Speckled Bird

Track Listings

1. Speckled Bird

2. Yellow Skies

3. Like a Cloud

4. Gripped

5. Weather Girl

6. Wilderness

7. Never More True

8. Spring

9. Grace

10. Amazing

11. Love Your Mind

12. Kissers and Killers

Tracks:

Love What You're Doing Child
Calgary
Trucker's Cafe
Long Long Time To Get Old
Flies In A Bottle
Bloodshot Beholder
Crazy Arms
This Dream
Smiling Wine
Rio Grande
Disappearing Woman
We Sail
New Trucker's Cafe (Live)

Album Description

You can't trace the evolution of country-rock without listening to this 1970 album by Ian & Sylvia and thier crack band of Buddy Cage, Amos Garrett and N.D. Smart II; like our previous reissues of records by the Dillards (Wheatstraw Suite and Beau Brummels (Bradley's Barn), Great Speckled Bird brought a whole new "longhair" sensiblity to Nashville, and broke through the barriers that had separated country from rock for over a decade. As Sylvia Fricker herself says in our liner notes, "Not blowing our own horn or anything, but that album was so far ahead of its time that it really took people a long time to catch up with us and figure out what we were doing." Well, we're glad we caught up, and you will be, too, when you hear this lost classic. Produced by Todd Rundgren.

Customer Reviews:

It Can't get Any Better.......2007-03-08

Ian and Sylvia were innovators in the "old" folk days. Their harmonies and arrangements still leave people breathless. With the addition of Amos Garrett and company to create Great Speckled Bird it just got better and better. The harmonies deepened and became more comples and Sylvia's voice soared to the heavens. Harmony? Listen to "We Sail" alone in a quiet room at decent volume and prepare to be amazed. Some albums don't deserve to be reissued.. my question is why did it take so long for this materpiece to reappear

Soaring Again..........2006-11-06

"Great Speckled Bird" comes around on cd about as often as Halley's Comet, and usually for a similarly short duration of time. My advice is to get this true classic of the country-rock genre as quickly as you can, while it's available. Originally issued in 1970 on Bearsville Records, this album is on a par with "Sweetheart of the Rodeo", "Workingman's Dead", "The Gilded Palace of Sin", and "Music From Big Pink". It truly is that great.

Previously known as a folk duo, Canadians Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker went to Nashville to record this countrified effort. Todd Rundgren, also a Bearsville artist, was enlisted to produce. The original album featured an even dozen country-inflected tunes done to perfection. All were Tyson and Fricker originals except for "Crazy Arms", and the material is uniformly strong, with clear vocals and sparkling musicianship from beginning to end.

The contributions of Amos Garrett (guitar) and Buddy Cage (pedal steel) deserve special mention. Garrett was and is a very special talent. He clearly was an influence on another guitar great, Richard Thompson, who has named Garrett as one of his favorites. Garrett's lead guitar alternately stings and purrs with a string-bending technique he developed from listening to a pedal steel. He later worked with Geoff and Maria Muldaur, who were produced by Joe Boyd--the producer of R. Thompson's band Fairport Convention. I'm fairly confident that Boyd exposed the young Thompson to Garrett's playing, when Thompson was in the process of breaking free of Fairport. In 1972, as part of a project called "The Bunch", Thompson also covered "Crazy Arms" in a fashion similar to Great Speckled Bird.

Buddy Cage (pedal steel) went on to win further laurels with New Riders of the Purple Sage, after leaving Ian and Sylvia's band. Together on "Great Speckled Bird", Garrett and Cage interweave beautifully. They sound like they were born to play together.

My favorite songs on this album are "Long, Long Time to Get Old" which has rollicking, unforgettable pedal steel work from Cage, "Flies in A Bottle" (poignantly sung by Tyson), "Disappearing Woman" and "We Sail". The last two are great Sylvia Fricker compositions that together bring the album to a close. "We Sail" is a hymnlike anthem that in its own way is a stirring as another 1970 tune--the Beatles' "Let it Be".

