The Peddlers - Wasting My Time (1974)

The Peddlers formed in Manchester in April 1964, as a trio consisting of drummer Trevor Morais, who had previously played with Faron's Flamingos and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, after Ringo Starr left to join the Beatles, bassist Tab Martin, and Roy Phillips on vocals and keyboards, ex of The Saints, The Tornados, and The Soundtracks. The group named themselves The Song Peddlers, and after signing to Phillips Records they released their first single 'Rose Marie'/'I'm Not Afraid' in 1964. The group then changed its name to The Peddlers, and had some minor success with their debut single, 'Let The Sun Shine In', which was written by Teddy Randazzo, and which featuring a considerably different sound to their debut. In 1966 the group began a residency at Annies Room, and also played at The Scotch Of St James and The Pickwick, where they recorded their first album 'Live At The Pickwick' with an introduction by Pete Murray. Following the release of their debut album the group released six singles and an EP on the Philips record label, often featuring studio versions of tracks from the live record, before joining CBS in 1967. The first single for the new label was their version of 'What'll I Do' backed with 'Delicious Lady', which they promoted with appearances on a number of TV and radio shows, including Saturday Club, Dee Time, Pop North and The Joe Loss Show. 

In April they embarked on a tour with Nina Simone and Dick Gregory, before heading to the United States for a six-week engagement at the Flamingo Club in Las Vegas, followed by two weeks in Miami, Florida. In 1968 they released the album 'Freewheelers', consisting of standards arranged by Keith Mansfield, and the follow-up, 1968's 'Three In A Cell', included a version of 'On A Clear Day You Can See Forever', from the 1965 musical of the same name, which was later sampled for its bass and Hammond organ riff. The third and final CBS album, 'Birthday', was released in 1969, and brought the band two UK Top 40 singles in 'Girlie', and 'Birth', which reached No. 17. Following 'Birthday', The Peddlers returned to Philips, where they released the albums 'Three For All' in 1970, and 'Suite London' in 1972. Morais left during an Australian tour in 1972, and was replaced on drums by New Zealander Paul Johnston, and after one more live album in 1974, The Peddlers disbanded in 1976. As their first album didn't appear until 1967 then their early singles were not included on it, and so they and their b-sides are ripe for anthologising, and if you add in the studio versions of tracks from their 1967 live album, then we have a two-disc collection of music from this iconic UK jazz/soul trio. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1964-1967
01 Let The Sun Shine In (single 1964)
02 True Girl (b-side of 'Let The Sun Shine In')
03 Whatever Happened To The Good Times (single 1965)
04 Song For The Blues (b-side of 'Whatever Happened To The Good Times')
05 Over The Rainbow (single 1965)
06 You Must Be Having Me On (b-side of 'Over The Rainbow')
07 If You Live (from the 'Swinging Scene' EP 1966)
08 I Love Paris (from the 'Swinging Scene' EP 1966)
09 Little Ole Me (from the 'Swinging Scene' EP 1966)
10 Georgia On My Mind (from the 'Swinging Scene' EP 1966)
11 Adam's Apple (single 1966)
12 Anybody's Fool (b-side of 'Adam's Apple')
13 I've Got To Hold On (single 1966)
14 Gassin' (b-side of 'I've Got To Hold On')
15 What'll I Do (single 1967)
16 Delicious Lady (b-side of 'What'll I Do')
17 Irresistable You (single 1967)
18 Murray's Mood (b-side of 'Irresistable You')
19 Nine Miles High (b-side of 'You're The Reason I'm Living' 1967)

