The New Dawn – There's A New Dawn

The New Dawn got a bit of super late night radio airplay back in the psychedelic 60’s, where my eager ears where treated to some low tempo even handed numbers filled with fuzzy guitars and blistering bass lines that sounded sophisticated (for the day), blending harmonic vocals with a haunting organ and steady rolling backbeat that held my attention, even though in 1969, at two in the morning, I dearly wanted nothing more than to sleep. Yeah, it was super difficult to find their physical music, as that was sold entirely at live events and are now highly prized.

Yes, the band has the same disappointing story we’ve all heard a thousand times over … success seems an illusion, the big break though record never comes, endless touring, lousy food and stuck in one mode of transport after another, broken down in city after city of the northwest until they just couldn’t take it anymore. Now, in 1971 ABC Dunhill Records expressed interest, yet little to nothing rose from that.

While their music sounded enticing, there were just too many parallels to other bands of the time, as if they’d said, “That’s a great song, let’s write one just like it but slightly different, and I’m sure that along the way, no one will mind if we lift a few lyrics as well,” co-opting everyone from the Righteous Brothers, Ricky Nelson, to Roy Orbison, Barry McGuire, early Jefferson Airplane, It’s A Beautiful Day, Chad & Jeremy, Norma Tenega or any of the other laid back hit makers from AM pop music radio.

Perhaps their greatest shortcoming was their need to engage in talk-over dialog, that was nothing short of a distraction, as on the opening track “(There’s A) New Dawn”, a song that simply should, with it’s other pastoral effects, been left off of the record.

I was going to make a list of the lifted lines, but there were simply too many.

*** Limited Edition pressing on Orange Metallic Swirl Vinyl.

Review by Jenell Kesler