BRIAN SHORT/ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH TRA 245 (-71) UK

 

                                                                                  

Brian Short was the lead singer on heavy blues band Black Cat Bones one-off LP "Barbed Wire Sandwich"  https://monolover.blogspot.com/2013/07/black-cat-bonesbarbed-wire-sandwich-sdn.html . Due to lack of success with the album the band broke up, whereafter Derek and Stuart Brooks went on to form Leaf Hound. While the rest of the members spread to other combos, Brian Short aimed for a carreer on his own. Alas this debute didn't sell and became his only solo issue. Backing crew is fabulous, including Alan White (Yes, Plastic Ono Band, Alan Price, Ginger Baker) on drums, guitarists Kenny Craddock (Lindisfarne, Mark Almond, Ginger Baker) and Peter Kirtly (Pentangle, Alan Price), bassist Colin Gibson (Snafu, Mark Almond, Skip Bifferty) and pianist Max Middleton who also worked with Jeff Beck, Bee Gees and George Martin. On double bass jazz legend Coleridge Goode (1914-2015), who among other things played with Django Reinhardt in the thirties. I hear very little here reminding of Black Cat Bones solid blues rock. Instead a blend of softer genres like baroque, folk and pop. All tracks but one - Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" - self-penned. Though with partly heavy backing I can only hear it as a singer/songwriter effort and as such emotive and intriguing enough. It can take some time to get in, but when you do it may touch. Favorite tracks - the power ballad "Don't You Need Me Anymore" and the countyish "Mother Molly".  Seventies vinyl issues also in Italy and Holland. Japan 2006 remastered CD in paper sleeve on Air Mail Archive (AIRAC 1250). Premiere UK had labels as shown here in a structured fold/out cover with lyrics/credits/pics inside.