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Mike Greer - Greer - Between Two Worlds (1973)

Track listing:
  1. All I Need 4:10
  2. Night Of Dreams 6:52
  3. Send Me Back 5:20
  4. Limey Ladies 3:14
  5. Between Two Worlds 9:47
  6. Long Ago, And Not So Far Away 5:15

Notes

Size: 65.8 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included

Obscure artifact out of a local scene that produced cult music for a 15-year period; this is a powerful trip in a song-oriented 1970s British rock/hardrock style, with psych moves on the two long epics. Plenty of raw guitar, some piano and synth, heartfelt vocals, all wrapped in a consistent package that displays talent and self-confidence. May be too much of a '70s mainstream sound for some, and indeed it would have deserved to come out on a major label. Should appeal to fans of Felt on Nasco.

One of the more remarkable music scenes of the early 1970s sprang up around the tobacco fields of Winston-Salem, NC. Evolving out of two ground zero bands, Sacred Irony and Arrogance, a rundown of the names involved is almost like a who's who of future power-pop and indie cult icons: Don Dixon, Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple, Alex Chilton, Mitch Easter, et al. Oddly, the earliest and perhaps most promising album from this smoking hotbed came from an ex-Arrogance member who would not go on to any kind of fame, one Michael Greer. Partly recorded with Arrogance in 1971 and with session musicians in 1973, "Between Two Worlds" was released locally without much fanfare and remains obscure to this day; certainly more so than the Easter/Holsapple/Stamey "Rittenhouse Square" demo LP from the preceding year.

Greer's album is clearly the better, with a fully developed "major" sound, ambitious songwriting, and a wide variety of atmospheres, from dreamy late 60s psychedelia to powerful 70s hardrock. Anyone familiar with the excellent Felt LP on Nasco will find himself on familiar ground. "Between Two Worlds" is one of those LPs where the lack of recognition seems a complete mystery, but success in the music biz is perhaps more about the right time and place than anything else, and it would be several years and a mass exodus to NYC before the sharp Winston-Salem kids caught people's ears, and by then Michael Greer was no longer part of the picture.

01. All I Need (Mike Greer) 4:04
02. Nights of Dreams (Mike Greer) 6:46
03. Send Me Back (Mike Greer) 5:14
04. Limey Ladies (Mike Greer) 3:10 People
05. Between Two Worlds (Mike Greer) 9:43
06. Long Ago, And Not So Far Away (Mike Greer) 5:12