Felt - 1971 - Felt

Felt

1971

Felt

01. Look At The Sun 3:18

02. Now She's Gone 5:29

03. Weepin' Mama Blues 4:40

04. World 5:36

05. The Change 10:00

06. Destination 6:43

Drums – Mike Neel

Electric Bass – Tommy Gilstrap

Electric Guitar – Stan Lee

Keyboards – Allan Dalrymple

Lead Vocals, Guitar – Myke Jackson

Not much is known about this mysterious hard rock/psych group. Felt hailed from Alabama and released their only album on the Nasco label in 1971. Formed in the late 60s, Felt’s lineup featured two solid guitarists in Myke Jackson and Stan Lee. The latter would eventually play guitar for the legendary (and great) late 70s/early 80s punk band, the Dickies. Other group members were bassist Tommy Gilstrap and drummer Mike Neel.

Their album is a sterling example of late 60s/early 70s American underground rock n roll – a very strong disc. Felt alternates between crunchy blues based rock (with biting teenage vocals) and Beatlesque psych. Their ten minute epic, “The Change,” is two or three songs wrapped into one. Most bands would never be able to pull a trick like this off but Felt gets by on great musicianship and interesting arrangements: plenty of potent guitar solos, fresh organ interplay, blistering drums and brooding hard rock vocals. “Weepin Mama Blues” and “World” are similar cuts with more of a blues influence – solid early 70s hardrock with none of the histrionic wailing or 10 minute guitar solos that plagued so many LPs of the era. The remaining half of this disc sports more of a psych feel. “Look At The Sun” is a downbeat popsike gem while “Now She’s Gone” and “Destination” are great tracks that feature jazzy time signatures and good psychedelic guitar work. Felt is definitely a keeper without any real weaknesses – a solid 4 star album.

Akarma reissued this lost gem several years ago. Flawed Gems followed Akarma in 2010 with a bootleg version of Felt.

Felt is a pretty unknown group which is kinda unfortunate since their lone S/T studio album is a strong totality. Just six songs but it doesn't matter since these are all very effective. Their style is psych rock oriented with some elements of early progressive rock, blues rock and jazz-rock added to the mix.

The opening track "Look at the Sun" might be the weakest part here but it's a good one too. It's also the most pop oriented of these tracks. The rest of the material is really impressive. The B-side songs "The Change" and "Destination" are both hard as a diamond with totally perfect guitar sound and everything. I fell in love with these songs right from the beginning. The B-side is better overall but I like the A-side as well.

I'm going to rate this record with four stars but this one is quite close to 4,5 actually. The album cover is simple but it works. This one is highly recommended.