The Oxford Circle - Live at the Avalon 1966 - Big Beat Records; London, England

Review by: Annie Gillis

So, I' m innocently walking into the new/used record store Everyday Music (EM) in Portland, Or . The speakers blast a sexy rendition of 'Baby Please Don't Go' throughout the record store. I'm heading toward the ever-dusty used album section, with an obscure Leonard Cohen album on my mind. However, the sound of the cover of 'Baby Please Don't Go' is overwhelming me---such soul, plus the record store clerk has the volume kicked to 11. What is it about the blues, more specifically well-done blues, that is so enticing? I weigh the options: go to the large book in the corner that lists every song every sung in alphabetical order & try to narrow down who the artist is, or face the dreaded record store clerk. Of course, record store store clerks are notorious- they can be helpful or arrogant at the drop of a hat.

Option #1: I pour through the book, searching for 'Baby…' there's a ton of songs that start out 'Baby,''plus my alphabetization isn't so hot. Finally, I find 'Baby Please Don't Go' and wouldn't you know, there's an entire page of bands that have covered the song.

Option # 2: Ask the clerk. He is friendly today, and willingly gives up the name of the band. 'The Oxford Circle, that's The Oxford Circle.' Me: 'Do you have them for sale?'' Him: 'That's the only copy here, but we can special order it'.

I give him my vitals, and I leave without L. Cohen. Two months later, EM calls, 'We've got your cd in'. I speed on over, and it's good. Really, really good. I put the cd on H-E-A-V-Y rotation in my cd player. Turns out The Oxford Circle was a band back in 1966 & a few of their members went on to form Kak, so as The Oxford Circle they only put out one blessed album

The story: They were four white kids in Sacramento, California in 1966 & they sound like they've got more soul than you'd bet white kids for could ever muster. The album I fell in love with that day at EM was 'Live at the Avalon 1966' and it includes such classics as 'We gotta get out of this place', 'Mystic Eyes', 'I'm a man' and of course, 'Baby Please Don't go'. The reviews of their live performances gush with the energy they brought to the stage, and their location of 90 miles NE of San Francisco and close to Davis, CA (college town) did wonders for their visibility. The original line-up was Debner Patten, Paul Whaley, Jim Keylor & Gary Yoder. The band's first show as Oxford Circle (previously known as The Hide-a-ways) was in the first months of 1966, and in the brief time they were Oxford Circle they became a large regional presence. However, due to personnel changes, personal issues & members moving up to San Francisco, the final Oxford Circle show was in July of 1967. By Fall of '67 a few members had formed Kak, but this band was a memory in just over a year.

The blues is a sexy genre when done right, and these white kids from Cali successfully mixed their blues sounds with enough 60's garage rock to speak to an equally white kid in her twenties some 35+ years later. In short, I'm glad I own the cd, in fact I went back recently to purchase another copy of the album as a gift. Unfortunately, the EM where I found The Oxford Circle at no longer carries the distribution company that has the label. Like it or not, www.amazon.com does, just search on the band name.

Sex, drugs, & rock n' roll beside, this album did what music should do: it pulled me out of an idle afternoon, spoke to my twenty-something self through 35+ years of music history, grabbed me, made me a fan, resonates to me still, and plays today in my heavy rotation.