Gale Garnett, The Gentle Reign - An Audience with the King of Wands (1968) [Hi-Res]

Like a lot of folk-pop performers who began their careers in the early-to-mid-'60s, by the late '60s Gale Garnett seemed to have drifted into the rock and psychedelic scene, hooking up with the band the Gentle Reign. Though the music's usually far afield from the supperclub folk-pop she'd often purveyed on her numerous mid-'60s RCA albums, several things remained constant, not all of them positive. One was her lack of focus, the songs flitting all over the place, from the droning raga-rock of "Breaking Through" and the pop-soul of "Fall in Love Again" to the Northern California-flavored folk-rock of "A Word of Advice" and "You Could Have Been Anyone," the orchestrated ballads "Ballad for F. Scott Fitzgerald" and "Believe Me," and the relatively heavy blues of "That's Not the Way." Another was her mediocre songwriting, with Garnett responsible for most of the material, both alone and with occasional assistance from collaborators. Then there was, almost incongruously, her strong low voice, so deserving of better songs to work with — though as Garnett had written most of these herself, it's not as though some evil major label producer could be blamed for that. If not for that voice, in fact, this LP would be utterly anonymous period late-'60s rock, coming off as both resolutely trendy and unsure of what trend to follow, complete with a few not-strictly-necessary brief link tracks. There's just one really good song here, non-coincidentally a cover (of Fred Neil's "Dolphins"), but even there the ball is dropped, with Garnett ceding the lead vocal chores for just this one track to the far less able pipes of guitarist Bob Ingram. ~ Richie Unterberger

Tracklist:
01. Gale Garnett - Breaking Through (04:30)
02. Gale Garnett - Fall In Love Again (02:54)
03. Gale Garnett - Mini Song #1 (00:33)
04. Gale Garnett - Ballad For F. Scott Fitzgerald (03:13)
05. Gale Garnett - Big Sur (02:52)
06. Gale Garnett - Mini Song #2 (00:30)
07. Gale Garnett - That's Not the Way (03:15)
08. Gale Garnett - A Word of Advice (02:40)
09. Gale Garnett - Believe Me (02:30)
10. Gale Garnett - Mini Song #3 (00:30)
11. Gale Garnett - You Could Have Been Anyone (04:02)
12. Gale Garnett - Bad News (02:22)
13. Gale Garnett - Dolphins (04:59)
14. Gale Garnett - Mini Song #4 (00:15)