Although
Terry Callier recorded quite a bit of material after his rediscovery in the 1990s, the greatest interest in his work centers on the earlier part of his career, prior to his retirement from the music business for a spell in the early '80s. This 77-minute, 16-track CD functions as a best-of of sorts for that era, starting with a cut from his folky mid-'60s debut LP and featuring album and single tracks from the next decade-and-a-half or so, as well as a previously unreleased recording,
"Hangman." It can be argued that a best-of isn't the best way to get acquainted with a very album-oriented cult artist who has explored several difficult-to-categorize styles, though in general, these blend folk, jazz, and soul. Still, if you do want to start somewhere for a survey of his most esteemed output, this makes a good choice. It packs a lot of music onto one disc, and some of the 45-only sides aren't easy to find. As with many artists boasting rabid cult followings, some novices might be expecting something more high-energy or startling than
Callier's fairly smooth and easygoing, if unusual, fusion of elements. It's also true that the later cuts are the least impressive, getting into slicker soul production that even has a hint of disco on a 1982 single. Still, there are some striking efforts, like his 1968 single
"You Goin' Miss Your Candyman," which gets close to the optimum blend of his bags and has rawer, more impassioned vocals and production than much of the surrounding material. The title track of his 1972 album
Occasional Rain is another highlight, going as it does into offbeat, quirkily arranged soul-folk not easily comparable to other records of the time. For those completists curious about the sole previously unreleased song, there's no recording date for the nine-minute
"Hangman," but it's thought to have been done around the early '70s, though in sound, it's a throwback to the more traditional folk he performed on his 1965 debut LP
The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier. ~ Richie Unterberger
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