Eden vol. 2 by Ian Stephen

(Australia anyway) Personnel on that day - Ian Stephen vx, Keith Glass vx, James and Margot McDonald vx , Mark Ferrie bass, Rob Eastcott piano, Pierre Jacquinot guitar, Johnny Crash drums, and the late Peter Linden on pedal steel.

J Crash played drums with a pair of coat hangers, having arrived at the studio without proper sticks. I think that's one of the things that makes this so special. "Can You Guess" is from The Armchairs, "Party Time" LP, released by Missing Link in 1980.

Ian Stephen and Graham Barker share the mainly adlibbed vocals on this monumentally stupid, but entertaining outing. Gerry Joyce guitar, Andrew Snow drums, with Johnny Topper on bass. While all efforts were made to clean up the 25 year old tape, some slight imperfections remain in a couple of places on this recording. The casual listener probably wouldn't notice, but I think this disclaimer is important for audio purists and music lovers alike. These early recording would probably not exist at all if it were not for ancient 1/4" tapes and cassettes, which are showing signs of age, not helped by being stored in Sydney's lovely humid climate from 1990-2000.

"King of the Cross" released in 1994 provides the next four tracks. These were painstakingly recorded over a period of at least three years at Rondor music's demo studio in Cremorne and later Crows Nest. When it was finally finished, the Sinners Saved by Grace band which was responsible for all the groovy playing, was long gone. (At least I broke them in for Lee Kernagan) Colin Watson, guitar, John Kane, guitar and mandolin, Graham Thompson, bass, Michele Rose, pedal steel, Wayne Goodwin, fiddle, Hanuman Dass, drums, as well as Ian Simpson, Buzz Bidstrup, Heather Lee and Keith Glass all contributed their talents and goodwill. Thanks ever so.

The end result was a quite nice collection of original and cover tunes, completely ignored by all and sundry.

Next up from the "Workin' on the Nightshift" sessions, "She's Having Fun," kind of a moral tale about success and its pitfalls. There must be somebody who can relate to it, but I probably don't know them. "The Next Level Down" bringing us back to the USA was recorded in San Francisco in 2002, but the new words were added in 2005, giving it this very dark flavor, which I think works nicely. (or not)

Two instrumentals, "Los Exploradores" and "Jazz Club on Uranus" also originated from the NorCal studios, the latter coming with a spooky video (yet to be released) featuring the twin towers of the World Trade Center a few month before they were destroyed by terrorists.

"Jesus Juice" is a kind of tale of disaffected suburban youth. Don't know what inspired this apart from the title, although I do like the result.

A letter from Downunder brought forth "Today's Mail." Actually several letters, and annoying ones at that. It's all true as well. "Say Anything" features my daughter Jo on drums. It's all her words as well. A simple little groovy tune with some improvised bottleneck geetar right at the end. The final cut "God Said" pretty much tells my story of Eden in a shorthand way. It is a wild town on the southeast coast of Australia where we had a lot of fun when we were younger. The front cover shows my aunt and my cousin Steven, who is the one diving into that beautiful pool in Eden way back then.

Average Customer Review: