Description
Label Review.
1972 album. 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 a lavish reissue of Jim’s 1972 sophomore album ‘Jim Sullivan’ plus for the first time a release of previously unheard 1969 studio session ‘If The Evening Were Dawn’.
The self-titled LP was originally released on Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner’s short-lived Playboy imprint. Horns sweeten this funky and bombastic session driven by Jim’s unmistakably larger-than-life voice and exceptional song-writing chops, alongside a cast of legendary session musicians including Jim Hughart.This is another LP you’ll rarely see in the wild, it is by no means the poor relation of ‘U.F.O.’, but rather a big stride into country, folk rock, and swampy blues, mesmerically finger-picked, brass-bedecked, and with that uniqueness of phrasing–part crooner, part jazz singer–that makes Sullivan such a rare performer.Each song could have been a bonafide radio hit, but with spotty promotion and negative connotations surrounding the Playboy name, the self-titled album suffered a fate known all too well and fizzled out. While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue.