Ode to a Rainy Day: Archives 1972-1975

Georgia-based singer/songwriter Robert Lester Folsom only released one record, 1976's Music and Dreams, and outside of some spotty regional airplay, it went largely unheard. Rescued by the good folks at Mexican Summer under their Anthology reissue arm, the album, a breezy mix of AM pop and Yacht-like soft rock that invoked names like Seals & Crofts, Todd Rundgren, and Loggins & Messina, was granted a second life in 2010. Ode to a Rainy Day: Archives 1972-1975 completes the Robert Lester Folsom story (at least as of 2014) with a 13-track set of previously unreleased demos and assorted home recordings that were captured on a Sears reel-to-reel tape recorder by the artist in various rural locales in and around Adel, Georgia in the early '70s. Similar in sound quality to the Nick Drake demos (acceptable to poor), there are some choice snippets and interesting arrangements to be found here that suggest a steady diet of Beatles, Zombies, and various psych-folk acts, but it's hard to drum up too much interest for lo-fi recordings from an artist as obscure and as musically middle of the road as Folsom, despite the nifty packaging. ~ James Christopher Monger