Disc II - 1968-1974
01 Handel With Care (single 1968)
02 Horse's Collar (b-side of 'Handel With Care')
03 That's Life (single 1969)
04 Wasting My Time (b-side of 'That's Life')
05 Steel Mill (b-side of 'Birth' 1969)
06 Rainy Day In London (b-side of 'Tell The World We're Not In' 1970)
07 Let Me Be Turned To Stone (single 1971)
08 Hello Sophie (b-side of 'Let Me Be Turned To Stone')
09 Have You Ever Been To Georgia (single 1971)
10 Manah (b-side of 'Have You Ever Been To Georgia')
11 Back-Alley Jane (single 1972)
12 Nothing Sacred (b-side of 'Back-AlleyJane')
13 Sing Me An Old Song (single 1973)
14 It's So Easy (b-side of 'Sing Me An Old Song')
15 Is There Anyone Out There (single 1974)
16 Just A Thought Ago (b-side of 'Is There Anyone Out There')

Mandrake Handshake - Monolith (2022)

Mandrake Handshake are a dynamic, shape-shifting collective from Oxford, with a shifting membership of somewhere between seven and ten musicians. Their line-up includes Row Janjuah (lead guitar/vocals), Trinity Oksana (lead vocals), Elvis Thirlwell (percussion), Joe Bourdier (drums), Rudy Mae Symonds (backing vocals), David Howard-Baker (saxophone/flute/keys), Moogieman (modular synth/keys), Charlie Arrowsmith (rhythm guitar/comet), and Jake Kavanagh (bass), and they've already made waves with two critically acclaimed EPs, in 'Shake The Hand That Feeds You', which was released via Nice Swan Records in 2022, and 'The Triple Point Of Water', released by Glasshouse Records later the same year. However, these were just a taster for their debut album, 'Earth Sized Worlds', which appeared via Tip Top Recordings in 2025. It's a heady, kaleidoscopic journey through cosmic grooves and hypnotic rhythms, and cements their reputation as fearless sonic explorers, with an intoxicating fusion of metronomic beats, Stereolab-inspired vocals, and a melting pot of Brazilian samba and 70's funk. 'Hypersonic Super-Asterid', is an eight-minute pulsating standout, and deserved to be the lead single despite it's uncompromising length, and the rest of the tracks draw on the motorik drive of Krautrock and the ethereal textures of Tangerine Dream. As an introduction to the band, here are their first two EPs collected together on one album, and if you are taken with their spellbinding tapestry of psychedelic wonder and cosmic imagination then give their album a try. 

Track listing

01 Mandragora
02 Eclogue 11
03 Gonkulator
04 Monolith
05 Emonzaemon
06 Vitamin Sunday
07 Row's Tinted Glasses / Diogo Jota

The Velvet Underground - Yesterday's Parties (1966)

I recently came across a bootleg of two lengthy, semi-improvised recordings by The Velvet Underground, which they played as part of Andy Warhol's Plastic Exploding Inevitable in April and November 1966. The sound quality was excellent for its age, and it reminded me that I had a similar piece on another bootleg from Valleydale Ballroom in Columbus, Ohio from the same year. I therefore though that it was only logical to add this to the other two pieces, for an hour and a quarter of some of the very earliest recordings from the legendary Velvet Underground. There isn't much else to say about this, other than it's the VU as you've probably never heard them before, and so well worth at least one listen. 

  
Track listing

01 The Nothing Song
02 Untitled
03 Melody Laughter

Kiley Dean - Changes (2006)

As I mentioned in my previous post from Kiley Dean, in 2005, she started work on her second album under the name 'Blue Eyes', and released a single 'Lookin' For Love' to radio as a taster for her new record. The album, titled 'Changes', was due to be released in 2006, and a second single was released, with 'Who I Am', being sent out to various radio stations. After the album was completed Dean left Beat Club Records and signed with Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment label, and they agreed to take on the release of 'Changes' and issue it under her own name, but after six months she left the label, and so they shelved the record. In 2010 she released the 'Changes' album digitally on the ReverbNation store, but it was only for a limited time, and it's now unavailable, so the time is ripe for a reappraisal. It would have been a relatively short album, with only nine tracks plus an acoustic version of 'Escape', so I've added a couple of contemporary recordings to the end, and here it is for you to enjoy.  

