Mac Gayden - Skyboat & Hymn to the Seeker (ABC, 1976; 2008)

Guitarist extraordinaire, superb singer-songwriter, veteran Nashville session musician, and alumnus of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry: McGavock "Mac" Gayden is all these things but remains sadly underappreciated by everyone other than the record-collecting cognoscenti. I first became aware of this cult artist through his involvement with those two aforementioned groups. Although Gayden's brief tenure with Barefoot Jerry ended after the release their first album, his contributions were what made Southern Delight the group's greatest achievement and, for that matter, an absolute masterpiece of the Southern rock sub-genre. His background as a native Tennessean obviously bolstered his country music credentials, but rock and especially soul exerted just as strong an influence on his writing and performing style. Like all great guitarists, Gayden has an immediately recognizable trademark sound made possible through dual utilization of slide and wah-wah techniques that is familiar to most people through his work as a sideman on numerous JJ Cale albums. In a nutshell, I'd describe his instrumental approach as being similar to that of Duane Allman but without the amphetamines.

IT'S A BIRD...IT'S A PLANE...IT'S A SKYBOAT?

This two-CD set includes Gayden's second and third solo albums, which were both released on ABC in 1976 but met with little commercial success. Both exhibit an eclectic blend of musical ingredients, with some of the material being logical extensions of the work he did with Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry, while other more groove-laden tracks might catch the listener somewhat by surprise. Its slick production notwithstanding, Skyboat (whose title Gayden would adopt as the name for his backing band) comes off as the more interesting of the two LPs. The best tracks are those that could be described as a sort Southern rock and emphasize his unmistakable guitar style, including the gorgeous "Morning Glory" and the equally compelling "Waterboy." The gentle, more-rural sounding "Gettysburg" and "Appalachian Fever" allow Gayden to show off his chops on banjo, whereas the atmospheric "Southwind" and the mellifluous "Sunfall" (a B-side not originally included on the album) focus more on his ethereal vocals. "Everlasting Love" bears distinction as his best-known song due largely to numerous hit interpretations done by other musicians, including Robert Knight, the Love Affair, Gloria Estefan(!), and, most recently, Jamie Cullum. In the composer's own hands, it sounds like something that is very much a product of the time when it was recorded. Those who can deal with its disco-like arrangements will be rewarded with hooks aplenty and more of Gayden's awe-inspiring fretwork. The same can more or less be said for "Freedom Drum" and "Sweet Serenity." Decent takes on "Don't Look Back" and "It's All Right" (a rip of the latter from my vinyl copy of Skyboat is included because it sounds like there is a mastering glitch on the CD version) furnish Gayden with an opportunity to indulge in covering two indisputable soul classics. The album's original finale, the ten-and-a-half-minute "Diamond Mandala," is best described as an epic piece of orchestrated acid folk, which, as an exercise in musical mysticism, probably would have appealed to more record buyers in the 1960s than in the 1970s. Gayden's followup effort, Hymn to the Seeker, unfortunately lapses further into disco-era glossiness on many of its tracks. While there is nothing truly terrible about these particular performances, the shoogity boogity nature of songs such as "Steppin' Stone," "Someone Whispered," and "Life Is Just a Pantomime" leave me longing for the more rock-and-country-derived material from his Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry days. Somewhat incongruously, the dance-floor-friendly cuts are interspersed with instrumentals ranging from the Fuzak of "Rejoice the Dawn" to the mesmerizing banjo-and-clarinet raga of "To Our Ancestors" (by far the best thing on Hymn) to the stately pipe-organ-and-flute duet of the title track. Elsewhere, there is decent 1970s blue-eyed soul ("Standing in the Background"), idiosyncratic nods to Gayden's Southern roots ("Here We Meet Again" and "Colors of the Rainbow"), a fine if not superior remake of a Barefoot Jerry tune ("The Minstrel Is Free at Last," which features some much-needed guitar soloing that is largely absent elsewhere on this album), and a lovely but frustratingly short closing track ("If I Could I'd Set You Free").

MAC GAYDEN (CENTER) & SKYBOAT SPORT THEIR FUNKY 1970s THREADS

Disc 1 - Skyboat
1. Morning Glory
2. Gettysburg
3. Southwind
4. Everlasting Love
5. Freedom Drum
6. Don't Look Back
7. It's All Right
8. Sweet Serenity
9. Appalachian Fever
10. Waterboy
11. Diamond Mandala
Bonus tracks
12. Sunfall ("Morning Glory" B-side)
13. It's All Right (24-bit vinyl rip)

Disc 2 - Hymn to the Seeker
1. Rejoice the Dawn
2. Steppin' Stone
3. Someone Whispered
4. Standing in the Background
5. Life Is Just a Pantomime
6. Here We Meet Again
7. To Our Ancestors
8. Colors of the Rainbow
9. The Minstrel Is Free At Last
10. Hymn to the Seeker
11. If I Could I'd Set You Free