Terry Reid: River : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 1968, nineteen-year-old British singer Terry Reid walked away from an offer to be the voice of Led Zeppelin (he suggested Robert Plant instead). A precociously soulful howler, Reid opened U.S. gigs for Cream and the Rolling Stones, made two fab power-blues LPs -- Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid ('68) and Terry Reid ('69) -- then vanished as fast as he had soared. Issued by Atlantic in 1973, River might have been Reid's big comeback if anyone had known it was out. He arrived from exile a matured, haunted singer, spearing River's country-folk elegies with the scat and anguish of Otis Redding and Tim Buckley. David Lindley's dirty-sugar guitars are a big selling point. The heavy grace of Reid's closing airs, "Dream" and "Milestone," is another.

DAVID FRICKE
(RS 914 – January 3, 2003)