Like Someone I Know. A Celebration Of Margo Guryan. Various Artists

It was only last spring that I was introduced to Margo Guryan and her music through the three cd box that gathered all her recordings, from the 1950s until she decided that there was more to life than making music. This fall a tribute album is released with a host of artists, "A Collection of Reimagined Versions of Songs From Guryan’s Classic Album 'Take a Picture'".

Let that be the songs I concentrated on in my review on 24 July. Today I'm not going to compare but focus on this set of songs. For starters, I like this collection as much as I did cd 2 of the box set. The music is immediately identifiable as music from the 1960s, somewhere between folk, pop and a light form of psychedelia.

Listening superficially, as I always do the first time, I had not even noticed this is a compilation record. For that the mood, for most the album, is to uniform. Like the original album most songs move forward in a pleasant mid tempo, without rocking the boat in any way. In fact, I would have guessed the album to be a re-issue of a 1960s album. That is how close its mood is to the original. Are there different singers? I didn't really notice. A duet, when a male voice joins, yes.

Paying more attention, it becomes clear fast that there are sounds that were not present in the1960s. The ways of playing some instruments are different. That is about it though. Where the mood is concerned all the artists on this tribute stay close to the original. All the singers sing like a French sigh girl from the era. The music is a mix between 60s pop and 50s popular songs, with folk and jazz for flavour.

Now I have to admit that I am not familiar with a single artist contributing to this tribute. If I have heard of one, it is through a review by Erwin Zijleman on this blog. Not because I've heard the music. As a consequence I do not know in how far they have been selected because of a musical association with Margo Guryan or that they totally adapted their music to Guryan's. I notice that I do not care. All capture the mood of 'Take A Picture' and with that the sound of the time. It's what attracted me to the album from the very first song.

As you will recall, I wrote "for most of the album". The odd ones out cone at the end of the album. Empress Of. Her's version of 'Someone I Know' is "modern" and far removed from what was then. Just like Barrie's 'Love', which I truly like. It has a dark, brooding layer and electronics giving the song something extra. And, Margo Price's even gives 'California Shake' a nice funky rock feel. What an ending to this tribute album.

I wondered if the album would have been better proportioned, had these three songs been mixed into the whole. Giving it some thought, this is fine. Again, I'm surprised by 'Take A Picture'. It may not be the best album of the 60s, let alone of all time but it certainly deserved to have been taken out of obscurity. First on its own accord and now with a fine tribute.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

You can listen to and order the tribute album here:

https://margoguryan.bandcamp.com/album/like-someone-i-know-a-celebration-of-margo-guryan

and Margo Guryan's music here:

https://margoguryan.bandcamp.com/album/like-someone-i-know-a-celebration-of-margo-guryan