If It Rains
Album | Paul MacNeil
Folk-rock slips through the cracks of history.
Once upon a time, the rosters of U.S. record labels from Hollywood Boulevard to Broadway overflowed with guys like Paul MacNeil: troubadours who came up on the coffeehouse circuits of folk hotspots like Greenwich Village and (in MacNeil’s case) Cambridge, Massachusetts, but graduated from the solo-folkie format to record with full-on electric production, creating for the first time an idiomatically discrete singer/songwriter sound distinct from folk. MacNeil’s lone album, 1974’s If It Rains, was one of many fine folk-rock records that slipped through the cracks of history, but it was finally rescued from oblivion after more than three-and-a-half decades, brought into the digital age with two previously unreleased tracks in the bargain. MacNeil’s strong but supple voice and effortless-sounding melodic knack serve the songsmith equally well on moody, introspective ballads (“Rocky’s Tune,” “The Letter”) and on more rock-tinged tracks (“Broken Pieces,” “The Devil”). If the winds of fortune had blown his way even for a moment, MacNeil might have at least earned as much renown as, say, Jonathan Edwards or Jesse Colin Young, but the weather just wasn’t in his favor at the time.
-
Music Review
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards -
Music Review
Third Down, 110 To Go
Jesse Winchester -
Music Review
Songs From the Street
Murray McLauchlan -
Music Review
Still On Our Feet
Randy Burns
