Search - Thomas Jefferson Kaye :: Thomas Jefferson Kaye & First Grade

Please re-release this album

A. P. Monblat | Sutton, Surrey United Kingdom | 08/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know a lot about this artist, but remember from the 70s really liking "LA" and "One Man Band". I've only got them on a cassette I recorded myself years ago, and would love to have them and other TJK material on CD. Anyone out there agreeing, please mark this review "helpful""

An Under-the-Radar Certified 70s Classic!

Todd and In Charge | Miami, FL | 04/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I learned of Thomas Jefferson Kaye while reading a story of how he produced former Byrd Gene Clark's epic, visionary No Other album, which was released in 1974. Stories abound of the various excesses to which Mr. Kaye engaged in, both in terms of the production of the record and otherwise, but you cannot dispute he produced a masterpiece and in my view Gene's most complete record.



So I found this cd when it was first released, which compiles the two albums Kaye released in the 70s. I liked it but didn't think much of it, and put it away.



Having recently put it in my car again, I can say I definitely missed it the first time -- big time. This record is easily one of the finer products of the Laurel Canyon and NoCal sound, of a piece with some of the better records released by Joni, Neil, McGuinn, Youngbloods, Stills etc.



In fact, much of it reminds me of the first Manassas album, an amalgam of beats, sounds, guitars, piano, harmonies and grooves, but with a strong songwriting bent. Highlights include the infectious "The Door is Still Open," which has an early Little Feat feel to it, and "Learning How to Fly," with its soaring harmonies a should-have-been radio hit.



His cover of the Becker/Fagen unreleased classic "American Lovers" shows where Kaye's head is on this great compilation -- he is writing and singing for and with his friends, legends of the business -- a guy not unlike J.D. Souther who hovered in the background but was a man of prodigious talent in his own right.



Highly recommended."