Genre: rock
Rating: ** (2 stars)
Title: Joint Effort
Company: Amphion Seahorse
Catalog: MS8110
Year: 1972
Country/State: Providence, Rhode Island
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: crease in cover
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4897
Price: $100.00
The reviews on this one are lukewarm at best (outright hostile at the extreme), though the cool counter-culture cover holds pretty high hopes for this one ... So what's the real scoop?
Drummer Bill Randall and bassist Gary Wilkinson trace their musical roots back to New England-based The Acetones. Post-Acetones the two formed the band Organized Confusion, adding keyboardist Lonnie Gasperini, lead guitarist Tony Rodriguez and bassist Charles Robillard to the line up. The band recorded a couple of obscure singles before Robillard was drafted. Gasperini subsequently rejoined the band with Wilkinson moving back to bass. Those personnel changes were accompanied by a change to the 'Cannabis' nameplate.
As Cannabis the band played a mixture of cover tunes and original material throughout New England. They also reunited with a post-military service Robillard who signed on as their manager. With an expanded line up that now included guitarist Brian Kelly and singer Keith Tweedy the band went into Massachusetts' Eastern Sound Studios. 1972's "Joint Effort" teamed the group with producer Ray Fournier and featured a series of ten originals that were largely penned by Randall and Wilkinson. In spite of the band name and marketing hype, the results were hardly the psych masterpiece that one would have hoped for. Instead tracks such as 'Take It Easy', 'You Don't Get a Ride for Free' and 'It's Only Rock 'n Stock' showcased a mixture of bar rock boogie and Dead-styled jams. Mind you Tweedy was a pretty good singer and the rest of the band were quite accomplished musicians, but with the possible exceptions of the atypical pretty ballads 'See You In the Morning' and 'Smiles' the Byrds-styled jangler 'Once Again' the ensemble never really caught fire. Gawd only knows why the Gear Fab label decided to reissue the album ...
"Joint
Effort" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Take It Easy (Tony Rodriguez) - 4:20
2.) See You In the Morning (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 3:06
3.) Sleeping Bride (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 2:28
4.) I Can't Roll (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 3:11
5.) You Don't Get a Ride for Free (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) -2:48
(side
2)
1.) Goin' Back (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 2:43
2.) Once Again (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 2:49
3.) Wendor (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 1:40
4.) Smiles (Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 3:11
5.) It's Only Rock 'n Stock (Lonnie Gasperini - Tony Rodriquez - Gary Wilkinson - Bob Randall) - 3:08
Keyboardist Gasperini still lives in Rhode Island and remains active in music. In addition to a solo career he founded Jazz Artists Workshops Sessions with is a non-profit organization which provides workshops that allow young children to work side-by-side with professional musicians in an instructional setting. He has a website at:
http://members.cox.net/lonnie7/
Tweedly appears to still live in Rhode Island, though he doesn't seem to be active in music at this time.