2 LP Drag City are excited to present the first ever vinyl pressing of guitarist LeeUnderwood’s undersung 1988 acoustic guitar opus, ‘California Sigh’. ? Lee Underwood had been Tim Buckley’s stalwart, inspiring, accompanying and beinginspired by Buckley as they both navigated a heady set of changes in the late 1960sand early 1970s. Then, he abruptly stopped working as a professional musician,leaving behind a body of work that, as noted by Eugene Chadbourne, was the workof “a loner, who didn’t quite march under any one flag… whose improvisationsinvolved the level of sophisticated harmonic development one finds in jazz… floatingas freely as Ornette Coleman.” ? If, like Drag City, you ever wondered, “whatever became of that trippy picker fromthose Buckley records?” then you too missed ‘California Sigh’ when it first appearedin 1988. Then again, it was easy to miss a cassette-only private press release in thelate 1980s – and highly likely that Lee’s acoustic guitar-based instrumentals were filedwithout proper distinction among the avalanche of New Age cassettes in that era.? So, 35 years later, yet still in time, train your ears on the meditations of ‘CaliforniaSigh’. As Byron Coley’s liner notes observe: “The music is guitar-based acousticinstrumental melodicism with a lovely tone and alternately ruminative and jazzystructuring. The playing is generally in the vein of William Ackerman and Alex deGrassi rather than progenitors like Basho and Fahey, although ‘Lady of the Streams’does display a bit of a Fahey lilt at times. Throughout these pieces there are alsoflashes of single string runs straight out of the Django Reinhart playbook. But theoverall mood is tranquil – reflecting the musical joys Underwood found whensurrounded by nature.” The tenor of the production is transcendent to be sure. It had been years since Leehad moved from LA to Northern California, years since he traded the work of writingand recording songs for an editorial position at Down Beat. With his guitar leading theway again, an expansive mood is evident throughout California Sigh. Additionally,Lee had new love in his life – the partnership of Sonia Crespi, whose warmth andinspiration shines through all the material. The playing of Chas Smith and KevinBraheny Fortune, on pedal steel and soprano sax respectively, lend additionalcolours to Lee’s music on several songs, but it is largely the soulful depth of Lee’sguitar figures, limned by Steve Roach’s synthesizers and the Roach / Underwood coproduction, that give dynamic shape and elevation to Lee’s lovely cycle of songs.And now, with this remastered vinyl edition, the air around the instruments – both realand implied – and the full sonic impact of ‘California Sigh’ – alternately gentle andmighty, like the natural world that inspired it – is magnified incomparably. ? In the years following the release of ‘California Sigh’, Lee wrote and recorded twosolo piano CDs, ‘Phantom Light’ and ‘Gathering Light’. Additionally, he wrote ‘BlueMelody: Tim Buckley Remembered’, a memoir of their time together, as well as threebooks of poems, ‘Timewinds’ (2010), ‘Diamondfire’ (2016) and ‘Into Light’ (PoeticMatrix Press, 2021). He continues to live in Northern California. ? California Sigh is “dedicated with love and respect” by Lee to his late wife, SoniaCrespi, for the friendship and inspiration she brought.
