Airborne – Songs For A City

You see this cover and it screams private psychedelic folk grail. Look at the naked man playing the guitar, sitting on top of the world and holding a dove. Beautiful. And that is exactly what this album is. However, it is not psychedelic folk. It does have a few CSNY moves, and even a really gentle acoustic folk song that would sit well with any psych-folk grail, but the best songs are the AOR/MOR/Soft-Rock jams. Excellent song-writing with an awesome singer whose voice I never get tired of.

Airborne hails from Vancouver, British Columbia. This their lone album, released on their own Ocean Records label (see label scan below) was released in 1977 in a pressing of 2,000 which almost sold out. They had a few hits and 45s play on local radio and recouped all their money. This is probably why unbid copies of this album appear on ebay, for when I first heard it I thought it would truly be desirable. Either that or people haven’t heard it yet.

Musically I just really love this record. I recommended it to a fellow waxidermist who felt it sounded like mediocre 70s rock. However, some of my “real world” friends have very much enjoyed it. This means that the real-world is better than waxidermy, a conclusion I never want to make again.

There is a whole Donn Tarris, The Wet!, Arrival, Airborne, Buttertree Sound Studio interconnection which I am going to save for my review of the Donn Tarris album, but they all worked together in the late 70s producing some fine music.

Without producing too much information that is already on the web, you can visit the Airborne Website for information on Band Member’s names, etc. I have spoken to both Donn Tarris and Dave Giddings and they are excellent people, who happily handed me a wealth of knowledge.

Listen: Airborne Clips