Trollheart

And we end on…

Album title: Tombstone Valentine
Artist: Wigwam
Nationality: Finnish
Label: Love Records
Chronology: Second
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: n/a
Tracklisting: Tombstone Valentine/In Gratitude!/Dance of the Anthropoids/Frederick and Bill/Wishful Thinker/Autograph/1936 Lost in the Snow/Let the World Ramble On/For America/Captain Supernatural/End
Comments: I may not be correct but I think this may be the first prog act from Finland we’ve come across. Of course, in recent times Finland, indeed all of Scandinavia, has become quite the wellspring of talent for prog bands, but this was 1970 after all, when probably hardly anyone had even heard of the country, never mind any music from it. So it’s a very jaunty, Beatlesesque opening with the title track, led by, um, banjo? Some rather nice violin work, and I see there’s an actual synth mentioned here, surely one of the first? Vocals are very good, and the song does somewhat wear its ethnicity and folk roots on its sleeve, but straddles the divide between that and progressive rock quite well. More old-school blues then for “In Gratitude!” with a nice honky-tonk piano line while “Dance of the Anthropoids” is a mere minute of mostly just a bass run I think - actually no; I see it’s that synth I was talking about earlier (recorded in 1968, so like I say, surely one of the first) before we move into “Frederick and Bill”, the longest track on the album at a staggering four-and-a-half minutes!

And it takes us back into blues/psych territory, some really good guitar licks here, song seems to reference racial violence right at the end, which is a little jarring, given the upbeat, cheery nature of the tune, then it’s all country ballad for “Wishful Thinker”, lovely piano and organ, accordion and fiddle for “Autograph” with some banjo thrown into the mix, then the shortest track other than the “Dance of the Anthropoids” is “1936 Lost in the Snow”, coming in at just barely over two minutes, driven on powerful piano and violin, and which I imagine may be an instrumental too. A feeling of 1970s summers in New York pervades “Let the Whole World Ramble On”, evoking the best of Randy Newman or early Paul Simon, with some nice harmony vocals and stabs of electric guitar at just the right time, leading to a Santana-like solo.

Very jazzy then as we go into “For America”, ragtime piano and bubbling organ (ooer!) with some very cool guitar work, and yes it’s another instrumental, which brings us to “Captain Supernatural”, a Bowie tribute if ever there was one. You can almost sing “Space Oddity” to it as it begins. Sounds like brass here (sax or trumpet maybe) but I don’t see any credited, so I don’t know. The album finishes on the most appropriately-titled closing track ever, as “End” leads us out with some ambient, spacy organ work which then develops into a real workout on the keys with one last vocal to wrap things up. Nice.

Favourite track(s): I’d have to say I like just about everything here.
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: A pretty damn fine album, and a good way to end the review of the year 1970. I’m not certain it would fit in with what would have been considered progressive rock at the time, necessarily, but for what it is, it’s damn good.
Personal Rating:
Legacy Rating:
Final Rating:

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018