FOLSOM, ROBERT LESTER - Ode To A Rainy Day: Archives 1972-1975

Rock and pop music are, by all accounts, as unfair as life itself. Imagine spending the prime years of ones life, slowly honing ones skills as a guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and fledgling producer/engineer, only to have the developed fruits of your labor passed over by industry, radio, even those who you may have connected with earlier. Such was the fate of Music And Dreams, a wonderful, privately-issued album released by Robert Lester Folsom in 1976 thats very special to us here at Anthology Recordings, and an all-new collection of his home recordings, entitled Ode To A Rainy Day: Archives 1972-1975. Robert Lester Folsoms story isnt all that uncommon in the parlance of his era. Too young to be drafted, he spent the 60s growing up in Adel, Georgia, a small town nearer to Valdosta and Floridas northern border than anything resembling rock & roll, obsessing over his guitar as his craft and skills grew. Convincing a friend to go in on a Sears reel-to-reel tape recorder, which hed eventually buy out, Folsom caught the recording bug, traveling all around the area with his mobile unit, capturing sound to tapes for hire, and mastering the art of multitracking, which would become essential to his own material. With a number of friends home from college here and there, Folsom would write and record a wealth of material, eventually self-releasing an 8-track tape of his strongest selections, which makes up the backbone of Ode To A Rainy Day -- the first time these songs have been heard in decades. The polish youll find on Music And Dreams is missing from the tracks on Ode, and if thats how you need to swing, so be it. Ostensibly more homemade, if not entirely outsider -- a tag usually reserved for musicians that exhibit some manner of concern to the outside world rather than their lack of suitability for the music industry, neither of which fits Folsoms character or material -- Odeshowcases both impeccable songwriting across light folk, downer pop, front porch rock and woodshed country tropes, combined with ingenious arrangements and technical skills across primitive recording equipment. - Anthology.