Track listing

01 Dangerous 
02 Be Alone
03 Changes
04 Just Like That
05 Escape
06 Tug of War 
07 Who I Am
08 Stay Away from My Boyfriend
09 Over 

10 We All Need Love

11 Just A Little

12 Goodbye

The Rolling Stones - Give Me A Hamburger To Go (1971)

I've recently come across another stash of out-takes from The Rolling Stones, with most of these being recorded at Olympic Sound Studios in 1970, during sessions for the 'Sticky Finger's album. Some are early versions of tracks which later appeared on their studio albums, and other have never seen the light of day. Stand-outs include a 1968 extended version of the 'Let It Bleed' track 'Loving Cup', an early take of 'Tumbling Dice titled 'Good Time Woman', and instrumental versions of 'Let It Loose' and 'Sweet Black Angel'. Some of the tracks had already appeared on my earlier post 'Travelin' Man', and so I've removed them and added in a special version of 'You Got The Silver' with a Mick Jagger vocal, and that left a very reasonable 42-minute album. One 1968 out-take caught my eye, with the unusual title of 'Give Me A Hamburger To Go', so I've titled the album after that song, and that gave me the opportunity to produce this cover based on it. 

Track listing

01 Loving Cup (1969 early long version)
02 Shake Your Hips (long version)
03 You Got The Silver (Mick Jagger vocal)
04 Sweet Black Angel (instrumental version)
05 Good Time Woman (early version of 'Tumbling Dice')
06 Sweet Virginia (early version)
07 Stop Breaking Down (early version with no harp)
08 Give Me A Hamburger To Go (1968 out-take)
09 Let It Loose (instrumental version)
10 Shine A Light (early version)

Daisy Dares You - Rush (2010)

Daisy May Keeley Coburn was born on 27 October 1993 in Great Dunmow, Essex, and came from a musical family, with her mother once working as a backing singer for Duran Duran and The The. She learned to play the guitar and piano when she was six years old, and on Boxing Day 2007 she played a song she had been writing called 'Hurt' to family and friends. A friend of her mother's, Matthew Marston, heard the song and invited her to his home studio to record it, and that led to collaborating with Marston on songs  written for her debut album, 'Rush'. After picking up widespread promotional coverage in the media from The Times, the BBC, and The Guardian as a young artist to watch for in 2010, she signed to Jive, a subsidiary of Sony Records, and her first single 'Number One Enemy', featured British rapper Chipmunk, reached the top 20 in the UK. Her musical genre varies from teen-pop to pop rock to electropop, and comparisons have been made between her and British singer-songwriter Lily Allen, as well as Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. 'Rosie' was released as her second single in May 2010, and her album was scheduled to appear in June, but for reasons unknown she was dropped from Jive Records and the album was cancelled. A six-track sampler CD was issued to the press in advance of the proposed release date, and so by adding in a couple of live versions of songs from the official track-listing, plus a few early demos, we can put together a 43-minute approximation of Daisy Dares You's scrapped debut album from 2010.

Track listing 

01 Number One Enemy (feat. Chipmunk)
02 Rosie
03 You'll Be Fine
04 Who Will Buy
05 Rush
06 Daisy Dares You (Pegasus & Rokchild remix)
07 Idiot
08 Talk About The Weather
09 Over You  
10 Next Few Minutes
11 Hurt
12 Stuck & Still

Van Morrison & The Chieftains - Songs Of Innocence (1988)

Van Morrison first met The Chieftains at an Edinburgh rock festival, and they later joined up in Belfast during Morrison's No Guru tour. Following the tour, Morrison and Paddy Moloney met up and discussed recording an album together, with both of them having a list of songs that they wanted to include, and they eventually reached a consensus to cover two of Morrison's previously released tracks, with 'Irish Heartbeat' later becoming the title of the album, and the rest would be traditional Irish songs. According to Moloney, making the album was a way for Morrison to rediscover his Irish roots, having played blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz and more importantly soul, for many years, and so he wanted to come home to his Irishness with The Chieftains. The album was recorded on dates from September to December 1987 and in January 1988, and was released later that year. It consists of eight traditional Irish songs, plus re-workings of the Morrison songs 'Celtic Ray' and 'Irish Heartbeat', with 'Carrickfergus' being described by critic Denis Campbell as "a melancholic air worthy of Otis Redding". 'On Raglan Road' was adapted from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh and is the story of a man ensnared by a beautiful revenant, whom he had mistaken for a creature made of clay. 'Irish Heartbeat' received positive reviews from most critics, one of whom called it "some of the most haunting, rousing, downright friendly music of the year", and in the NME's round-up of albums of the year of 1988 it was ranked number 2. On 15 September 1988 Morrison and The Chieftains played a gig together at The Ulster Hall, Belfast, which was recorded for Ulster Television, and also broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK. For anyone who missed it, or just wants to hear this meeting of two of Ireland's most revered musical exports, here is the whole concert. 

