Ricochet

Liberty Records
1967

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's second album is a masterpiece. From the opening bars of Jackson Browne's "Shadow Dream Song," andthe high spirits overflow the grooves (or ones and zeros, on the CD) of the record. The singing and playing are more confident, and some of the songs, including the bluesy "Ooh Po Pe Do Girl" and the hook-laden "I'll Search The Sky" by David Hanna, and Copeland and Noonan's (the "Buy For Me The Rain" team) "Tide Of Love," is as solid as anything coming out of California. Even the kazoo-dominated "Coney Island Washboard" and "Happy Fat Annie," and the nostalgic 20's styled Jackson Browne-written "It's Raining Here In Long Beach" (which sounds a lot like Michael Nesmith's "Magnolia Sims," except the NGDB cut this months before Nesmith's song was out), fit well into the mix, reflecting the full range of the band's influences. As to why this record never caught on, it could be the timing--released late in 1967, in the wake of Sergeant Pepper (which had its own music hall influences, albeit of the English variety, and covered with lots of psychedelic overdubbing) and the Summer of Love, it just wasn't what college kids starting their search for the Lost Chord were looking for. Maybe a kazoo or two less would've helped, and a real drug song or two wouldn't have hurt, but these guys would play a jug-band number ahead of a drug anthem anytime. Their cover of Brewer and Shipley's "Truly Right" is pretty spacy in its production, though, but "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"--an adaptation of an old children's song--was probably beyond the pale of most listeners. Beyond NGDB completists, anyone looking for a companion to Notorious Byrd Bros. or the Monkees' Aquarius, Capricorn Pisces & Jones Ltd., or a precursor to Crazy Horse's At Crooked Lake need look no further.
Bruce Eder, All-Music Guide