Earth Tones


Whoopy Kat is one of the leaders of quality ROIO releases, and Earth Tones is another in its catalog. More Band Of Gypsys studio material presented this time. Some tracks that would eventually come out on posthumous releases such as Blues, and some that have no official release as of this writing. BOG was less into straight ahead Rock and Roll than it was more funk styled rhythms and playing. You definitely hear more bass guitar up front than in his other material. I'm A Man/Mannish Boy sessions shows a song in progress, working out chord progressions, changes, etc. A take of this song would appear on the Blues CD. Izabella is an early version of the song, with added piano. Personally I don't think it fits with the song, but hey, it's easier to be a critic than an artist :) If I'm reading the book Sessions by John McDermott correctly, this was the first time Izabella had been done in the studio. It had been written at Jimi's rented house in Shokan, NY, and even played at Woodstock, but this is where Jimi began to assemble the studio version. Calling All Devils Children/Stepping Stone/Ezy Ryder jam shows an August 14 date on the CD, but the book Sessions has no information about this particular date. It does have a listing for the 17th however, perhaps this is where it was taken from. Either way, it's just a jam session, warming up before getting down to work again. Power Of Soul comes from the November 21st/69 recordings, and according to the book Sessions, 24 takes were attempted, but none yielding a master take. The song would appear later on the live Band Of Gypsys album, recorded just over a month later at the Filmore East.

Quality is very good on this one, clear and loud. Just the way Jimi should be played :) If you don't have this material on any of the other releases, you definitely won't be disappointed picking this CD up.

Catalog #: Whoopy Kat WKP-0041