Salloom Sinclair - Salloom Sinclair (1969) [Korean Remastered, 2013]

When Roger Salloom and Robin Sinclair recorded their second album for Cadet Concept on which they sang, it marked quite a change from the first, Salloom-Sinclair and the Mother Bear. The first LP had been fairly typical 1968 blues-rock-psychedelia, but Salloom-Sinclair was far more in a county-rock groove, recorded in Nashville with session ace and Dylan sideman Charlie McCoy producing. It's actually an improvement over Salloom-Sinclair and the Mother Bear in that the more histrionic excesses of Salloom's songwriting and Sinclair's singing are toned down considerably. At the same time, it's rather ho-hum if affable laid-back, countrified late-'60s rock. The sound of Dylan-in-Nashville is particularly in evidence on "I'm Comin' Home Again," with its steel guitar and organ. Sinclair was a fine rock singer with strong shades of soul, blues, and gospel ("Violence, Blam Blam, I'm Sorry" sounds a little like Janis Joplin's more soul-gospel-slanted stuff), but she really needed more distinctive material than this to make a mark. About the only song that demands a second listen is the uncharacteristically powerful and foreboding "Animal," which boasts a killer ominous riff, eerie wavering background tones, and Marty Balin-esque vocals from Salloom.