If you aren't too familiar with Ian and Sylvia, just know that they were great songwriters (Ian wrote "Four Strong Winds", Sylvia authored "You Were On My Mind"). Ian has a very straightforward, outdoorsy tenor voice that occasionally sounds like Roy Orbison. Sylvia sounds like June Carter Cash with a vibrato, which may take a novice a few listens to get used to... but the material is so strong on "Great Speckled Bird" that nothing detracts from it.

You won't regret buying this album. If you've never heard it, you are in for a treat.

Average customer rating:

Great Speckled Bird
Great Speckled Bird
Manufacturer: Jvc Victor
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

General | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000M7FQVE
Release Date: 2007-03-19

Tracks:

Love What You're Doing Child
Calgary
Trucker's Cafe
Longlng Time To Get Old
Flies In The Bottle
Bloodshot Beholder
Crazy Arms
This Dream
Smiling Wine
Rio Grande
Disappearing Woman
We Sail

Album Description

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.

Album Details

K2 Digitally Remastered Japanese Limited Edition Special Issue of the Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork.

Average customer rating:

Forgotten Country Rock Classic

Great Speckled Bird
Great Speckled Bird
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Contemporary | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music

Folk | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00004YU4G
Release Date: 2000-10-23

Tracks:

Love What You're Doing Child
Calgary
Trucker's Caf
Long Long Time to Get Old
Flies in the Bottle
Bloodshot Beholder
Crazy Arms
This Dream
Smiling Wine
Rio Grande
Disappearing Woman
We Sail
New Trucker's CafLive][*]

Album Description

Reissue of original Bearsville album, featuring Canadian folk legends Ian and Sylvia Tyson, produced by Todd Rundgren. Includes one bonus track 'New Truckers Cafe' (Live). 2000 release. Standard jewel case.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Reissue of Original Bearsville Album, featuring Canadian Folk Legends Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Produced by Todd Rundgren. Includes Bonus Track: New Truckers Cafe (Live).

Customer Reviews:

Forgotten Country Rock Classic.......2001-06-04

It is probably fair to say that this is Ian & Sylvia's most important album, and yet it was never sold under their name. It marks an astonishing intersection of roads, bringing together the well-known folk duo, drummer N.D.Smart III (already of Barry & the Remains and Mountain and later a Gram Parsons sideman), two Canadian newcomers who would enjoy higher profile careers afterward (Buddy Cage and Amos Garrett) and Todd Rundgren as producer while Nazz was still in business. This high-powered concoction yielded one of the best country rock albums of all time.

Released in 1969 on the Ampex label for the five minutes that this old recording equipment manufacturer flirted with running a record company, "Great Speckled Bird" immediately sank without a trace and remains a genuine dark horse today. A search of "Ian & Sylvia" will not pull up this release on Amazon; you have to already know about it even to think of buying it.

And buy it you should. Propelled by the toughest country rock sound anybody was doing in 1969, Ian Tyson brings together a handful of timeless classic songs seldom matched, particularly "Calgary," "Long Long Time to Get Old," "Flies in the Bottle" and "Rio Grande." Sylvia's contributions are suprisingly modest here but her "Truckers Cafe" is a classic country woman's lament.

Tracks:

Love What You're Doing Child
Calgary
Truckers Cafe
Long Long Time To Get Old
Flies In The Bottle
Bloodshot Beholder
Crazy Arms
This Dream
Smiling Wine
Rio Grande
Disapearing Woman
We Sail
New Truckers Cafe (Live Bonus Track)

Average customer rating:

Untitled
Great Speckled Bird
Manufacturer: Pony Canyon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

General | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000064MJL

Average customer rating:

Not What You'd Expect

Speckled Bird
The Choir
Manufacturer: REX
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Christian Alternative | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Christian Contemporary Music | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000AX9T
Release Date: 1994-01-01

Tracks:

