters, and David Gilmour. Pretty cool. Not to be left out drummer Willie Wilson played drums with Pink Floyd on The Wall tour as a surrogate Nick Mason, and on David Gilmour's first solo record he was the drummer.

Side note, the year before in 1975 they released Reach for the Sky and had a pretty sizable hit in Europe with "Arms of Mary" (according to their Wikipedia page it went #1 in The Netherlands) a song I always thought was a Chilliwack song.Well, look at that, I'm going to have to go and pull out my Lights in the Valley album and read the credits. That's actually pretty cool.

All in all, a fun find and while I enjoyed pulling on the little threads to see where things led with members of the band - I really did find this a great surprise and a much better experience than I had expected. I can see myself putting this on from time to time it really is very good. As fate would have it, like a lot of bands from the 70s, they didn't make the transition out of the decade and by 1979 they had split and gone their separate ways.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the

Old Enough to Forget

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