Album Review

It's 1968 again and the Texas psychedelic rock and roll movement is in full bloom in this release of a collection of songs by Johndavid Bartlett. In 1968, Bartlett was signed by International Artists, the label that brought the 13th Floor Elevators to the world, but his album never came out. Although that chance was lost, he tries here to recreate a vanished time by reproducing the sounds he captured then. This CD is a compilation of three recordings, one of them recorded live at Fort Worth's now mythical Caravan of Dreams in 1986, another from Cedar Creek Studio sessions in1989 (both with the Velvet monkey Wrench, Bartlett's band from the 80's) and yet a third solo session from the present day. Like a time machine the album moves from one period to the next and back. The productions are different as well, but clearly that matters very little. What counts here is the music. Dramatic and strange it recaptures not only the feelings of another period, but it's meanings and impact as well. Bartlett has a rich full baritone which he uses in an over-the-top street poet style that captures and excites his audience. The Caravan of Dreams numbers are especially interesting for the audience response. All of it echoes and reverberates with the mysterious psychedelic audio effects of 1968. It works on all levels, as history, as poetry and as a psychedelic mind machine. Mastered and re-engineered by Ed Wood of the Media Cottage in Wimberley, Texas it is a return to a different kind of world and a different point of view. Jimmy Ash Hill Country Sun 5/02