Content area
Full Text
Lisa Wheeler
When it came to collecting rare folk psych recordings, Alan Marsh knew that his choices were somewhat limited in his hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 45-year-old collector had already compiled an impressive collection with what few resources he had locally, so he, like so many others, decided to try his luck with an on-line auction source.
"The potential for acquiring hard-to- find albums and CDs, which never show up here in Canada, is astounding," Marsh said.
In his pursuit of the genre, he kept his eye out for a little-known Dublin band called Mellow Candle and its one and only album, titled Swaddling Songs . The disc was originally released on the Decca offshoot label Deram in 1972 (SDL 7) and was commanding $1,000 and more, if you were lucky enough to find a decent copy. For Marsh, acquiring the disc was the goal; it would surely be the centerpiece of his collection.
Recorded in December 1971, Swaddling Songs features the haunting female...