Down In L.A. - on CD (at long last)

[sngwrtr525]

Just discovered this a couple of hours ago. Seems that amazon.com will be carrying "Down In L.A." by Brewer & Shipley on compact disc. This is the first time this album has ever been commerically offered on cd, and it is an import. There have been previous false alarms before, so we'll see how this goes. I'm going to order one. It's supposed to be released in early April. Like I said, we'll see. Sure would be nice to have everything the guys did on remastered discs, but at this point, I have no clue how likely that will be. The link is below my name. Good luck!

Len Jaffe

http://www.amazon.com/Down-L-Brewer-Shi ... 603&sr=1-5

[Steve]

Yeah! We have confirmed that Len's find is Truly Right. The lost classic Brewer & Shipley debut album is FINALLY released on CD. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Cherry Hills Records from the UK for issuing it. I hear it has a 16 page booklet with unreleased pictures of Michael & Tom.

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=3575

There have been a lot of people who have been pushing this for a long time. It looks to me like a combination of all those efforts finally resulted in this first ever release of Down In L.A. on CD.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, in 1967 & '68 Michael & Tom were working as songwriters for the new record label A&M Records when they were greenlighted by A&M to record their own album of their original songs, several of which had been already been recorded by other artists. Their backing musicians on the album were the legendary "Wrecking Crew" who recorded with all the great artists of the last half of the 20th Century. Leon Russell, who played keyboards on it, loaned B&S his home studio for recording about half the album. Jim Messina, who was a neighbor of Tom's, played bass on the album.

Unfortunately for the album, Michael & Tom were unhappy with L.A. and moved back to the mid-west just as the album was being released. A&M thought they had quit the business and therefore didn't push the release. Within a year, MIchael & Tom were signed as recording artists for Buddah Kama Sutra and released their classic Weeds album in late 1969. Of course when "One Toke..." became a huge hit, all the Best of B&S releases only included material from Kama Sutra and ignored Down In L.A. and their subsequent Capitol releases "ST11261" and "Welcome To Riddle Bridge."

It is a classic album with an ambiance all its own. I love it.

As Len mentioned to me this morning.... now on to the rest of the Brewer & Shipley catalog. Shake Off The Demon, Rural Space, ST11261 & Welcome To Riddle Bridge.

[Steve]

Got my copy today. Way cool. Nice booklet with Michael & Tom telling some stories on each song.

I've only listened to it on my PC so far, but it sounds like they did an excellent job on it.

First class job by Now Sounds/Cherry Red records.

"Modal guitar licks, soulfully contemplative lyrics, a solid vocal blend, and tasteful arrangements coalesce beautifully on this criminally overlooked artifact of 1968 Los Angeles."

Thank you for making this great ablum available to Brewer & Shipley fans.