Marc Brierley - Hello (Reissue) (1969/2014)

A minor player on the late-'60s British folk-rock scene, guitarist and singer/songwriter Marc Brierley made a couple of albums in the late '60s that were somewhat in line with the folk-pop-rock Donovan was making around the same time, though they were milder and far less distinctive. Brierley made his recording debut in 1966 with a five-song acoustic EP for Transatlantic Records that was similar in nature to the early acoustic recordings of Donovan and Bert Jansch. His 1968 debut LP, Welcome to the Citadel, expanded his arrangements into light folk-rock and touches of orchestration, with Tony Reeves and Mike Travis (who'd just toured with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) as the rhythm section. One-time Donovan manager Ashley Kozak produced 1969's more melodic Hello, which moved toward slightly fuller pop/rock arrangements, though as on its predecessor these sometimes had a Baroque flavor. Other than a couple of non-LP singles in 1969 and 1970, that would be Brierley's entire recording career, as he retired from music in 1973. All of Brierley's recordings were compiled on the two-CD set Autograph of Time: The Complete Recordings 1966-1970.