Word: clark
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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LAST WINTER an album appeared on A and M records entitled The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark. The jacket featured a hill-billy type on a motorcycle passing a joint to another in a sidecar. That picture is almost a visual description of the music on the inside, a very gentle blend of C and W and rock. Generally the term Country and Western calls up images of excruciatingly sentimental lyrics with a fiddle and banjo contest going on in the background. But the arrangements on Expedition (songs written mostly by the musicians Gene Clark and Doug Dillard) combine...
...plays banjo, fiddle and guitar more than competently. David Jackson, bass, piano, and cello, scales down the harshness of the other instruments: and Jon Corneal (drums) gives the music the rhythmic patterns of rock. Sneaky Pete, listed as a "Special Picker," plays a very fine steel guitar, sometimes mimicking Clark's mouthharp or the piano, sometimes taking the role of lead guitar...
...Happily, Clark manages to get away from this limited scope occasionally. "Polly," which is both instrumentally and vocally a fine song, similar to a toned down Crosby, Stills, and Nash, is far more delicately written...
DILLARD AND CLARK have also picked up some other songs written by other groups and reworked them to fit their own style. "So Sad," and Everly Brothers tune which was soggily sentimental in the original, becomes much more alive with a rock background. Lennon and McCartney's "Don't Let Me Down" also comes off with considerably more personality than the original, with some very effective slide guitar and piano work...
...general, Through The Morning is an album worth having. The high quality of the musicianship and vocals (Dillard, Clark, and Donna Washburn) contribute to a sound which is very easy to listen to. It does not have anything startlingly new to say, but if you want a rest from being startled, lie back in your hammock and listen; it will grow...