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Artist
Milkwood
12+ albums
70sfolkgesellschaftskritischUSA
about
[There is more than 1 group called Milkwood.] Milkwood (1) In the early 1970's, the two future Cars lead singers, Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, were members of a Boston folk trio called Milkwood. At that time, the two went by their real names, Richard Otcasek and Benjamin Orzechowski. Jas Goodkind rounded out the guitar-and-vocal trio, but future Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes also played on Milkwood's only album (his name was spelled "Hawks" in the credits), providing sax and horn arrangements. The 1973 album was called How's The Weather, although some mistakenly think it was self-titled. It predates the first Cars album by a good five years. Anyone who heard this album in 1973 would have needed psychic powers to predict the future Velvet Underground/Roxy Music-inspired direction of Milkwood's members. How's The Weather consists of very gentle folk music on the order of America and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Ocasek wrote nine of the ten songs, and sang the lead on eight of those. The other track, "Lincoln Park", was written and recognizably sung by Orr. The low-key songs are listenable but not very stimulating. Ocasek sounds unnaturally restrained on this album; he doesn't seem comfortable imitating David Crosby or Gerry Beckley. Jas Goodkind's vocal on the Ocasek-penned "Makeshift Pawn" is more typical of the period's MOR vocalists. The most adventurous track is "Timetrain Wonderwheel", which gets a big boost from Hawkes' wind arrangements. (Rarebird’s Rock & Roll Rarity Revi
