Lily and Maria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1967–1969 |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Past members |
|
Lily and Maria were an American psychedelic folk duo formed in New York City, in 1967. They are best known for their 1968 self-titled album.
According to liner notes in the 2008 reissue of Lily and Maria, Lily Isaacs (vocals, guitar) originated from Poland, immigrating to the United States after surviving the Holocaust. [1] As a teenager, Isaacs studied art, acting, and music in New York City, before working in Off-Broadway musical and acting productions. [2] In early-1967, during one of her acting courses, she encountered fellow student and singer-songwriter Maria Newman, who was involved in the burgeoning folk music scene. Newman helped Isaacs learn how to develop her guitar skills. The two formed the folk duo Lily and Maria, performing as the house act at Gertie's Folk Club, located in Greenwich Village. [3]
In 1968, Lily and Maria were approached by a talent agent associated with Columbia Records. After auditioning, the duo entered the recording studios along with session musician Paul Griffin, who contributed to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde . [1] [4] Music historian Richie Unterberger described the album as having a themes that were "are very much in the vibe of 1968 psychedelia". [5] Unterberger hypothesizes Columbia did not offer a substantial budget, noting the compositions' sparse arrangements. [5] Nonetheless, he praises the duo's low-key orchestration and electric instrumentals which contribute to an "appealing, hushed, never never-land ambiance". [5]
At Gertie's Folk Club, Isaacs met Joe Isaacs of the Greenbriar Boys, a bluegrass group. After the disbanding of Lily and Maria, Lily Isaac later married Joe Issacs in 1970, converted to Christianity, and formed the Christian band, the Isaacs. [6] In 2003, Lily and Maria was reissued by Columbia. Another release on Sunbeam Records in 2008 featured the two bonus tracks "Everybody Knows" and "Morning Glory Morning", which were first released as a promo single. [7] Music critic Adam Milenski, in response to the album's re-release, commented on the difficulty of achieving unison in a singing duo, before recognizing how Lily and Maria's "voices blend ideally, hitting all of the right spots, each filling in the gaps left by the other, each seeming to understand what the other is aiming for". [8] In addition to the album, "Everybody Knows" appears on the compilation album Hippie Goddesses, and "Morning Glory Morning" is featured on Shifting Sands and Women Blue. [9]
The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." Their most successful material was by songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, though the group also penned their own songs. Incorporating psychedelia and elements of embryonic electronic rock, the band's sound was marked by innovative recording techniques with fuzz-toned guitars and oscillating sound effects. In addition, guitarist Ken Williams' and singer James Lowe's concept of "free-form garage music" provided the band with a richer sonic palette and exploratory lyrical structure than many of their contemporaries.
Folk rock is a genre of rock music with heavy influences from English folk and American folk music. Combining the elements of folk and rock music, it arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds—several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in the U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music.
Thomas Blanchard Wilson Jr. was an American record producer best known for his work in the 1960s with Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Simon & Garfunkel, the Velvet Underground, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Eddie Harris, Nico, Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Blues Project, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, and others.
Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.
The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Their sense of humor and unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following and has influenced bands like Yo La Tengo and Espers.
Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released on June 21, 1965, by Columbia Records. The album is characterized by the Byrds' signature sound of Jim McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker guitar and the band's complex harmony singing. The material on the album mostly consists of cover versions of folk songs, primarily composed by Bob Dylan, and originals written or co-written by singer Gene Clark. Along with the Dylan-penned single of the same name, Mr. Tambourine Man established the band as an internationally successful act and is widely regarded by critics as representing the first effective American challenge to the chart dominance of the Beatles and other British Invasion bands during the mid-1960s.
The Greenbriar Boys were an American northern bluegrass music group. who first got together in jam sessions in New York's Washington Square Park. The group disbanded in 1970.
The Humblebums were a Scottish folk rock band, based in Glasgow. Its members included Billy Connolly, who later became a renowned stand-up comedian and actor; guitarist Tam Harvey; and singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. The band was active from 1965 to 1971.
Blossom Toes were a British psychedelic pop band active between 1966 and 1970. Initially known as The Ingoes, they were renamed and signed to the Marmalade record label of manager Giorgio Gomelsky. The original line-up comprised Brian Godding, Jim Cregan, Brian Belshaw, and Kevin Westlake (born Kevin Patrick Westlake, 5 March 1947, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland.
Linda Perhacs is an American psychedelic folk singer, who released her first album, Parallelograms, in 1970 to scant notice or sales. The album was rediscovered by record enthusiasts and reissued numerous times beginning in 1998, growing in popularity with the rise of the New Weird America movement and the Internet. In 2014, she released a second album titled The Soul of All Natural Things, and a third, I'm a Harmony, in 2017.
Americana is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are emerged from the Southern United States such as folk, gospel, blues, country, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, bluegrass, and other external influences.
Richie Unterberger is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.
Housing Project is John Hartford's fourth album, released in 1968. Like all of his RCA recordings, it was reissued in 2002 as part of a "twofer" CD, combined with his third album, The Love Album.
Roots is a 1968 studio album by American singing duo the Everly Brothers. Originally on the Warner Bros. label, the album was re-released on CD in 1995 by Warner Bros. and in 2005 by Collectors' Choice Music. The album is a classic example of early country rock.
The Isaacs are a bluegrass Southern gospel music group consisting of mother Lily Isaacs, daughters Becky and Sonya Isaacs and son Ben Isaacs, along with John Bowman as an instrumentalist and songwriter. Joe Isaacs, formerly a singer and banjo player in the group, has left since his 1998 divorce from Lily Isaacs. He now does solo work on a far more localized level.
Fresh Maggots are a folk duo from Nuneaton, Warwickshire in England, consisting of Mick Burgoyne and Leigh Dolphin, who played a variety of instruments including guitars, glockenspiel, tin whistles and strings. They released two albums in 1971 and 2020, but sustained interest in the 1970 album saw it re-released in several times.
Evergreen, Vol. 2 is the second album from the Stone Poneys, released five months after The Stone Poneys. It was the most commercially successful of the Stone Poneys' three studio albums.
Jack Elliott at the Second Fret is a live album by American folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, released in 1962.
Before and After is the third studio album by English duo Chad & Jeremy, released on 24 May 1965. It was the first record the duo released for Columbia Records. This album includes many sunshine pop, baroque pop and folk rock-styled songs by the duo, including their final top 20 hit, "Before and After".
Beware of ABKCO! is a bootleg album of songs performed by English rock musician George Harrison in May 1970. It contains songs that were under consideration for Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass, his first release as a solo artist following the break-up of the Beatles. The performances were taped in a single session at Abbey Road Studios in London, on 27 May 1970, for the benefit of Harrison's co-producer, Phil Spector. Seven of the fifteen songs were subsequently recorded formally for inclusion on All Things Must Pass, as was "Everybody, Nobody" after Harrison reworked it as "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp ". From its 1994 release by Strawberry Records, the bootleg provided the only available record of five songs that Harrison never revisited during his career. Among these is a 1968 collaboration with Bob Dylan titled "Nowhere to Go". All fifteen songs were officially released in August 2021, as part of the Uber and Super deluxe editions of the All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary box set.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)