Vince Martin & Fred Neil

Before firmly establishing himself as a major singer/songwriter with his 1965 solo debut album Bleecker and MacDougal, <a href="spotify:artist:3xmUdkZUQbtMM62XP4nnb6">Fred Neil</a> was briefly in a duo with folk singer <a href="spotify:artist:4aQ00rMIJ22sM6YjhvZ5Hd">Vince Martin</a>. Martin had met <a href="spotify:artist:183DuT2WcaEO2tclTJW1tU">Neil</a> around 1960, although the two didn't team up until 1964. The pair recorded one rare LP, Tear Down the Walls, before <a href="spotify:artist:183DuT2WcaEO2tclTJW1tU">Neil</a> went solo. The record is far more notable for the contributions of <a href="spotify:artist:183DuT2WcaEO2tclTJW1tU">Neil</a> (who wrote about half the songs, the others being largely comprised of folk standards) than the far more ordinary-sounding Martin. There's a bit of a schizophrenic feel to the album -- coffeehouse-styled folk on the one hand, and bluesy, more idiosyncratic stuff on Neil's tunes -- and Neil's original songs would have been far more suited to solo delivery than the duet arrangements which made their way onto the release. Still, it's a nice-enough sounding collectable, and also notable for foreshadowing folk-rock in its use of Felix Pappalardi (later to produce <a href="spotify:artist:74oJ4qxwOZvX6oSsu1DGnw">Cream</a>) and a pre-<a href="spotify:artist:7CCn4PFRRRZF127jtCBAUe">Lovin' Spoonful</a> <a href="spotify:artist:3FPF6tyBTP79pCCAJDcPft">John Sebastian</a> (harmonica) as session musicians. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi