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1. Grey Day
2. December Dream
3. Don’t Cry For Me
4. Tour Line Ladies
5. Some Kind of Change
6. Long Way Home
7. Warm
8. Reason For Leaving
9. Free Fall
10. Silver Cord
John Braheny’s rare “Some Kind Of Change” LP issued on the small Pete label out of Los Angeles in 1968 has the unusual distinction of existing like a psychedelic skeleton in his closet. He never made another record, this one is still largely under the radar even for long time deep divers into buried treasure from the vintage ‘60s era. He actually became quite famous behind-the-scenes in the songwriting and music biz as the top dog LA songwriting coach for people like Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Warren Zevon, Janis Ian, Stephen Bishop and countless others including one of the most successful hit songwriters of all time, Diane Warren, for whom he critiqued 150 songs when she was 15 years old. You gotta wonder if he played his LP for any of them back in the day or hid it away since it is pretty far out underground stuff, perhaps too far out if your life’s work is steering budding songwriters towards the top of the charts. It is a full on psychedelic classic to my ears. every track a winner, with an unusual blend of earthy folk rock veering off into otherworldly atmospheres. Though not a concept album it hangs together like a journey, the psychedelia peaking with an epic extended final track in classic late ‘60s underground mind expansion style.
John Braheny was born in Iowa on December 9, 1938, first appearing on the early ‘60s LA folk scene and gigging around the folk circuit out west, there is easily findable video of him on the internet performing live in Vancouver in 1965 if you wanna hear him before the psychedelics kicked in. One of the remarkable things about the LP is that he also produced it, indicating no compromise in getting what was in his head captured on tape the way he wanted it. His arrangements are elaborate, bursting with creativity without losing focus, the songs are warm and human at the core with his innovative use of electronics and effects taking them to uncanny places. He’s a proto singer-songwriter foreshadowing the emergence of that LA scene via a side trip through the Twilight Zone. Familiar and mysterious simultaneously. This psychedelic skeleton in John’s closet is in my personal pantheon of the best late ‘60s LA solo artist mind blowers right along with very different sounding but astonishing LPs by Darius, Arthur Lee Harper, Damon and the likes.
The players on the album include Rick Cunha on guitar and help with production, he made some LPs of his own. Lisa Kindred on backing vocals came out of the folk scene and is best known for the LP she made with notorious cult leader Mel Lyman in 1969 on Reprise Records titled ‘The Lyman Family with Lisa Kindred – American Avatar’. Bass, drums, trombone, trumpet are provided by session musicians with backgrounds in west coast jazz… Don Waldron on tuba is an unusual credit for a psychedelic LP but he also appears on albums by Frank Zappa, Dr. John, and It’s A Beautiful Day. One of the two bassists is Colin Cameron who also appears on the rare psychedelic Richard Twice LP on Philips Records. John Braheny plays guitar, violin, does the lead vocals and the way out experimental electronics that kick this record into a higher key.
John’s first visibility as a songwriter in the world at large came with his song “December Dream” which is the opening track on the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt LP ‘Evergreen Vol. 2’ also issued in 1968. Soon after he founded the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase with Len Chandler, published the Songwriters Musepaper, did radio on Pacifica flagship station KPFK, and wrote what is considered the ‘songwriter’s bible’ the book ‘The Craft And Business Of Songwriting’ in 1988 for which he is best known. It is still in print. He was known around the biz as “the songwriter’s best friend” and the ‘Some Kind Of Change’ LP merely a footnote in his career. For us psych heads, however, it is one helluva dosed footnote! Several promo 45s were issued at the time so the label did try to work it, without success. The arc is long but this arrow flies higher than ever 56 years on!
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