Alision McCallum~Rare OZ LP Fresh water EX 1973 Blues Rock Soul Vanda & Young 

Alison Mccallum

Sweet water

Rare Original OZ 1st LP released in 1973 on RCA Records. Cat: SL102036. This album has a gatefold sleeve.  

Alison MacCallum began her music career in 1967, at the age of 16, as the singer in a succession of Sydney bands. Her influences include Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Ward and Marianne Williams. She began with the Geoff Bull Jazz Band, and the York Gospel Singers. She soon joined the Big Apple Union, a soul band, which evolved into Dr Kandy's Third Eye, in which she shared lead vocals with Gulliver Smith, (later of Company Caine). In June 1969, MacCallum joined a seven-piece blue-eyed soul band, This Hallelujah Chorus, sharing lead vocals with Ed Mayne. Also during that year she recorded a cover version of The Bee Gees track "To Love Somebody" with Tully for the ABC-TV show Fusions, however it was not released commercially until 1979 on the various artists' compilation album, Alberts Archives, selected by Glenn A. Baker. At the end of 1970 MacCallum joined Freshwater, a soul-pop band, which had formed in New Zealand in 1968. They had achieved notoriety for their controversial May 1970 single, "Satan" / "Satan's Woman" about the Sharon Tate murders. Initially sharing lead vocals with Ian Johnson, by September 1971 she was sole lead vocalist alongside Tony Bolton on drums, Rod Coe on bass guitar, David Fookes on keyboards, and Murray Partridge on lead guitar and backing voclas. In November 1971 the band's final single, "I Ain't Got the Time", was issued  featuring MacCallum's first released appearance which reached the top 20 in the local charts and peaked at No. 30 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart. After the demise of Freshwater in that month, she briefly joined Ray Brown's band, One Ton Gypsy, before going solo in early 1972. To launch her solo career, RCA spared no expense, utilising the services of famed English producer/manager Simon Napier-Bell (Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Peter Sarstedt) to man the desk for Alison's debut album Fresh Water. For her first single from the album and her first solo single, Alison arrived with a bang when "Superman" / "Take Me Back" became a double-sided national Top 10 smash in February 1972. The A-Side, was a hard rocker penned by Harry Vanda and George Young formerly of Australia's most successful 60's band The Easybeats. The flip, a more laid back country rock tune was penned by a then up and coming new tunesmith Ted Mulry.

The Fresh Water LP, which followed a month after, was an excellent album which included both sides of the single, several good rockers including the funk-rock title track and a nice take on the Rolling Stones "The Last Time". There was also a magnificent slow blues reworking of the 1920s chestnut "Organ Grinder Blues" (aka "Swing") and another "Mean Woman Blues" both of which featured outstanding guitar work. Big band, chugging jazz-rock was in order on "Ain't Eatin' Dinner Tonight" and the great rock ballad "Any Way You Want Me" (also the album's re-issue title) allowed Alison to move from a smokey lower register at the start then lifting the song a full octave to showcase her beautiful howl. It was a perfect showcase in which to highlight Alison's vocal mastery, as she effortlessly changed from spitting out the lyrics with abandon on the rockers, interspersing them with piercing screams and shrieks, to grunts and howls as she 'wailed dem blues' and then showing a warm lower register when required. The album was greeted with much unanimous acclaim and featured many of our best musicians including master axeman Phil Manning who plays some fine guitar throughout. While not as successful as the single and nowhere near as successful as it should have been, this album (and Alison) still has the distinction of being the first LP by an Australian female artist to make the album charts. Another unsung credit for the pint sized fiery red-head! 

There are small sticker stains on both sides of label and a few tiny pen marks on A-side label.Record has some light scuff marks that cause a few light crackles, record is in Excellent condition. Cover has a few tiny surface tears around edges, a few tiny pen marks on and some light age spots on inside of gatefold. Cover is in VG++ condition.

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