History:

Here we have a mystery acetate with no credit given for the artist. It’s certainly a solo musician who was involved in the folk scene. The acetate has a 1972 date stamped into it along with the Transco brand name. It’s ten inches and plays at 33 ⅓ rpm. 

The person I bought it from was based in California and apparently bought a box of acetates at a record show. Three other notable acetates were in the box. These included an original mix of Damon’s “Song Of A Gypsy”, Wild Cherry’s “Introducing… Wild Cherry”, and The Free Spirit’s “Demo”. ⅔ of those went unreleased and this is likely the same case. 

The acetate contains seven tracks, all but one of them being around 2 and a half minutes long. A piece of masking tape on the acetate contained the titles to the A-Side, which included “Rainbow Junction”, “In Anticipation”, and “Fairytale For Two”. 

The flip side does not denote the track-list. However, track B1 is definitely titled “Mr. Booth” and is about John Wilkes Booth. Track B3 is also certainly titled “Don’t Belong”. 

I have provided audio clips of each song along with the lyrics for each song. Please see the Track By Track article for those. I also provided two extended YouTube clips and images of the disc. If you have any clue who the artist is, please email me via the contact / about section. Sounded a lot vocally like Christopher Gibson, but his lyricism and guitar work were no where near as advanced as this.

Review:

Unknown Artist (1972?, Not On Label)

Rating: 8.5/10

I really dig this and believe it's a real gem. Groovy lyricism, nice acoustic guitar work, and nice harmony vocals. My favorite tracks were "Don't Belong" and "In Anticipation" which both have nice vocals and guitar work. Not a bad track on the demo even though some clarinet sneaks it's way onto "Mr. Booth" and "November" (if that's the title). Will continue searching for clues.