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Our rating: 8 out of 10 stars
Drift in from an alternate reality, a parallel Earth wherein softly-plucked acoustic guitars, honey-warm vocal harmonies, and soothing country-jazz textures are an integral part of pop music. Actually, we're not talking about the Twilight Zone here. In the early '70s, artists such as Tumbledown provided the backbone for rock radio.
But Tumbledown isn't just about baby-boomer nostalgia. This is a group with strong original material, enough to draw comparisons to James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, and especially Poco. The rootsy "The Right Thing to Do" is a work of beauty, a mighty pretty slice of classic country and Van Morrison soul.
Although Tumbledown wet their toes in country waters, they never make a complete plunge. The band echoes the eclectic influences and stylistic adventurousness of many FM radio staples in the late '60s. On "Comfort Me," Tumbledown recalls the Latin vibe of vintage Santana but also the dreamy lushness of Classics IV. "Sail Away" is a dead ringer for Crosby, Stills & Nash with its singalong vocals; however, it also includes a spellbinding instrumental jam that displays the group's impressive chops.
http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=4534
- Adam Harrington
Tumbledown Sets Sail
Duo Lays It Down Easy
If the songs on Tumbledown's Sail Away tend toward the bucolic and the melodies are tinged with an Eagles meets Grateful Dead meets James Taylor flavor, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the songs were conceived in a cottage. Scott Swan and Alan Collins - the forty-somethings behind Tumbledown - grew up playing guitar in the Tumbledown/Webb Lake region of western Maine. Collins stayed in Maine, while [Swan] now lives in Florida. Growing up together, the two spent summers together playing music tucked away in the cabin that Scott's great-great-great grandfather once built.
Scott claims Alan is the one who taught him to play the guitar. "Now he can play circles around me," Collins laughs.
The two found peace in the region, so they decided to record the album's basic tracks over the course of three weeks, with the backdrop of those same.
"Sunset over Tumbledown is just a gorgeous time, and it is an unbelievably gorgeous lake, surrounded by mountains. That's where our formative years - and a lot of writing and playing - took place," says Swan.
The tracks on Sail Away truly sound homespun. Scott's teenage son cameos on "Comfort Me," which he also wrote.
Though the duet's obvious and cited influences are America, Jim Croce, James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot, you can clearly hear the influences of bands like Led Zeppelin in the progressions of "Sail Away."
Swan describes their musical process: "Alan tends to have a clearer sense of the 'big picture.' He would hear things in the big picture; I can feel the details." Though the two find it hard to tour because of their geographical differences, they hope to hit up the coffee house circuit soon.
- Claudia Ward-de-Leon
[Sail Away] is from Farmington area musicians Alan Collins and Scott Swan (although Scott is now living in Florida). These long-time friends recorded this all-original disc at a camp in Weld in the summer of 2005. It has a nice, down home feel with most of the playing done by Scott and Alan with the help of some friends and family members. Fans of the Eagles should enjoy this CD.
- Ernie Scholl
Discography
Sail Away (CD) released on 11/9/06 - includes 11 original songs plus 3 bonus tracks
"The Right Thing To Do" is featured on an Oasis Sampler CD.
"Memories" is featured on Apache Rose's Best New Bands Volume 2 compilation CD.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Alan Collins and Scott Swan hail from the small town of East Wilton in rural Western Maine. As childhood friends, they developed a keen interest in and appreciation of music at a very early age. Both Alan and Scott started playing guitar in their early teens. "We were really into the acoustic bands and artists of the day," Alan recalls, "especially America because of the choppy rhythms and liberal use of major seventh and minor seventh chords. It was really great to jam to." Other significant influences came from bands and artists like Jim Croce, The Eagles, Poco, Dan Fogelberg, Jackson Brown, CSN (& sometimes Y), Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and James Taylor.
Both played in several local bands in high school. Ironically, they never played in the same bands, though they got together and jammed frequently.
In their later teens, Alan and Scott began experimenting with writing music. Alan wrote a number of songs by himself and collaborated with Scott as well.
After high school Alan and Scott went their separate ways. Scott joined the Air Force and was stationed in Washington DC after basic training, where he worked in the Pentagon as a linguist for the next six years. He also met and married his wife there. After his hitch with the Air Force was up, he and his family moved to Florida, where he still lives today.
Meanwhile, Alan stayed in Maine, also got married, and lived in several nearby cities and towns before eventually settling down in Farmington. Although the distances divided them, they kept two things in common: their love of music and their love of Weld, Maine – a place where both Scott and Alan spent a lot of time in the summer from the time they were young.
Scott and Alan often went years without seeing each other, but remained good friends. When they did get together, Weld was always the meeting place. Alan recalls that whenever they got together after several years that “We just sort of picked where we left off. It was like we were never apart.” That was true of their friendship and their guitar playing as well.
In the summer of 2003, Scott and Alan started focusing on some of the songs they had written over the years together and apart and started making plans to record a CD. Unfortunately, it was a very hot summer and they spent much of their time in the lake trying to stay cool. Nevertheless, they did manage to record three demo songs: “Guitar Melody #42” (Later re-recorded as “The Narrows”), “Stardust” and “Sail Away.” The latter two original demos are included as bonus tracks on their CD.
It was that same summer that the duo decided on the name “Tumbledown," after one of the more prominent and beautiful mountains in Weld. Both agreed that the name had to have something to do with Weld and they both felt it had a nice ring to it.
The next summer, Scott’s time to collaborate with Alan was limited, but he managed to finish the song “The Last To Say Goodbye” he’d been working on for a couple of years. They recorded a demo of that as well, but nothing more.
In the summer of 2005, Alan and Scott recorded all of the guitar, bass and vocal tracks for the songs included on “Sail Away” in three weeks at a cottage-turned-recording-studio on Webb Lake in Weld.
For the next year and a half, Alan – in his spare time – overdubbed backing vocals and additional percussion, and did a lot of mixing and re-mixing. The only thing lacking was drums. “We kind of did things backwards.” Alan recalls. “We had three different drummers lined up that fell through, but we had to keep the project moving or it would never have happened.”
Finally, last summer Alan found a drummer and was able to get the drum tracks recorded. After spending the rest of the summer and early fall doing more re-mixing, the project was finally complete. It was mastered, pressed and released in November of 2006.
“Sail Away” represents over 25 years of the songwriting of Scott and Alan, both individually and collectively. In many ways, it also represents a family effort in that Scott’s son Jonathon played with us on many of the songs (and wrote the song “Comfort Me”), and Alan’s wife Kay Sue and several children contributed their musical talents as well to make the CD complete.
Because both Scott and Alan live so far apart and both have full-time jobs (Scott is a teacher, which allows him to come to Maine in the summer), Tumbledown is not currently touring. However, plans are in the works for a future CD (they have more than enough material written), and possibly some future live shows as well.
Two songs from this CD ("The Right Thing To Do” and “Make It Up To You”) are in the Windows role-playing game (RPG) “Shady O’Grady’s Rising Star” by Gilligames.
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