Various Artists: American Baroque - Chamber Pop And Beyond 1967-1971 (CD)

The heyday of American baroque pop – or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock‘n’roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it.

Baroque pop’s musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-up in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with string quartets, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions.

You can trace it back to the Left Banke - who created a sound that was soft but insistently sad - where were the guitars! Their guitarist Rick Brand claimed their lyrics "were written as rather self-consciously beautiful musical whimsy, as you find in the latter 18th-century Romantic music, pre-Beethoven". They had a huge hit with ‘Walk Away Renee’ and effectively invented a genre before combusting after just one album.

Splinter group Montage produced a very rare album and singer Steve Martin Caro an equally rare single - both are represented on American Baroque.

1. You're A Very Lovely Woman - The Merry-Go-Round
2. I Shall Call Her Mary - The Montage
3. Raggedy Ann - John Randolph Marr
4. Tulu Rogers - Appaloosa
5. Turnaway - The Pleasure Fair
6. Different Drum – The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt
7. Emily's Illness - Nora Guthrie
8. Barefoot Gentleman - The Association
9. Land Of Sensations & Delights - J.K. & Co
10. Blue Jack Of Diamonds - H.P. Lovecraft
11. Time - Bonnie Dobson
12. Satin Slipper - The Blades Of Grass
13. My Silent Symphony - Chris & Peter Allen
14. Mr Webster - The Monkees
15. Again Again - Eternity's Children
16. My Plan - Russ Giguere
17. The Fairest Of The Seasons - Nico
18. Other Times - Tom Northcott
19. You Lied - The Neon Philharmonic
20. Close To Carmel - The Fun & Games
21. Home Before Dark - Nora Guthrie
22. I Have Been Alone - The Common People
23. Two By Two (I'm Losing You) - Steve Martin
24. Lorelei – Rosebud