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Apr 01, 2010 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

Had a few key elements of Essra Mohawk’s career worked out only a bit differently, her footprint on ‘70s music might have gone a bit deeper. Her 1969 debut album, Sandy’s Album Is Here At Last! (under the name Sandy Hurvitz), was hindered by botched production. Later that year she arrived too late at the heliport to be transported in time for her scheduled performance at the Woodstock festival.

Releasing the best album of her career a year later should have helped to right her ship. Recording under the name Essra Mohawk, following her marriage to producer Frazier Mohawk, Primordial Lovers offers some of her best songs in a considerably more appropriate (if occasionally dated) musical setting than Sandy’s Album.

Mohawk and her piano are again front and center, with thankfully more sonic clarity than her debut. Though Mohawk’s vocal expression can veer from soaring to excessive, on Primordial Lovers she generally maintains a pleasing balance. As with her previous album, song structure here is loose, but only with the seemingly endless “Looking Forward to the Dawn” is she seriously remiss with not reining in her indulgences.

At times the accompanying players create settings that now sound amusingly period-born, like the ‘70s-urban-with-wah-wah backing on “Spiral,” though some bands would probably kill to replicate it nowadays. For the most part, however, the music (usually light rock or lighter) works well with Mohawk’s vocal flights, with “Thunder in the Morning” even becoming a turntable hit on album rock radio.

Sadly, there was no single, no tour, and no promotion, draining away the possibility that Mohawk might have been recognized at the time as a peer of Carole King and Laura Nyro. Nevertheless, Primordial Lovers did find its fans, and is largely the record that gave Mohawk a career. (www.essramohawk.com)

Author rating: 7/10