The Wailing Wall - s/t
(Shadoks)
From El Paso's Suemi label, home of Iota (also reissued by Rockadelic/Shadoks), Wailing Wall was the brainchild of guitarist Mike Cancellare, who enlisted drummer David Rutledge and Adams brothers Darrell (bass) and Doug (guitar/vocals) to complete the band. Doug later relocated to Novato, California, served a brief stint in New Riders of the Purple Sage, and released several albums with his Middle Eastern-influenced project, Light Rain.
Wailing Wall sounds like a bluesy cross between Captain Beefheart, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sun Ensemble, propelled by Doug's bluesy grunts and shrieks on opener "Scissor-Tail Swallow" and Rutledge's surreal, Dylanesque spoken-word vocals on "Country of the Goose," underscored by unusual tempo changes (starting at 6/8 and switching mid-song to 2/4) and Doug's meandering recorder. At 9+ minutes, the Eastern-flavored "Goose" deteriorates into patience-testing pretentiousness. Before it implodes, though, it does manage to relay a desert-fried psychedelic vibe.
"Flying" has a pleasant, laid-back Poco groove which might have made for a nice single. The short and loose jam "Hot Summer's Night" recalls CSNY at their peak. "Mad Rapper" successfully recreates the swampy, bluesy skronk of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Graveyard Train," released the previous year (1969). The "Dark House/Crazy Nights" medley is less successful, with painfully inept vocals bordering on parody that make Father Yod sound like Perry Como. In his excellent liner notes, Darrell acknowledges his shortcomings, humorously noting, "My one solo vocal on the whole album is the "woman, woman" part in "Dark House," and thank GOD [Emphasis NOT added!] for that!!!" The second half is also a rather pale imitation of the mellower moments of YaHoWa 13, as is the stoner vibe of "I'm Running Low," despite some admittedly wicked guitar soloing from Cancellare. Adams says: "There's a cool little lick that he plays on the slower part that's mixed way back." Listen for it.
Finally, if you can imagine Father Yod, Capt. Beefheart, or Moondog reciting a story over a musical backing that sounds like Lou Reed's "Coney Island Baby" melded onto Neil Young's "On the Beach," then you'll have a good idea of the insanity that awaits within Rutledge's "Meet My Dreams," a fittingly weird conclusion—complete with the Adams brothers playing their high school trombones!—to this wonderfully whacked-out memento of Southern-fried rock. Just ignore the myriad spelling errors that, once again, plague the booklet; both Cancellare's and Darrell's names are misspelled!
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