Many Faces by Seymour

Personnel:

Allan Gunter: guitar, percussion, vocals

Jim Badenoch: drums, vocals

Jerry Noyes: bass, vocals

John Dalrymple: keyboard, guitar, vocals

Seymour Lovejoy: guitar, vocals

With special appearances by:

Mick Austin: lead vocal (Bound for Glory)

John Ryan: add'l drums (Happiness Blues), guiro (All Natural Radio)

Rolf Sieker: banjo (Wooly Band)

Trey Carskadon: blues harp (Dreams That Things Are Made Of)

David Chris: alto saxophones (Happiness Blues, Tightrope)

Produced by John Dalrymple and Seymour Lovejoy

Mixed by John Dalrymple

Mastered by Kevin Nettleingham

Love Seed Records

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A review of Seymour's "Many Faces" CD

By S.P. Clarke

From the September 2003 Issue of Two Louies Magazine (Portland, OR)

(http://twolouiesmagazine.com)

Many Faces - Seymour

Love Seed Records

Seymour are a bunch of old guys who were integral parts of the Portland

(Oregon) music scene in the '60s and '70s, before placing their band on

hiatus for twenty years, until the early '90s. They recorded an album in

the mid-'90s, this is their second venture since re-grouping. And while

the average age of the five band members is easily mid-fiftyish, there

is one thing that is plainly evident on this fourteen song album: these

guys still write interesting songs and command the chops to play circles

around the majority of bands in town.

John Dalrymple and Paul Stanton (who goes by Seymour Lovejoy in the band

context), two of the band's chief songwriters, founded the original

Seymour in 1969; playing important gigs in the seminal Portland club

scene. Both went on to play in a band called Smoke in early '80s. It was

there that Dalrymple and Lovejoy met up with bassist Allan Gunter, who

had spent the '60s with the local legends such as Mr. Lucky and the

Gamblers and Wrinkle (who cut an album for Imperial/UA in '69; which was

produced by none other than our own Buck Munger).

Here, Lovejoy, Dalrymple and Gunter are joined by Jerry Noyes on bass

(Gunter now mainly sings and plays the guitar, or the congas- and is the

third of the band's three resident songwriters). Noyes joined Seymour in

1970 when Dalrymple was drafted. He had earlier played with the Warlocks

in the '60s, before being drafted himself. He returned when the band

reconvened in 1991. Drummer Jim Badenoch first joined the band in 1991.

So, in that regard, he is a relative newcomer.

Here, the band are joined by guests, vocalist Mick Austin (who wrote or

co-wrote three of the songs played here) and drummer/percussionist John

Ryan, both of whom were original members of the band- as well as three

other musicians who play on a song or two and help to fill out the sonic

landscape.

Seymour's style is generally pure, driving rock 'n'roll; although, with

four songwriters contributing to the project, there is a lot of variety.

But the music is comparable to, yet distinctly different from, Little

Feat, the Sons of Champlin, the Doobie Brothers, post-Jerry Dead, Warren

Zevon, a few '60s and '70s British bands, and a folk/rock/funk/soul

sound that was uniquely indigenous to the Northwest (well, north of San

Francisco, anyway) in the '60s. It's not as if these guys are complete

dinosaurs, their sound is relatively modern, adult contemporary stuff;

but they have absorbed a lot of music across five decades and it can be

heard in these songs.

Dalrymple's "Why Not" is a fast moving freight train of a song, with a

funky r&b sensibility that calls to mind World Party, besides some of

the aforementioned. And his "All Natural Radio" is kind of a Brewer &

Shipley sort of number. Lovejoy's "Dreams That Things Are Made Of"

resonates of Supertramp, with synthesized keyboards setting the scene.

Gunter's "She's Gone" calls to mind latter day Steve Stills, a

straight-ahead folk rocker with a memorable chorus; with some tasty

guitar licks thrown down along the way.

The band moves into a reggae setting for Austin's "Boomerang" which has

a slight B-52s edge to it. David Chris' knockout sax section on

"Tightrope" takes the bluesy, funky r&b tune to a higher plane.

The funky feel continues with "Watermelon Day", a good-time song, also a

little reminiscent of Brewer and Shipley at the vocal end of things.

Austin's "Wooly Band" features a banjo and displays touches of country

inflections, ala Little Feat or New Riders of The Purple Sage. "$21

Dollar Phone Bill" borders on early Steely Dan blues/funk, with a large

dose of that regional ambience alluded to earlier. "Happiness Blues"

hits the genre head on, with horns a-blaring. "Wow" sounds sort of like

Devo meets Wall Of Voodoo over at the Knack's house. Oddly interesting.

Mick Austin adds a certain Tommy Heath (Tommy Tutone) quality to the

vocal on "Bound For Glory" a song which easily could have been a hit

(like "Jenny, Jenny") in 1981. "Day Of The Girl" percolates like a

Police meets the Cars groove before evolving into something closer to

latter day Iron Butterfly or Electric Flag- an interesting combination

of textures, there.

Seymour are a throwback, but not entirely anachronistic. In essence,

they draw from a palette of styles that have crystallized over the past

forty years. While the band may not have the youth to win over the MTV

crowd, they have the talent to entertain just about anybody else.

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Music for Food - Food For Thought

Seymour will donate $1 of the proceeds from each copy of "Many Faces"

sold on CD Baby to the Oregon Food Bank (http://www.oregonfoodbank.org).

For every dollar donation, Oregon Food Bank can collect and distribute

$10 worth of food to individuals and families in need. Please join us in

the fight against hunger and poverty. Thank you!

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