Track listing

01 Tore Down A La Rimbaud 
02 In The Garden 
03 Rave On John Donne 
04 Did Ye Get Healed 
05 Star Of The County Down 
06 She Moved Through The Fair 
07 Ta Mo Chleamhnas Deanta 
08 I'll Tell Me Ma 
09 Carrickfergus 
10 Celtic Ray 
11 Marie's Wedding 
12 Boffyflow & Spike 
13 Goodnight Irene 
14 Moondance  

Neal Ford & The Fanatics - We Will If You Want To (1968)

At the end of 1964, Neal Ford (lead vocals), a veteran of the local pop scene with other groups like the Ramadas and the VIPs, formed the first line-up of Neal Ford & The Fanatics, which consisted of Johnny Stringfellow (lead guitar), Jon Pereles (rhythm guitar, vocals), W. T. Johnson (bass guitar), Dennis Senter (keyboards), and John Cravey (drums). Though not as experimental as Austin's The 13th Floor Elevators, the band possessed an appreciation for the British Invasion groups, and played organ-driven instrumentals, and an R&B-inspired set typical of other garage rock acts. At first, the group went relatively unnoticed performing cover versions of songs by The Animals, The Zombies, and James Brown locally in their own club named Teen Scene, until record producer Ray Rush saw promise in the developing band, specifically their spontaneous live act. As a result, Neal Ford & The Fanatics recorded the song 'I Will Not Be Lonely' at ACA-Recording Studios, and released the single in May 1965 on GINA records. It was among the first in Texas to note a "British influence", and received airplay in Houston which helped it reach the regional charts. Shortly thereafter, Ford was called up for the Naval Reserve, and so the band's recording activities came to a standstill until he was released in late 1965. When he returned, Senter was replaced by Steven Ames, while his older brother, Richard "Dick" Ames, created Tantara Records to release the group's second single, the folk rock tune, 'Bitter Bells', in January 1966. 

Through the summer of 1966, Neal Ford & The Fanatics' profile rose steadily, with extensive airplay in Houston, multiple appearances on the Larry Kane Show, and well-attended shows at a venue called the Catacombs, alongside nationally successful acts including The Beach Boys and The Lovin' Spoonful. By the summer of 1966, Ames had departed to pursue a management position for The Moving Sidewalks, and he was replaced by Vox organ virtuoso Lanier Greig, who created a new sound for the band, and collaborated with the members to pen more original compositions. In October 1966 the band recorded demos of songs including 'I Can't Go On' and 'Good Men (Are Hard To Find)', in order to earn a contract with the national label, Hickory Records. Two regionally successful singles followed, with 'I Will If You Want To' receiving national attention in September 1966, and 'Gonna Be My Girl' reaching number one in Houston in early 1967. 

Their debut album, 'Neal Ford & The Fanatics', was released in November 1967 on Hickory Records, but their next single, 'Wait for Me', failed to produce the national breakthrough the group anticipated, and none of their later offerings in 1968 met with the same acclaim as 'Gonna Be My Girl'. The band continued to perform on the local club circuit, but in 1969 Ford quit and eventually produced a solo album in 1971, while more songs without Ford were recorded but not distributed, and in October 1970 the group disbanded. Ford continued to play with various bands into the '70's, including the Neal Ford Foundation, which released an album in 1972, but for the most part they will be remembered for their earlier, edgier singles, and garage aficionados still acknowledge their versatility. During sessions for their 1967 album they recorded more material then was needed, and so by adding some of those tracks to a selection of their later singles, there's enough left over to imagine what a second album could have sounded like had it been released in 1968. 

