Search - John Parker Compton :: Live at the Turk's Head Coffeehouse

The Real Thing

Philip S. Walker | 04/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Collectors are being overfed these days with "undiscovered gems" from the late 1960's, so it's nice to be able to say this one actually fits the description. John Parker Compton was in the group Appaloosa, whose one and only album was produced by Al Kooper. They were a US group but distinctly English-sounding, and like others jumping on that same train they suffered commercially, though they did produce some outstanding music.



Still a teenager in 1968, John Parker Compton displayed a great singing voice, fine finger style guitar picking, and impeccable song writing skills. Another key member was the extremely tasteful and skilled violinist Robin Batteau, who later - some would say tragically - went on to become a top class jingle-writer (Coca Cola, the US Army, you name it).



What we get here, however, is a low key live gig at a coffee bar in 1968 featuring just the two of them, and it is nothing short of mind blowing. If you like Nick Drake, Bridget St. John, et. at., this is one for you - in fact, I rate this CD even higher than the Appaloosa album. For a rough "on the spot" recording made four decades ago the sound quality is fine. Only the mix leaves a bit to be desired, since the violin comes across quite loud on certain tracks, but the honesty and purity of the entire set soon wins you over (and if you have a small mixer you can easily rectify this problem, or simply play the left channel alone in mono, though it does make you feel like wanting to bill the record company for doing their work for them).



The live section of the disc covers the first seven tracks, then we move into some demos, which are musically wonderful, but suffer from quite a lot of tape hiss. However, I'd rather have that than most of today's technological attempts to remove such things (usually a case of: "The operation was successful, a shame that the patient died").



Finally, the disc is rounded off by two tracks taken from a very early single that was only pressed in 100 copies. In short, bearing in mind that these are amateur recordings made four decades ago, this IS a true gem!



Compton is still active today (and has even made an appearance or two with Batteau and others), but though his voice is still good, to me he seems to have lost the plot a bit, relying on cheap modern digital equipment to ad unwelcome and redundant filler. Also, his guitar playing has become less interesting. One can only hope that he will return soon to his former glory, preferably backed by Robin Batteau, and finally receive some of the success and praise he should have had all those years ago."