Swift Rain Coming Down Rare Shrink Hi Records London Stereo Texas 1969

$

50

The Mad Platter presents:

A minty fresh collection recently purchased, and listed for your buying pleasure.

Check my other listings for more stone cold rarities.

Vinyl: EX to VG++, under bright light, there's a few long paper scuffs and wispy scuffs that do not affect play whatsoever.

Cover: NM-, top right corner cut, still in the original shrink wrap

             Still has the price tag attached, 99 cents!

Labels: NM-, on London Records subsidiary Hi Records.

Only 7 copies of this have sold on EBay in the past 2 years!! It's becoming a hard record to track down. The last 2 copies that sold in the shrink wrap and same condition went for $50 and $65.

No splits and completely legible spine.

Hard rock/rural soaked banger outta Texas.

Not a ton of information on this one.

The reviewer below has only seen 2 copies in real life.

Here's a review I found online that seems to be the most accurate:

A nicely diverse mix of hard rock, rural flavored rock, and semi-comm rock, with good guitar, great song writing, and "mild" psych influences.

It's another LP that's been hyped by some dealers as a psych rarity and masterpiece.  Not sure about where it stands on the rarity scale (we've only seen two copies in 25 years), but we can tell you it ain't psych.  That said, this one's kind of interesting in that you have to wonder how a rather conventional (but talented) Texas-based rock outfit ended up recording for the Memphis-based Hi Records which was better known for its soul roster including the likes of Al Green and Ann Pebbles.

From what we can tell drummer Andre Bonaguidi, guitarist Frankie Sotelo and bassist Paul West were originally from El Paso, Texas where they'd played in a number of groups including The Intruders (West) and Lode Star (Bonaguidi and Sotelo).  Separately The Intruders and Lode Star managed to record a couple of tracks include on a compilation album released by the small El Paso Suemi Records.  With the album vanishing into thin air and their respective bands collapsing, three three principles decided to form Swift Rain.  Some early demos were enough for Suemi owners Kenny Smith and Bill Taylor to start recording material, but without adequate financial backing the project fell apart.  The trio continued to rehearse, eventually adding lead guitarist Mike Ciccarelli to their line-up.

In the meantime Suemi owners Smith and Taylor had signed a deal with Hi Records to track down, sign and produce rock (aka 'white') acts for the label.  One of their first acts was to sign Swift Rain. 

Produced by the band and Taylor, 1969's "Coming Down" was recorded in Memphis (reportedly the project was completed in less than a week). With three of the four members contributing material, musically the set was fairly diverse, incorporating conventional pop, rock and even country influences into the mix.  Nothing here was particularly original  or knock-out impressive .  Similarly, all four members sang, but none had a to-die-for voice.  Be forewarned, "Nancy's Song" and a couple of the songs sported vocals that were pretty raw - particularly when they try to kick it into a higher register.  Please, no more falsettos!  That may explain why many of the songs sported group vocals.  So what makes the set worth owning?   Propelled by Sotello's guitar, the band were at their best on straight-ahead rockers such as "Everybird" and "Everywhere (In My Town)".  While we're not big country-rock fans, we'll admit that West had a knack for the genre.  His "Broken Love" sported a wonderful melody, while "Yo Soi Tuyo" would have fit well on something by Stephen Stills and Manassas.  The album generating favorable critical buzz and Swift Rain was subsequently hired to serve as the opening act for Mountain on an upcoming American tour.  Naturally the quartet reacted to their breakthrough successes by calling it quits.