Track listing

01 Good Men (Are Hard To Find) 
02 Mary Wanna Marry Me          
03 Don't Tie Me Down 
04 Movin' Along
05 Save Your Affection
06 The Jones 
07 I Can't Go On  
08 I Will If You Want To
09 Little World Girl  
10 Woman 
11 I'll Put My Boots On Backwards
12 Better Slow Down  
13 For You  
14 Pain  
15 Buttercup
16 The Seasons   

Upgrades

An interesting process that I have recently discovered about the MVSEP programme, which is what I use to extract horns from Chicago songs among other things, is that it has a function to split out speech, music and effects from a track, and if you run a scratchy 7" single through it, then it thinks that all the clicks, pops and surface noise are special effects, and it removes them. I have therefore been able to clean up a lot of old 7" vinyl that I've either bought for these posts, or found on youtube in less than pristine condition, and so I'm posting all of the ones that I can remember, which I've cleaned up and put in one 'Upgrades' folder. You can download from Soulseek, searching upgrades aiwe, or Mega, and then just take the tracks that you need and slot them into your folders. I've also replaced the old tracks in the original Soulseek and Mega files for anyone who hasn't tried these artists yet. 

Upgrades so far are:

Albert Lee - ...and on guitar
B. J. Arnau - Make It With You

Truly Smith - Yours Truly
I Love Him

GUNK - Bloomdido - applause during the tracks removed 

Speak No Evil

Bloomdido

Litha

Bill Oddie - Oddieties

Because She Is My Love

TV Heroes

Cockney Rebel

Face To Face - new rip and cleaned up

The Bevis Frond

Sexorcist - new rip and cleaned up

Design

Won't You Say You Love Me

Never Been In Love Like This Before

If you find any others while playing the albums then let me know and I'll see if I can improve their quality. 

Elephant Stone - Andromeda - The Best Of Elephant Stone (2024)

Inspired by his own ongoing Indian classical music discovery, Rishi Dhir formed Elephant Stone in Montreal in 2008. With Dhir singing lead and handling nearly a dozen instruments, he recorded the project's debut album with help from several guests, including producer Jace Lasek. It arrived in May 2009 on Dhir's own Elephants On Parade label, distributed by Fontana Records, and was quickly followed by 'The Glass Box' EP in 2010. The group then signed with Canada's Hidden Pony for 2013's eponymous 'Elephant Stone' record, by which time the band had settled into a regular line-up of Dhir, Gabriel Lambert on guitar, and Miles Dupire-Gagnon on drums. 'Three Poisons' arrived in 2014, also on Hidden Pony, and that year they were asked to contribute a tracks to 'A Psyche Tribute To The Doors on Cleopatra Records, for which they chose to cover 'L.A. Woman'. The band's fourth album, 'Ship Of Fools', was released in 2016 on Burger Records in 2016, before they returned with the five-song 'Live At The Verge', which captured a session at Toronto's Verge Music Lab in February 2017. The 'Ship Of Fools' remix EP 'Remix Of Fools' followed in September, but it three more years before we were to hear from the band again, when their fifth album, 'Hollow', appeared in 2020, featuring split guitar duties between Lambert and Robbie MacArthur. In 2022 they issued a French-language EP 'Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune', which saw MacArthur and Jason Kent taking over on guitar. Combining the influence of Indian classical music with the melodic style of British Invasion bands like the Kinks and the Beatles, the Canadian neo-psychedelic outfit were a breath of fresh air in 2009, and they have not disappointed with any of their releases since then, so if the band is new to you then this sampler will introduce you to the innovative world of Rishi Dhir. 

