GREAT ALBUM FROM GOLDEN AVATAR IN THE GOLDEN ERA OF PROG

Of all the progressive rock which was recorded during the 70`s, most of the groundbreaking stuff come out of England - PINK FLOYD, GENESIS and ATOMIC ROOSTER prove that point. RUSH from Canada kept the north american flame of the genre going during the same period with innovative futuristic prog as found on albums such as CARESS OF STEEL, 2112 and HEMISPHERES. The US has never been the home of progressive rock. Generally speaking, most UK progressive rock was always considered too 'hairy' and 'rough around the edges' for the more sophisticated tastes of americans. One homegrown US progressive rock album which i got my hands on literally by accident at a garage sale a few years ago, which is extremely obscure, challenging and highly complex 1970`s jazz fusion mixed with progressive rock, is the grandiose epic A CHANGE OF HEART by the band GOLDEN AVATAR. Band leader MICHAEL CASSIDY courted a rhythm section and a brass orchestra to record this audacious concept album, although it's classed as jazz fusion there are many folk elements in the mix displaying the influence of late 60`s folk rockers CROSBY STILLS & NASH and to my ear i can even hear a bit of ERIC ANDERSEN in there as well. Prog rock is not my domain to break down in musical components, so spare me having to go through the album on a song by song basis, but lets put it this way, A CHANGE OF HEART is very obscure, like any great progressive rock type album it can only be appreciated in its entirety, the lyrical aspect as you can expect is highly ambiguous and convoluted, but even for a progressive rock sceptic like me, i would place A CHANGE OF HEART in the same category of more fancied contemporaries like PINK FLOYD and GENESIS. I would rate it as being more musically challenging than DARK SIDE OF THE MOON or THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY. Now that's quite a compliment, so you better check it out.