Hudson Farnsworth - From Night To Day (1975)

Up until a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have been too eager to be spending my cash on albums from 1975, considering it "a bit too late" in the seventies to be any good, and I'm probably not the only record collector who feels this way. Some of these albums though, while sounding very much a product of it's time, production wise, revive a certain spirit/vibe from the post-psych, soft pop days of the late 1960's. "From Night To Day" by Hudson Farnsworth is one of these albums.

Mike Hudson and Bob Farnsworth wanted to be millionaire pop stars and set about this by moving to Nashville in 1974, landing a recording contract with ABC Records within a matter of weeks. Recorded and mixed at Jerry Shook's Celebration Studio in Nashville, the album was produced by Rory Bourke and Henry Hurt for Gallery Productions. 

The majority of the album is acoustic based with the band joining in in a mellow fashion as you'd expect after taking one look at the guys yawning on the LP sleeve. The acoustic guitar sound throughout the album is as nice and well recorded as you could every wish to hear, with every note ringing clear. A string quartet and some generous scatterings of Moog synth (to my delight) are mixed to great effect to embellish the songs adding depth and colour while keeping it keeping it interesting. Simon and Garfunkel are an obvious influence on the duo and I can't help thinking that this is what Jamme would have sounded like, had they lasted a few more years. 

Bob Farnsworth & Mike Hudson

The back cover states "the songs on this album represent the progression in our lives from night to day", and by that they can only mean that the first song is called "Night" and the last song is called "Day" because I've been listening out for a theme and as usual with these concepts, the only people that get it are the songwriters! That's just me being picky though. 

Things were looking good for the duo but despite some critical acclaim, the album bombed. Shortly after, Bob Farnsworth started writing and producing music for adverts and his company, Hummingbird Productions have provided jingles for Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and were the brains behind the Budweiser Frogs!

With not a bad song on the album, an easy one to find, and cheap (I paid £4 for a sealed copy), you really have no excuse for not owning this album. Two songs on the album are tipped to appear on the next volume of the Fading Yellow series, so the cheap copies will soon get bagged. Fans of Chad & Jeremy, Twinn Connexion and the late period Association will most definitely dig this. 

Now listen...