Sold Date: August 4, 2014
Start Date: July 24, 2014
Final Price: $16.99 (USD)
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LAURA NYRO -
CHRISTMAS AND
THE BEADS OF SWEAT
Columbia Records KC - 30259
Side 1 Produced By Arif Mardin
Side 2 Produced By Felix Cavaliere
1st U.S. Release
Released On Nov. 25, 1970

Tracklist
All songs written and composed by Laura Nyro,
except where noted.

A1.     "Brown Earth"       4:09
A2.     "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag"       2:42
A3.     "Blackpatch"       3:33
A4.     "Been on a Train"       5:49
A5.     "Up on the Roof" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)     3:13
B1.     "Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp"       5:34
B2.     "Map to the Treasure"       8:08
B3.     "Beads of Sweat"       4:47
B4.     "Christmas in My Soul"       7:00

Personnel

    Laura Nyro – Guitar, Piano, Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals
    Duane Allman – Guitar
    Barry Beckett – Background Vocals, Vibraphone
    Felix Cavaliere – Organ, Keyboards, Bells, Producer, Engineer
    Alice Coltrane – Harp
    Dino Danelli – Drums
    Richard Davis – Bass
    Cornell Dupree – Guitar
    Joe Farrell – Wind, Woodwind
    Ashad Garabedian – Oud
    Tim Greelan – Engineer
    Roger Hawkins – Drums
    Eddie Hinton – Guitar
    David Hood – Bass
    Jack Jennings – Percussion
    Ralph MacDonald – Percussion
    Arif Mardin – Arranger, Conductor, Producer
    Doug Pomeroy – Assistant Engineer
    Chuck Rainey – Bass
    Stuart Scharf – Guitar
    Roy Segal – Engineer
    Jerry Lee Smith – Assistant Engineer


Laura Nyro's third Columbia effort is easily the equal of her previous two.
The overwhelming strength of her song writing and distinctive arrangements fuel Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. Her unmistakable style of delivery maintains the continual examination of herself as a performer.
The results are uniformly interesting and provocative as she continues to draw upon her love of jazz, folk, and R&B -- which would inform Nyro's next album ,Gonna Take a Miracle, featuring the soul vocal trio LaBelle.
Conceptually, this album is as potent as her previous effort, New York Tendaberry, but in a much different way.
Rather than hanging together thematically, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat features two inclusive and distinctive sides of music -- with different musicians and producers for each.
The first five tracks feature Nyro backed by the Swampers from Muscle Shoals, AL, and include the talents of Roger Hawkins (drums), Eddie Hinton (guitar), Dave Hood (bass), Barry Becket (vibraphone), and Jack Jennings (percussion), with Arif Mardin producing.
While this pairing might seem initially incongruous, the quintet had been concurrently working with the likes of Dusty Springfield and Cher and had gained a rightful reputation as a consummate backup band.
The final four pieces are steeped in noir more atypical of her previous efforts.
The all-star cast of New York City session heavyweights are led by Felix Cavaliere (producer) and features fellow Rascals member Dino Danelli (drums), Ralph McDonald (percussion), Chuck Rainey (bass), Cornell Dupree (guitar), Duane Allman (guitar), and Alice Coltrane (stringed harp), among others.
As with all of Nyro's recordings, at the heart of this effort are her ageless compositions and arrangements.
A motif connecting such disparate tunes as the upbeat "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag" to the hauntingly beautiful "Christmas in My Soul" and "Beads of Sweat" is the aching hollowness that came with the disillusionment that Vietnam, Kent State, and racial relations brought upon America in 1970.
As she had done with "Save the Country" some four years earlier, Nyro's cathartic expressionism is captured at its most fervent on this album.

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