History:

The Duo was a husband-wife musical duo from El Monte, California with possible origins in Washington. Karen Aldrich was born in Washington and was probably around 20 years old when she and her husband Doug Campbell began performing lounge rock in California. Doug played drums and Karen sang and played keyboards. Not much else is known about the duo, other than the fact they released one extremely odd album in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. 

Their self-titled “The Duo” recording was released on Saxon Productions (there is no name on the label, just a stamp on the back cover) at an unknown time. Doug and Karen were accompanied by local guitarist Sonny Sommers on every track on the album. 

Some odd features of The Duo’s only release include a disputed release date. Collectors and The Acid Archives have constantly had this as a 1967 release, but it doesn’t fit musically nor with Karen Aldrich’s age as she would’ve been 16 at the time. Pressing the album on a mono 10 inch was very perculiar, as well as the homemade pressing features and the extremely varying styles of music performed. Doug Campbell wrote or co-wrote every original track along with either Karen or her younger brother Willard Jr. 

The duo covered Bob Dylan, The Who, and Dave Dudley. Karen and Doug are all over the place on this album, doing traditional pop, country, r&b, rockabilly, and two slightly psychedelic ballads. This was most likely to appeal to their lounge crowds but who knows. The whereabouts of Doug Campbell, Karen Aldrich, and Sonny Sommers are unknown. Below is a probable full lineup for the release:

Lead Vocals (except 4), Backing Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Rhythm Guitar (?) - Doug Campbell

Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals (4), Organ, Electric Piano, Keyboards Bass, Percussion (5) - Karen Aldrich

Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar (2) - Sonny Sommers

Review:

The Duo - The Duo (197?, Saxon Productions)

Rating: 4/10

This album is extremely rare and very expensive. However, it's truthfully not that great. The direction on this album is inconsistent and some extremely awful tracks are included. Around half of this album is unlistenable, including “Tom Thumb Blues”, “Are You Coming Home”, and “Looking At Me”. The other half is middle of the road lounge rock with the only great song being “Cold Seattle Morning”, which is a nice folk rock track with trippy organ and good lyrics. “Home” is similar in style but not as good. "Hand Jive Anthology" has a good enthusiasm about it as well as "Fat Power!" which is just a comical song all around. Overall, an interesting affair but not really that good.