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PENNY NICHOLS - PENNY’S ARCADE - CD

• First CD issue
• Features members of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy as well as Dylan sidemen
• Complete with explanatory liner notes

1. Wash Day
2. Moon Song
3. Color Of Love
4. Games
5. Salton Sea Song
6. Sunshine Blues
7. Rainy Days
8. Summer Rain
9. Yellow Chimes
10. Look Around Rock
11. Mountain Song
12. Holy Holy
13. Farina

“Nichols is one of the new lights in the modern folk scene and her songs are living proof that all the great folk songs were not written 60 years ago… there might be more folk-rock than anything else to her songs, but there are also a good amount of pop smarts to her melodies” – www.allmusic.com

As part of California’s emerging 1960s folk-rock scene, Penny Nichols honed her musical talents alongside her friends Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. This classic 1968 collection was her only contemporary release, and features support from Bob Dylan sidemen Bruce Langhorne and Al Gorgoni as well as members of psychedelic favourites the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. An enjoyable fusion of folk, pop, jazz and psychedelia, it’s a neglected gem that will appeal to all fans of quality singer-songwriting.

Penny Nichols grew up in Southern California, and had become a regular on the folk coffee-house circuit by the mid-1960s, playing with future legends such as Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Linda Ronstadt as well as also-rans such as Spencer Perskin (later of Shiva’s Headband) and Steve Noonan. Having moved to Sausalito, honed her songwriting and become a regular in its folk clubs, she played the legendary Big Sur folk festival in the summer of 1967 (alongside Joan Baez and Judy Collins), as well as undertaking gigs with Steve Miller, the Jefferson Airplane and others. Towards the end of the year she began work in New York and Los Angeles on Penny’s Arcade. Produced by Elektra’s ‘house hippy’ Billy James and Buddah Records head Artie Ripp, it features backing from members of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy (whom James managed) as well as session heavyweights such as Bruce Langhorne (Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Fred Neil, Tom Rush, John Sebastian) and Al Gorgoni (Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Laura Nyro). A delightful mixture of wistful folk, melodic pop and hazy psychedelic jazz, it was issued in a heavy gatefold sleeve with a four-page booklet extolling Nichols’ virtues, but failed to make her the star she could have been.

In March 1968, around the time Penny’s Arcade appeared, she played the Fillmore with Traffic, Blue Cheer and H. P. Lovecraft, but instead of releasing a follow-up she decided to visit Europe in the winter of 1968. She stayed with George and Patti Harrison and recorded still-unissued sessions at Apple in London, but eventually returned to California to focus on work as a session singer and vocal arranger. Having worked with artists including Arlo Guthrie, Art Garfunkel, Susie Quatro, Donna Summer and Jimmy Buffett, she became an expert on pitch perception and earned a doctoral degree from Harvard’s School of Education in 1991. She hosts regular singing and songwriting workshops for people of all ages, as well as making educational videos and tapes and releasing sporadic records (including her 1990 sophomore effort All Life Is One and 1993’s Jataka Tales, based on ancient Buddhist stories). Still an active and popular singer-songwriter, it is to be hoped that this first full CD reissue of Penny’s Arcade will finally establish its credentials as an overlooked piece of the late 60s Californian folk-rock jigsaw.
All songs by Penny Nichols

Recorded in New York and Los Angeles

Produced by Artie Ripp and Billy James

Arranged by Artie Butler (NY) / Bruce Langhorne (LA)

Engineered by Torrie Brainard (Bell Sound, NY) / Don Blake and John Haeny (United, LA) / Brian Bruderlin (Paramount, LA)

Vocals and guitar by Penny Nichols
Piano by Artie Butler (NY) and Grant Johnson (LA)
Flute by Joe Grimm
Guitars by Sal di Troia, Al Gorgoni & Vincent Bell (NY) / John Merrill & Bruce Langhorne (LA)
Electric bass by Joseph Macho Jr. (NY) / Alan Brackett & Kerry Magness (LA)
Bass by Richard Romoff & Julie Ruggiero (NY)
Drums by Alvin Rogers (NY) / Sanford Konikoff, Jimmie Smith & John Kelihor (LA)

Original album design by Kittyhawk Graphics

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