(2022) Robert Lester Folsom – Sunshine Only Sometimes: Archives Vol. 2, 1972-1975



Review:
In 1976, Southern singer/songwriter Robert Lester Folsom independently released his debut album Music and Dreams, a homespun collection of proto-yacht rock that was ever so slightly touched by psychedelia. Folsom's would-be AM Gold took the same course as so many private press albums of its time; it performed alright regionally but ultimately wasn't enough to pay the bills, and his rock & roll dreams were shelved until collectors and reissue labels started discovering the album 30 years later. Music and Dreams was great on its own, but opened the floodgates for an extensive archive of wonderful home-recorded material Folsom had amassed leading up to his first proper studio album. Sunshine Only Sometimes is the second volume of demo-like songs Folsom and friends recorded on reel-to-reel tape between 1972 and 1975, following the 2014 compilation Ode to a Rainy Day. Like all of his output from this time, the songs here are a specific brand of Southern soft rock, clearly enamored with George Harrison's solo catalog but holding undertones of both psychedelic spaciness and a twang inherent to Folsom's Georgia environments. There's no shortage of highlights on Sunshine Only Sometimes, covering all the stylistic bases Folsom was exploring at the time. "Ease My Mind" is breezy and wandering in the same way as much of Music and Dreams was, with its hints of melancholy brought to the surface by the low-budget recording quality. Songs like "Lonely Lovers" and the title track are bummer ballads drenched in phaser, fitting in nicely with the stoner loner energy of other unsung psychedelic folk singers of Folsom's time like Ted Lucas or Linda Perhacs. Other entries are more decidedly country flavored, with "Julie" being a joyful romp of fiddle, brassy acoustic guitars, and banjo while "Sinking Ship" takes more of a Neil Young approach to country-folk, sticking to ominous minor key and distant, unsettled emotions. The songs are largely subdued with minimal arrangements, but occasional full band numbers show up, as mellow as the honey-colored opener "Nobody Wants Me" and as rocking as the fun, silly rave-up "Singing in the Shower." The hazy recording quality is part of the charm of these heartfelt songs. The selections are a bit more depressing at times than those on the first volume of archival material, or those that made it on to Music and Dreams, but the overall sense that's conveyed is one of Folsom and friends finding joy, solace, and personal discovery in this sweetly strange music. — allmusic




Track List:
01. Nobody Wants Me
02. Strolling Along
03. Super See
04. Julie
05. Ease My Mind
06. Lonely Lovers
07. Slowly Sinking Ship
08. Singing in the Shower
09. Well That's Alright
10. I'm Still in Love with You
11. Warm Horizons
12. Lonely
13. Sunshine Only Sometimes


Media Report:
Genre: folk-rock, soft rock
Country: Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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