Track listing 

01 Sally Go Round the Sun (from 'Elephant Stone' 2013)
02 Lost in a Dream (from 'Back Into The Dream' 2024)
03 Andromeda (from 'Ship Of Fools' 2016)
04 Knock You From Yr Mountain (from 'The Three Poisons' 2014)
05 How Long (from 'The Seven Seas' 2009)
06 Hollow World (from 'Hollow' 2020)
07 A Silent Moment (from 'Elephant Stone' 2013)
08 Child of Nature (Om Namah Shivaya) (from 'The Three Poisons' 2014)
09 Where I'm Going (from 'Ship Of Fools' 2016)
10 Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin (from 'Elephant Stone' 2013)
11 We Cry for Harmonia (from 'Hollow' 2020)
11 Harmonia (from 'Hollow' 2020)
12 The Sea of Your Mind (from 'Elephant Stone' 2013)
13 I Am Blind (from 'The Seven Seas' 2009)

Sweeney Todd - If Wishes Were Horses... (1977)

Sweeney Todd formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1975, and originally consisted of vocalist Nick Gilder, guitarist Jim McCulloch, bassist Budd Marr, keyboardist Dan Gaudin and drummer John Booth. Their first single, 'Roxy Roller', became a No. 1 hit in Canada, holding the top position in the RPM national singles chart for three weeks beginning on 26 June 1976, and winning a Juno Award for the band. After releasing their debut album, 'Sweeney Todd', in 1975, Gilder and McCulloch left the band to pursue solo careers, and Clark Perry was brought in to replace Gilder on vocals, with Skip Prest taking over from McCulloch on guitar. Though he did record a second version of 'Roxy Roller', which reached number 90 in the US charts, Perry didn't work out, and he was replaced within a few months by Bryan Adams, who was 16 at that time. With Adams the band re-recorded and released a third version of 'Roxy Roller', but this time it only scraped into the US charts at number 99, and both releases were ordered to be pulled from stores by Chrysalis Records, the label who had signed Sweeney Todd's original lead singer Nick Gilder, as Gilder had his own solo version of the song out concurrently with the Sweeney Todd re-recordings. Following the minor success of the Adam's sung version of the single, the band recorded their second album 'If Wishes Were Horses...' in  1977, with Adams billed as "Bryan Guy Adams" on vocals. The record was unsuccessful, and Adams left the band after less than a year, and although they attempted to carry on with Chris Booth (John Booth's younger brother) on vocals, and Grant Gislason replacing Prest on guitar in 1978, they broke up before recording any further albums. The band re-united in 2000 and began working on 'The Sweeney Todd LP', and in 2007 Sweeney Todd, along with ex-vocalist Nick Gilder, headlined the Golden Spike Days Festival in Port Moody, British Columbia. Despite Nick Gilder going on to have a very successful solo career, releasing acclaimed albums 'You Know Who You Are' in 1977 and 'City Nights' in 1978, and hitting the charts the same year with 'Hot Child In The City', Sweeney Todd will mostly be remembered as the starting point of Bryan Adams' Grammy award-winning career in music. 

Track listing

01 If Wishes Were Horses
02 Tantalize
03 Until I Find You
04 Pushin' & Shovin'
05 #5243605-Smith
06 Song For A Star
07 Shut Up
08 All Of A Sudden
09 Wastin' Time
10 Say Hello Say Goodbye
11 Roxy Roller
12 Rue De Chance

Johnette Napolitano - Sound Of A Woman (1996)

