Bear Family
1999
Rain - The Lost Album
About This Album
It's not well known that McCaslin was very briefly with Capitol Records in the late '60s, in her early twenties. Only one single, 1967's "Rain"/"This All Happened Once Before," was released, but in 1967-1968 she, in fact, did a few sessions, resulting in almost 20 tracks. All of these tracks, including both sides of the single, were finally unearthed on this 1999 CD. While of undeniable historical interest, these really do show McCaslin to still be a fairly unformed artist, even relative to her very obscure (and good) 1969 debut album, Goodnight Everybody, on Barnaby. She's just an average folksinger here, her voice not sounding as assured as it would be subsequently, with a repertoire entirely comprised of cover tunes. That's not necessarily a problem as McCaslin was a gifted interpreter as well as songwriter, but that interpretive gift is not as strongly in evidence as it would be later. In truth this seems to be bear the stamp of producer Nick Venet -- who also produced country-folk-rock artists Linda Ronstadt & the Stone Poneys, Hearts & Flowers, Fred Neil, and Karen Dalton in the same era -- more than it does the imprint of McCaslin herself.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5,6,10,11 and 15)

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