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In Search of Amelia Earhart | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 6 October 1972 | |||
Recorded | 8–30 June 1972 | |||
Studio | Sound Techniques, London | |||
Genre | Country rock/Folk rock | |||
Length | 39:28 | |||
Label | Elektra | |||
Producer | Sandy Roberton | |||
Ian Matthews chronology | ||||
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Plainsong chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
In Search of Amelia Earhart is the 1972 debut album by Plainsong. It was released on October 6, 1972, by Elektra Records. [2] [3] [4]
Plainsong was a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in early 1972 by Ian (later Iain) Matthews, formerly of Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort, and Andy Roberts, previously of The Liverpool Scene. The band's line-up consisted of Matthews, Roberts, Dave Richards (died January 2019) and Bob Ronga (died November 2012). The original group lasted basically a year, splitting up in December 1972. Ronga had already left the band by then due to a drinking problem and Matthews and Richards did not see eye to eye over their musical direction during the recording of a planned second album, the unissued Plainsong III. Both Matthews and Roberts resumed making solo albums in 1973 following Plainsong's demise.
Ian Matthews played in four different band incarnations within three years. He had left Fairport Convention to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, put out two solo LPs for Vertigo Records, and then started the band Plainsong. It is probably fair to say that In Search of Amelia Earhart is the pinnacle of Matthews' work in the 1970s. Working with producer Sandy Roberton (Hard Meat, Steeleye Span, Shirley Collins), Ian and bandmates, notably Andy Roberts who shared vocals on the album, created an atypical British folk album conceived around the idea of the legends surrounding Amelia Earhart and her supposed demise. Both Matthews and Roberts had read the 1966 book The Search for Amelia Earhart [5] [6] by CBS news correspondent Fred Goerner hypothesizing that Earhart and her flying companion Frederick Noonan had crashed around the Japanese held Marshall Islands area and been taken prisoner by the Japanese on Saipan, in the Marianas, in 1937. Their Lockheed Electra plane had supposedly been outfitted with aerial cameras and had a bigger fuel tank than anyone outside of the US government knew. After being grilled by Japanese interrogators Earhart would perish of dysentery, and Noonan was beheaded by the Japanese according to this still unproven theory.
The album at the time was widely perceived as being a concept album, but not all of the songs on the album are directly about Amelia Earhart. But the album carries that somber, mellow tone in which so much great folk music of the early ’70s was in touch. Many of the songs are about seeing and reaching for light, whether they be the light of day or the light of death. So in a way the album is more about the way people felt about, cared about and thought about Amelia Earhart and her death. That she is still considered a heroine of aviation and a distinctly American hero keeps the mystery of what happened to her in the greater cultural imagination.
In Search of Amelia Earhart was unavailable on CD for many years, being first issued as a Japanese-only CD by Warner-Elektra in 1991. [7] It was more widely reissued on Matthews' own label Perfect Pitch in 2001, [8] and again more recently by Man In The Moon Records in 2016. [9]
Plainsong’s unissued second album Plainsong III, now retitled Now We Are 3, finally saw the light of day in 2005 in a 2CD re-issue by Water Records. Simply entitled Plainsong, [10] CD1 features In Search of Amelia Earhart plus various radio recordings and a demo of "I'll Fly Away". CD2 features Now We Are 3, live recordings and two singles, "Along Comes Mary" and "Even The Guiding Light".
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater. They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane". Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, and Matthews later left during the recording of their third album.
Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, primarily a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of folk and rock groups including the Ian Campbell Folk Group and Jethro Tull.
Frederick Joseph Noonan was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer, who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. As the flight navigator for famed aviator Amelia Earhart in their pioneering attempt at circumnavigating the globe, they disappeared somewhere over the central Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937.
The Strawbs are an English rock band founded in 1964 as the Strawberry Hill Boys. The band started out as a bluegrass group, but eventually moved on to other styles such as folk rock and progressive rock.
Iain Matthews is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock". In 1979, his recording of Terence Boylan's "Shake It" reached No. 13 on the US charts.
The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, is a British folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. An important grouping in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history.
No Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded in the summer of 1971 and produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings, who was Collins' husband at the time. It was released in October 1971 on the Pegasus label.
