***Return of the Silkie, 1983’s third chapter in the as-yet unfinished saga of the nomadic West Coast harpist, CAROL KLEYN, offers a slice of the wild and free utopian dream that changed so many lives in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Pure and simple, harp and vocals, accompanied only by scattings of harbor seals and sea lions, this loosely woven concept album includes gentle reminders that life is short—take it in while you can—and, along the way, try to preserve the magnificence of this world for the next generation. Sentiments and music as hauntingly true today as the day they were first sung and recorded. Carol’s lyrics close with: “there’s a storm over paradise and it’s we who decide... just how long we shall live... or when we shall die...”. The instrumental that follows, and closes this album, reiterates that message with the cries of sea lions in the background, as the “Silkie” returns, perhaps by choice, to her underwater origins. Thirty years later, Carol resides on an island in Puget Sound, where she walks amongst the eagles and the sea lions, and is guided by the beauty and the changes she observes along that beach, in the sky and on a distant Mt. Rainier. Her children now grown, Carol’s focus—her music and her performance—return to issues regarding global warming, pollution and the politics interconnected to those perils. Of greatest concern to her today, is that the heat wave we’re now experiencing has only just begun. That being said,...
LP $19.50
09/17/2013
CD $13.75
09/17/2013
***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.4 rating from Pitchfork. The musical journeys of CAROL KLEYN continue with the reissue of Takin’ The Time, her eclectic second album, originally released in 1980. Eight years after writing her first songs and dropping out of college to pursue her passion as a street musician, Carol was still following the love, making music and magic as she roamed free up and down the California coastline. The harp that BOBBY BROWN gave her back in 1971 was still her main axe whenever she played, and the primary instrument she used on her debut album Love Has Made Me Stronger. That record had been self-produced, and Carol sold copies wherever she played, but for the production of Takin’ The Time, Bobby Brown stepped into the producer’s role. He had already produced two incredible albums for himself (The Enlightening Beam of Axonda and Bobby Brown Live) and in the studio, he succeeded in marrying his sound to Carol’s, producing a sleek, light vibe that conveyed all the hope and joy that Carol’s songs held within themselves. Carol played with a band for the first half of the record, while the other half embraced the more familiar solo setting that her audience knew and loved. These were smooth sounds for a new decade that included concerns about the environment and an ever present prayer for peace.
LP $19.75
08/21/2012
CD $13.75
08/21/2012
***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. A reissue of the self-released 1976 album from CAROL KLEYN. As Carol headed south from her native Seattle to attend college, the concerns of young people everywhere were undergoing a reevaluation. In 1970, she experienced a part of that evolving revolution first-hand on the U of C campus and nearby Isla Vista, where unrest over Vietnam led to protest marches and violent backlashes from the National Guard, the burning of the local Bank of America branch and impromptu radical gatherings. Carol dropped out of school at the end of 1970 and continued her voyage of discovery, away from the chaos, in the company of a charismatic young musician named BOBBY BROWN. She would become his “sound man” and would help him build his “Universal One Man Orchestra.” On her 21st birthday, he gave her a harp and told her it would change her life forever. And it did... Over the course of the next few years, Carol developed her own style on the harp and began to write her songs as she and Bobby bounced up and down the coast, playing their music at coffee houses, swap meets, flea markets, and street corners, as well as the annual Renaissance Faires in Agoura and Novato. In these wide-open days, filled with an emergence of solo artists, Carol suddenly found herself performing in the presence of Hollywood greats such as John Lennon, Robert Plant, Phil Spector and Graham Nash. Such unexpected occurrences soon led...
LP $19.75
07/19/2011
CD $13.75
07/19/2011