Dug up this nice little album by Sam Parry, an artist of whom very little is there to be found online. He didn't find widespread recognition and remains relatively unknown and this is apparently the only album he ever made. A Welsh folk musician who never became a widespread success and left a lot to be discovered about him seemed perfect for an upload on to #BOMBEATS. However, I did find one blog post about him and his history and here is a quote, off of that blog: "A mix of finger-picking folky (“puttin’ on my walkin’ shoes”) introspection and up-tempo harmonica blues from Welsh singer-songwriter Sam Parry. Very much of its time – in a Ritchie Havens/Ralph McTell stylee (no criticism). He’s got a good voice and plays a mean moothie. As far as I know, this was the only album he recorded. I hadn’t been able to find out anything about Sam Parry, then out of the blue (well, out of Brittany) popped Andrew Hawkey. “Sam used to claim (and still does) that he didn’t really understand where the music was coming from and that he was being visited by some kind of spirit,” says Andrew. “I can vouch for the fact that when he was playing, he would go into a sort of trance, from which he’d wake, with expressions of mild surprise, at the end of a song.” Andrew had got to know Sam after moving to Wales to become a hippie in 1973. “I was renting a house in a tiny village in the hills near Aberystwyth called Trefenter. Sam and his then-partner, Sue, lived in a primitive cottage close by, and we struck up a friendship – I was playing some guitar and doing some song-writing at the time, and Sam and I used to ‘jam’ together … we even travelled all the way down to Hampshire to do a folk club gig… “Sam was an extraordinary self-taught player, and used open tunings of his own invention, in the style of John Martyn. All the harmonica playing on the LP is recorded live, played in a harness: fantastic breath control!” Here is the full post if you're interested: https://folkcatalogue.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/1972-sam-parry-if-sadness-could-sing/ And here is his friend Andrew's full comment, " knew him well back in the early 70s – I’d moved from London to mid-Wales, to be a hippie, and was renting a house in a tiny village in the hills near Aberystwyth called Trefenter. Sam and his then-partner, Sue, lived in a primitive cottage close by, and we struck up a friendship – I was playing some guitar and doing some songwriting at the time, and Sam and I used to ‘jam’ together … we even travelled all the way down to Hampshire to do a folk club gig … Sam was an extraordinary self-taught player, and used open tunings of his own invention, in the style of John Martyn … all the harmonica playing on the LP is recorded live, played in a harness: fantastic breath control! What was odd about him was that he claimed (and still does) that he didn’t really understand where the music was coming from, and that he was being visited by some kind of spirit … he certainly used to go into some kind of trance state when he was playing … perhaps he was simply hyperventilating! At one point, Jack Bruce was allegedly keen to work with him, posibly to record, but Sam pushed the opportunity away … If Sadness Could Sing is indeed his sole album, and he moved away from music, becoming an antique dealer and horologist in the Aberystwyth area in the 80s and since. I still bump into him occasionally, and he talks wistfully about playing again, but I somehow doubt he’ll get around to it, with his work and family commitments. One of the other things about the Argo LP is that the sleeve design is the very first by Mick Rock, who went on to design some pretty famous covers. I have a mint copy in my collection, of which I’m very proud – it goes for big money these days! I still love the record, and it brings back the whole mood of those long-gone days in the hills, in our draughty cottages with sheep grazing all around. I have a lot of anecdotes and info about Sam, so if you want to hear more, do get in touch. – Cheers, Andrew" Like #BOMBEATS on facebook http://www.facebook.com/bombeatsmusic It's a beaut of a folk album and I wish he had made more music! Tracklist: A1 Ain't No Place Like Home 0:00 A2 My Farm 3:22 A3 The Blind Man 6:57 A4 All I Wanted Was A Walk 9:39 A5 Fusion 12:35 A6 Going Up The Mountain 16:45 B1 The Day I Met My Lord 19:57 B2 If Sadness Could Sing 24:00 B3 What’s a gambler to do? 28:01 B4 Those Summer Days Are Over 32:45 B5 Everybody Knows I Do 35:42 Musicians: Sam Parry – vocals, guitar, harmonica Brian Daly – 12 and 6-string guitars Dave Moses – bass guitar

• published: 23 Jul 2017
• views: 29