The Mountainside Band

When Dave Clark isn't instigating free jams behind the kit of the Woodchoppers Association he is strumming the six-string in front of the Mountainside Band and trying his hand at amplifying the vocal chords alongside fellow songwriter Richard Gregory. Somewhere amidst the mayhem of this self-titled release, the Mountainside Band manage to lay down some pretty good garage soul (the riff that starts "End Up" is the kind of thing Ray Charles may have come up with had he been white and a little less talented) and, while there's no real mountain in sight, back porch country and folk manage to influence most of the tunes quite heavily (if your back porch happens to overlook a smokestack skyline, that is). The band seems to be having a bit of a lark — who covers "Sweet Georgia Brown"?! — but the listener is always happily in on the joke. There are definitely better ways to spend an hour than listening to Dave Clark sing but, then again, it's never boring.