The Brazda Brothers "The Brazda Brothers" 1973****

The cycle is by now familiar: from hopeful new circulation, straight to the cutout bins, then to being a much-coveted collectors' item and, finally, CD reissue and cult recognition. It finally found its way into my collection a few weeks ago. I saw the CD at a 2nd hand store and remembered reading about it in some blog. I asked the clerk to play it a little for me, and was convinced upon listening to a few seconds of the opener "Walking In The Sun". Its gentle and melodic psychedelic folk is reminiscent of late 60's English acid-folk, of early Tim Buckley and the other folk-rock Tims (Rose and Hardin). The instrumentation achieves the perfect balance between "sparse" and "rich". There's light percussion, acoustic and electric guitar, as well as a keyboard identified as Cordovox. Bystrik Brazda's voice is, of course, no match for Tim Buckley (whose is?) but it's warm and pensive, if slightly accented - did I mention that the Brazda brothers were immigrants from Slovakia? Their lyrics and liner notes are full of love for their new homeland of Canada, especially for its vast natural landscapes. Real hippies, these guys. Just check these titles: walking in the sun, blooming flowers, calm river, nature, share with love etc. Better yet, check out those shirts on the cover. It's as if they never heard of Altamont and the death of the hippie dream, or felt the earth shake from the decibels produced across the Atlantic by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath - one of the perks of living in the Canadian countryside, I guess. They just continued mixing folk and psychedelia like they're still in 1967 and the Summer of Love. "20th Century" reminds me of The Byrds, with its harmony vocals and jazz/country stylings, also sporting some chiming electric guitar solos. The whistling intro to "Blooming Flowers" is one of the many charming moments in this album, while Andy Brazda's lead guitar licks often remind me of the great and (relatively unsung) Underwood - for the TV addicts who think they recognize the name, that's Lee Underwood, not Frank! From time to time ("Share With Love", "Gemini") they take a detour into melodic garage rock, with excellent Farfisa-style organ and fuzz guitar. Additionally to being great as standalone tracks, these rockier numbers provide a welcome variation to the main body of introspective folk songs, the best of which is arguably "Lonely Time", a beautiful ballad with rain-like keyboard effects. Being at odds with the prevailing styles of the time (heavy rock, glam, prog) and released by a small label with no promotion capabilities, the album predictably didn't sell, but later became a cult favourite, with the original LPs fetching upwards of $600 at the collectors market. Thankfully it has been re-released on both CD (in 2001) and LP (in 2003) form, and there are still some copies circulating. Get one, and you won't be disappointed...

**** for Walking In The Sun, 20th Century, Share With Love, Gemini, Lonely Time

*** for Blooming Flowers, My Little Girl, Calm River, Nature, Civilization, Soldier In A Battleground, Your Kingdom