My online friend Tommy Cherry turned me on to this album. Released in 1977, Annie Haslam was the lead vocalist for the band Renaissance, a group initially started by members of The Yardbirds that focused on a hybrid of Classical, Folk, and a touch of Pop. Haslam was known to me because she worked with the amazing Roy Wood on a few of his solo albums as a backup vocalist. On her first solo album Annie in Wonderland, she obtained the support of Roy in producing and writing duties. As mentioned previously in my other posting on Roy, he’s a one-person band that genuinely thinks of himself as an orchestra. On Annie’s solo album, he very much takes the essence of Annie’s remarkable voice and turns it into a Roy Wood project.
For example, not only did he arrange and produce the album, but he also played guitars, electric bass, string bass, cello (no one plays the cello like Roy Wood), Balalaika, Saxophone, Drums, Bass Clarinet, Trumpet, Drums [African], Percussion, Keyboards [String Ensemble], Synthesizer [Moog], Piano, Clavinet, and of course, multi-recording of his Backing Vocals. One may ask, is there any room for Annie Haslam on this album. The answer is yes.
Besides Wood’s songs, there are a couple of tunes by Jon Camp, who is/was a member of Renaissance, covering Rodgers and Hammerstein’s If I Loved You and the beautiful ballad Nature Boy by Eden Ahbez. And to finish the album with some class, a melody by Dvoràk called Going Home.
The fun in listening to Roy Wood is that one is never sure what they will get for their aural pleasures. A good example is Wood’s Hunioco, which sounds like a classic ABBA vocal and melody and ends up being an African percussion workout with a chanting chorus all by Wood and, I presume, Haslam but overlayed with sound effects. Hence, it’s very much a sonic piece of music.
Roy Wood has this precise method of whatever he touches; it becomes his property. He also painted the album cover. If Roy Wood has a wide range of music, Annie Haslam has a large canvas where her voice can combine Christiane Legrand (The Swingle Singers) and Agnetha Fältskog/Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA). I think it’s more than two ships meeting in the night and more of a mutual love for each’s talent and vision.
Annie Haslam - Annie in Wonderland (Sire) 1977
Thank you Daphne
I'm as capable of throwing a snit as most people. In fact, I'm probably more capable. I threw a major snit over Renaissance. I'd loved the album fronted by Keith & Jane Relf, and I saw that lineup at the Fillmore East where I'd been electrified by the bass playing of Lou Cennamo (who electrified me again a couple of years later when I saw him play with Steamhammer on my first trip to the UK). Then, when Renaissance had the effrontery to come out with a 100% new lineup, I had quite a snit and have never been interested in hearing them.
But I bought Annie in Wonderland when it came out because, as you say, for all intents and purposes it was a Roy Wood album. I'm quite fond of it. I'd followed The Move through all of its lineup changes because Roy was still involved, and I love the 1st ELO album, but I abandoned ELO the instant that Roy left, even though I'd liked Jeff Lynne in The Move and also in his earlier band The Idle Race. This was also something of a snit because I assumed that Jeff had forced Roy out. But I could be wrong about that.