Jerry Yester/Judy Henske - Farewell Aldebaran

User Rating:

Not Yet Rated

Track List: Farewell Aldebaran

Album Details: Farewell Aldebaran

Release Date:: 02/20/2006
UPC:

Pro Reviews: Farewell Aldebaran

EXPERT RATING:

From AMG Reviews

Recorded for Frank Zappa's imprint Straight Records, probably because Zappa and Judy Henske shared a manager in the album's executive producer Herb Cohen, Farewell Aldebaran bears some of the previously heard elements of its principals. Henske, the bigvoiced folksinger, gets most of the lead vocals and is identifiable as the woman who sang "High Flying Bird." Jerry Yester, a former member of the Modern Folk Quartet and fresh from a stint with the Lovin' Spoonful (in which he replaced Zal Yanovsky, who coproduces the LP with him and cowrites leadoff track "Snowblind"), displays some of the arranging skills he introduced in his work with the Association. But Farewell Aldebaran is something new for both Henske and Yester, an eclectic pop album made in the spirit of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, mixing folk and rock with country, psychedelia, Renaissance music, and several other styles. Yester orchestrates tracks full of keyboards, strings, and horns, creating attractive artpop tunes over which he and Henske sing Henske's lyrics, which sound like they were written as poetry, often in an Old English style full of coachmen, horses, angels, eagles, knights, ravens, and stars. (Aldebaran, for those who didn't study Astronomy, is a double star in the Taurus constellation.) One exception is "St. Nicholas Hall," given the style of an old hymn, which is a religious satire. It doesn't sound as though Henske and Yester always had the budget to execute their ambitions fully; the playing doesn't always live up to the arrangements. But the album remains a delightful exploration of the possibilities of progressive pop in the wake of the Beatles' 1967 breakthrough.

- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Related Artists

Similar Artists

Roots & Influences

Followers

Jerry Yester/Judy Henske Biography

Jerry Yester had a minor but very interesting role, usually as a supporting player, in 1960s folk-rock and (to a lesser extent) psychedelic music, as both a performer and a producer. Yester first rose to prominence as a recording artist as part of th...Full Jerry Yester/Judy Henske Biography