This album was my introduction to the powerful voice of Marty Balin, paired in this first recording with Signe Anderson. This was Marty's album - still close to the folk roots in rhythm and meter but adding the searing guitar of Jorma Kaukenan and strong melodic bass lines from Jack Casady. This album came in the period of innocence for the Airplane - before Grace Slick joined and before Skip Spence left for Moby Grape. While Surrealistic Pillow was the recording that made the Airplane famous, the Takes Off music defined them as the perfection of the San Francisco sound - soaring harmonies and dreams of a different world.
The message carried by the lyrics was absolutely in tune with the times - youthful love and lust, the vision of a new world order. Naïve, yes, but this was a time of change in the country and the Jefferson Airplane were one of our leading spokes bands for this change. When Marty Balin sang "It's No Secret", and "Come Up The Years", he was telling us all that it was alright to be young and in love and anything was possible.
I was 17 years old when this album was first released and I felt that the world was about to be made over in the image that my generation was creating. This was the moment in time when the magic was starting to happen - the Grateful Dead, Sons Of Champlin, The Youngbloods all had a message that spoke to us. The San Francisco Summer Of Love was happening - and this was the perfect album to mark that time.
KERA 90.1 Sound Sessions - 1992
North Texas has one of the liveliest music scenes in the country, and KERA 90.1 FM helped to shaped this image by supporting local artists. KERA 90.1 Sound Sessions CD is a compilation of songs recorded for KERA 90.1 by local favorites including Sara Hickman and others.
I've had and enjoyed this CD since it was released in Texas in the early 90's by the local NPR station, KERA. I recently rediscovered this wonderful rarity and ripped it for my digital collection. I don't have all the background on the sessions but this music is a time capsule of the bands and sounds from Texas in that creatively fertile period. There's a definite folk rock orientation to the music, with some pop and jazz mixed in - as well as the bluegrass style from the Dixie Chicks.
You'll love the unique cut from the Dixie Chicks, "Northern Rail", that's not available on any of their other recordings. This was still the 'old' Chicks and the song is a bluegrass classic that they perform at breakneck speeds. Great stuff!
The CD opens with Trout Fishing In America doing an excellent version of their Last Days Of Pompeii, followed by Josh Alan sounding like a smooth version of Steven Stills doing 'Black Queen" with a solid band behind him. You get Brave Combo (no Polka) and a couple from Sara Hickman as well as some excellent music from lesser known bands like Trees and Little Jack Melody.
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