The Henry Kaiser Band-Hearts Desire

Henry is a San Francisco area guitarist playing from experimental to Rock. According to his liner notes on the album the band gets together every three months or so to play a few gigs. This two record set was recorded in Davis California in November of 1989. At over 97 minutes long they don’t skimp on the music. The band consists of two female singers, one playing bass, two drummers, a second guitarist and singer,and keyboard player Tom Constanten who was a member of The Grateful Dead for a short time. The record starts off with a 20 minute “Dark Star”. Although Constanten plays on the Live/Dead album and plays the signiture organ on the track he doesn’t approach that sound playing piano for most of the concert. there are some nice jams between the verses. The side closes with “Rivers Edge” a song by second Guitarist Bruce Anderson.Side two has a Country influenced song “The Fishing Hole” a Bacharach/David song “Anyone Who Had A Heart” probably from some musical,”Losing Hand” a slow Blues,followed by a short piece by Stockhausen and closes with a 7 minute “Are You Experienced” with some Hendrix style guitar by Kaiser.Side three opens with a slowed down cover of Neil Young’s “The Loner” a Captain Beefheart instrumental, a Tom Constanten song sung by him in a deep voice,The Band’s “King Harvest(Has Surely Come)” and two songs written by the band members. Side four starts with a solo piano piece by Constanten, then a Rocking version of “Ode To Billy Joe” lasting 12 minutes into “Designer Chaos” a Jazzy improv,before turning into a Richard Thompson tune “Don’t Let A Thief Steal Your Heart” A really great record with many styles of music and guitar playing. I bought this album at a small record store near The Roosevelt Mall when I was living in Philly. I have never seen this record anywhere else.

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