Sweetwater (album)

Sweetwater is the debut studio album by the Los Angeles band, Sweetwater. The album is musically enriched by several influences from different genres that the band sought to experiment with. Much of the band's resemblance came from Jefferson Airplane, the group that successfully integrated jazz fusion into their compositions. Upon the album's release, it was largely unnoticed, but still became the band's only work to chart in the Billboard 200. Their most acclaimed track is the opening cover version of "Motherless Child".[1]

Sweetwater
Studio album by
Sweetwater
Released1968
RecordedThe Sound Factory, Hollywood, California 1968
Genre
Length36:06
LabelReprise
ProducerDave Hassinger
Sweetwater chronology
Sweetwater
(1968)		 Just for You
(1970)

Background

Sweetwater was composed of eight individuals of different ethnicities, all of which had common beginnings on the coffeehouse circuit in Los Angeles. With psychedelic music at the height of its popularity in 1968, Reprise Records decided to sign the band to their label to capitalize on it. The band was not just limited to the psychedelic scene though, as Sweetwater immersed itself in multiple musical genres ranging from folk rock, latin rock, and classical music.[2] Reprise knowingly produced for the band, despite the fact their sound was not marketable to the general public.[3]

Recording commenced at the Sound Factory in Hollywood, California with producer Dave Hassinger, notable for producing other musical groups like The Electric Prunes.[4] The tracks included original material along with covers of traditional pieces. The band was highly versatile as it possessed musicians who played a wide variety of exotic instruments including congas, percussion, and bongos.[5] The congas, in particular, were peculiar to the group at the time as other bands, most notably Santana, had not yet come to prominence with their incorporation of the instrument in rock music. Another interesting aspect regarding recordings, was the total lack of electric guitar, an instrument Sweetwater disregarded the use of, even in live performances. Arrangements of the instrumentals were conducted by Alex del Zoppo and Frank Herrera, and, in all aspects, the two utililized the capabilities of their bandmates as they were involved in the process of each track. For that reason, there was complexity in all aspects of their compositions, from the hallucinogenic tunes such as "My Crystal Spider", and more traditional arrangements like their rendition of the Negro spiritual, "Motherless Child".[6] Nansi Nevins was the lead vocalist on all tracks; however, Sweetwater is the only album that the singer was involved in throughout the whole process. This was a consequense of an automobile accident in which Nevins suffered severe injuries to her brain and vocal cords.[7]

Sweetwater was released in 1968 with the catalog number RS #6313, just getting into the national charts at number 200 where it would stay for two weeks. With the album, two singles, "Motherless Child b/w "Why Oh Why and "My Crystal Spider" b/w "What's Wrong" preceded it, both of which failed to chart. Still, "Motherless Child" became popular in Los Angeles when it was constantly played on FM radio. The band's take on the traditional blues song became a favorite associated with group. The cover features the group in their usual live attire, and their primary instruments in hand.[7] Despite the limited success of their debut effort, Sweetwater, in 1969, would partake in the proceedings at the Woodstock Festival, and became remembered as the first band to perform.[8]

Track listing
  1. "Motherless Child" - 5:04
  2. "Here We Go Again" - 2:32
  3. "For Pete's Sake" - 2:50
  4. "Come Take a Walk" - 3:48
  5. "What's Wrong" - 4:00
  6. "In a Rainbow" - 3:17
  7. "My Crystal Spider" - 3:52
  8. "Rondeau" - 1:15
  9. "Two Worlds" - 3:56
  10. "Through an Old Storybook" - 2:32
  11. "Why Oh Why" - 3:00

Personnel
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gollark: processor : 0vendor_id : AuthenticAMDcpu family : 23model : 1model name : AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Quad-Core Processorstepping : 1microcode : 0x800111ccpu MHz : 3410.279cache size : 512 KBphysical id : 0siblings : 4core id : 0cpu cores : 4apicid : 0initial apicid : 0fpu : yesfpu_exception : yescpuid level : 13wp : yesflags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit wdt tce topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb bpext perfctr_llc mwaitx cpb hw_pstate sme ssbd sev vmmcall fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 rdseed adx smap clflushopt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves clzero irperf xsaveerptr arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold avic v_vmsave_vmload vgif overflow_recov succor smcabugs : sysret_ss_attrs null_seg spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypassbogomips : 6989.20TLB size : 2560 4K pagesclflush size : 64cache_alignment : 64address sizes : 43 bits physical, 48 bits virtualpower management: ts ttp tm hwpstate eff_freq_ro [13] [14]
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References
  1. "Sweetwater - Biography". billboard.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  2. "Sweetwater". last.fm. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  3. Richie Unterberger. "Sweetwater - Overview". allmusic.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  4. "Sweetwater LP". sweetwater.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  5. "Sweetwater Discography". discogs.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  6. "Woodstock:Three Days that Rocked the World". google.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  7. Matthew Greenwald. "Motherless Child - Overview". allmusic.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  8. "Brief Bio". sweetwater.com. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
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