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Reviews |
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ALLMusic
review
Two years before their hit "One Toke Over the Line," Brewer and Shipley
released an excellent folk album entitled Weeds, produced by the redoubtable
Nick Gravenites, who was soon to become the lead singer of Big Brother & the
Holding Company, and who had penned a couple of songs for Janis Joplin's I
Got Dem Ole' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama album released the same year as this
LP, 1969. With Mike Bloomfield on guitar as well, this is actually part
of the Electric Flag backing up Michael
Brewer |
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and Tom Shipley, and their
almost pensive performance of Bob Dylan's "All
Along the Watchtower" is not only fine, but you can actually hear and
understand all the words! "Indian Summer" is sublime; it is magical with
Richard Greene's fiddle working against the sprinkling piano lines, a
real gem among the many in these
Weeds. A Native American on horse looking skyward under the words "Our
Thanks" is a very subtle thank you to their higher power — nice indeed.
The late Nicky Hopkins is a guest star on keyboards, as is Phil Ford on tabla,
and the ten tracks are all accessible, but there is one that is as much a
standout as the duo's aforementioned "Indian Summer," that tune being the
second cover on Weeds, Jim Pepper's much loved
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underground classic "Witchi-tai-to." This version is more up-tempo
than the original, and dwells on Lou Reed's
"Sweet Jane" riff to balance the incessant mantra and blending voices. The
guitars are very Flamin' Groovies: sparkling, trebley, and pretty. This is
music right out of the Velvet Underground's Loaded or 1969 albums, and
should be absorbed by that group's obsessive fans, as well as fans of bands
like Big Brother & the Holding Company and other purveyors of the West Coast
sound. At close to seven minutes it is certainly an anomaly for the label
which released the spirited folk/pop of The Lovin' Spoonful. The ten
striking black-and-white photos inside the gatefold are as in tune as the
pleasant "People Love Each Other," which opens side two. Given the legendary
status of the producer and fellow musicians, the choice of material, and
their own eventual chart success, Weeds is an often forgotten folk
album of fine distinction. Nice insert with lyrics accompanies the vinyl
disc.
~ Joe Viglione |
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Excerpt from "One Toke..Best
of Brewer & Shipley" Liner Notes |
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By the time the album Weeds
came out in 1970, these two talented craftsmen had become artists in the
best sense, with an album that had theme and purpose and better yet, the
permanence of Mt. Rushmore in the eyes of their fellow musicians. Weeds was
one of those seminal albums that define a time and place, and album of such
style and character that it was like visiting the Custer battlefield and
hearing the wind in the buffalo grass at evening and watching owls perch on
the scattered tombstones. Weeds created a place for your mind to
be. No wonder that the next album Tarkio had a ready audience. Brewer and
Shipley had captured our imagination. |
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~
Mitch Jayne ~ formerly of The Dillards |
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Keeper Of The Keys fan review |
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Weeds is
probably Brewer & Shipley's best album. Michael Brewer calls it his favorite of
their early albums. If you have become a fan of
Brewer & Shipley, it is a must have. The album includes some of the best songs they've
written in Indian Summer, People Love Each Other, Rise Up (Easy Rider) and
the great Witchi-Tai-To, which they adapted and made their own. If you
have not heard the last three songs (Oh, Sweet Lady, Too Soon Tomorrow, & Witchi-Tai-To) fade into
one into one another with the tabla percussion tying them together, you are
in for a treat. Like Down In L.A. before it, the songs on this album
all fit together
and the whole is more than the sum of the parts (and there are some terrific
parts).
When Weeds finally made it to
CD in 2004, longtime Brewer & Shipley fans were elated. If you
don't have any Brewer & Shipley and are ready to try an album, I would
strongly suggest the Weeds/Tarkio twofer as a place
to start. You will not be disappointed. Or, if you only have
their Best Of Brewer & Shipley (One Toke Over The Line) CD, and enjoyed it,
please treat yourself to two of their best albums and buy the Weeds/Tarkio CD. There is some duplication, but believe me
you want all of Weeds and Tarkio. |
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Weeds |
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