MORNING OF MY LIFE & SWEET GINGERBREAD MAN

Listen to MORNING OF MY LIFE and SWEET GINGERBREAD MAN by Marian Montgomery.

John back again and today I’m towing singer Marian Montgomery's barge – low jazz bridge, everybody down!

I came across her Marian in the Morning record on one of those blogs that, bless them, dig and dig for vinyl goodies. Anyway, despite the hisses and jumps from the vinyl, it sounded nice to my ears: a confident singer handling light pop material. Sure, I could do without the James Taylor "You've Got A Friend" cover, but the tenor of the album had me prompting the blog-worthy question: is she the Lady Scott? After all, she was an American who found success after moving to England and ended up settling down there.

Well…. maybe not Lady Scott 1-4, but certainly Lady Scott Stretch/We Had It All. Less Brel, more Webb. The orchestrations done by her husband Laurie Holloway (whoa! skip intro! skip intro! wait, is that Macca?) are tempting and 60’s inventive for 1972, but whereas they set up the songs on a pedestal, Marian seems to sing right past them. Self-righteous karaoke. She’s tough like that, this Lady Scott. True, I’m dealing with an n=1 album sample size, but this is the internet! Speaking of the internet, it’s Friday – log off and have a good weekend!

Photo: tree.