The album that took thirty years
Back in the 1960s it wasn’t so much that Gerry Spehar could have been a contender, rather more that he was one.
The Spehar Brothers – the band he was in with his sibling George – were the buzz of the Midwest club circuit, opening for Boz Scaggs, Ian & Sylvia, John Fahey, and Townes Van Zandt. Bill & Bonny Hearne cut Gerry’s song ‘Georgetown’, with Nanci Griffith contributing vocals.
If you’re wondering, at this point why you’ve never heard of him, you could be forgiven for thinking it was the usual tale of too much too young and a self-destructive streak.
Not a bit of that here. Instead the truth is rather more, well, normal. Spehar was already married to his childhood sweetheart, and when she fell pregnant with their second child, Spehar got a proper job and dedicated himself to his family.
Not that he ever really gave up the guitar. He still cut demos, and he made a tribute album to his brother at the start of the millennium, and now with the kids all grown up, it was time to make a proper return.
The result is “I Hold Gravity”. Ten laid back Americana songs that he cut with I See Hawks In LA as his backing band – and do not fret. It is worth the wait.
Opener “Dirt” is rather more strident than some of its brethren, featuring some fine, screeching lead guitar and fine Hammond Organ, but its clever lyricism is totally in keeping with the rest.
“Muleshoe Mules” is a good old-fashioned hoedown that recalls Waylon Jennings, but it’s the gorgeous title track that really convinces. It is made all the more poignant too, by the fact that his wife Sue passed away during the completion of the album.
There is something of “Exile On Main St.” era Stones about the loose bar room sound of “Be Nemanic” and the quite brilliant, quirky tale “Holy Moses Doughboy” could be on a Warren Zeavon album and not be remotely out of place.
As befits a record that was a labour of love rather than one that was born out of pressure, there is a magnificently laid-back element to work like “Here In The Pass” – which is very much the sound of a man who is content to watch the world go by.
Often the record has an acerbic wit about it, but nowhere better than on “Mr. And Mrs Jones” a tale of revenge like none ever before, set against a funky bass line and perfect keyboard work.
“How To Get To Heaven From LA” has a dollop of the West Coast about it, “God Lubbock” is a goodtime bar room stomper that the Kentucky Headhunters would love, but whatever it does and wherever the music goes, it does it magnificently.
Indeed as “Into The Mystic” closes things, you are left with conflicting emotions, on the one hand you are upset that Spehar took three decades to make “I Hold Gravity” but at the same time fully recognise that it might not have been as good if he’d been forced to put it out.
Either way, it’s here now and to Gerry Spehar we say only: welcome home.
Rating 8/10
