January Tyme
First Time from Memphis

THE REVIEW

Honestly, I couldn't tell you exactly what January Tyme looked like, even when looking at the funny photo on the back cover of the record, long blonde hair over the mischievous features of her face, just like Candice Berger in "Soldier Blue." But her voice is something extraordinary that reasonably invites comparison with another great singer of the era: Grace Slick. 

I imagine San Francisco populated by long-haired freaks crowding the Fillmore West in search of music for the body and mind. I would have bet my turntable that the quintet led by January was a natural product of that colorful cradle of American counterculture, but incredibly the Tyme locate geographically on the icy opposite coast! Perhaps precisely for this reason they produced only one record between 1969 and 1970, only to disappear into oblivion.

It's a shame, because theirs was an explosive blend halfway between the blues rock of Big Brother & The Holding Company and the psychedelia of Jefferson Airplane. These two faces reveal themselves in the beautiful "Rainy Day Feeling" with January's voice soaring just like Slick's did, while "Love is Blind" heads towards more bluesy territories where Janis's vocals reigned.

Great songs and great technical skill did not bring luck to the quintet, who with "Ancient Babylon" demonstrate their ability to drag the unsuspecting (unaware in the sense of surprised) listener into the contagious whirlpool of the wonderful vocal lines of a refined yet aggressive rock.

It's the same pattern in "The Music," where January hardens her voice just a bit, while warm soulful vibrations introduced by the keyboards in "Are you Laughing" and the Jeffersonian "Take This Time" give us a sigh of relief for having narrowly lost to the depths of time and memory a delightful album from start to finish, especially for the singer's astonishing talent.