Parish Hall

Delivering a delicious blend of superb musicianship, top-notch songwriting and a surprisingly controlled level of restraint, Parish Hall is an eye-popping, ear-splitting, mind-numbing combination of acid-tinged psychedelia and blues-based hard rock. Led by vocalist/guitarist Gary Wagner (it’s his image that appears on the front cover), this California-based power trio released its self-titled debut lp in 1970 on Fantasy Records (the same label for which Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded). The album moves seamlessly from stoner rock (“My Eyes Are Getting Heavy,” “Skid Row Runner” and “Lucanna”) to more blues-influenced numbers (“Dynaflow,” “We’re Gonna Burn Together” and “Somebody Got the Blues”). There's even a slightly jazz-oriented shuffle called “Ain’t Feelin’ Too Bad,” quite possibly the group's finest moment. In addition, everything is quick and compact; only one song runs longer than four minutes. The band's fluid guitar leads, extremely tight rhythm section and more than competent vocal work produced one of the decade's grittier platters of '70s-era hard rock, which makes Parish Hall's failure to find an audience a true mystery. What's even more of a mystery is how you are going to get a copy; the company that reissued Parish Hall on cd a couple of years ago has seemingly gone out of business.

Notes: Parish Hall's "My Eyes Are Getting Heavy:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycB_AuIWq0&feature=PlayList&p=1409D00248A62110&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1.