David Santo - Silver Currents (Extremely Rare Folk-Psych 1968 - good vinyl rip no CD anyway)

David Santo's Silver Currents is pretty fey, sparsely arranged late-'60s singer/songwriter material in a somewhat sub-Donovan style, perhaps with a dash of early Al Stewart and some of the more earnest and romantic East Coast American singer/songwriters of the period like Eric Andersen. However, the songs aren't too strong, and the vocals are yet weaker, often with a thin and straining quality. Completing the hat trick, the backing is disappointing considering Richard Gottehrer was the producer, sometimes sounding like a mismatch of a British-styled folkie gypsy troubadour with threadbare New York-cut instrumentation. It's the kind of album that sounds more like a private pressing than an LP given wider release, its having gotten picked up by the young Sire label notwithstanding. Even for dedicated collectors of this kind of music, it's perhaps best limited to a sampling on a compilation, "Rising of Scorpio" being the track that's sometimes been selected for this purpose.

AMG Review by Richie Unterberger