Photo credit: Richard B. Ressman
The male half of Friend & Lover of “Reach Out Of The Darkness” fame, Jim Post isn’t even recognized by his own name as a “one hit wonder.”
But after Post wrote and recorded (with ex-wife Cathy Conn) one of the great hippie-era pop hits (it reached No. 10 in the summer of 1968) he did in fact carve out a substantial solo career as a folk singer-songwriter. Besides his own albums as part of the legendary Chicago folk scene of the 1970s and 1980s, he produced the first recording of Steve Goodman’s classic “City Of New Orleans.”
But he’s since focused on children’s recordings and acclaimed and long-running one-man theatrical productions, including Galena Rose, which depicted the history of the Northeastern Illinois tourist town of Galena, and the current Mark Twain’s Adventures Out West. So the release of his new album Reach Out Together is cause for celebration: His first album of non-theatrical original material since 1984’s The Crooner From Outer Space, it revives “Reach Out Of The Darkness” in its titletrack’s merging of that song with another representative ‘60s hit, the Youngbloods “Get Together.” It further returns to the fore guitarist Jerry Miller of San Francisco’s pioneering psychedelic-era country-rock group Moby Grape.
Miller plays acoustic guitar on Reach Out Together.
“He’s an absolutely amazing player,” says Post. “I heard him play with Moby Grape in 2007, and a friend said he wanted to record with me—and I thought [my friend] was crazy! But when I started recording a solo album after Friend & Lover, Merl Saunders was playing keyboard and he played the rehearsal tape for Jerry Garcia and said Jerry wanted to play on it. Because I was new to San Francisco, I didn’t know who Jerry Garcia was and told Merl I already had a guitarist. So when Jerry Miller wanted to play on the new album I told him, ‘I’ll never say no to another Jerry, that’s for sure!’”
The second “amazing player” accompanying Post on Reach Out Together is Randy Sabien, on fiddle and mandolin. Now heading the string department at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Sabien began performing with Post in the 1980s after founding the jazz string department at The Berklee College of Music in Boston--and produced three of Post’s albums.
“He came in and started playing and Jerry went, ‘My God! Where did he come from?’,” recalls Post. “We all did a spiritual concert together and added [traditional spiritual] ‘Beautiful City’ to the album because Randy played so funky on it.”
He singles out Miller’s masterful guitarwork on the Post original “Jack Dawson,” a story song about a downcast rancher turned robber whose heart, tellingly, is “without a song.” Meanwhile, Post’s “The Paradise Bar,” which opens the disc, manifests his dream of owning a working-class tavern over Chicago’s famed folk club the Earl of Old Town. And “For The Children” features his granddaughter Gabby Gile singing lead with the Galena Girls Choir.
But the album’s two most noteworthy songs are remakes.
“I never recorded ‘City Of New Orleans’ when I first heard Steve sing it because I wanted him to do it,” says Post, who finally records Goodman’s signature song here. “If I had cut it first, it would have been a hit--but anybody doing it in a half-ass way would have had a hit, too. It was too good of a song.”
And then, of course, there's “Reach Out Together.”
“I had to sing too low to accompany Cathy’s parts on the original version and you can’t hear me at all, so I’ve always wanted to sing it in my key,” says Post. “Going into ‘Get Together’ came naturally and spontaneously.”
The album “is my favorite music I've ever recorded,” adds Post, who now looks to return to concert touring—when he’s not performing in his musicals. “I knew I had the material for a great album, and people tell me that they listen to it over and over and leave it feeling good.”
Check out other stories I've written:
A Manhattan maestro's mix of music and martial arts
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Comments
Jim Post is a brilliant talent! Who can argue with how self evident this is. Thank you.
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