Shady Grove

Performer: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Quicksilver Messenger Service: David Freiberg (vocals, guitar, viola, bass); John Cipollina (vocals, guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano, organ, celeste, harpsichord); Gregory Elmore (drums, percussion). Engineers include: Mike Leary, Dave Brown, Bob Shumacker. Recorded at Wally Heider Studios and Pacific High, San Francisco, California from July to September 1969. Quicksilver Messenger Service: David Frieberg (vocals, guitar, viola, bass); John Cipollina, Gary Duncan (vocals, guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano, celeste, harpsichord, organ); Greg Elmore (drums, percussion). Recorded at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California in July & August 1969. Quicksilver Messenger Service: David Freiberg (vocals, viola, bass guitar); John Cipollina (guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano, harpsichord, organ); Greg Elmore (drums, percussion). Audio Remasterer: K. Bartley. Quicksilver's principal claim to fame on its first two albums was the dueling guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cippolina; here, Duncan has been replaced with Brit piano wiz Nicky Hopkins, of Beatles/Stones/Who/Kinks fame, and the band's sound is altered accordingly. On the opening title tune, for example, the band still gets much mileage out of the Bo Diddley beat (the entire second effort had been based on it), but in the song's instrumental mid-section, Haight Ashbury meets London, which is to say the blues riffs co-exist with English Music Hall influences. Overall, the songs here aren't as uniformly strong as on the band's debut; fortunately, the album's closer, the Hopkins instrumental "Edward (The Mad Shirt Grinder"), is a delightful surprise, a melodic suite for honky-tonk piano and rock band that oozes low-key charm.

Rolling Stone (5/14/70, p.54) - "...The Quicksilver on SHADY GROVE has had its collective head turned around by Nicky Hopkins. The result is more precise, more lyrical, more textured Quicksilver..." Mojo (Publisher) (9/00, p.111) - "...The most underrated of the '60s Bay Area bands....Listening to them 30 years on, they sound like a terrific cross between the Dead and Television..." Mojo (Publisher) (9/00, p.111) - "...The most underrated of the '60s Bay Area bands....Listening to them 30 years on, they sound like a terrific cross between the Dead and Television..."

Along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service were one of the first and best of the San Francisco '60s psychedelic bands. Though they shared with their peers an improvisational bent and eclectic roots in blues, jazz, folk, and rock, what helped set them apart was the distinctive twin-guitar work of John Cipollina and Gary Duncan, two virtuosic players. When New York singer-songwriter Dino Valenti became their frontman, their sound became more accessible and they scored a couple of minor hits before disbanding in the mid-'70s.

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