Sundogs: Wild Season

For those of you who weren't listening to rock radio in early 1997, Sundogs was a fantastic band fronted by Darren Rogers, who is probably best known as a vocalist on Kerry Livgren's When Things Get Electric.

Sundogs' debut album recieved a lot of airplay and attention, and the band seemed poised to break into success, but the tiny independent label they were signed to was ill-equipped to support the band's momentum. The label went under at the worst possible time, taking Sundogs with it and leaving a lot of brand-new fans scratching their heads and wondering where they went.

On top of that, the band was billed as "Alternative" at the time, but as everyone knows, in the mid-'90s no band could so much as get their foot in the door without calling themselves that. And the first 3 songs on this disc-- "Dyin'", "Veteran's Song", and "Bound to be Forgiven" pretty much fit the post-grunge mold of the time, with the typical syncopated beat and grungy distortion, though not quite as heavy and tuned-down as a lot of the contemporary stuff of the time. Track 4, "Kill the Pain", continues this pattern but with a funkier groove.

But then something strange happens: Starting with track 5, "Carries Me Away'", Sundogs ditches the "Alternative" disguise and shows its true colors as a genuine, real honest-to-goodness melodic rock band with some amazing vocal and guitar melodies to go with the lyrics. The transformation continues with the next track, "Like A River", a mid-tempo, more laid back tune that was probably the first cut off the album to get airplay, at least to my memory. This is followed up by "No Easy Way", an energetic rocker with a well-balanced blend of acoustic and electric guitars, thoughtful lyrics and powerful vocal delivery.

After that comes the absolute best song of the album, "Save My Soul". This is the one song that kept me searching for this album for a decade after it went out of print. All I had was a partial low-fi cassette recording of this song that I'd managed to get off the air, but that was enough and I knew I had to get the rest of it. The song is that good. It's one of those slow build-up songs that starts out simple and just keeps getting better as each instrument comes in.

"Save My Soul", along with "Like A River", brings back a lot of memories of my senior year in high school, particularly how I used to hear it in the car on the way to work.

The album is closed out with two more songs-- "Cold Love", a simple, short ballad, and "1000 Ships", a heavy-hitting mid-tempo meat-and-potatoes blues rocker that completes the set in a concert encore fashion that would have been gone down really well live.

Darren Rogers' vocals really shine on this disc, in the vein of Rik Emmett or Kevin Chalfant but a little more gritty.

The production is also very good, particularly the way acoustic and clean guitars were used liberally throughout. An internet search reveals that the album producer, Leif Mases, was also responsible for some other great albums such as Europe's Wings of Tomorrow.

The first 4 songs aside, this album was well worth the 10 years it took me to find it, and it was a terrible shame that Sundogs didn't get the chance they deserved. So here's yet another one for the "hidden gems" file.

Gordon Lightfoot: Summertime Dream

I'll say it up front, I'm a big fan of Gordon Lightfoot. I consider him to be one of the best folk singers of the '70s, and I wish I had more of his records. My Dad was a big Lightfoot fan as well, and I have assorted childhood memories of hearing the Gord's Gold compilation playing around the house and in the car.

But personally, I didn't get into Lightfoot's music until ca. 2004, when I heard The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the radio and I remembered how Dad told me the story behind this song when I was little. The mysterious, sad lyrics and haunting guitar riff of the song stuck with me, and some time later I came across this album in the used section of the now-defunct Starbound Records in West Valley City, UT, and snatched it up when I saw that it contained the song.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was, of course, Lightfoot's biggest hit ever, and most people I know either love or hate this song. It's a modern interpretation of the old sailor's epic sea ballad; the kind of song that would be passed down through the generations containing the wisdom and warnings of the distant past. People foget that the Great Lakes really are vast inland seas, despite being freshwater, and their waters deserve the same kind of seafaring legends as the Mediterranean with its Iliad and Odyssey.

But of course this album isn't all Gitche-Gumee and the gales of November. In fact, most of it is consists of upbeat, catchy tunes, with infectious rhythms, memorable lyrics, and choruses with some fantastic vocal harmonies. The opening track, Race Among the Ruins, had all of these qualities and became an instant favorite the minute I put the needle to the record. Other similar, upbeat tracks on the album include I'd Do it Again and the title track Summertime Dream, These are nicely balanced out by slower tracks such as I'm Not Supposed to Care, the easy listening of Spanish Moss, and the rolling, road-music like sound of Never Too Close. The House You Live In continues the wisdom-and-warnings theme of Edmund Fitzgerald, with an almost identical rhythm and meter but a more positive underlying mood, while songs such as Protocol and the closing track Too Many Clues In This Room convey a sense of thoughtful, lyrical contemplation.

The cover art of the album features a simple black-and-white photo of Lightfoot printed in a sepia tone with a grainy, airbrushed look to it. On the back is a long, meandering train-of-thought poem full of rich imagery, perhaps composed of discarded lyrical fragments related to the album title.

Overall this is a very well-balanced album, composed of thoughtfully crafted songs. The production is also well-balanced and very clean, with no sign of sounding dated despite having been recorded over 30 years ago.