I came across a real obscurity tonight, Keef James – One Tree Or Another on Motown subsidiary Rare Earth from 1972. The album was produced by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham (and Adrian Miller) and sounds like across between Neil Young, Stephen Stills, The Bee Gees and Dennis Wilson – and Doug Ingle from Iron Butterfly, except James was an English singer-songwriter from Kent.

I imagine that Andrew Loog Oldham’s involvement explains the masses of orchestration and though James’ fragile voice sounds like he’s on the brink of not making it, there’s something about this record that makes you want to like it. Is it the sincerity of the songs or just the heart warming story of an unknown singer finding himself with a whole lot of resources that he didn’t expect and jumping in head first with unbridled enthusiasm  – and hoping for the best. Rick Wakeman on keys and super session girls Sue and Sunny on Bv’s, rubbing shoulders with these successful hipsters he must have had to pinch himself ten times a day. Arranger Bill Shepherd was influential in The Bee Gees rise to fame in the sixties.

My favourite track is the epic Somewhere or is it One Tree Or Another or is it just that this record is a curio? There’s something about the vinyl that made the album sound more complete than these You Tube MP3’s, like the songs don’t hang together properly in the mix, like there’s too much separation, so if you do find yourself enjoying this record I urge you to find a vinyl copy. Discogs has a few available here:

http://www.discogs.com/Keef-James-One-Tree-Or-Another/release/3271582

The cover art has him holding a divining rod sitting on a fallen tree trunk. The font and lay-out are very much of the era with some kind of wash over the picture. For some reason the posts on You Tube seem to be missing the first four tracks on the album, the album track listing is as follows:

Once In Your Life

Life Is a Knight

Fly Away

Pieces

Somewhere

One Tree Or Another

Find Your Own way

Changing Days

Turn Back

Feel Free To Come home

According to other posts on the web, Keef James (real name Felstead) died of cancer in 2005, this album was a short brush with some of the luminaries and legends of the day and ensures Keef Felstead’s immortality.

Here’s a You Tube playlist of five songs from the album:

One Tree Or Another

Find Your Own way

Turn Back

Somewhere

Feel Free To Come Home

This is another track from the album:

Changing Days