GLIDER

I've been aware of French Lick since 1996, thanks to a prog rock mail order catalog called Aeon Music was selling a copy (the catalog specialized in rare and hard to find prog on vinyl and CDs, as well as reissues). They described it something like "Kinda like Yes, 10cc, and American-sounding prog. Well worth owning." French Lick, is the name of a town in Indiana, but I'm not 100% certain if the band named themselves after the town, the band certainly didn't hail from Indiana, but from Fullerton, California. But strangely this band did perform a pomp/prog hybrid that was frequently common to Midwestern bands without a Southern California vibe you get with many of their contemporaries. It's a strange combination of more straight-ahead pieces and a bit more experimental parts, with some rather creative use of synthesizers. Like many of those Midwestern bands of the time, French Lick clearly had both commercial and creative ambitions, but it doesn't clash like many actual Midwestern bands. There are songs like "Watercolours", "Michael in Paris" and "Talk About Love" that are pretty straight ahead like they were meant for radio airplay but they're still great numbers. "Talk About Love" unexpectedly breaks into a wonderful, but short spacy synth solo. "Michael in Paris" is a rather pleasant acoustic piece. But then the band gets more experimental with multi-movements suites where they get borderline eclectic prog. I even love how they quote Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Resolution" (from Birds of Fire) on "Ibiza". The band was lead by Jon St. James, then Jon Willoughby, who later played for the dreaded Stacey Q. in the 1980s. There's a Robin Williams as guest on percussion, but very unlikely the famous actor/comedian, as Mork & Mindy didn't appear until 1978, and he was still an unknown living in San Francisco. For the type of music, I wasn't sure if I would like it given the description Aeon Music gave back in the 1990s, instead this album truly blew me away. Sadly it's never been reissued leaving you to fork out the three digit price of an original LP. Not typical for a California band, more typical of a Midwestern band, but as Aeon Music stated "Well worth owning".