Andy Roberts – “…Home Grown”
This album had eluded me for quite a bit of time, I came across it back in my early days on RateYourMusic and liked the cover. The only issue was, finding an inexpensive copy was scarce as the lower priced copies were all the 1971 reissue with the less cool cover. Luckily, I did come across this copy that was a good price.
The A-Side opens with the title track, “Home Grown” and it’s more of a country sounding album, and not like anything you’d expect from the cover on it’s own merit, you’d think it’s almost going to be a psychedelic or prog rock album, but it’s country rock / folk rock sounding with great guitar playing. Next up we have “Just for the Record” and it has this build-up at the beginning before we get into some nice guitar riffs again, melodic. There is no vocals in this one, just lots of nice relaxing guitar playing. The play off on this song is pretty fantastic. Next up, we continue with “Applecross” it’s a quieter, softer song at first, before go off with some flutes and heavier vocals, accompanied by bass and guitars. This album has a very melodic feel to it. The drums and percussion is also on point. The song almost tapers down to a quiet hum, before it starts to pick back up slightly near the end. “The Praties Are Dug” comes next, and it’s a quick little violin solo before we go into “John the Revelator” and it’s a bit more of an upbeat song, I feel like Andy would put on a good show, he does a lot of rhythmic guitar riffs, and experimental sounds. His vocals are nice too. “Autumn to May” comes next, and we slow back down a bit, but Andy delivers another beautiful song. I’m quite impressed with the folk quality on this album, and the guitar playing is great. The A-Side closes out with “Moths and Lizards in Detroit” and once more we have a quiet start, with light guitar playing before it starts to pick up the volume as the guitar becomes more prominent, and we get a little bit of drumming before Andy starts to sing, and this song kind of gives me the Bowie vibe lyrically and musically, it’s actually a very nice song and a fantastic way to close out the A-Side. The use of the mellotron in this songs solo is something that needs to be heard.
The B-Side opens with “Creepy John” and it’s got a nice bass beat opening to it, a real foot tapper this one. It’s wonderfully done, and so far this album has been anything but a disappointment, just one great song after another. “Jello” continues the B-Side and it’s a shorter song, it’s a fun one with some more of that great guitar playing. “Gig Song” follows next, and we got some acoustic guitar and bass on this one before we’re joined with some steel guitar and faster guitar picking, this one really has that country sound to it. “Queen of the Moonlight World” comes next, and it’s got more of an ambient sound to it, featuring some melodic acoustic guitar and drums. I think the drumming is done on the high tom. It picks up a bit as we now get some piano in as Andy sings the chorus. “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies” follows next, and we get some light guitar playing over the piano as Andy sings, this song almost has a Gospel feel to it. It is a nice and relaxing song, I find that these songs all have a certain complexity to them. “The One-Armed Boatman and the Giant Squid” comes next, and we’ve got some quick acoustic guitar playing over Andy’s soft-sung vocals, as he sings his song he tells a story of a giant squid, the song quiets down a bit before we get to the chorus and the guitar playing becomes more prominent and then we get some flute playing by Andy, it’s honestly a very beautiful song. The album closes out with “Boris at the Organ” which starts off very faintly as the organ picks up the volume a bit, it’s a short track but an interesting way to close out the album. The album credits literally say the organ was played by a guy named Boris, I don’t know who Boris is, and I know he’s not the dog on the cover, but all in all a very good album.
Catalog Number:
SF 8086
Credits:
Vocals, Guitar, Percussion, Flutes, Violin & Organ – Andy Roberts
Vocals, Piano, Organ, Mellotron & Electric Piano – Ian Whiteman
Bass – Mike Evans
Vocals, Drums & Percussion – Roger Powell
Steel Guitar – Gordon Huntley
Organ – Boris
Brass Arrangements – David Palmer
Engineers – Vic Gamm & Roger Quested
Dog – Seithenyn
Produced by Sandy Robertson & Andy Roberts for September Productions Limited
Released:
1970
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