Garfield - Out There Tonight

Out There Tonight came out in '77 a year after the band's debut, and it was an album I'd been looking for since discovering Garfield a while back ... okay, last year. The band was a pleasant surprise, and I really enjoyed how Garfield French approached writing and how the songs were structured. It was progressive (I throw the term around, but basically to me it's a catch all for anything that isn't overly formulaic) and a little meandering, but not haphazard. This was carefully assembled and the off the cuff nature of Garfield's vocal delivery was deliberate. Think of Tommy Smother's acting all spontaneous and interrupting poor Dick with his meandering comments ... except nothing was random, it was meticulously crafted.  

After I posted my blog about the band's debut I found Garfield's Facebook page. The page was inactive, but I figured I drop Mr. French a note to tell him how much I enjoyed the album. To my surprise I got a reply, and we traded a couple of notes back and forth. I have to admit the music geek in me still gets a little awestruck when chatting with other musicians. Yeah, I know they have feet of clay and all that ... but there's something about the arts that brings out my inner fanboy. Garfield mentioned this album as one I needed to hear that the band had recorded in Alabama. I got the sense he was pretty proud of this one. 

Oddly, it wasn't this album I bought next, it was their '79 album Reason to Be that I found. I really liked it, and I kept searching and eventually found Out There Tonight. Of course I could have just gone and streamed the album ... they're all out there which is great and once I've listened to the record a few times I will generally go and stream it as well. I'm not sure why I feel compelled to have to sit and intentionally listen to the record first. I suppose I want to savour the moment and ensure I give the songs a chance to settle in. 

I'm not sure what liner notes were included when the record came out, as my copy didn't have an insert, but the back cover had a fair bit of information which satisfied the credit geek in me. The album was recorded in Alabama and was recorded at Wishbone Studios in Muscle Shoals and was produced by Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey who were a big part of what became known as the Muscle Shoals sound. Clayton Ivey was the one who arranged the strings, and they were the secret sauce on a number of the songs on the album. 

The band was still comprised of Garfield and Dennis French and Maris Tora, Walter Lawrence, Jacques Fillion, Chip Yarwood and Paul O'Donnell and they brought along everything but the kitchen sink in terms of instruments. They were tight.

The album opens with the title track, and right off you know you're in for something a little different. From there the band shifts down for the ballad, "All Alone Again" which is a great example of Garfield's odd song structure that seems to be disguised as a lush lament. I had made a comment about his writing in one of our brief exchanges, and he casually wrote that when he tried to write commercial sounding music something would happen and it would go the other way. Which I found kind of funny. There really isn't a definition for what is commercial as it keeps changing.

I'll admit on "It's Not That Bad (At All)" one of the heavier songs on the record, Garfield came close to sounding like a straight ahead rock band. Which was followed by "Play it Again Boys" a piece that took it's time building to a dual lead guitar segue that ushered in the second phase of the song. It's a strange song as the tempo ebbs and flows but it's an engaging piece of music as well. All of the songs so far have been pretty cool, but this was the one I've come back to as the album's centrepiece.

The second side opens with "Mississippi Jimmie" a song that's kind of hard to describe. The jaunty piano and Garfield's vocals are countered by string flourishes and feels like a story song about chasing a dream, but it never seems to resolve, rather it just feels like someone describing a dream while rocking on a chair sipping iced tea in the shade. At the risk of being a tad dismissive the songs on side two started to feel a bit repetitive which surprised me. It wasn't like the songs were the same, but a pattern was emerging and while Garfield wasn't a straightforward rock band, there was a sameness that blurred one into another. This isn't meant to be a shot, just an observation. I wonder if this was deliberate or just ear fatigue on my part.

After a few listens I found that I was approaching the album as two sides, not so much individual songs. This was an album that had a couple of fine standalone moments, especially on side one, but overall it was an album that needed to be heard in a sitting to be fully appreciated. If I have a gripe at all, it's that the fade on the closing track "Private Affair" seemed to come out of nowhere. The song seemed to be building to a close and then the faders were pulled back and that was it ... it was a head scratching decision, but one that can't be changed now.

I can understand why Mr. French suggested I hear this album, it's quite an accomplishment and I find it cool that an album like this was able to be made at all.