In 1986 singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano co-founded Concrete Blonde with guitarist James Mankey, having worked with him under various name since 1982. Their first release was 'Concrete Blonde' in 1986, which included their debut single 'Still In Hollywood', and for their follow-up album, 'Free', they added a full-time bass guitarist, Alan Bloch, allowing Napolitano to focus on her singing without the burden of playing bass simultaneously. Their third album, 'Bloodletting' appeared in 1990, and became their most commercially successful, reaching number 49 in the United States album chart. Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson replaced Rushakoff on 'Bloodletting' while Rushakoff was in treatment for drug addiction, and Napolitano also reassumed bass duties for this and all subsequent recordings. 1992's 'Walking in London' saw the return of original drummer Rushakoff due to Thompson's immigration issues, while the following year's successor, 'Mexican Moon', featured the 'Bloodletting' lineup with Thompson back on drums. As neither album achieved the commercial success of 'Bloodletting', Napolitano disbanded the group in 1994. After Concrete Blonde broke up, Napolitano recorded as a solo artist, releasing the albums 'Sketchbook' in 2002, 'Sketchbook 2'  in 2006, 'Scarred' in 2007, and 'Sketchbook 3' in 2010, but before the first 'Sketchbook' project she had recorded a solo album titled 'Sound Of A Woman in 1996, and she performed many of the songs on a solo tour opening for Paul Weller. It was set to be released on Concrete Blonde's old record label IRS (a subdivision of Island Records), but 1997/1998 was a bad time for Island, starting with the sudden departure of founder-CEO Chris Blackwell and ending with the total reorganization of the label, and so 'Sound Of A Woman' was lost in the shuffle. It's now extremely unlikely to ever be officially released, and the few cassette copies which leaked out are now rare and highly prized. 

Track listing

01 I'm Your Queen
02 The Sound Of A Woman
03 I Can Do Anything
04 Deliver
05 Something Fast
06 Todos Los Santos
07 Firefly
08 Human
09 Closer
10 Sleep
11 Lullabye For Fabiana

Kiley Dean - Simple Girl (2003)

Kiley Dean Bowlin was born on 12 April 1982 and raised in Alma, Arkansas, from where she moved to Orlando, Florida with her parents at the age of seven. She grew up singing in school and church, and at 17 she was singing back-up for Britney Spears on her 'Baby One More Time' and 'Oops! I Did It Again' tours. She signed to record producer Timbaland's Beat Club Records, an imprint of Interscope Records in 2002, and released her debut single, 'Make Me A Song' the following year, which was produced by Timbaland, but which underperformed at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite this she was granted a second single with 'Who Will I Run To', before recording her Timbaland-produced debut album, 'Simple Girl', but although this was planned to be released in July 2003, due to the commercial failure of the singles it was shelved. In 2005, she started work on her second album under the name 'Blue Eyes', and released a single 'Lookin' For Love' to radio, while her second studio album 'Changes' was set to be released in 2006. It was preceded by the single 'Who I Am',  which was sent out to radio stations, but in 2007 she signed with Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment label, They were set to issue 'Changes' as her first release on her new label, but after six months she left the label, and so like her debut record, 'Changes' was shelved and also remains unreleased. In 2008, she joined Madonna on her 'Sticky & Sweet' tour as a backup vocalist, replacing Madonna's long-time backing singer Donna De Lory, who was pregnant at the time and unable to tour, and in 2010 she released the 'Changes' album digitally on the ReverbNation store, but it was only for a limited time, and is now unavailable. Later that year, she recorded a couple of remixes that were made available on YouTube and her Soundcloud accounts, but these are also now very hard to track down. In 2011 she joined the New Kids On The Block and Matthew Morrison tours as a back-up simnger, and in 2022 she re-joined Madonna's team, performing backup on her 'MDNA' and 'Rebel Heart' tours. In 2015 she launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her 'Scream' EP, which successfully met its goal in February, and in July she premiered the EP's first single and music video 'Lockdown' to her backers, with the digital release made available in August, and in September the full EP was made available to her backers, with a digital release following a few weeks later. Despite working with a number of famous artists as a backing vocalist, Dean has never been lucky enough to release an album under her own name, and so to put that right here is her unreleased 2003 record 'Simple Girl'.  

Track listing

01 Blessed (Intro)
02 Cross The Line
03 Make Me A Song
04 No
05 Kiss Me Like That
06 Keep It Movin'
07 America
08 War Song
09 Simple Girl
10 As Days Gone By
11 Better Than The Day
12 Busy
13 Confused
14 Lovin' You
15 Should I

16 Who Should I Run To

17 I Know (Outro)