New Musical Express said “It’s like hearing newly discovered Beatles tracks while walking down Carnaby Street wearing Ringo’s candy striped hipsters.” The Guardian asserted “They should have been as big as The Beatles.” In America, Rolling Stone heaped acclaim on a “stunning album of bull’s-eye Beatle pop…with the soft-brush folk rock of Rubber Soul gilded with the opulent psychedelia of ’67-’68 Fabs.”
The band was The Aerovons. The album was Resurrection. Signed to The Beatles’ label Parlophone, The Aerovons recorded this masterpiece in 1969 at Abbey Road. Beatles’ sound engineers Geoff Emerick, Alan Parsons and Norman Smith worked on the sessions. The album was produced by their prodigious 17-year-old leader Tom Hartman.
Yet although two singles were released in 1969, Resurrection was first issued in 2003. This was when the music papers and newspapers went overboard for The Aerovons and learned their mind-blowing story and how they had hung out with The Beatles, went to the pub with The Hollies and met Jimi Hendrix at The Speakeasy. Finally, they got their day in the sun. And despite how it seemed, The Aerovons were from St Louis, Missouri.
Now, in 2021, the Florida-dwelling Tom Hartman is back with A Little More, his follow-up to Resurrection.
A couple of decades here or there didn’t stop The Aerovons before, and they won’t now. Although the sensibility running through A Little More is that of a man who has lived life rather than that that of a wide-eyed teenager, there’s a sensation that time has blurred. Not that time has stood still, but that Tom still draws from what inspired him in the first place.
A Little More even opens with a song written in 1969. The irresistible, McCartney-esque “Stopped!” has a sit-up-take-notice melody and the rolling rhythms of classic late-Sixties pop. Title track “A Little More” is more than a reference to picking-up again with The Aerovons. Also written in 1969, it’s another classic-in-waiting. A version was first heard on the flip side of Tom’s post-Aerovons single released in 1971 by the Bell label.
Unavoidably, looking back at the experience of being in London and at Abbey Road with The Aerovons colours Tom’s new songs. “Swinging London” paints that picture, while “The Way Things Went Tonight” nods to Resurrection’s creamiest, most vocal-infused moments.
However, A Little More also draws from Tom’s path though life after the magical adventures in London. In time, he became a songwriter in the world of advertising. “So Sorry” and “You & Me” draw from human relationships and emotions, while “Shades Of Blue” evokes memories of a particular place. Contrastingly, “Me And My Bomb” recalls one of the first steps towards adulthood.
Of course, A Little More is Resurrection’s welcome follow-up. It’s more though. It’s about the whole of Tom Hartman’s life, and how he sees it as a kaleidoscopic journey. Not a resurrection then, more a seamless fusion of everything that makes Tom who is.
credits
released November 21, 2023
P.2021 Tom Hartman under exclusive licence to Another Planet Music ltd
C.2021 Tom Hartman under exclusive licence to Another Planet Music ltd
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