LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

"This is a magnificent album featuring highly accomplished playing and wooden shack loads of great tunes" - Shindig! With the current resurgence in interest in "Americana" courtesy of "O Brother Where Art Thou" it's perhaps a good time to re-examine a unique sideways look at the genre by one of it's most celebrated exponents.....Douglas Dillard. Having left his family group The Dillards, perhaps the most famous exponents of the Ozark style, Douglas became a sessionman in LA, on everything from old friend Glen Campbell's "Gentle On My Mind" (whose composer John Hartford plays fiddle here) through The Monkees and The Byrds to The Millennium's "Begin" In spring 1968 he toured Europe as a member of The Byrds, and on his return recorded "The Banjo Album" with a cast of country-rock luminaries and jazzers, produced by Byrds manager Jim Dickson, and released on Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher's Together Records. In the tradition of Dickson's World Pacific recordings of the early 1960's (on which Douglas was a star as much as Chet Baker and Ravi Shankar!) seemingly incongrous instruments like harpsichord, tablas, and jazz drums feature....as Douglas and co. attack Bluegrass in a manner somewhere between the not-yet-existing punk rock and the devilish Ozark mountain musicians of his boyhood....breaking through the strict stylistic guidelines of this pre-"Newgrass" period, Douglas employs both the droning tonalities of psychedelic rock and the high crazy sounds of traditional mountain music to produce an explosive sound which rivals the best of the genre...and perhaps is the best of the genre Most of the musicians here would go on to Dillard's next project "The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard And Clark", whose fusion of bluegrass and avant-garde pop would never be equalled.....as a bonus, we include Douglas' contribution to the soundtrack of Primal Scream's favourite movie, the enigmatic "Vanishing Point" This is the album’s first time on CD in Europe and is a long missing piece of the puzzle in the roots of Country Rock, and the origin of Dillard And Clark....... featuring a cast of Country Rock and Jazz luminaries including Gene Clark (Byrds) and Bernie Leadon (Eagles) with the exclusive appearance of the full version of "Runaway Country" from the film "Vanishing Point" Train 4500 / Turkey Knob / Hard Times / Home Sweet Home / Foggy Mountain Breakdown / Jamboree / Clinch Mountain Backstep / Bully Of The Town / Bells Of St Mary’s / Banjolina / With Care From Someone / Runaway Country