Fairport Convention is the debut studio album by the English folk rock band Fairport Convention. The band formed in 1967, with the original line-up consisting of Richard Thompson (guitar); Simon Nicol (guitar); Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings (bass); and Shaun Frater (drums), who was replaced after their first gig by Martin Lamble. They were joined by Judy Dyble (vocals), and Ian MacDonald after they made their major London stage debut in one of Brian Epstein’s Sunday concerts at the Saville Theatre.
Journeys from Gospel Oak is the 1974 solo album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews. It was recorded in November 1972 as Matthews' expected third solo album of a three-album record deal on the Vertigo label and was originally set for release in mid-1973. Vertigo, however, lost interest in the project and it was signed over to and released by Mooncrest Records in 1974 who had also released albums by other ex-Fairport Convention colleagues, Ashley Hutchings and Sandy Denny. The album was recorded at Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea and took its title from Matthews' commute to the studio from where he then lived in North London.
Plainsong was originally a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in early 1972 by Iain Matthews, formerly of Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort, and Andy Roberts, previously a member of The Liverpool Scene and Everyone. Plainsong's line-up consisted of Matthews, Roberts, piano and bass player David Richards who had played with Roberts in the band Everyone, and American guitarist and bass player Bobby Ronga, who Matthews and Roberts had first met in the summer of 1971 when they toured the US and Canada as an acoustic trio with former Fairport guitarist Richard Thompson.
Andrew Jonathan Roberts is an English musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter, perhaps best known for his 37-year partnership with singer Iain Matthews in the English folk rock band, Plainsong.
If You Saw Thro' My Eyes is the 1971 album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews. It was the first of two Ian Matthews solo albums released on Vertigo, a subsidiary label of Philips/Phonogram. Guest musicians were former Fairport Convention bandmates Sandy Denny on vocals and keyboards, and Richard Thompson on accordion and guitar. The album also featured guitarist Tim Renwick, jazz pianist Keith Tippett and Matthews' future bandmate in Plainsong, Andy Roberts.
Some Days You Eat the Bear and Some Days the Bear Eats You is the 1974 album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews.
This is a list of artists who have played at the various Fairport Convention Fairport's Cropredy Convention over the years.
Julian Dawson is a British singer–songwriter, guitarist and author. His style has been compared to Wilco and Ron Sexsmith. He is fluent in German and French. Outside his solo work, acts he has recorded with include Gerry Rafferty, Glenn Tilbrook, Del Amitri, Dan Penn, Iain Matthews and his band Plainsong, Richard Thompson and Benny Hill. He also worked with German krautrockers Can, and BAP.
Old New Borrowed Blue is the nineteenth studio album by folk rock band Fairport Convention, although for this release, they were billed as "Fairport Acoustic Convention" as it was the band's first all-acoustic album in 29 years. Part studio, part live, it was recorded to publicise a tour of the United States and consisted of cover versions, new songs and classic tracks dating back to the band's early career. Dave Mattacks, who had provided drums and electronic instrumentation for previous albums, was absent.
Stealin' Home is the ninth solo album by British singer/songwriter Ian Matthews. The album is the first of Matthews' four solo albums released by Rockburgh Records. Matthews produced the album with the label's founder, Sandy Roberton, who previously produced In Search of Amelia Earhart (1972) for Matthews' band Plainsong, and later served as a producer for Matthews' solo albums Siamese Friends (1979), Spot Of Interference (1983), and Shook (1984).
Matthews Southern Comfort (MSC) is a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in 1970 by former Fairport Convention singer Ian (later Iain) Matthews. The original line-up consisted of Matthews, lead guitarist Mark Griffiths (who later become the bass player with the Shadows and the Everly Brothers), rhythm guitarist Carl Barnwell, bass player Pete Watkins, drummer Roger Swallow and pedal steel guitarist Gordon Huntley. Watkins and Swallow left the band after a few weeks and were replaced by bass player Andy Leigh and drummer Ray Duffy.
Alexander William "Sandy" Roberton was a British record producer and music business owner. His 60-year career spanned record production, artist management, music publishing, record label ownership, and producer management.
Speculation on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan has continued since their disappearance in 1937. After the largest search and rescue attempt in history up to that time, the U.S. Navy concluded that Earhart and Noonan ditched at sea after their plane ran out of fuel; this "crash and sink theory" is the most widely accepted explanation. However, several alternative hypotheses have been considered.