This summer I have had my head firmly in the past, in the years 1968 to 1972 to be more exact. This started with a general infatuation with the Miles Davis albums of that era (In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner) and, using these as a starting point, I jumped out into the rich tapestry that these years cover. When you get into this was an incredible era for music, one that largely passed my by (I bought my first record in 1973 at the age of nine)… with artists spanning an increasingly heady number of genre and, as with Davis, seeing them starting to be fused together.

All in all it has been a great summer of (re-)discovery… in the midst of which came a gig in my home city of Sheffield (England) which featured a band called Sylvie who, so went the poster, are “steeped in the sounds of mid-70s Laurel Canyon with a gentle infusion of folky psychedelia, Sylvie’s music is rich in reminiscence of times gone by”. It was a band that was new to me, but as soon as I heard the seven tracks that make it up I felt that I was already attuned to it… especially having revisited Crosby, Stills Nash and Young (together and separately), as well as such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King in recent weeks. It also chimed with one of my most played contemporary albums of the summer, Rose City Band’s ‘Garden Party’…

The album is the brainchild of musician, and Southern California native, Ben Schwab, who discovered a bunch of old cassettes from the mid-1970s of his father’s band Mad Anthony, a group that were apparently close to getting a record deal which eventually did not materialise… as Schwab says ““Dad’s songs are straight from the heart and really shaped my taste and imagination for songwriting in a permanent way”. Schwab has subsequently released some of these recordings , and they are, in themselves, well worth a listen (and I can only imagine what it was like for him to discover these for the first time).

‘Sylvie’ is inspired by this discovery, with six of the seven tracks being compositions that Schwab has written and recorded with other musicians in his Ohio garage… The one cover, the title track, is of a little known song from Iain Matthews which Mad Anthony also covered, as Schwab says “It’s an incredible song from the past but for whatever reason, is basically unknown,” It really is a lovely track which is here presented in a way that just melts into your soul… I could listen to it on repeat for quite a time without being bored.

But that would be to ignore the other six tracks here which are wonderful companions to Sylvie… there’s not an angle or edge to any of them… they are smooth in several senses of the word. This, however, does not mean that they lack impact… its more that they shape your feelings like a wave on a stone gradually burnishing your sharp edges until you are in a state of blissful mellow melancholia… which is a lovely place to be.

Anyway, back to the gig… and thanks to Bobby Lee for putting them on… and it was just the perfect evening to experience this music, warm enough to feel like summer, but with that slight chill in the air once it got dark to remind you that Autumn was not far away. The trio played a wonderful set which included some new compositions, which bodes well for a sophomore release, and a lovely rendition of The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’.

For a while I felt transported into that musical space that I have been inhabiting over the last few weeks… it felt like both an escape and a homage to different times, but weirdly also a reflection of where I felt in the moment… a connection between different moods and eras that just came together for a while… a sensation which I always feel is the sign of a good gig.

The same can be said for the album, which has fitted well into my summer mood this year… and as the nights draw in and the air gets more genuinely chilly, I will no doubt be playing these tunes to give me a sense of warmth as they serve as a memory for those dog days of July and August.

’Sylvie’ is out on Full Time Hobby.

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