''Phoebe Snow'' is the debut album by American roots music singer-songwriter

Phoebe Snow Phoebe Snow (born Phoebe Ann Laub; July 17, 1950 – April 26, 2011) was an American roots music singer-songwriter and guitarist, known for her hit 1974 and 1975 songs " San Francisco Bay Blues", " Poetry Man", "Harpo's Blues", and her credited ...

, released in 1974. It contains her Top 5 ''Billboard'' hit, "

Poetry Man "Poetry Man" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow. It was written by Snow, produced by Dino Airali, and first appeared on her 1974 self-titled debut album. Composition/ recording/ release "Poetry Man" was the second song writ ...

", and opens with her cover of

Sam Cooke Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...

's R&B hit "

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first African ...

Background

Sessions were held in Los Angeles, Nashville and in Tulsa to find the right approach for the album. "She’d play with whoever was around and we’d record and analyze the recordings, try and work out what was ideal for each song, which approach to take," said Shelter president Denny Cordell. "I think she found that rather a long and painful study, but it obviously had its rewards." After the album's release, legal battles took place between Snow and Shelter Records. Snow eventually signed with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. It would be two years before her next release on Columbia.

Reception

In a retrospective review for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, critic Alex Henderson called Snow "a pearl of a singer who never caught on because she simply didn't fit neatly into any one category... With as many risks as she takes, the album is generally quite accessible."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

called the album "This woman's languorous, swaying folk-jazz fusion is striking enough to suggest that her debut LP will become some sort of cult item. And it's better than most cult items... The plus is for encouragement, and for the graceful way her voice combines nasality and smoothness."

Track listing

All songs by Phoebe Snow, except where noted #"

" (

) – 2:20 #"Harpo's Blues" – 4:22 #"

" – 4:36 #"Either or Both" – 3:52 #"

San Francisco Bay Blues "San Francisco Bay Blues" is an American folk song and is generally considered to be the most famous composition by Jesse Fuller. Fuller first recorded the song in 1954, which was released by the World Song label in 1955. A "one-man band" renditio ...

" (

Jesse Fuller Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 – January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues". Early life Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta. He was sent by his mother to live with ...

) – 3:29 #"I Don't Want the Night to End" – 3:55 #"Take Your Children Home" – 4:15 #"It Must Be Sunday" – 5:50 #"No Show Tonight" – 2:57

CD (DCC label Only) bonus tracks

"Easy Street" riginal "B Side" of Harpo's Blues single– 3:20
"Good Times" riginal demo(Cooke) – 2:39
"Harpo's Blues" riginal demo– 4:55
"I Don't Want the Night to End" riginal demo– 3:55
"It Must Be Sunday" riginal demo– 6:42
"San Francisco Bay Blues" riginal demo(Fuller) – 4:09
"Poetry Man" riginal demo– 3:43

Personnel

* Phoebe Snow – vocals, acoustic guitar * Bob James – organ (2, 3, 6, 7, 8) *

Teddy Wilson Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson had a sophisticated, elegant style. His work was featured on the records of ma ...

– acoustic piano (2) * Steve Burgh – electric guitar (1, 6, 9) *

David Bromberg David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. David Bromberg biographyat Billboard.com An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock a ...

– lead acoustic guitar (4), rhythm guitar (4),

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

(4) *

Dave Mason David Thomas Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic. Over the course of his career, Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock mu ...

– lead electric guitar (9) * Hugh McDonald – electric bass (1, 6, 9) *

Chuck Domanico Charles Louis Domanico (January 20, 1944 – October 17, 2002), better known as Chuck Domanico, was an American jazz bassist who played double bass and bass guitar on the West Coast jazz scene. Domanico was born in Chicago. He settled i ...

–

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

(2, 3, 7, 8) *

Chuck Israels Charles H. Israels (born August 10, 1936) is an American jazz composer, music arranger, arranger, and double bass, bassist who is best known for his work with the Bill Evans#After LaFaro's death, Bill Evans Trio. He has also worked with Billie Ho ...

– acoustic bass (5) * Steve Mosley – drums (1, 2, 6, 9), percussion (8) *

Ralph MacDonald Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist. His compositions ...

– percussion (2, 3, 7) * Margaret Ross –

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

(2, 3, 7) *

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

– tenor saxophone (2, 3, 8) *

The Persuasions The Persuasions are an American a cappella group that began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the mid-1960s. The Persuasions were formed in Brooklyn in 1962, singing a cappella under corner streetlights and in subway corridors. Their ...

– backing vocals (1)

Production

* Dino Airali – producer *

Phil Ramone Philip Ramone (né Rabinowitz, January 5, 1934March 30, 2013) was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, who in 1958 co-founded A & R Recording, Inc., a recording studio with business par ...

– co-producer, engineer, mixing * Steve Hoffman – engineer * Tom Baker – assistant engineer * Glenn Berger – assistant engineer * Bob Schaper – assistant engineer * Roberta Ballard – production manager *

Ed Caraeff Ed Caraeff (born April 18, 1950) is an American photographer, illustrator and graphic designer, who has worked largely in the music industry. He has art directed, photographed and designed more than 400 record album covers from 1967 to 1981 for ...

– photography * Mick Haggerty – cover artwork * Recorded at

A & R Recording A & R Recording Inc. was a major American independent studio recording company founded in 1958 by Jack Arnold and Phil Ramone. History Before founding A & R Recording in 1958, Arnold and Ramone had been working at JAC Recording, Inc.; Arnold h ...

(New York, NY) and Producer's Workshop (Hollywood, CA). * Mixed at A & R Recording

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Phoebe Snow albums 1974 debut albums Albums produced by Denny Cordell Albums produced by Phil Ramone Shelter Records albums