Al Wilson - Searching For The Dolphins (expanded edition 2008; orig. rel. 1969)

Sticking with the charity shop finds for the second post this week.  Picked this one up on the assumption it was based around a take on Fred Neil's evergreen song that I find weirdly moving whoever's doing it, and it does indeed kick off with a very nice Dolphins, Mississippi-born Al Wilson (1939-2008) in fine voice.  This is followed by a solid By The Time I Get To Phoenix - okay, so it's a late-60s pop-soul album, and a pretty good one.  

 

The original LP, on the Liberty-distributed Soul City label, came with a hot Wrecking Crew backing band - Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon, Larry Knechtel, James Burton et al - and a great Southern soul vocalist out front.  Wilson released a handful of non-album singles at the turn of the 70s, which are captured here as worthwhile bonus tracks (check out CCR's Lodi).  Then there's The Snake, sitting at the halfway point of the LP, which instantly brought back great memories of nights out for me.

In the late 90s/early 00s, Edinburgh College of Art's indie disco night on Saturdays was never complete without the DJ, who must've been a bit of an old Northern Soul boy, dropping in The Snake to bring it to the attention of a new generation of hip young kids in their skinny jeans.  So that was nice to hear again after 20 years, and it's still a belter.  Even better to hear it in the context of an album-plus, to get a broader view on Wilson's incredible voice and the classic production with those top-drawer musicians.

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