Wednesday 19th March

Not a band this time, but a single LP.  Actually two, because the follow-up ‘The Legend of Jesse James’ is really White mansions part 2.  Confused?  You should be.  These two albums were the brainchild of Paul Kennerley, an Englshman, a singer songwriter who I have never found any records by – he preferred to write for other voices.  In the mid-seventies he teamed up with some Americans and developed the brilliant concept album ‘White Mansions’, which was about the American Civil War from the Confederate viewpoint.  An entourage of singers including Waylon Jennings (which was why bought the record) Jessi Colter and Steve Cash with Eric Clapton playing uncharacteristic country guitar appear on the record.  It tells the story in a series of wonderful songs, telling of the optimism, the battles, the defeats and the despair as the war rips up the South.

It was a very minor hit but two years later Paul released the follow-up which tells the story of Jesse James.  One of the characters in White Mansions turns to being an outlaw after he is dispossessed by the Yankee soldiers, as does Jesse James – so the two albums are related.  If anything Jesse James is better, having Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris singing.  Again the record barely disturbed the charts.  It was all maybe twenty years too early.  It is pure Americana, which is so popular now.

Anyway, Paul Kennerley has written a few country songs for Emmylou and others but it seems the muse that infected him with such great songs has deserted him.  Some artists only have one great album in them, or two.  The albums are now available on CD as a pair, and are well worth the few pounds to buy them.