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Paul Seibel - I hope you're reading these great reviews!

Terry Saundry | 10/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't remember when I was first introduced to Paul Seibel's music, probably about 1970, but I'll never forget the song. It was "Bride 1945" played over an FM radio station. The song was hauntingly beautiful, and I immediately bought the album "Woodsmoke and Oranges" and found that every song on the album was unique. The lyrics, music, and David Bromberg's exquisite guitar made each song a jewel captured in time. I used to listen to that LP in the dark at night trying to imagine the kind of man who could write such sensitive and sometimes cynical lyrics and sing with such feeling. I guess I had an aural crush on Paul Seibel. I thought his music was terrific and expected him to become famous. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I was possibly the only person on the West Coast who knew who he was. It's gratifying now to read the reviews and see that my perception of quality almost 30 years ago is affirmed by others including notable performers. I still cherish the LP and just bought this CD. Time hasn't diminished the impact of these songs. They sound fresh and original. Paul Seibel: I'm sorry that I never saw you perform, but I hope you're alive and well and still love music. If you never sing or write another note, you have left a beautiful legacy. Thank you."

Woodsmoke and Oranges

Lee Charles Kelley | NYC--the greaterst city in the world! | 07/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, okay, listen. I have never heard this album. I came to the site hoping to find the gorgeous and wonderful WOODSMOKE AND ORANGES album. This was the best I could find. All of the songs on that seminal and completely (in my opinion)have-able, collectible, wantable, whatever you want to call it ... perhaps NECESSARY is the right word ... album are here, apparently. And if they're here in any form, from Any Day Woman, to Long Afternoons (one of my all time favorite songs), to Miss Cherry Lane, to Louise (covered by Bonnie Raitt, and I admit it, by myself in coffee shops and pizza joints back in the 70s while I was singing my way through college), these songs are so completely COMPLETE in style, performance, and execution, that of the period, only Townes Van Zandt rivals (or some might say, surpasses) Siebel's songwriting talents. Sadly, during this period, I was a DJ on top 40 radio, and as such had to suffer the lesser lights of Don MacLean, Gordon Lightfoot (both talented and valid in their own way, far more so than America, England Dan, and others who supposedly wrote in the folk vein, and whose records I had to listen to over and over and over), when, MY GOD, why didn't anyone listen to Paul Siebel and Townes Van Zandt to hear the REAL DEAL?
So, anyway, by now you know I'm a fan of Paul Siebel and I think you should buy this album (and JACK-KNIFE GYPSY which has the wonderful song Pinto Pony, which I used to also sing at coffee houses). What better recommendation could you have than that? That I spent the time learning to play and sing these songs, even though no one in the house cared if I did or not? (I also sang a couple of Danny O'Keefe and Jesse Winchester songs, if anybody's counting. (And for those who doubt my veracity, I played a Gibson J-40 guitar.))"

No need to explain.......how I feel about him

Terry Saundry | Keysborough, Vic, Australia | 06/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Your first thoughts might be that he was a Dylan soundalike. Then the power of the songs overwhelm you. Then you play it again and again and start to think that Dylan might be a Siebel soundalike. And then you wonder how this talent could possibly have gone unappreciated. And then you remember that, of course, that's the way it is. How sad it is when, in this age of vault-emptying box sets, a guy like this doesn't even rate proper releases of his two classic albums.This is one and a half of them. I don't know what the sound is like but I think you'd better buy it before Siebel's performances are lost to us forever."