4854 - UNICORN - Shed No Tear: The Shed Studio Sessions (2002)

UNICORN
''SHED NO TEAR_ THE SHED STUDIO SESSIONS''
2002
77:23

1. Open-Sea /3:08
2. Don't Want To Go Home Alone /3:19
3. Canada's A Long Way /3:36
4. Singing Your Praise /4:38
5. Social Shirker /3:43
6. You Can Have A Dream /3:44
7. Get It Back /3:55
8. Rainy Season /4:49
9. Open Books /3:32
10. Restless /3:10
11. Is That A Shame- /5:09
12. Stay Out Of My Dreams /3:19
13. Can't Stop Thinking About You /4:07
14. You Tell Too Many Lies /4:47
15. Don't Tell Me I Know /2:30
16. Rio De Janeiro /3:49
17. Volcano /3:16
18. So Far Away /3:12
19. Ballad Of John And Julie /4:50
20. Bog Trotter /4:50
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4853 - UNICORN - Too Many Crooks (1976)

UNICORN
''TOO MANY CROOKS''
1976
49:01

1. Weekend /3:23
2. Ferry Boat /5:08
3. He's Got Pride /4:17
4. Keep On Going /4:36
5. Too Many Crooks /4:27
6. Bullseye Bill /5:27
7. Disco Dancer /3:26
8. Easy /3:35
9. No Way Out Of Here /5:20
10. In The Mood /4:31
11. Nothing I Wouldn't Do /4:50

Ken Baker /Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
David Gilmour /Pedal Steel Guitar, Producer
Pat Martin /Guitar (Bass), Mandolin, Vocals
Peter Perrier /Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Chris Pidgeon /Keyboards
Andrew Powell /String Arrangements
Kevin Smith /Guitar, Slide Guitar

REVIEW
by Dave Thompson
Incredibly, Unicorn were on the road with Hawkwind when their third album hit the streets -- incredibly, because it is difficult to think of two bands that existed at more extreme ends of the period rock spectrum. But the blending worked, as Unicorn's subtly countrified, folky-edged mantras fed the heads of the Hawkwind faithful with many of the same acoustic energies that fired the headliner's most evocative dreams. And, besides, who wouldn't admire a band like Unicorn, a quintessentially English folk-rock act that just happened to have collided with a love for American country rock, and wound up creating a hybrid that still sounds remarkable today? Widely regarded as Unicorn's finest album (a horrible disservice to Blue Pine Trees, but no matter), Too Many Crooks opens with the near-frenetic energy of "Weekend," and continues on through a greater number of rockers than either of its predecessors. It's a double-edged sword; the power of the band's earlier albums was their ability to turn up the heat without increasing the volume. But moments like the semi-protracted fade of "Ferry Boat," and the almost-funky flirting of "Disco Dancer" are certainly audience-pleasers in waiting, while "No Way Out of Here" impressed producer David Gilmour so much that he covered it for inclusion on his first solo album. Remastered in 2009, with a bonus B-side added to the fun, Too Many Crooks is a great album. But really, you could say that for everything Unicorn ever did.
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4165 - UNICORN - Blue Pine Trees (1974)

UNICORN
''BLUE PINE TREES''
1974
48:59

1. Electric Night/4:57
2. Sleep Song/4:59
3. Autumn Wine/3:05
4. Rat Race/4:24
5. Just Wanna Hold You/5:07
6. Holland/3:27
7. Nightingale Crescent/3:36
8. The Farmer/3:32
9. In The Gym/5:28
10. Blue Pine Trees/3:49
11. Ooh! Mother/3:52
12. Take It Easy/2:42

Kenny Baker /Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
David Gilmour /Pedal Steel Guitar, Producer
Pat Martin /Guitar (Bass), Vocals
Peter Perrier /Drums, Vocals
Kevin Smith /Guitar, Mandolin

BIOGRAPHY
by Dave Thompson
Beautifully remastered for CD in 2009, but always one of the most exquisite-sounding records of the mid-'70s, Blue Pine Trees was the sound of Unicorn at the peak of their musical and songwriting abilities. An album that puts you in mind of Lindisfarne before they got desperate, or the Beatles if Ashley Hutchings had produced them, this is British folk-rock at one of its most idiosyncratic extremes. On the one hand, Unicorn's roots in the sounds of the American west coast are unmistakable. But, on the other, they never forget their English roots and, mindful too of their familial links to Pink Floyd (Dave Gilmour produced the best of their albums), Blue Pine Trees soars with melancholy subtlety above all of its influences, to remind us just how unique Unicorn were.
Key cuts like "Electric Night," "Autumn Wine," and the spectral beauty of "Ooh! Mother" are subjective; like a great Al Stewart album, with the Flying Burrito Brothers behind him, Blue Pine Trees might lure you in with its overall sheen, but it can continue surprising your ears for weeks. And, according to the fan club, it's not even the best record they ever made!

