FRED NEIL - 38 MacDougal - LP - Limited Clear Vinyl [BF2020-NOV27]

On sale online from 18.00 hours November 27th

Mastertone Studios, NYC,1965…Amidst mounting friction with producer Paul Rothchild, Fred Neil walks out of the unfinished sessions for what was to be his debut album, Bleecker and MacDougal. Fearing Fred wouldn’t return to the studio, his friend and guitar player, Peter Childs, invited him over to his apartment at 38 MacDougal.According to Childs, “the best chance to get him back wouldn’t be to try to persuade him verbally, but to get him over to the apartment for a bit of music-making”.Luckily for us, Fred accepted the invitation.What ensued was an afternoon of pure Fred Neil, playing and singing the way he always preferred, not on stage or in a recording studio, but in an informal setting amongst friends, captured on Ampex reel to reel, and stored for over fifty years!

The apartment recordings at 38 MacDougal were beautifully detailed in Peter Lee Neff’s 2018 Fred Neil biography, That’s The Bag I’m In. Fred and Peter play songs that would later wind up on Bleecker and MacDougal (Travellin’ Shoes, Country Boy, Gone Again, Candy Man, Little Bit Of Rain), a definitive Sweet Cocaine, and two PD songs that don’t appear on any other Fred Neil album; the traditional folk song, Once I Had A Sweetheart, and the African-American spiritual, Blind Man Standing By The Road And Crying.

Deluxe Stoughton tip-on jacket featuring previously unseen photos of Fred Neil. LP-size insert featuring notes by Fred’s son, Chris, and Numbered photograph. A previously unreleased Fred Neil performance at the height of his powers – and featuring two unheard songs is no less than an historic event!