Chris Cacavas & Junkyard Love - Good Times (1992)

For most of the time Chris Cacavas was a member of Green on Red, the band was making very American music that was ignored in the U.S.A. and celebrated in Europe. Unfortunately Good Times continued this trend -- it was an excellent album, a hit in Germany and Holland, and almost completely ignored in the U.S.A. The Americana-flavored rock here has echoes of Neil Young's more contemplative work, and Cacavas' plaintive voice is at it's purest. Backing band Junkyard Love was in fine form, too, providing backups as simple as a hushed tambourine for the acoustic "Chain of Roses" or as robust as the complex, bass-heavy roar on "Many Splintered Thing." Good Times should have been a hit for an astonishingly adept band led by a characterful talent. Instead, it was Chris Cacavas' last American release for seven years, as he moved to German and Dutch labels for subsequent albums which had a harder rock edge.