H is for... Richie Havens

I've been collecting records for as long as I can remember, and sometimes it's easy to skip over things, and forget what you've got. I'm going to start listening to things in alphabetical order, it give me a chance to look through my collection again, and give me an opportunity to share things with other music lovers, and vinyl collectors.

The rules are simple, I will start at A, and choose an artist from my collection beginning with that letter, next day I move on to B, then C, etc.

The story so far...

H is for...

Richie Havens - Alarm Clock

I first discovered Richie Havens watching the Woodstock movie. Watching it for the first time I was intrigued by his performance, creating a wonderful sound with his soulful voice and intense guitar style. He was sandwiched in between Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Canned Heat, both of whom I'd heard before, but Richie Havens was a revelation...

I was going to post George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album, but this album has a great version of Here Comes The Sun, so George gets a mention here anyway, opening the album with a live recording of the song.

It's a little folk, a little gospel sounding in places, a little rock and roll, with great songs and performances. It only reached 29 in the US Billboard Top 200, and probably wasn't even noticed in the UK. According to Discogs, it wasn't available on CD until a release in 2003, and for some reason it's not on Spotify. It's one of those under the radar things that you should hear!

Here's my copy, the original 1971 UK reissue released by Polydor...