Artist: Kusudo And Worth Title Of Album: Of Sun And Rain Year Of Release: 1969/2019 Label: Slipstream Country of Artist (Band):US Genre: Folk psych rock Audio codec: FLAC (*.flac) Rip type: tracks+.cue Every so often, along comes a disc on a small or obscure label which is a first-time CD release for what’s claimed to be a long-lost classic, gem of its kind or masterpiece of its genre, one that was only ever issued in a privately pressed, very limited vinyl edition in (say) the late ’60s. Such is this artefact. And even as a self-confessed enthusiast with an insatiable thirst for discovery and a taste for such curios, I tend to be inordinately suspicious of all such extravagant claims. The biggest surprise, then, was that I’d never even heard of this album, whose original (and only) release was in December 1968 on the Custom Fidelity label. Nor of its protagonists, Ken Kusudo and Jeff Worth, who came together in Riverside, California in the mid-’60s and, partly through their siblings, discovered a shared love of folk music – notably Peter, Paul & Mary, Donovan, Simon & Garfunkel, Tim Buckley, Dylan and Ian & Sylvia. Jeff was drawn to Ken’s song of adolescent angst, Elizabeth (written in his mid-teens and inspired by the movie A Patch Of Blue), and the two soon began writing together, the next logical step was performing as a duo, basing their complementary-twin-guitar sound and style on the Peter & Paul model but also taking inspiration from the finger-picking of Paul Simon and Donovan. Their subsequent meeting with Richard Krieb led to his engagement as lyricist (one with a special instinct for “aligning lyrics with the most compatible musical sensibility”), and this collaboration, in turn, produced a white-heat outpouring of songs, which – alongside a small handful of songs Ken had written independently – ended up forming the album Of Sun And Rain. The story goes that from late 2013, four of the album’s songs had appeared on Youtube – one of which, the abovementioned Elizabeth, had been happened upon by Jason Smith of Slipstream Records. After hearing the other three songs (and undeterred by the knowledge that the original vinyl LP commanded a ludicrous four-figure price tag), Jason embarked on an obsessive mission to research the album and its origins, and eventually, in 2017, managed to publish the story of Kusudo & Worth in his fanzine Fantastic Expedition, subsequently gaining permission from the artists themselves to re-release their album in a proper CD edition. Glory be! For much of the time, the album’s songs don’t conform to, or even necessarily observe, conventions of folk-song, but it’s more that their poetical spirit enables them to unfold with each part or element fitting and shaping around the others. In this regard, there’s no easy comparison to be made although the closest approximation would seem to be early Tim Buckley, or perhaps some of the more complex ISB manoeuvres (but not in terms of “sectional” song structure). But then, “something in the water” of several of the songs also conjures up Nick Drake: perhaps it’s the dominant spirit of often aching, torn-apart romanticism, the delicate longing and yearning… But it’s undeniable that the obliquely freeform nature of many of the album’s songs tends to preclude an instant appreciation, but each song has a peculiarly insistent individual drawing power. All the same, curiously, the songs come together over time to form a strange, skewed kind of unity. Not an easy impression to convey, and one that’s only really vindicated by detailed listening and a more prolonged, even concentrated exposure to the songs. One might, therefore, take Of Sun And Rain as a considered sequence, a kind of song-cycle in all but name, but only part of its flavour can be conveyed by a discussion of the individual tracks. The LP opens with the tellingly fragile yet sensuous ballad Elizabeth, which powerfully conveys the contrasting emotions recalled in relative tranquillity with a concomitant display of conflicting emotional responses to the memories involved. Then follows For You, a thinly veiled expression of unrequited love that really hits home with its sparse yet mellifluous setting. The Donovan-like Song For A Pelican builds from a softly strummed majesty to a soaring with the quickened pace of the bird’s depicted flight. Mystical and philosophical concerns illuminate the despondency of Love Is Naught, propelled into a clinical but distant balance by the spacing of Ken and Jeff’s two voices across the magical delicacy of the twin-guitar soundscape; this is another song where soft picking gives way to a fiercer, more hammered thrumming (shades of Richie Havens?) as the emotional content builds. Even more so on one of the album’s standout tracks, the adventurous and complex Side-1-closer I Would Like To Hear Your Story, whose eerie, spacey slide-guitar embellishments finally yield to a discordant folk-freakout-style cacophony in its thrashing crescendo climax. In contrast, the intensely personal song The Gull is a masterly slice of metaphor-driven loner-folk, succeeded by the more elliptical patchwork of observations on the wistful, lullaby-like Something From Nowhere and the cautionary, if warmly, melancholy literary narrative of Bittersweet. The halcyon ambience of Mill Valley Woodlands is by contrast almost pastoral in feel, a harmonica-bedecked homage to a local beauty spot maybe (who knows?), but enticing nevertheless. The album’s title song (and closing track) is at a tad over 6½ minutes its longest item, and despite its compelling writing and sombre mood doesn’t quite hang together, as it feels less well executed and edited – maybe a result of their limited studio time (just three hours which was funded by friends). This CD reissue appends to the above LP three additional tracks. Settle Ya Down is a fairly recent reworking of a song from a distinctly Donovan-esque side-project album of Jeff and Richard’s (The Coming Of Captain Glee) which was released in November 1970 and is slated for future re-release by Slipstream. Pau Hana is a pleasing, melodic, ambling instrumental that recalls early Ralph McTell filtered through the American Primitive styling of John Fahey. A mellower and less edgy revisit of album track Love Is Naught that the back cover dates as originating from 2012. Of Sun And Rain proves an inordinately fascinating album, a privileged glimpse into a creative maelstrom that still after several playthroughs promises to reveal even more delights. It certainly deserves the “lost classic” tag and fully vindicates the care lavished on this reissue, not least in the production of the CD’s exemplary 32-page booklet, which fastidiously chronicles the duo’s life and times and the genesis (and revelatory nature) of the album and its songs. The booklet’s front and back cover reproduce the original LP sleeve, the latter usefully providing the song lyrics in commendably readable high-resolution. by David Kidman 29 July, 2019 Tracks 1. Elizabeth (Ken Kusudo) - 4:07 2. For You (Jeff Worth, Richard Krieb) - 3:00 3. Song To A Pelican (Ken Kusudo, Richard Krieb) - 3:38 4. Love Is Naught (Ken Kusudo, Jeff Worth, Richard Krieb) - 4:43 5. I Would Like To Hear Your Story (Ken Kusudo, Richard Krieb) - 6:06 6. The Gull (Ken Kusudo, Jeff Worth) - 3:01 7. Something From Nowhere (Ken Kusudo) - 3:12 8. Bittersweet (Ken Kusudo) - 3:14 9. Mill Valley Woodlands (Jeff Worth, Richard Krieb) - 4:43 10.Of Sun And Rain (Ken Kusudo, Richard Krieb) - 6:41 11.Pau Hana (Ken Kusudo, Jeff Worth) - 4:03 12.Settle Ya Down (Jeff Worth, Richard Krieb) - 3:00 13.Love Is Naught (Ken Kusudo, Jeff Worth, Richard Krieb) - 4:51 Personnel Ken Kusudo - Vocals, Guitar Jeff Worth - Vocals, Guitar