portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Country Joe McDonald "Paris Session" 1973 - TWILIGHTZONE

 More COUNTRY JOE

       We looked at a Joe McDonald's straight country peach t'other day "Tonight I'm Singing Just For You" which may have put a lot of folks off for reasons best known to someone else because contract filler or not it is actually a fine effort but post Fish we find a Joe battered and bruised somewhat by the political counterculture pressures and we forgive him his so called 'straight' album which actually is honestly worth a play but here's another treat that is really well worth trying. Again from TWILIGHTZONE and with notes that bear another reading but go over there and download this great little forgotten gem. He can really write a song and really sing too! But what do I know "I'm Tired" . . . . . . . . to have assembled such a fine band around him it is a shame he didn't achieve more success with them. 






Joe McDonald Paris Session 1973 - Twilightzone

TWILIGHTZONE says:
...Beginning in April 1971, McDonald became active in the growing antiwar movement and appeared at demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C...

...Together with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, McDonald appeared during an FTA (Free the Army) tour of Vietnam that featured skits by former Second City members Ann and Roger Bowen. Although he became disenchanted with Fonda's political views* and left the show, the experience earned McDonald a spot on President Nixon's enemies list. Returning to the United States, McDonald recorded an EP with the San Francisco-based band Grootna. A solo performance at the Bottom Line was released as a live album, Incredible Live!, in 1972. During 1972 and 1973, McDonald performed with the All-Star Band, a group mainly comprising members of the Fish and Big Brother & the Holding Company. The band accompanied McDonald on his 1973 album, Paris Sessions.

This is really worth checking out . . . . . how to write songs that are pertinent to the then current political climate and can cook along with the best! Great band too with Pete Albin on bass, Ann Rizzo on Steel Guitar & vocals, Dorothy Moscowitz on piano and vocals, Tucki Bailey on sax, John Vierra on Moog, David Getz on drums, Phil Marsh on guitars, John Rewind on wah wah guitar !


* might need to research his falling out as politically left of field radices both should have been singing from the same sheet!

Notes here go some way further to explain the clash 

concord.com - country joe

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