THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
855) Poet and the One Man Band — “Ride Out on the Morning Train”
(see #710)
Utterly magical folk rock by some future musical luminaries, including guitar legend Albert Lee and two future members of Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. What is it about trains and folk music and the blues?
The band must have been named after the line from Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound”. The band doesn’t get nearly the respect it deserves, even from its CD reissue label. The liner notes I got with my CD state:
Poet & the One Man Band try a bunch of approaches vaguely related to late-’60s trends in folk-rock, singer/songwriter-oriented, and psychedelic music on their sole and obscure LP. None of them are embarrassing, but none o them are noteworthy or exciting, either. . . . [S]ome of the stronger tracks are those that get into the moodiest territory . . . . [but it] sure would sound better as sung by Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of the Zombies, though . . . . Guitarist Albert Lee, the group’s most famous member, really doesn’t leave a heavy stamp on things; only “Ride Out on the Morning” has the kind of country-rock playing for which he would become known.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Poet and the One Man Band
What kind of marketing is that?! This is Richie Unterberger talking, though the liner notes are uncredited, since the notes are identical to Unterberger’s discussion of the album on All Music Guide (https://www.allmusic.com/album/poet-the-one-man-band-mw0000843418). Anyway, Unterberger goes on to add that it is “a fairly average psychedelic-era album with some slight resemblance to the late-period Zombies, though there’s some typical, and unmemorable, songs in a more straightforward, harder-rocking late-’60s British style.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/poet-the-one-man-band-mn0001060807)
And for some background, Unterberger notes that “Jerry Donahue and Pat Donaldson would soon move on to Fotheringay, the British folk-rock group fronted by Sandy Denny, and play on their sole album; guitarist Albert Lee, Tony Colton, Ray Smith, and Pete Gavin would form Heads, Hands & Feet.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/poet-the-one-man-band-mn0001060807)
Derek Watts says that:
[The band was] essentially a vehicle for the song-writing talents of Colton and Smith. . . . Albert is featured heavily on “Ride Out on the Morning Train” . . . . At that time Poet was merely a recording enterprise: there was no band as such, about which Albert was professionally realistic. “Poet was really their album. We were just session players.”
Derek Watts, Country Boy: A Biography of Albert Lee
Dmitry M. Epstein talks with Albert Lee:
Two songs stand out on the . . . album [including] “Ride Out On The Morning Train” . . . . Were they your first attempt to play country?
No. I had my own country band at the same time that I did that record, COUNTRY FEVER, in 1968-1969. Pat Donaldson was in the band for a little while, Pete Oakman, and I doubt that you know the other guys. Oh, Gerry Hogan who I work with now played steel guitar with us part of the time, when we had a really big gig.
https://dmme.net/interviews/interview-with-albert-lee
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