Wally
Today’s Substack is about an album I picked up earlier in the year, which has assumed a big place in my listening. Wally (I know, I know – strange name for a band) were a progressive group with acoustic and folk leanings who are hardly remembered these days, yet when they were active in the mid-1970s they attracted the attention of Rick Wakeman and got support slots on live dates with him. The double CD that I picked up some time during the summer was put together in 2019 by Esoteric Recordings, well known for digging out this kind of material, and contains the 1974 album Wally and the 1975 follow-up Valley Gardens. I do remember seeing an advert for it a few years ago, spotting the crescent moon/star artwork and the reference to 1970s prog, but at the time only had time to place it in a mental box labelled Interesting…
Wally were a six-piece outfit. Their music is light and airy prog rock, but with prominent violin, lap steel guitar, and the sort of perfect harmonies you get with The Eagles or The Byrds. What really stands out for me is the tunefulness of the songs. Six of the seven cuts on the debut were written by lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist Roy Webber, whose gift for melody is clear in all of these wonderful songs. Sunday Walking Lady – a short song you can find on YouTube – I Just Wanna Be A Cowboy, What To Do and The Life You’re Living are in particular top-notch songs, which would have graced works by the aforementioned two groups. These are high quality earworms. The other three songs are terrific too.
The second album of the pair is a little different. This one was recorded under somewhat chaotic circumstances. A lot of bad luck followed the group around this time, so that, although they had a deal with Atlantic Records, worked with “Whispering” Bob Harris, Rick Wakeman, and even got a slot in Chris Squire’s new recording studio, they lost a number of promo opportunities. The music for Valley Gardens (a spot in the group’s home town of Harrogate) is more obviously prog, with plenty of synthesizers and some terrific guitar solos. Overall there is much more by way of instrumental passages. These songs are still strong, but don’t have quite the air of magic surrounding the debut.
Though the group had contacts in high places, their naivete, bad luck, and the swift-changing scene around them meant they lost out. But although they are a bit of a footnote to the huge groups of the prog era, their music very much deserves to be remembered. So why not check out their two Old Grey Whistle Test appearances on YouTube? If you like those songs, get the album. Highly recommended from me.
