Leaf River - Son Shine (1971)

Gene: Jesus Music / Christian Rock

Obscure California band’s first-rate venture into early Jesus Music country-rock sound, soon to be popularized by groups like The Way and Love Song.  Good natural outdoor feel, usually with just acoustic/electric guitars, bass and drums, plus samplings of banjo and steel guitar.  No keyboards, strings, brass, etc.  “Tell Me More’ cranks things up pretty good, though for the most part this is not a loud album.  Nice subtle rural/psych edge ala Rainbow Promise on ‘Jesus Of Nazareth’.    Other original titles include ‘He’s The Way’, ‘Don’t Let The Devil Get You Down’, ‘The Beast’ and ‘Shoulder To Cry On/Goodbye, Goodbye’.  Also faithful covers of the Flying Burito Brothers’ ‘Sin City’  (on which they sound like the Flying Burito Brothers, not surprisingly) and Larry Norman’s ‘I Wish We’d All Been Ready’.  One of the members is Jon Linn (bass, lead guitar), later to become a prominent session guitarist on many Larry Norman and Solid Rock records.  Simple black-on-yellow cover with primitive hand-drawn art and graphics – definitely has that local look.  Reported to be a 300 press item.      (The Archivist by Ken Scott, 4th Edition).

Tracks:
01. He’s The Way
02. Sin City
03. Don’t Let The Devil Get You Down
04. The Beast
05. Showed Me The Way To Heaven
06. Three Day’s Time
07. I Wish We’d All Been Ready
08. Tell Me More
09. Jesus Of Nazareth
10. Shoulder To Cry On & Goodbye Goodbye

New Download Link

Thanks to Armo for the link