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Pacheco & Alexander

From a Columbia Records blurb: Tom Pacheco and Sharon Alexander had a lot of fun making their Columbia debut album. And they did it in only a couple of weeks. Surprising in this age of 28-month albums? Not really. Tom and Sharon have been working on this album for many years - “getting it all together,” as they say in the trade. It all started in 1964 when Tom and Sharon were students at Dean Junior College in Franklin, Mass., where they entertained their close friends and themselves with folk material. Then Sharon went on to NYU and Tom to Hofstra. Later that year they ran into each other in Greenwich Village and started singing again, this time more seriously. They formed the Ragamuffins, an innovative rock group and the first to feature a girl vocalist (predating Jefferson Airplane’s Signe Anderson by eight months). Their fresh sound and material brought the group success everywhere they played and particularly at home in Greenwich Village. Unfortunately their short recording career (on a small label) suffered because unproduced “demos” were released. But despite the unfinished quality of the records, Tom’s “Four Days of Rain” was too good to go unheard and got considerable air play. After the demise of the Ragamuffins, they formed Euphoria, a four-voice blend of two girls and two men in the soft-sound tradition of the Mamas & Papas. The group was good and often gigged with James Taylor's Flying Machine. Tom and James have remained close friends. During these years musicians throughout the industry became aware of Tom's prolific songwriting and of the duo’s unique vocal sound which captures the listener and carries him to the center of Tom's songs. Some of these same musicians took part in making this recording, among them: John Hall and John Simon, who are currently playing with Taj Mahal’s new band (everyone at Columbia is aware of Simon’s long list of accomplishments); former staff producer Harvey Brooks (of Electric Flag) and Richard Bell, Ken Pearson, Brad Campbell, Clark Pierson (all members of The Full Tilt Boogie Band); Jim Colegrove and N. D. Smart (from Great Speckled Bird), plus others (take a look at the complete list on the album flyleaf). - Don DeVito / Barbara Bothwell