Limited edition vinyl pressed on 140gram black vinyl. Shipped in mailers that don't damage corners. Last two images below are reference images of the reel that was restored and the marquee of John Fizer opening for Jerry Garcia.
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Barely saved from obscurity by a series of chance events The never before heard album by John "Treasure Man" Fizer recorded in 1977 and presumed lost.
"John Fizer may have had to wait decades for the rescue of his moldy master tapes, but the singer/songwriter’s recordings have finally reached the light. After getting his start playing in New York’s Lower East Side clubs in the ’60s, Fizer became a fixture in Berkeley, California, where he remained. While his “Trainsong” was included on the 1986 Smithsonian Folkways collection Original Folk, the masters of Fizer’s recordings were thought to be lost until they were discovered in the old Volvo where he had been living for several years." - Under The Radar
John Fizer has been "living rough" for the last 30 years couch surfing, sleeping in play structures, friends backyards and more recently his old volvo station wagon. John is currently residing in a nursing facility in Northern California. Below is the story of how this beautiful country folk album came about.
"I used to walk my daughter to school and passed the original Peet’s coffee every day. Across the street was Berkeley’s beloved John “Treasure Man” Fizer playing chess, doing crosswords and waiting next to the treasure tree which he had filled with gemstones and various magical trinkets. To this day any child passing by is welcome to choose a treasure. John is beloved by our community.
Over many stops with my daughter I got to know John, a fountain of love, intelligence and humor and as quirky and feisty as can be. We became friends. Eventually he showed me a few old cassettes of cassettes of cassettes in poor condition of him performing and asked if I could make them sound better. I agreed to take a listen.
Such amazing songs!
So I proceeded to remaster the cassettes while continuing to ask John at least 4 times over several months if he had the original master studio recordings. The answer was always no.
About the time I finally had his cassette sourced recordings sounding as good as they could be and he popped up with a 15 inches per second 1/4’ half track, state of the art analog master reel to reel recorded at the legendary Mountain Ears recording studio in 1977 with some very fine studio musicians including Ray Bonneville, Brad "Honeyboy" Hayes, Erik "Bobo" Johnson and Brian "Sluggo" Brown.
It had been residing for decades in the bowels of John’s old 1980 Volvo station wagon, which also serves as his home, and was covered in strangely beautiful mold but that was the day I knew the world would hear John’s music the way it was meant to be be.. big, fat, analog. The next few years were spent cleaning and remastering the album with some of the worlds finest restoration specialists. All John has ever really wanted in life, beside making a lot of children happy, is for his songs to be released on vinyl." - James Johnson
credits
released January 20, 2023
Side A:
John Fizer (vocals, guitar)
Ray Bonneville (producer, harmonica)
Brad "Honeyboy" Hayes (guitars)
Erik "Bobo" Johnson (bass)
Brian "Sluggo" Brown (drums)
Ellin and Judy (backing vocals)
Recorded October 21st 1977 at Mountain Ears Studio in Boulder, CO
Produced by John Fizer, Ray Bonneville, and Kelly McNish
Co-Producer Kathy Johnson
Analog Restoration by Tardon Feathered for Mr Toads Recording
Digital Restoration via the Plangent Process by Jamie Howarth
Digital Transfer by John Chester
Cover photo by Linda Rayner
Produced by James Johnson
Mastered by Bob Katz at Digital Domain
Side B:
Recorded Live at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley California on October 16th 1992. Analog restoration and digital transfer by Tardon Feathered. Addition restoration and engineering by Josh Morales and James Johnson. Co-Produced by Dylan Aycock and Josh Morales
who needs to reinvent the wheel when its spinning a chrysler lebaron town & country, cruising round the block after tuesday night bowl, windows cracked, pumping (but not blasting) 'Harvest' on the 5CD changer after your kid's friend brings up Nirvana's 'Unplugged' Jon Robichaud