Wendy Flower
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Wendy Flower

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"Genesis - Wendy & Bonnie"

“So here are two teenaged girls, with a recording contract, and a clutch of musicians at their disposal including Jim Keltner, Mike Melvoin, and Larry Carlton. Um, not bad. What they came up with is truly a stunner ... The whole thing is executed brilliantly and sympathetically by the Extreme-Heavyweight musicians, who never let their own agendas get in the way. In fact, the whole thing is SO brilliant that when you first put it on, you immediately think ‘hoax.’ There’s no way these girls could have come up with this music. But they did, and you really need to hear it.” - Ugly Things

"The music is unashamedly pretty and deceptively complex, and any fan of late '60s soft pop has to hear it ... Genesis is a remarkable album." - Amplifier

“A true artifact of life in the pop culture vortex of the 60s...For those whose finely attuned musical radar has brought them under the spell of Free Design’s exuberant harmonizing and Curt Boettcher’s avant-bubblegum recordings with The Millennium and Sagittarius, Genesis will come as welcome discovery to be happily filed somewhere between the two. Quality kitsch, as it were.” -M Hotel Music Media

"Revived with bonus tracks, Genesis is a charming, surprisingly mature confection, studded with tasteful session work and the girl's own prodigious playing ... sure to appeal to sixties pop afficionados." -Scram

“...a sophisticated production with sweet lyrics, complex musical sounds and a jazz/pop/soft rock ambiance...” -Pacifica Tribune

“...Bay Area sisters’ sweetly sorrowful harmonies with songs remains as fresh and captivating as ever.” -The Oakland Tribune

“Delicate and warm, the album imparts a sense of worldliness and skill that belies the sisters’ youth. If you can meet the unashamedly sentimental tone of this beautiful music on its own terms, there won’t be much better listening while the summer grass is still there for you to laze in...” -Straight

“Genesis, an unclassifiable but wholly beguiling 1969 LP by teenage sisters Wendy and Bonnie Flower, is an even more remarkable rediscovery. On self-penned folk-pop-jazz tunes like ‘Let Yourself Go Another Time’ and ‘By The Sea,’ the duo offers a radiant mix of youthful innocence and precocious sophistication, merging an inventive melodic sensibility with seamlessly organic sibling harmonies.” -Time Out New York

Top 5 Of The Moment
by Joey Sweeney
Wendy & Bonnie, Genesis (Sundazed)
Delivered from a weird, breezy place in the '60s that I'm not sure ever really existed (apart from deep inside the brainy vocal pop confections of groups like the Association, Sagittarius and the Free Design), Genesis is the lone creation of sister act Wendy and Bonnie Flower of San Francisco. Recorded in late 1968, when Wendy was 17 and Bonnie a mere 13, the album is a miasma of druggy topical pop crushed up against Brazilian rhythms and Hammond surges that renders the music with an almost erotic otherness. Given that--along with the oddly cold and sing-songy delivery of the sisters--it shouldn't be a surprise that this newly rediscovered gem, reissued with bonus tracks by Sundazed, was part of the Skye records family, the groovy sounds receptacle headed up in the late '60s by a triumvirate of weird Latin-jazz pop giants: Cal Tjader, Gabor Szabo and most important, Gary McFarland. Wendy and Bonnie were a Tjader discovery, sure enough (he was a friend of their parents), but McFarland--fittingly the first jazz player to blend bossa nova and the Beatles--took the helm on the production of Genesis. In it, you can hear so much of what's become out-sound posturing--it's no shock to hear Stereolab's Tim Gane quoted in the liner notes--but also so much more. At the time of its release, Wendy & Bonnie's brand of psychedelia was removed from the cultural tide of the times--the lysergic '60s were already winding down, co-opted by no end of gauche, two-years-too-late ad campaigns and anti-drug films. Within weeks of Genesis hitting the stores, word came down that the Skye label was going bust, and with that, it became apparent that Wendy & Bonnie never really had a chance: Fashion was against them for being too smart and too young, and the business was more than any teenager should have to fathom. But the music contained herein is as strange and wonderful as anything produced in the era: there's shades of Simon and Garfunkel's wry commentary, the eerie harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas, the inadvertent funk of period soundtrack music and the humid naivete of everyone from The Brady Bunch to the Banana Splits. Genesis is awkward, but only because of how huge it is for its age. The fact that the gals never got a proper chance to grow into it is a damn shame, but also makes for one of the great one-shot deals of its time.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=3487

- philadelphiaweekly.com


"Wendy Flower, Children's Performer"

Wendy Flower is the Pied Piper of children's entertainment... "" - San Francisco Chronicle


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

WENDY FLOWER

Melody and harmony have always played a major role in the life of Wendy Flower.

Wendy was born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Millbrae. Her parents were deeply involved in music. Her father, drummer Arthur Flower was a fixture on the Bay Area scene, including a lengthy stint in the house band of famed Bimbo’s 365 Club. Her mother Jeane sang with big bands. Both taught music on the Peninsula.

So Wendy heard a wealth of jazz, as well as classical music during her childhood. She grew to love folk, pop, rock and Latin sounds.

Wendy became the lead vocalist of the promising Bay Area band Crystal Fountain.

In 1969, while still in their teens, Wendy & Bonnie recorded the now classic “Genesis” album. It quickly disappeared, due to the bankruptcy of the label, Skye Records.

Wendy subsequently sang with numerous other Bay Area bands, recorded jingles and added vocals on sessions with prominent artists, such as Cal Tjader.

Wendy earned her childhood education degree and taught music to young people via her imaginative Mew Mew Music program. She established The Flower Puppet Family, a children’s entertainment company featuring numerous puppets she designed. She released a children’s music cassette, the much acclaimed “My Pet Songs,” in the late ‘80s.

She and her husband Paul Freeman wrote and recorded “We Care,” the theme song for Project Wee Care, an organization which enables children to help the homeless.

Meanwhile, “Genesis” had become a cult favorite. Interest from such artists as Stereolab and such producers as Irwin Chusid and Mike Alway led to the album’s release on CD via the Sundazed label. It earned rave reviews from North American, UK, European and Japanese critics. It received airplay on many college, free-form and folk radio and internet stations.

The innovative Welsh band Super Furry Animals chose a sample from “By The Sea,” one of the beloved songs from “Genesis,” to open their “Phantom Power” CD. While playing San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore Theater, they invited Wendy to join them on stage. She performed a duet of the band’s “Hello Sunshine” with front man Gruff Rhys to a standing, cheering, full house. SFA included the rehearsal of that number in their DVD documentary “American Sasquatch,” a bonus disc in their “Songbook: The Singles Vol.1.”

“By The Sea” is also featured on the new Andy Votel compilation, “Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word.”

Now Wendy is back with “Flower Power.” Originally inspired by Paul’s screenplay of the same title, this is a family-oriented, folk-rock, ‘60s-ish message album. Themes include peace, brotherhood, individuality, the environment and animal rights. A portion of the proceeds goes to Free the Children, a very admirable international organization.

Wendy and Paul have already written many of the songs for her next project, a “grown-up” rock/techno/folk/jazz/Wendy & Bonnie-ish CD. This will be her first foray into this territory since “Genesis.”