Paul Siebel

Amazon.com

Paul Siebel is a singer-songwriter in the mold of Eric Andersen and the lyrical Phil Ochs (whose voice his off-kilter, nasal delivery recalls), but he never built up a consistent audience, and he’s since slipped through the cracks. A welcome reissue of Siebel’s much praised 1970 release Woodsmoke and Oranges (and including five tracks from the later Jack-knife Gypsy), these 15 songs show Siebel’s prodigious lyrical talents, and why, in his day, he was held in high esteem by fellow songwriters. Session all-stars David Bromberg, Clarence White, Richard Greene, David Grisman, and Buddy Emmons lend this record a classic, rolling country sound, and help ground Siebel’s imagistic narratives. –Roy Francis Kasten