TOMBSTONE VALENTINE

Tombstone Valentine, the second studio album by the Finnish prog legend WIGWAM, was the first Finnish album ever to be released in the USA; the US release -- by Verve company -- was in fact a double vinyl featuring also tracks from Blues Section (the late 60's proto prog band whose members, such as British immigrant Jim Pembroke, continued shaping the Finnish prog scene in both Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti) and other artists of the Love Records label. The album itself was produced by the American producer Kim Fowley, whose steering of the band first resulted as the departure of the original guitarist Vladimir "Nikke" Nikamo. The original bassist Mats Huldén also left to continue his university studies. At this point, soon-to-be-legendary bassist and composer Pekka Pohjola joined the group, but the guitar parts were played by two non-members: Jukka Tolonen of Tasavallan Presidentti, and Heikki Laurila, probably the most active session musician in the country. The musically lighthearted title track, a satirical Jim Pembroke composition, features accordion of another guest musician.

The music on this album is in general much more straightforward than the debut album Hard 'N' Horny (1969), which contained a jazz-flavoured, Finnish-language first side written by organist and vocalist Jukka Gustavson, and a side-long 'Henry's...' suite written by Pembroke. The latter dominates here in the compositions. For some reason Fowley wanted to add a one-minute excerpt of the experimental electronic music piece recorded in 1968 by Erkki Kurenniemi, even though it had nothing whatsoever to do with Wigwam. Gustavson's 'In Gratitude' shows a strong influence of TRAFFIC. 'Frederick and Bill' is co-composed by Pembroke and Pohjola; preceding reviewers here have compared it to e.g. Cream and Gentle Giant, but it's not among my favourites.

I rather like the laid-back and swinging 'Wishful Thinker' which has a slight US West Coast feel. On the easy-going Fowley-Pembroke composition 'Autograph' Pekka Pohjola (who had a classical background as a musician) plays also violin, as he does in his own 2-minute instrumental piece, classically influenced '1936 Lost in the Snow'. 'Let the Whole World Ramble On' is another laid-back Pembroke song which is harmlessly nice and nothing more. Gustavson's instrumental 'For America' is the jazziest track of the album, and his deeply thoughtful and serene 'End' is IMHO the album's most beautiful piece featuring passionate singing and a warm, harmonic organ sound.

Especially Jukka Gustavson has later reflected this album without fondness: under the guidance of an American producer Wigwam weren't completely true to their own visions. It is also a bit peculiar that even though there's no guitarist in the band at this point, here there are relatively lot of guitars for an album of Wigwam's early era. The following, legendary prog albums Fairyport (1971) and Being (1974) are indeed artistically miles above the pop oriented lightness of Tombstone Valentine, which is admittedly uneven and slightly disjointed, but also charming in its own way. Friendly three stars.