The Strange Voyage Of Steven Soles

What for is a Monkees album doing here, and why? Well, truth-seeker, it contains a couple songs co-scribed by Steven Soles (Acapulco Sun and All Alone In The Dark), that's what for and why. You'll know Mr. Soles from his appearances with Bob Dylan, T-Bone Burnett, and the mighty awesome Alpha Band [antecedently FoamFeatured® - Ed.], but you probably weren't aware of this. That's okay - we're here to learn. Shown here in its original, unused sleeve, for swellness.

But we're already ahead of ourselves - skip back with me down the petal-strewn path of memory to Beantown, late 'sixties, where a bunch of hippies form a band called Bear, because the Bosstown Sound is a far-out happening thing! Artie Traum - who was never a hippie - Skip Boone and Darius Davenport (both with the mighty awesome Autosalvage), Eric Kaz (who went on to everything with even a whiff of country rock), and Steve Soles, a'writin' and a-singin'. Something of a FMF© supergroup, wouldn't you say? WAKE UP THERE! And it was produced by Hall O' Foamer™ John Boylan, for added swellness!

Now leave us rush forward past the Monkees album (which I like, so shaddup awready) to 1973, and Jamaica, where Soles records an album as Tidbits (uh ...) with three lazy-ass bums who never did anything else, and a Jamaican backing band including Winston Wright, who did shitloads, but not here. You'd of thunk there'd be a reggae sunsplash vibe, but no, maybe '73 was too early, and we're left wondering why they went to Jamaica to record a bunch of soft rock ditties. And another album with greetings in the title.

The rest, as they say, is history.