Speckled Bird
Yellow Skies
Like a Cloud
Gripped
Weather Girl
Wilderness
Never More True
Spring
Grace
Amazing
Love Your Mind
Kissers and Killers

Customer Reviews:

Not What You'd Expect.......2001-09-22

Speckled Bird was a departure from the normal sound of The Choir, not what you'd expect. But then, The Choir have a way of giving you what youd wouldn't expect. The opener is the title track, a spacy, haunting song of dying in Christ and rising to new life in Christ. From there the album moves from gritty, grungy songs like Wilderness to upbeat power ballads like Yellow Skies. The Choir again shows its oft-exposed soft underbelly with Love Your Mind, a personal favorite of mine among their repertoire and a greatly underappreciated song, and closes with Kissers and Killers, a rollicking alternative thrill ride of a song. Other notable cuts are Gripped, a song with a great, grinding rhythm guitar part, and Weather Girl. This particular album leans more toward the experimental side, but is a great album.

Average customer rating:

You blow the candle out...you take a shovel to my head..

Speckled Bird
The Choir
Manufacturer: R.E.X. Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Christian Alternative | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

Christian Contemporary Music | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Circle Slide
Flap Your Wings
O How The Mighty Have Fallen
Free Flying Soul
Let It Fly

ASIN: B00008FO0Q
Release Date: 1994-07-26

Tracks:

Speckled Bird
Yellow Skies
Like a Cloud
Gripped
Weather Girl
Wilderness
Never More True
Spring
Grace
Amazing
Love Your Mind
Kissers and Killers

Customer Reviews:

You blow the candle out...you take a shovel to my head.........2005-07-07

Those are the first words that greet you on this 1994 release from veteran Christian alt-rockers The Choir, setting the tone for one of their most melancholy discs. This album is full of even more dense metaphor than usual..so much so that I'm at a loss to tell you what "Weather Girl" means even 11 years later. The sound is still full of distorted guitar layerings contrasted with the beautiful vocals of Derry Daugherty, Steve Hindalong's pounding backbeat, and Tim Chandler's bass with "Buckeye" Dan Michaels back on sax and lyricon for spice.

For the first time, strings are deployed (subtly) on a Choir album on the song "Like a Cloud".

HIGHLIGHTS:
"Gripped" is a portrait of the total hold love gets on your heart when it's for better or worse. ("She strangles joy with her eyes/She kills me so, she kills me so/She tangles misery with flowers/Her garden grows, her garden grows") "Weather Girl" is, I believe, about changeable women (maybe it's short for "Fair-weather" girl?). It warns you to "Never trust a weather girl/She grins when she warns you" over an appropriately menacing wall of melodic feedback. "Wilderness" examines the truism that even as believers we struggle with sin even now. ("Is your faith so right?/Are you so blessed?/Everybody wanders in the forest/Is your heart so true?/Are you so good?/Everybody wanders in the woods") Though it's a highlight, I prefer the "unplugged" version of this song featured on BROW BEAT (ASIN B000008PJU) to the amped up version here. "Grace" asks for forgiveness from those we've wronged. ("When you cut me in the alley-way/You don't have to turn that knife/I'll suffer in the afterlife")

LOWS:
"Spring" is probably my least favourite song here, not outright "bad" but a lesser lyric than I usually expect from the guys. The reminder that "love is alive in you" is closer to CCM cliche than the group usually gets.

BOTTOM LINE:
This is one of the Choir's most difficult listens. Much of it is more inaccessible than usual and it's a fairly somber album for a Christian band. It's still worthy listening, but it's probably one that won't come out as often as CHASE THE KANGAROO, DIAMONDS AND RAIN or WIDE EYED WONDER.

