20 Years of Beachwood Sparks
Just over 20 years ago, the definitive, and one of the greatest modern Californiana records was released. Today, founding Spark Brent Rademaker’s Curation Records reissues a remastered, refreshed, revitalized sparkling, fully-loaded array of re-issue offerings. The double-LP features one record containing the original tracks mastered by John Golden re-imagined for vinyl by JJ Golden; while disc 2 features bonus tracks and unreleased versions of “This Is What It Feels Like,” “Canyon Ride,” and the original recording of “Morning Light,” later released on Painted Hills, Josh Schwartz’s project of the same name. The companion CD Beachwood Deluxe features the bonus tracks and eight live recordings from a 2000 concert in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
This band epitomized the modern California Country sound that’s surging in popularity today, and laid the groundwork for many blossoming bands aesthetically and sonically. Beyond the sound, they created a world, a scene, a thriving community of artists, friends and fans alike, who were making music and art fundamentally tied to nature and family, desert skies, canyon rides, the stars, the sun, the trees.
Each track on the 2000 album is sparkling, familiar and fresh. The range of sounds and effects on this record is staggering. Transitions and sequencing are flawless – “This is What It Feels Like” > “Canyon Ride”; “See, Oh Three” > “Sleeping Butterfly.” They do it all so well – forlorn and lonesome, out on the range staring at the horizon of your life on “New County” and “The Reminder”; romantic and star-crossed, rambunctious and rowdy (“Sister Rose”); always beautiful, no note out of place or extemporaneous.
The family tree of Sparks-related and adjacent artistry is long and unfurls across the globe. The Sparks themselves are always expanding and collapsing, realigning and overlapping in various formations, coming together and breaking off in various iterations that form the unique constellations that make up the galaxy known as Los Angeles. Word on the street was pre-pandemic, there were plans to head north to record another album and we’re anxiously awaiting. In the meantime, savor the unreleased and live tracks on Beachwood Deluxe, spin the shiny remaster, prepare for upcoming releases from Farmer Dave and the Wizard of the West, GospelbeacH and The Tyde; or explore the immense back catalog of related projects. There will always be Beachwood Sparks.
Get the re-issue on Curation Records and spring for the deluxe package if you can. It’s something special.
