History:

John Richardson Meadows was a singer-songwriter from California. Meadows played several instruments, including guitar, harmonica, and piano. As a songwriter in California during the summer of love and the Vietnam War protests, Meadows wrote folk tunes that reflected the downer situation of the time. 

Meadows recorded several demo tracks and released it on a mysterious LP. The album, simply titled "John Richardson Meadows", features only his name and street address. The album has no front or back cover art and the labels do not have the track listing. It was most likely released in 1971.

Even more odd, the first 15 seconds of the album feature a countdown that is played at 33 1/3 RPM while the rest of the recording is at 16 2/3 RPM. The album is just over an hour and ten minutes long and features many long folk ballads backed by either acoustic guitar and harmonica, electric guitar with heavy tremolo effect, or solo piano. 

Supposedly less than a hundred copies were made by the infamous Century Records in California. Copies were given to whoever Meadows came across. One copy, his last, was given to world famous actress Katharine Hepburn.

Meadows was most recently a French language teacher.

Review:

John Richardson Meadows (1971, Century Records)

Rating: 7/10

A very genuine album. Straight up folk with tinges of pop and country. Mainly just vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica throughout with good lyricism and a great vibe. Folk albums don’t get more personal than this. You can even hear Meadows drop something onto his tape recorder during one track.

I don’t know the titles of any tracks, but I love track three. Solid songwriting and a nice chord progression. Track two is the only song backed by electric guitar and that one is pleasant. There is a really good piano ballad on side two that I also enjoy. Most of the songs are very long which makes for an interesting listen. Solid demo album.