Phoebe Snow - 'Phoebe Snow'

 

One chilly Autumn afternoon in 1974, I stopped for a caffe mocha at the Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village.  While I was sipping my coffee, smoking a cigarette, and thumbing through a New York Times someone left behind, over the radio I heard:

"The dirty city mist
Has seeped too deep inside
It took me on some kind
Of heady ride
They told me Charlie Parker died
And I don't want the night to end"

Those lyrics caught my attention, and when the song ended, the DJ said, "We just heard 'I Don't Want the Night to End' from Phoebe Snow."

Up until then, the only Phoebe Snow song I knew was her hit, "Poetry Man", which I liked, but not enough to buy the album.  This was probably due to over saturation; you heard the song everywhere you went, in stores, restaurants and coming out car radios during the summer of 1974.

So on my way home which back then was a few blocks away from the Caffe Reggio, I took a detour, to a record store over on 8th Street, and bought Phoebe's self-titled first album.

When I got home, I rolled up some primo Columbian buds, and put Phoebe on the turntable.  The first thing that struck me was Phoebe's remarkable vocal range, her mellow earthy tone and how in just one breath, she could go from a girlish giggling teenager vibrato, to a knowing bluesy growl.  Also, how every song was good upon first listen, how well recorded the album was, and how the entire album was difficult to categorize, as it goes effortlessly from folk and pop to soul, jazz, and blues.  

When the second side ended, I flipped it over and started listening to it once more, and then turned my attention to the liner notes. The album was co-produced by Phil Ramone and Dino Airali (which accounts for the excellent audio). Three names that jumped up off the notes were jazz legends, Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, pianist Teddy Wilson and Chuck Israels on bass.  Dave Mason is on electric guitar and David Bromberg is on resonator Guitar (Phoebe is no "slouch" on acoustic rhythm guitar, either).

Because of the sonics on this album, it would become one of the recordings I used to audition audio components in the mid to late 1970s.  If you freeload this album, you'll see why.

The freeload is a sweet sounding 24bit/174.4kHz remaster from 2013

For the freeload, let's talk about artists and bands whom are difficult to categorize.