Item Description
BACKGROUND INFO: Montana Flintlock were a New Jersey-based folk rock band who were formed from the ashes of 1910 Fruitgum Company by Floyd Marcus, Pat Karwan and Steve Mortkowitz.
They were signed by Mike Appel trading as Laurel Canyon Ltd , who had just started to manage another New Jersey-ite, Bruce Springsteen, who occasionally jammed with Pat Karwan in the local clubs.
Appel managed to get Springsteen signed to Columbia, who were also briefly interested in signing Montana Flintlock before changing their minds.
Undaunted, Appel recorded an album with them that was produced by the Leiber Stoller duo.
He then tried to place the LP with a British label specifically DJM, who of course had just made Elton John into a star.
Unfortunately the Montana Flintlock album didn t come out, but it did get to test pressing stage and this seems to be the only copy THE MUSIC: Superb West Coast-sounding folk rock in the vein of Buffalo Springfield or CSNY, this has a beautiful blend of acoustic/electric instrumentation, magnificent harmonies and great self-written songs.
It s a remarkably consistent set, but highlights include Down By The Riverside lovely baroque folk pop with a stunning strings/cello arrangement , I d Like To dreamy CSNY-style West Coast harmony folk/psych with prominent organ , Time Enough a gorgeous ethereal Buffalo Springfield-style folk rocker with echoing harmonies and, in particular, Queen Of The Harvest and Instructions Come Inside both of which take their lead from the more uptempo Buffalo Springfield recordings with some uncanny Stephen Stills-style lead vocals backed by those gorgeous harmonies.
PRESSING DETAILS: White label test pressing that has band name and management company Laurel Canyon Ltd written on the label, while the inner sleeve has all the credits track titles, production credits, contact details etc written by hand on one side.
The outer sleeve is a plain white cover.
Interestingly, the matrix number in the run-out groove is machine-stamped rather than hand-written, so I m almost certain that this is a UK pressing possibly the tapes were sent over to England and some enterprising person/company ran off this solitary test pressing? Oddly though, the matrix number K1142 A and K1142 B doesn t seem to suggest a DJM pressing, so presumably it was cut independently.
One other thing: the package includes an original 1972 telex to Stephen James the guy who promoted Elton John at DJM, giving background information on Montana Flintlock that s clearly intended as a sales pitch it even ends if you need any further information, please let me know .
CONDITION: Vinyl has quite a few surface marks and is a little bit crackly in places but it plays well throughout with occasional non-intrusive background noise but no skips, jumps or distortion.
Almost certainly a one-off item, I really can t imagine that another copy will ever surface...
