Rock, Ballad: Silk - Smooth As Raw 1969 (2008 Bulls Eye) DigiPak

Silk came from Cleveland and released their one and only album, SMOOTH AS RAW SILK, in 1969. The band featured now-legendary Cleveland rocker Michael Stanley among its ranks. I don't know much about the band except this sole work by them.

The album starts after the 'Introduction' with the rather hard rock influenced 'Foreign Trip'. From about the middle of the song the choir Background and the Congas remind a bit of a very well-known song of the Stones from that time. 'Long Haired Boy' is a very nice ballad with strings, organ and acoustic guitars.  'Not a Whole I Can Do' reminds a bit of Rare Earth with its horns. A supporting element in almost all songs is the organ. Exception is the country song 'Custody' which completely fails with its partial speech singing.

'Scottish Thing' starts balladesk, but then after around 1 minute and a half the song takes up more rock elements. And why the song is called 'Scottish Thing' you will know after around three minutes. The ballad 'Hours' surprising with the end of the song. 'Walk In My Mind' is a very nice ballad with fine arrangement (strings) and great melodic work. Only an average rocker in my opinion is 'Come on Down Girl'. Surely a highlight is ' For all Time'. The song reminds me a bit of the Moody Blues. Okay, that's it. The strenghts are surely the ballads on the album. But listen yourself. Enjoy.(Frank)

Flac (zippy)                                               Flac (M)                                

mp3@320 (zippy)                                     mp3@320 (M)

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