Eric Andersen - Vanguard Visionaries (2007)

Founded in 1950 by brothers Seymour Solomon and Maynard Solomon just as the LP format was taking hold (it had been introduced to the market two years previously), Vanguard Records took full advantage of the longer playing time afforded and began life as a classical label, moving easily into jazz, then gospel, bluegrass, blues, and folk (as Joan Baez's label, they had a high profile during the 1960s folk revival), eventually experimenting with rock groups like the Frost, although folk and classical remained the label's forte. Vanguard was sold to the Welk Group in 1985. The new owners set about revitalizing the imprint's back catalog, and also began adding contemporary recordings of country and pop artists as the 21st century began. To celebrate the imprint's rapidly approaching 60th anniversary, Vanguard has released a series of brief artist samplers (Vanguard Visionaries) from the label's peak 1960s and early-'70s era, including this one from Eric Andersen. Always a bit of an odd man out during the folk revival, Andersen recorded five albums for Vanguard between 1965 and 1969, all full of a kind of romantic and bohemian view of love's arrivals and departures, making him a precursor to the singer/songwriter explosion that emerged in the 1970s. These ten tracks, including the overwrought but still engaging "Violets of Dawn" and the lovely "Close the Door Lightly When You Go," are representative of Andersen's work with the label.