Search - Quicksilver Messenger Service :: Shady Grove

Very underrated album

sekander | 10/10/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first two Quicksilver albums are among the classics of the era. No doubt about it. They had a great talent for long, exploratory jams that really took you on that acid trip. When Gary Duncan left after 1968, it looked like the end. He was such an integral part of the band, how could they continue without him. Well, only the addition of a world class musician could save the band and that's what happened when Nicky Hopkins, who had been living in San Francisco and recording with Steve Miller and Jefferson Airplane, decided to actually join a band. What an honor for Quicksilver that he chose them.

OK, look, there's no way this album could sound the same. But, that's what's great about bands...people come, people go, the music changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. This album has none of the feel of the first two but it stands on its own as a fine recording. From the opening Hopkins blast on Shady Grove, to the achingly beautiful drawing room/salon type solo on Flute Song, to the countrified leanings of David Freiberg on Words Can't Say, right up to the grandiloquent opening to the ultimate Hopkins opus, Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder, this album has a lot going on musically. Many Quicksilver enthusiasts dismiss this album because Hopkins so thoroughly dominates the proceedings as to make the band almost secondary. That may be true, but the results are still extraordinary."

Shady Grove my honey...

samuel clemmons | Chicago, IL | 11/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the 60's, the SF Bay group Quicksilver Mess Serv was the best in concert. Edward the organ grinder took many young hearts away from faint breasts. Listen to a calssic and pretend that the newer groups can try to do better. (Nah, you won't believe it either.)"