Search - Chad Mitchell :: At the Bitter End

A superb live recording of the Chad Mitchell Trio (3/19/62)

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 07/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Chad Mitchell Trio released three albums for Kapp Records at the beginning of the 1960s before parting ways (the studio refused to release the group's cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" and let Peter, Paul & Mary have the hit instead). These were the years when the American folk music revival was approaching its zenith and after the success of "Mighty Day on Campus," recorded live at a Brooklyn College concert, Kapp followed up with this March 19, 1962 live recording "At the Bitter End" in Greenwich Village (where else?). The trio at this point consisted of Chad Mitchell, Mike Kobluk and Joe Frazier. Backing them up for this intimate concert was former Weaver Fred Hellerman, future Byrd Jim McGuinn, and bass player Bill Lee. If that were not impressive enough, the songs were being arranged by the legendary Milt Okun, who mixed up traditional folk songs like "The Unfortunate Man" and Woody Guthrie's "Great Historical Bum," with more contemporary works by Tom Paxton ("Come Along Home") and Bob Gibson ("You Can Tell the World"). The album begins with "The John Brich Society," a wickedly barbed song that certainly sets the tone for the evening's festivities, and then continues on the other ten songs. "The Chad Mitchell At the Bitter end" offers up both political satire and social humor. The group also had the advantage of performing in a coffeehouse, where the audience response was a lot more appropriate than what they had received on the college campus. You have to think that the three singers, all of whom were still in their early 20s when this album was recorded, were inspired by both their audience and the superb musicians backing them up. Besides, one of the great truisms about albums by folk singers are that they just do not sound the same if they are not performing live for an audience. This makes sense. Folk music is the music of the people, to be played by people, and for people. There are several excellent collections of songs by the Chad Mitchell Trio, but if you pick up one of their original albums, then this would be the one I would urge you to track down. Note: The most familiar song on the album might be "You Can Tell the World," which Simon & Garfunkle covered on their first album."

Thoroughly enjoyed this folk trip in time back to the 60s

Lawrance M. Bernabo | 12/25/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I spent most of my teen years listening to the Chad Mitchell Trio. This collection is as good a cross-section as any of the brilliance of the lyrics, and the harmonic resonance of the group, even though, as Chad jokingly once put it: "One of us doesn't have a very good ear."If you've never heard the group, you need to buy this album. They represent a great style of music that is all but extinct. It's a shame, too. It's our loss."

WONDERFUL lyrics and fun music to sing along to.

Jon Bunnell | Florence, AL USA | 07/09/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The songs in this album are some of the few that have well writen, smart, fun lyrics. Some of the songs are comentaries on the "curent" events and are almost the musical equivilant of political cartoons. My favorits are "John birch society", "James james Morrison Morrison" and "Last night I had the strangest dream". I think a lot of people get turned off by the words "folk music" but then most of them don't have much experiance with it. The first time I heard on of their songs I fell off the couch laughing! If you come across the album "a mighty day on campus" it is even better than this one. (P.S. I'm 17 and listen to folk music on a record player, there may be hope yet.)"