July 1, 1970 - Traffic and John Barleycorn Must Die

My first album of the summer is titled "John Barleycorn Must Die", the fourth album by the band Traffic, released July 1, 1970. But who is Traffic? They began as a four-piece rock band from Birmingham, England. They made 3 albums, before breaking up temporarily, mainly due to the departure of guitarist Dave Mason. They rejoined in 1970 minus Mason so they are a three-piece on this album, with Steve Winwood on lead vocals, keyboards, bass, and acoustic guitar, Chris Wood on saxophone and flute (both of whom featured on "Electric Ladyland" in 1968) and Jim Capaldi on drums and percussion as well as backing vocals. This album is heavily jazz-influenced and I'm very curious to hear a progressive rock album with almost no guitar. Here we go!

Side 1 begins with "Glad", a 7-minute instrumental jam. It begins with a cool piano riff and then moves to some saxophone by Wood. They go back and forth for a bit before we hear a decent saxophone solo, followed by a weird keyboard solo. Winwood plays both piano and organs in the next part and there's even a background organ solo. Pretty cool song I thought, especially the opening piano riff. Track 2 is called "Freedom Rider", which has a piano and saxophone opening. We hear Winwood sing for the first time, and it's nothing extraordinary but it seems to fit the music. Wood adds a cool flute bit to the chorus and even goes off for a nice flute solo, with Winwood playing some great bass backing. He also plays a cool piano part before they name out to end the song. Side 1 is ending already with "Empty Pages", where I like Winwood's vocals a little better. It's an organ-led rock song  and it features both Winwood and Wood on organs in this one. Winwood plays a really great electric piano solo that goes on for a little bit and there's an organ solo at the end as well! Pretty solid side 1.

Side 2 starts with "Stranger To Himself" which has Winwood playing all instruments. It's led by a cool piano riff and also features solid bass and acoustic guitar. Winwood plays some electric guitar as well for a pretty good solo and after another verse the guitar and piano are soloing nicely together to end the song.  Track 5 is a traditional folk song arranged by Winwood titled "John Barleycorn (Must Die)" which the album is named after. It's carried by some great acoustic guitar from Winwood and is sung by drummer Capaldi. His voice is nothing special, bit it does seem fitting to the music. After a couple verses Wood joins in on flute for the rest of the song and Winwood joins Capaldi on vocals. There's a quiet flute solo but it's the solid acoustic throughout that really makes the song. Side 2 closes with "Every Mother's Son" which has Capaldi back on drums and Winwood on everything else. It has a cool  slow piano and guitar riff played together, and they both speed up to a more typical rock song. Winwood is on lead vocals by himself again and his singing is decent as they go back and forth between the slow part and the faster part. Winwood plays an organ solo that goes on for sometime, which also has some cool piano in the background. The guitar cues one more verse before they slow jam to finish it off.

That is the end of "John Barleycorn Must Die", a decent album that really shows off the talents of Steve Winwood. "Glad" was definitely my favourite song off the album and overall is a solid record. I'm not overly wowed by Traffic as a band, but I think this album was good enough to give them another shot. See you in "3 weeks" when my next album is released!