Alicia May - Skinnydipping In The Flowers

Multi-instrumentalist 70s singer-songwriter rediscovered

When an LP has been “privately pressed” it usually means one of three things. Either the artist was too terrible to net a deal; or they were so far ahead of their time that no one would have bought a commercially-produced disc; or they had so much integrity they wouldn’t cede an inch of control to The Man.

Alicia May doesn’t quite fall into any of these categories. In the 60s and 70s she was a singersongwriter gigging regularly in the bars and saloons of Laguna Beach, California. She got to know a lot of musicians, one of them knew Joni Mitchell, they all went on a picnic, Joni introduced her recording engineer Henry Lewy, Lewy let Alicia use studio downtime to record, another friend fronted up $1,000 and a privately-pressed LP was born. That’s how it happened back then.

Skinnydipping In The Flowers is like an archaelogical treasure; a find that faithfully encapsulates the music of a particular time and place. The songs, all May’s own, are performed well and the instrumentation is varied, but the lyrics are that bit too whimsical and wordy to achieve universal resonance. It’s a great reissue but it’s probably not going to be put on repeat too often.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Merry Go Round | BMRC 0015

Reviewed by Tim Holmes
<< Back to Issue 359

Login Here

Free Newsletter


Subscribe to
our email newsletter by emailing:

anna.bowen@
metropolis.co.uk