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Listening now to Lee Underwood’s California Sigh and its overriding mood of tranquillity, it’s hard to see how this album went unnoticed back in the eighties, being chock full of dynamic playing and interesting musical decision-making.
Lee Underwood is best known for his work as lead guitarist for Tim Buckley, working with him on seven of his nine albums in the sixties and seventies. California Sigh is his only solo acoustic guitar album (he later put out two piano albums), materialising in cassette form in 1988. Largely ignored back then, Drag City have made the correct decision to have remastered versions of the Steve Roach-produced (with Underwood assisting) songs released as a gorgeous double vinyl press, with liner notes from the encyclopaedic Byron Coley.
I can’t think of a more aptly titled album with more appropriate artwork. Although there are spiny points throughout this eleven-song, fifty-four-minute opus (parts of the epic Portals of the Heart spring to mind), the overriding mood is one of tranquillity. If we are going down the American instrumental guitar music school road, then this one sits quite comfortably on the Windham Hill side, with the playing mostly more akin to guys like Rick Deitrick and his Gentle Wilderness album than the hefty thumbing of Fahey. That said, (along with Lady of the Streams) the mercurial Portals of the Heart splits the difference, with a patient, harmonic-led intro making way for flat-picked notes (cleverly sharpening the tone by playing nearer the bridge in places) reminiscent of Sir Richard Bishop’s Tangier Sessions (which came much later in 2015).
The title track sees a bright and pretty guitar line blend with the sound of the Californian tide, to really evoke that summer mood. The easy strumming that makes up the bulk of the piece keeps this one as light as air, giving the sense of the sigh being one of contentment rather than frustration (this is backed up by Lee’s meeting of his future wife, Sonia Crespi, around this time). Lady of the Streams is in a similar vein, with bird song replacing the ocean sounds and a lovely picked line showing the only direct adoption of the Takoma style thumb technique on here.
So, although this is, for the most part, the slow west, the music sometimes raises an eyebrow. The beautifully shimmering Quietude Oasis very much enjoys the space allowed and takes us through a sunlit terrain, with mirages of reverb-heavy guitar scattered about. It’s great and matched by the stark and sunburnt Midnight Blue, a superb nine-minute flex that blends sharply picked and often almost urgent guitar with sounds of thunder and the whistling wind.
Listening now, it’s hard to see how this album went unnoticed back in the eighties, being chock full of dynamic playing and interesting musical decision making. Thanks to the folks at Drag City, we can now all enjoy an excellent, important album of instrumental guitar music.
California Sigh (28 June 2024) Drag City Records
Order/Save: https://lnk.to/californiasigh
