The Chesapeake Jukebox Band - The Chesapeake Jukebox Band (1972 Reissue) (2005)

There's a long and rich history in rock & roll of people wanting to sound like the Beatles, which was OK when that meant writing good three-minute songs and playing them with enthusiasm and imagination. Things became more problematic when the Fab Four made Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; after the Beatles convinced a generation that epic-scale overproduction was art, more than a few musicians followed in their footsteps, forgetting that most of them couldn't write songs as well as Lennon and McCartney in order to cover their tracks. Steve Sawyer and Freddie McFinn were a pair of East Coast tunesmiths who worshiped the Beatles and were convinced they could make a Sgt. Pepper's of their own; a record company took the bait, and Chesapeake Juke Box Band, the self-titled debut from the duo, was the result. Recorded with a large cast of first-call session musicians (uncredited, but reported to include Tony Levin, David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken) and with production and arrangement assistance from Ron Frangipane, Chesapeake Juke Box Band is a grand and lavish affair to be sure, with every tune conceived and executed on a grand scale. The playing is expert throughout, Sawyer and McFinn's vocals (including blocks of overdubbed harmonies) are fine, and the psychedelic ambience of this album is palpable and impressive, especially on the side two song suite "Martha & Walley Frizbee's Memorabilia." However, while Chesapeake Juke Box Band may well possess even more widescreen grandeur than Sgt. Pepper's, the songs simply aren't memorable, and the lyrics often sound either trite or silly. Chesapeake Juke Box Band is an album that's developed a passionate cult following since it came and went largely unnoticed in 1971, and not without reason, but while the album is a triumph in the art of record making, as music it's much ado about nothing.