Artist: Traffic
Album: Traffic
Year: 1968
Traffic is an interesting album to me, in that it kind of crosses the boundary between the British folk stuff that Donovan, Bert Jansch, etc. were championing and the blues-rock of The Rolling Stones and their ilk. So it's a rock and roll record with a distinctly old-world feel (and not in the campy vaudevillian way that The Beatles were putting out there).
Led by two singer/songwriters, Dave Mason and Steve Winwood--the latter of whom would find success as a solo artist a couple decades later--Traffic does a really nice job of bridging the gap between the old and the new. The opening track, "You Can All Join In," is particularly cool, kind of a British hoedown punctuated by screechy saxophone. The mellow, mysterious "40,000 Headman" is another highlight, foreshadowing the sort of stuff Jethro Tull would excel at later on. "Feelin' Alright" is the big hit from this album, and it's a great blues-rocker. I had no idea it was Traffic who sang that one, but that song is all over every classic rock radio station. Really, this album plays as some kind of greatest-hits compilation, for songs that could/should have been hits but mostly weren't.
Another thing: this is the first album that has felt really "70's" to me, with that quintessential "classic rock" sound. Really, really good stuff, this is.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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