The 1981 Listening Post - Terry Dolan/Terry & the Pirates - Wind Dancer

 Reviewed by Geo Rule

Released: 1981 Terry Dolan / Terry & The Pirates Wind Dancer Genre: Country-Infused Folk Rating: 3.25 out of 5 Highlights: Poetrain True Medicine Apparently, Terry Dolan was a minor legend in the Bay Area (San Francisco) music scene from the late 60’s until the late 80s or so. Adding to the legend, was the ’73 debut album with a goodly number of big names contributing, that Warner Bro. killed two months before its release. Dolan’s champion at the company moved on, and the new team just didn’t believe in the project. It was finally released due to the efforts of a long-time fan/friend in 2016, four years after Dolan’s death. After that heartbreak, Dolan is reported to have licked his wounds for a while, and then back into the SF scene as the front man for an ever-evolving group of Bay Area musicians as “Terry and the Pirates”. They managed a few small releases from smaller labels, but the promise that Dolan’s career seemed to have in ’72 never recovered. Dolan’s voice is little better than serviceable, but plenty have had great success with less. Looking around for opinions on Dolan, the one that stuck with me as I listened was “Somewhere between Van Morrison and Jackson Browne, but with less talent.” I’d throw some Don McLean in there too. Maybe a bit of J.D. Souther. Very definitely a “story-teller mentality” here. Musically, it’s a mish-mash. There’s quality lead guitar, boogie-woogie piano, and some smoky jazz saxophone. Also, flute. Steel guitar. At one point I thought “is that a xylophone?”, but I suspect it was just a synth. Yeah, hard to hone a coherent marketing message around this. The boogie woogie piano leads the way on “Country Plow” and “Heartbeat.” By far my favorite song on the album is “Poetrain”, a sad ballad about the artist’s life that really hits the sweet spot in Dolan’s voice. Another ballad, “True Medicine”, was also excellent. Made me wonder if he could have made a career out of that kind of stuff and just not muddied the marketing message with the rock/boogie stuff. Probably harder to fill bars with that tho, which seems to have been his meat and potatoes once Warner walked. But I listened to both “Poetrain” and “True Medicine” three times each, so I guess I liked them well enough to justify the rating.

The 1980 Listening Post - Terry & the Pirates - The Doubtful Handshake

 Reviewed by Tom Mott

Released: 1980 Terry & The Pirates The Doubtful Handshake Genre: That San Francisco Sound Rating: 3.7 out of 5 Highlights: Inlaws and Outlaws Into the Wind Montana Eyes DISCOVERABLE-ISH There are three reasons to listen to this album: John Cipollini, Inlaws and Outlaws, and John Cipollini. The astonishing Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist is in full form here, so if psychedelic San Francisco blues is your thing, this is a thoroughly engaging, top-notch set. If that's not your thing, at least give the song Inlaws and Outlaws a listen. It's the centerpiece of the album. If you made a Venn Diagram of All Along the Watchtower and the good parts of Stairway to Heaven, you'd have Inlaws and Outlaws. I'm astonished I've never heard this song before. The band features stellar musicians from the Bay Area scene--guys that were part of Hot Tuna, Country Joe, Starship, Steve Miller Band, Greg Kihn, etc. Nicky Hopkins shows up for at least one track which means at some point we've got half of QMS here. Half of one version of it anyways. The album starts with a syncopated, piano-driven rocker (think Little Feat or Allman Brothers post-Duane). And then Cipollini kicks in around 1:50 and tosses off a guitar solo so good, you wish the rest of the band was just a little more -- "integrated" with him. Don't get me wrong: The band is great. Locked in tight like Steve Miller Band at its peak or the Grateful Dead on a good night. But I always liked Duane better with Dickey. Wayne Kramer with Fred Sonic Smith. Peter Green with Danny Kirwan. A little bit of a push. Into the Wind sounds like a Touch of Gray-era Grateful Dead song. Montana Eyes has a lovely Ronnie Lane Slim Chance feel. I Put a Spell on You is a better-than-usual cover of that song. Someone on the interwebs wrote that any album John Cipollini appears on ends up being a John Cipollini album. Based on what I hear here, I can't argue.