Terry Callier - Occasional Rain (Vinyl)

All-Analog Reissue From The Original Analog Tape

Slow Down Sounds reissues Occasional Rain as an all-analog LP sourced from the original analog tape, with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Sound and pressing by Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The catalog number is SDS-1509, and the front cover keeps the Cadet Stereo logo of the 1972 original. Slow Down Sounds is the vinyl-only reissue label co-founded by Tom "Grover" Biery, who spent twenty years at Warner Bros.

Cadet Records first issued the album in 1972, as catalog number CA 50007. It was recorded in 1971 at Ter-Mar Studios in Chicago and produced by Charles Stepney, who also plays harpsichord and organ. Minnie Riperton and Kitty Haywood sing soprano and Shirley Wahls contralto behind Callier's vocals and guitar, with Sydney Simms on bass, Robert Crowder on drums and Earl Madison on cello for "Trance on Sedgewick Street" and "Blues for Marcus." Gary Starr engineered.

Callier wrote every song except "Do You Finally Need a Friend," which he wrote with Charles "Chas" Jones and Larry Wade. Five short "Go Head On" segues run between the songs, one opening each side and one closing the record. Occasional Rain was the first of three Callier albums Stepney produced for Cadet, followed by What Color Is Love (1972) and I Just Can't Help Myself (1973).

Born in Chicago in 1945, Callier recorded his first single for Chess in 1962. In 1983 he stepped away from music to study computer programming and went on to work at the University of Chicago. British DJs revived his records in the late 1980s, Acid Jazz Records head Eddie Piller reissued "I Don't Want to See Myself (Without You)," and Callier returned to recording with Timepeace in 1998. He died in Chicago in 2012. Slow Down Sounds' own notes call Occasional Rain "a singular Chicago record."

Tracklist

Side A

1. Segue #1 - Go Head On
2. Ordinary Joe
3. Golden Circle #317
4. Segue #5 - Go Head On
5. Trance on Sedgewick Street
6. Do You Finally Need a Friend

Side B

7. Segue #4 - Go Head On
8. Sweet Edie-D
9. Occasional Rain
10. Segue #2 - Go Head On
11. Blues for Marcus
12. Lean on Me
13. Last Segue - Go Head On