SCOTT KEY
“This Forest and the Sea” LP
Excellent
1976 private press acoustic
album, self-recorded at various
places in Colorado, and
filled with beautiful
fingerstyle acoustic guitar,
plus some atonal bottleneck
slide, string scrapes and
drones (at times, very Ry
Cooder/“Paris, Texas” about six
years before that soundtrack
existed). Although almost
completely instrumental,
what lyrics there are tend
towards the dark and the
satiric. The obvious points of
comparison are John
Fahey and Leo Kottke,
although Scott Key certainly has
his own presence and style,
differences in tone and color
and attack, which he
attributes to his background in
rock bands. Overall, there is a
brooding, loner folk/psych feel,
most evident on
the phenomenal,
effects-heavy, almost 11-minute
long title track, ‘This Forest
and the Sea.’ "I was coming to
terms with what it mean to
exist… and saw the world in pure
black and white—there was no
room for grey,” Key said. “I saw
an American Culture devoid
of any understanding of its
place in the universe, how we
learn nothing save what we see
on television, how our
existence is tainted by
intellectual laziness, and how
our gift of life is defiled by
the taking of it." This deluxe
180-gram vinyl LP edition
of “This Forest and the Sea”
comes with an insert which
sports engaging, funny, and
insightful notes by
Key, photos, plus the text
to poem that inspired the title
track; as a nod to the forest,
the insert is printed on FSC
recycled, chlorine-free,
100% post-consumer fiber paper
manufactured using biogas
energy. A very rare album that
seems to have flown under
almost everyone’s radar—although
thankfully not Doug McGowan’s
(Yoga Records), who sent this
our way. One record
collector said to us, and we now
say to you: “Have a listen
because this rates up there with
classics by Bob
Desper, Perry Leopold,
Robbie Basho, and Phil Yost,
with dark moods similar to John
Fahey and Nick Drake.” This LP
edition is limited to 500
copies.
Track list:
Side A:
1. Cat Soup (2:12)
2. Buzzard Blues (2:41)
3. Firefly (1:55)
4. The Laughing Cowboy (1:50)
5. The Moohshiners Are Gone
6. Friend (2:02)
7. The Entanglement of Elroy
(3:48)
Side B:
1. Goon Lagoon (3:02)
2. The Old 'What If' (2:16)
3. Citizen/Mr. Jones (4:33)
4. This Forest and the Sea
(10:48)
Catalogue number: LION
LP-116
UPC: 77857811612