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4157 - UNICORN - One More Tomorrow (1977)

UNICORN
''ONE MORE TOMORROW''
1977
46:14

1/Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
John Fogerty
2/New Shoes
Kenny Baker
3/Slow Dancing
Jack Tempchin
4/Get Along Fine
Kenny Baker
5/British Rail Romance
Kenny Baker
6/Eric
Kenny Baker
7/One More Tomorrow
Kenny Baker
8/So Hard To Get Through
Kenny Baker
9/I'm Alright (When I'm With You)
Kenny Baker
10/The Night
Kenny Baker
11/The Way It Goes
Kenny Baker
12/Magnolia Avenue
Jeremy Smith

Kenny Baker/Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Howie Casey/Saxophone
Billy Livsey/Keyboards
Pat "Mad Dog" Martin/Bass, Vocals
Peter Perrier/Drums, Vocals
Chris Pidgeon/Keyboards
Kevin Smith/Guitar

REVIEW
1978 came and went and Unicorn's third American (4th in the UK) album was ignored. Even though this album may not have been stronger than its predecessors, it is nonetheless wonderful. Songs like "Eric," "Get Along Fine" and "So Hard To Get Through" are little gems of Pop music with a slight country tinge but just didn't have that something special enough to break the band and so this marked the end of Unicorn. But with a catalog of inspired music behind them, they had made their mark and continue to do so to this day.

BIOGRAPHY
by Bryan Thomas
The Unicorn saga began in 1963 when Ken Baker met Pat Martin at secondary school in England. They were both learning to play the guitar at the time, and soon began jamming on British beat tunes and Beatles covers in Martin's garage. Drummer and soon lead vocalist Peter Perryer was brought in and various people filled in on bass until Trevor Mee (who had been jamming with Tony Rivers & the Castaways) came aboard as a guitarist, with Martin switching over to bass. By 1968, they were playing gigs as the Late Edition (or simply the Late, as they called themselves by 1968) and backing other singers. In 1969, during a month-long residency in Copenhagen, they listened to the Crosby, Stills & Nash album, which been released in May of that year. It must have had a big impact, as the band returned to England and began transforming themselves into a country-rock outfit.

They began working on new demos, which were eventually pitched to the Transatlantic label, who offered them a contract to record an album. A young producer and apprentice of Shel Talmy named Hugh Murphy was brought in to work with the group (he later produced Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" hit). The group tried out a few new monikers (including the Pink Bears) before deciding upon Unicorn for the release of their first single. A tribute to the American songwriter, "P.F. Sloan," their first single was released on Transatlantic's Big T label, which was known mostly for folk releases (Bert Jansch and John Renbourn). Their debut album, Uphill All the Way, was released on Big T in 1971. The next recordings were directly influenced by exposure to groups like Traffic.

Around this same time, Mee left the group and was replaced by Kevin Smith (ex-Camel), who brought his love for the Clarence White-era Byrds into the group's repertoire. They toured around Europe, opening for the Flying Burrito Brothers on a television program in Holland. In 1973, Unicorn performed at the wedding reception of a friend, where they met another guest, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who joined them at the end of the evening during an impromptu jam of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." Gilmour later offered to produce the band in a new studio he'd had built at his country retreat in Essex. Unicorn recorded there on several occasions — with Gilmour sitting in on pedal steel — and he eventually helped the band secure a new record deal with his manager Steve O'Rourke's EMKA organization. Gilmour produced Unicorn's sessions in London's Olympic Studios for their next album, Blue Pine Trees.

That album — probably the group's best, sounding a bit like American soft rock/country-rock acts Poco, Firefall, and the Flying Burrito Brothers — was released on Charisma Records in the U.K, on Capitol in the U.S., and EMI International everywhere else. Capitol underwrote Unicorn's U.S. tour, which found them opening for Fleetwood Mac, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Climax Blues Band, Camel, the Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Linda Ronstadt, and Styx. In 1975, Unicorn recorded at George Martin's Air Studios and Olympic Studios, adding to these the leftover masters from their earlier sessions with Gilmour, which were collected for their next album, Too Many Crooks (released in America as Unicorn II). The album was subsequently issued by EMI's Harvest imprint. Unicorn continued to tour with top acts of the day throughout the next few years, returning to the studio — this time, to Pink Floyd's studio at Britannia Row in Islington — to work with Gilmour again. When Gilmour left the project to join Pink Floyd on tour,

Muff Winwood produced subsequent tracks at Island Studio. Another album, One More Tomorrow, was released in 1977, with Winwood again taking the producer role. This material had a considerable commercial bent and the band was reportedly not too happy with the results. It should not come as a big surprise that, by mid-1977, their soft rock/country-rock sound was also faltering with the emergence of punk rock and their popularity began to slip and they eventually decided to call it a day. A digitally remastered compilation of the band's best songs was released in the U.K. by the See for Miles reissue label in 2000.

