Original

This is a record I bought in the early 70’s at a department store in the Concord Mall. There was a bin of reduced records selling for 29 cents. I bought three that day, a bad album by Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson,Grateful Dead’s Bears Choice that disappeared some time ago, and this one. Starting as an Off-Off Broadway musical play in late 1970 the cast included F. Murray Abraham and Gretchen Corbett as Joan. Music was provided by Smoke Rise, a band comprised of three brothers. A revisionist history, the story tells of Joan substituting a lookalike to burn in her place and escapes to live with a farmer. After running away from him she ends up getting burned anyway. This two record gatefold album is the music from the play. It comes with a twelve- page libretto. The inside has a painting similar to something from Dutch painter Bosch. The music is mostly what I would call Soft Rock with three- part harmonies although there are some harder rocking songs at the end of the record. I haven’t played this in a long time and although very scratchy the music sounds pretty good. I have not seen or hear anything else from this band.