Description
Label Review.
1969 studio session. 10 acoustic solo recordings. Light In The Attic. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
American singer songwriter may not be a name you have heard of before, he was always just on the edge of success. Sullivan released his debut album, ‘U.F.O.’ in 1969 and played to devoted crowds at a regular gig in Malibu, California, in the early '70s. Despite hanging out with movie stars, fame eluded him. In 1975, he left Los Angeles, and his wife and son, to head to Nashville; he thought he could catch a break there. But Sullivan never made it to Tennessee - somewhere in the New Mexico desert, he disappeared, never to be seen again. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even think he was abducted by aliens.
‘U.F.O’ was originally released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost until 2010 Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance and to re-release the album and introduce the world to an overlooked masterwork - which won Jim posthumously (presumably) legions of new fans. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…
Forward to 2019 and Light In The Attic Records are releasing for the first time a release of previously unheard 1969 studio session ‘If The Evening Were Dawn’ plus a lavish reissue of Jim’s 1972 sophomore album ‘Jim Sullivan’.
If The Evening Were Dawn contains 10 acoustic solo recordings that have never seen the light of day. Whereas U.F.O. was bolstered by legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew, this is Jim Sullivan on his own terms, stripped down and soulful as ever. Recorded at a Los Angeles studio circa 1969, the session contains acoustic versions of a handful of ‘U.F.O.’ tracks alongside a half dozen previously unheard songs. This, then, is the closest thing to those fabled Malibu bar performances at which Sullivan was first noticed.
According to his widow, Barbara, this was the album Jim always hoped to record. It serves as an unprecedented glimpse into the mysterious, larger-than-life figure who’s become the stuff of legends. While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue. This recording serves as an unexpected missing piece of the puzzle; this is Jim Sullivan’s true swan song.