It's A Beautiful Day - It's A Beautiful Day (1969)

It’s A Beautiful Day were an American rock active from the late 60s into the early 70s. They emerged from the famous San Francisco music scene, but unfortunately never manged to achieve the level of fame reached by their contemporaries.

Their debut album featured the line-up of David LaFlamme (vocals, violin), Pattie Santos (vocals), Linda LaFlamme (keyboards), Hal Wagenet (guitars), Mitchell Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums). It was a remarkably innovative album for its time, blending elements of folk, jazz and psychedelic rock, with classical overtones and complex, intelligent song structures. The sound throughout is characterised by the jazzy, complex interplay between the instruments, dominated by LaFlamme’s virtuoso violin playing and his shared vocals with Santos. LaFlamme was the creative mastermind behind it, writing or co-writing all the songs and producing the record (it's wonderfully produced, and is a true delight for the ears). He came from a classical background, and played a five-string violin. The end product of all these factors definately made them stand out from their San Francisco peers, with a sound all of their own, but unfortunately they never managed to achieve much success. Much of this could reportedly be put down to their manager Matthew Katz, who had famously already screwed over Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape.

|> Marrying Maiden (1970)
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