Honey Ltd
Album: The Complete LHI Recordings
Label: Light In The Atic
Tracks: 13
Website: http://lightintheattic.net/artists/513-honey-ltd

I was on holiday. I had no plans to write any reviews whilst I was away but then I came across this album. It impressed me so much that I just had to review it, I couldn't help myself.

The story behind this release is fascinating. The tracks on the album were recorded by Honey Ltd. in 1968 for Lee Hazelwood's LHI label, which also released "Safe At Home" by Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band. Lee is probably best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra. Eight of the tracks on the current album were released on Honey Ltd.'s one and only LP, "Psychedelic Folk Essentials", which sank without trace when Hazelwood's distribution deal collapsed. The original LP is so rare that none of the members of the band had even seen a copy. I understand that a copy sold recently for just under $2,000 !

Honey Ltd were "rediscovered" when superior reissue label Light In The Attic were researching for a Lee Hazelwood retrospective and it is our good fortune that they have now released this compilation containing everything the band recorded for LHI, namely the eight album tracks, two b-sides and three previously unreleased tracks [although, strangely for a vocal group, two of these are instrumentals !].

So, who were Honey Ltd? They were two sisters, Joan and Alexandra Sliwin, Laura Polkinghome and Marsha Jo Temmer who all hailed from Detroit. They were originally known as The Mama Cats and they left Detroit to move to Los Angeles, where they auditioned for Lee Hazelwood, who immediately saw their potential. Hazelwood quickly put them to work in the studio with the legendary LA session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew. As noted above the album was not a commercial success but it is a masterpiece of baroque-psychedelic-folk-pop-soul and quite how it has been overlooked for so long is a complete mystery to me because it is a real gem.

The band wrote much of their own material and it is most impressive. In addition, there are a some choice covers, namely Laura Nyro's "Eli's Coming", a completely re-worked version of "Louie, Louie" and Skip James' "I'm So Glad".

The album opens with the self-written anti-Vietnam War song "The Warrior", which contains the chilling lines "We must kill more people, Strong men is what we need, We need more warriors". Incidentally, the band went on tour with Bob Hope's United Service Organisations and entertained US troops. There is an amazing video on You Tube of the band, clad in gold mini-dresses, performing "I'm So Glad" for servicemen at the Phu Cat base, backed by a band consisting of military personnel. Well worth watching.

The band's real forte was their harmony singing, which is quite superb, especially when combined with the driving folk-rock rhythms of The Wrecking Crew. Add to this orchestral and brass arrangements and the result is sublime.

Personal favourites tracks are "No You Are" with its Byrds-like bass line and acapella coda and "Silk N' Honey"which features harmonies that would not be out of place on "Pet Sounds".

The original album title "Psychedelic Folk Essentials" was most appropriate, especially in relation to tracks like "For Your Mind" and "Come Down", which will appeal to fans of The Great Society/early Jefferson Airplane.

Whilst the album has a definite Los Angeles "sunshine pop" feel to it, the band did not overlook their Detroit soul roots, as shown on the self-written "I've Got Your Man" and their exhilarating version of Laura Nyro's "Eli's Coming".

It's not often that previously "undiscovered" music of this quality is brought back into circulation and all credit must go to Light In The Attic for their sterling work in doing so. This album is, without doubt, one of the reissues of the year.

Peter Cowley