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1534 - UNICORN - No Way Out Of Here_ The Anthology, Disc Two (2009)

UNICORN
''NO WAY OUT OF HERE: THE ANTHOLOGY, DISC TWO''
JUN 2009
ITSABOUTMUSIC.COM
154:42
DOWNLOAD

DISC ONE
01 - Holland/0:3:23
02 - Keep On Going/0:4:35
03 - Weekend/0:3:21
04 - Canada's A Long Way/0:3:35
05 - So Hard To Get Through/0:3:40
06 - Ferry Boat/0:5:03
07 - In The Gym/0:5:25
08 - Eric/0:4:18
09 - Sleep Song/0:4:54
10 - I'm Alright/0:2:47
11 - Autumn Wine/0:3:00
12 - No Way Out Of Here/0:5:16
13 - Bullseye Bill/0:5:21
14 - Don't Want To Go Home Alone/0:3:17
15 - Nightingale Crescent/0:3:30
16 - Blue Pine Trees/0:3:44
17 - Too Many Crooks/0:4:24
18 - Open Sea/0:3:05
19 - Electric Night/0:4:50

DISC TWO
01 - Cosmic Kid/0:2:50
02 - I Saw You/0:4:07
03 - Come In From The Cold/0:3:20
04 - So Tired/0:4:20
05 - You Can Have A Dream/0:3:42
06 - All Night Long/0:3:28
07 - Hold On/0:3:38
08 - It's A Long Road/0:3:38
09 - Look In Your Mirror/0:4:14
10 - Forgive And Forget/0:5:29
11 - Social Shirker/0:3:42
12 - I Hate Waiting For You/0:4:06
13 - Bonsoir Blues/0:4:30
14 - Get It Back/0:3:51
15 - Sitting In Line/0:5:01
16 - Lenny Dee/0:4:06
17 - I Wish That You Would Come/0:3:09
18 - The Sweeter Life/0:2:55
19 - Rainy Season/0:4:45
20 - Don't Turn Away/0:1:41

Kenny Baker/Accordion, Celeste, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rickenbacker), Harmonica, Harmonium, Keyboards, Mini Moog, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Vocal Harmony, Vocals, Wurlitzer
David Gilmour/Falsetto, Guitar, Harmony, Pedal Steel, Pedal Steel Guitar, Producer, Vocals
Robin Jacob/Guitar, Vocal Harmony
Pat "Mad Dog" Martin/Bass (Electric), Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Guitar (Electric), Moog Bass, Producer, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Tub Martin/Handclapping
Pete Perryer/Drums, Percussion, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Chris Pidgeon/Percussion, Piano, Wurlitzer Piano
Garry Smith/Drums
Kevin Smith/Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Mandolin, Slide Guitar

1533 - UNICORN - No Way Out Of Here_ The Anthology, Disc One (2009)

UNICORN
''NO WAY OUT OF HERE: THE ANTHOLOGY, DISC ONE''
JUN 2009
ITSABOUTMUSIC.COM
154:42
DOWNLOAD

DISC ONE
01 - Holland/0:3:23
02 - Keep On Going/0:4:35
03 - Weekend/0:3:21
04 - Canada's A Long Way/0:3:35
05 - So Hard To Get Through/0:3:40
06 - Ferry Boat/0:5:03
07 - In The Gym/0:5:25
08 - Eric/0:4:18
09 - Sleep Song/0:4:54
10 - I'm Alright/0:2:47
11 - Autumn Wine/0:3:00
12 - No Way Out Of Here/0:5:16
13 - Bullseye Bill/0:5:21
14 - Don't Want To Go Home Alone/0:3:17
15 - Nightingale Crescent/0:3:30
16 - Blue Pine Trees/0:3:44
17 - Too Many Crooks/0:4:24
18 - Open Sea/0:3:05
19 - Electric Night/0:4:50

DISC TWO
01 - Cosmic Kid/0:2:50
02 - I Saw You/0:4:07
03 - Come In From The Cold/0:3:20
04 - So Tired/0:4:20
05 - You Can Have A Dream/0:3:42
06 - All Night Long/0:3:28
07 - Hold On/0:3:38
08 - It's A Long Road/0:3:38
09 - Look In Your Mirror/0:4:14
10 - Forgive And Forget/0:5:29
11 - Social Shirker/0:3:42
12 - I Hate Waiting For You/0:4:06
13 - Bonsoir Blues/0:4:30
14 - Get It Back/0:3:51
15 - Sitting In Line/0:5:01
16 - Lenny Dee/0:4:06
17 - I Wish That You Would Come/0:3:09
18 - The Sweeter Life/0:2:55
19 - Rainy Season/0:4:45
20 - Don't Turn Away/0:1:41

Kenny Baker/Accordion, Celeste, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Rickenbacker), Harmonica, Harmonium, Keyboards, Mini Moog, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Vocal Harmony, Vocals, Wurlitzer
David Gilmour/Falsetto, Guitar, Harmony, Pedal Steel, Pedal Steel Guitar, Producer, Vocals
Robin Jacob/Guitar, Vocal Harmony
Pat "Mad Dog" Martin/Bass (Electric), Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Guitar (Electric), Moog Bass, Producer, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Tub Martin/Handclapping
Pete Perryer/Drums, Percussion, Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Chris Pidgeon/Percussion, Piano, Wurlitzer Piano
Garry Smith/Drums
Kevin Smith/Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Mandolin, Slide Guitar