We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago……
I give you a two-for-one today as we look back at the two Lps released in 1971 by the Berkeley based group Joy of Cooking.
The band was formed in 1967 but didn’t cut a record until 1971 when they released two. The were led by pianist Toni Brown and guitarist Terry Garthwaithe. It was an interesting combination of two females out front (songwriting and singing) and three male backing members.
The music was an heady mix of blues, folk and jazz with a hippie sensibility. I didn’t discover the group until I was exploring the stacks at 90FM in college…or maybe heard Jerry Gavin playing it on his show…but it caught my ear immediately.
You could tell that Brown and Garthwaithe had been listening to fellow Bay Area artists like Janis Joplin and others. The sound at times also gives us a hint at what the Indigo Girls would do a couple of decades later. (check out ‘The Way You Left” on the second LP).
Toni Brown’s piano is also a highlight for me, especially on tunes like “Humpty Dumpty” and “Pilot”. And the title track to Closer To The Ground is a nice slice of activist rhetoric.
Joy of Cooking is a band that never really got it’s due. Not quite sure why they weren’t bigger. The two LPs feature solid songwriting and stellar playing. Not sure you can ask for more than that.
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