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Smiley Smile Stuff => General On Topic Discussions => Topic started by: PetSmile on March 07, 2019, 12:24:55 AM



Title: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: PetSmile on March 07, 2019, 12:24:55 AM
There are 15 Brian Wilson tracks from the unreleased Country Album that may never be released. I have been in conversation with Fred Vail via personal email recently, and he said in a nutshell that to make the project's release commercially viable $5-6,000 needs to be raised. Hope it is finally released.

This message is just to ask if it's a good idea to maybe crowfund to get this moving along?


Title: Re: Fred Vail Country Album Campaign.
Post by: PetSmile on March 07, 2019, 01:03:53 AM
Oh I forgot to give you all some context. I reached out to Fred, asking if he has any plans to release the album, and he said what's above. He's the one that suggested in an offhand way that crowdingfinding could possibly help . Again, do you all reckon it's a good idea?


Title: Re: Fred Vail Country Album Campaign.
Post by: Wata on March 07, 2019, 03:36:18 AM
Sound like a great idea! Fred Vail album is a real curiosity in BB's whole saga, and I'd love to hear it (and willing to contribute to get it released)

By the way, here's a question - Especially money is involved in this campaign, is there any way we can make sure that Fred is indeed involved in project, for example, to bring him over here? I believe people would need to make sure it's a real thing, so they can invest willingfully and safely.

Also, I'd suggest that you post this on EH forum, and contact mods there too.



Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: PetSmile on March 07, 2019, 04:11:20 AM
Here's the response he sent me on Friday. He sent me his email in it, and we came up with the crowdfunding idea to let this unreleased BW album from 1970 see the light of day. I cut out the email part from the bottom for privacy reasons.


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: Wata on March 07, 2019, 04:39:23 AM
thanks!


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: “Big Daddy” on March 07, 2019, 07:51:50 AM
Sounds like a great idea! Would love to pitch in. Someone should contact Dean Torrence/Kittyhawk and get a quote for the cost of a cover design and add that to the fundraising goal ;D


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: Jay on March 07, 2019, 12:05:49 PM
What exactly was Brian's contribution to this project? Did he sing lead vocal on any of the songs? Or did he just play piano or keyboard?


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: Rocker on March 07, 2019, 12:56:34 PM
I would really love to hear this. Brian had some of the best musicians around for those recording (including James Burton and Glen D. Hardin, who both at that time were touring with Presley as his TCB-Band). Do we even have a tracklist?




What exactly was Brian's contribution to this project? Did he sing lead vocal on any of the songs? Or did he just play piano or keyboard?


Brian produced the sessions. I don't know if he played on it. There certainly was no use for him to play as he had - as mentioned above - some of the first class musicians in business at that time.






EDIT:

Just checked AGD's site. Oh man, look at that list of musicians.


Cows In The Pasture (Fred Vail)
recorded April 17th-29th 1970
produced by Brian Wilson
Bethany Ann* - There's Always Something There To Remind Me* - Kittens, Kids & Kites - Lucky Billy - Black Man In Georgia - One Woman Won't Hold Me - Why Don't You Give Her To Me - If You're Not Loving, You're Not Living - All For The Love Of A Girl* - Only The Lonely* - Carolina On My Mind - My Way Of Life - A Fool Such As I* - You Pass Me By - I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You
[titles noted * had vocals recorded]
 
   Fred Vail's connection with The Beach Boys began as a teenager in May 1963 when he staged a show in Sacramento, and continued as their promoter until they severed links amid some acrimony in the mid-seventies (although he remained especially close to Dennis). Exactly why Brian decided to embark on this particular project - a country album - is yet another minor BB mystery (unless, of course, Brian was making an oblique point; however it's more likely that he was merely doing a favor a friend). At four sessions over the course of twelve days in Wally Heider's studio, Brian, with Fred & Dian Rovell (as contractor) produced tracks for the fifteen titles listed above, using the following country luminaries:
 
piano: Glen D. Hardin
guitar: James Burton, Fredyy Weller & Glen Keener
bass: Keith Allison (electric) & Red Wooten (upright)
drums: Dennis St. John
fiddle: Gordon Terry
steel guitar: Buddy Emmons, Red Rhodes & JD Maness
bottleneck guitar: Gib Guilbeau
 
As might have been expected, Brian then lost interest in the project, but not before vocals had been recorded for five songs. For pretty well all its known existance, the album was simply referred to as "Fred Vail's country album", but Kurt Ackerman recalls Bruce giving it this title at a Carnegie Hall gig just before he left the band. however, when questioned directly, Fred himself stated that the album had no title.
Possibility of release: given that a) the album is incomplete and b) Vail's voice has been described (by Brian) as "far out", exceedingly slim… but it would be interesting to hear Brian's sole foray into the country field.



http://bellagio10452.com/unreleased.html


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: PetSmile on March 07, 2019, 03:39:31 PM
Seeing as none of the mods expressed an interest in leading it, if guess I'll leave it be, and hopefully the powers that be can do something.


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: Pretty Funky on March 07, 2019, 05:26:41 PM
Can I suggest the possibility of getting a sample or ‘teaser’ online somehow?


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: WyattFunderburk on March 19, 2019, 11:29:36 AM
I'm gonna mention this on our next Sail On Podcast.  I'd be really interested to get this released.


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: bossaroo on March 19, 2019, 11:49:41 AM
I'm totally willing to contribute to the cause and help spread the word... I've been wanting to hear this for many years now.

it might be worth contacting Stephen Kalinich and asking how his collaboration with Brian (A World of Peace Must Come) ended up getting released. it's a similar thing, produced by Brian around the same time, that remained unreleased for nearly 40 years.

thanks for your efforts PetSmile!


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: humanoidboogie on August 07, 2021, 11:53:11 PM
Just heard about this thanks to the Sail On podcast, so I’m a little late to the party… although the party seems to have fizzled out? I understand projects like these can be very hard to go through with but I think PetSmile’s idea is an excellent one and I’d love to be part of it!


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: PetSmile on August 08, 2021, 11:58:38 AM
Sorry mate, there is no such "crowdfunding" proposal ongoing, as far as I know. It was mentioned once or twice, but mostly without any real intentions to get things going, by Fred Vail himself, I think. It never went beyond that. I was a little over-enthused and wrote this on his behalf, thinking he had seriously proposed it after just mentioning it to me, by email.

Hopefully it's released as a copyright extension in December or something.


Title: Re: Unreleased Brian Wilson Country Album...
Post by: TonyW on August 08, 2021, 02:58:52 PM
This makes me about as excited as getting up in the middle of the night for a pee ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i__8pOM3-Xs