SEATRAIN

[theDingle]

Anyone ever hear of the group SEATRAIN? They had a couple of albums on the Capitol label in the early 70s produced by George Martin.

Their 2nd self-titled release is the one I enjoyed the most. They had a great single release off it called "13 Questions" (about a UFO/alien experience, lol) that was a mild hit--I thought it was sensational. They also did a monster version of the old bluegrass standard "Orange Blossom Special."

The group had a great vocalist, great harmonies and great musicians. The fiddle player was awesome. Their style was somewhat of a slick-but-rootsy/Band-type sound. I always thought they were a big influence on KANSAS, though KANSAS was maybe a bit more classically inclined. The drummer, Larry Atamanuik, was in Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers in the early 90s.

Seatrain's production was bang-on, and naturally, given Sir George's proven talents.

[Steve-o]

You've stumped me there, Dingly-do. Never heard of them....I must check them out. The only stuff I heard that GM produced in the 70's was America's.

[theDingle]

WAD Stevinx, just how many artists that Martin has produced is something I want to look more into. I just heard a Gershwin tribute CD he produced a couple of years ago, had some great stuff. I have his first autobio (All You Need Is Ears, in storage somewheres) that he wrote around '79, but I've forgotten some of those facts. Here's a quote by Macca I dug up:

<Given a creative collaboration spanning more than 35 years, perhaps no one can speak with more authority about Sir George Martin than Paul McCartney. When asked in a 1998 interview to comment on George and George’s influence on him, he said, “George is the man of the year, the man of the hour, the man of the minute, the man for me.”>

His production of Seatrain's 3rd album, Marblehead Messenger, was also good, but he couldn't bail out their weak material on that one. But that 2nd album was a classic and deserves to be remembered IMO. The fiddle player, Richard Greene, would at times run his fiddle through a wah-wah pedal and wail away like Hendrix or something, he was the real deal.