At PJ's

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:35:56
Includes liner notes by Richie Unterberger. This was the album that made Lopez explode nationally, reaching number two, staying in the Top 40 LP charts for about a year, and yielding the hit "If I Had a Hammer." All of this seems to have been largely forgotten today, but at the time Lopez was ubiquitous indeed. What he did, at the head of a trio with Mickey Jones (later to play briefly with Bob Dylan) on drums and Dick Brant on bass, was to make folk-pop swing. There is certainly some folk music on here, including "If I Had a Hammer," "This Land Is Your Land," and "Gotta Travel On." It could be surmised that by treating such material in this fashion, Lopez had a tiny influence upon the subsequent folk-rock movement; Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane has said as much. In truth, however, Lopez was more the all-around entertainer with a Latin lilt than he was a folk singer, so you also get "America" (from West Side Story), "La Bamba," Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," "Volare," and "When the Saints Go Marching In." The live party-a-go-go atmosphere did much to put Lopez's likable energy over, and likely influenced the similar live-in-a-small-club ambience on Johnny Rivers' early hits, especially as Jones played with Rivers as well. ~ Richie Unterberger
録音 : ステレオ (Live)