Average customer rating:

Present day CW artists should take a listen & learn
One of the very great and formative country rock albums
Excellent

Great Speckled Bird
Great Speckled Bird
Manufacturer: Stony Plain (Can)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Contemporary Folk | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings

ASIN: B000001CW8
Release Date: 1995-01-17

Tracks:

Love What You're Doing Child
Calgary
Truckers Cafe
Long Long Time To Get Old
Flies In The Bottle
Bloodshot Beholder
Crazy Arms
This Dream
Smiling Wine
Rio Grande
Disappearing Woman
We Sail
New Truckers CafLive Version)- New Bonus Track

Customer Reviews:

Present day CW artists should take a listen & learn.......2006-03-24

That's right. Because you can write and perform innovative, fresh, country music without turning it into the boring, homogenized, "sounds like white washed pop-rock" that is played on the radio nowadays. Of course these musicians were talented. They preserved elements of country style and heritage that seem to me to be lost in today's country scene. Example: steel guitar & guitar solos that last more than 3 seconds, are more than just a "flourish" to make you "think" you're listening to country music. Example: vocal harmony. What has happened to harmony in today's music? Well, this album wasn't made to sell millions. It was made for the sake of the music, which is how it ought to be. If only half the music coming out today was as good as this...buy this CD while you can.

One of the very great and formative country rock albums.......2006-03-13

Too bad this is no longer in print. It was out of print for years on vinyl then briefly available on CD. Apparently it's no longer available on CD anymore. Too bad, again. This is simply one of the five or six best country rock records ever made. I understand its initial brief availability. It was released on Ampex, a short lived record label, and was caught up (or down) in its demise. But when it was finally rereleasd by Stony Plain in 1995, a label that owns the Ian Tyson catalog in Canada, I thought it might last a bit longer. Apparently not. Well, we really can't account for taste and success in rock and country music, can we? But this was one of several groundbreaking country rock albums released in the 1969-1971 timeframe. Great Speckled Bird is actually Ian (Tyson) & Sylvia (Fricker/Tyson) with an incredibly hot backup band. And, oh, this one was produced in Nashville by - believe this, if you can - by TODD RUNDGREN. Yes, all the stars lined up to create a truly great, innovative album, just not a commmercially successful one. Of course, we now know that Ian Tyson turned out to be arguably the best country singer and songwriter of the last 50 years, American or Canadian. And, frankly, that greatness is completely in evidence on this album. From its start with the rocking environmental anthem (?), Love What You're Doing Child, to its closing optimistic anthem, We Sail, this is great stuff. Tyson and Fricker are in excellent songwriting form. Love What You're Doing Child is a completely relevant song about how we PERSONALLY destroy the environment around us when we should know better. And it rocks! This blends right into Calgary, a song about a cowboy aching to get back to Calgary and the woman there. Ian whistles a break on this one, and it is wonderful! Not only can this guy sing as well as anyone of his generation, he can whistle, to boot! A few more excellent cuts and then you're treated to Bloodshot Beholder, a hard rocking song of excess and running from the law out among the San Juan de Fuca Islands. Then there is an excellent cover of the country classic, Crazy Arms. This Dream and Smiling Wine are very good and then Ian tells a story about smuggling cocaine through Mexico in Rio Grande. No one - yes, no one - tells a ballad better than Ian Tyson. And Rio Grande is a compelling ballad. Then Ian moves into a country classic penned by his wife, Sylvia, Disappearing Woman, easily seen as a recount of Ian & Sylvia's rocky relationship. Then they turn the tables completely with the optimistic, We Sail. There is simply nothing less than very good on this one. As I write this review, the only seller of the CD is asking $46. Let me tell you, that is a bargain! Get it!

Excellent.......2001-01-25

I recently decided to begin replacing my favorite LPs with CDs and Great Speckled Bird is my first selection. I've owned the LP since it was released (I think in the 1970's) and it's still one of my favorites.

Music Review:

Music Review

Music Review

1. Speckled Bird
2. Yellow Skies
3. Like a Cloud
4. Gripped
5. Weather Girl
6. Wilderness
7. Never More True
8. Spring
9. Grace
10. Amazing
11. Love Your Mind
12. Kissers and Killers