7/1/10

Boulder Beer Hazed and Infused Pale Ale- Community Beverage, Queens, NY- 22oz Bomber into tall Pilsner glass- 4.8% ABV.Definitely hazy, orange amber color. About a half a finger worth of head and little to no lacing on the glass. There is a distinctly fruity aroma to this beer. I just can't place it. Apple? Some type of citrus? I'm not sure, my palette is still pretty amateurish. Definitely some maltiness there too. Light bodied mouth feel with highly concentrated carbonation. This beer is, I hate to say, is a bit of a disappointment for me. Cool label, check. Cool name, check. Taste though is really kind of bland and dry. Now that the beer has warmed a bit I am getting less of a fruit aroma and more of a malted, caramel smell. The beer actually tastes a bit sour to me which I don't really care for. After I reached the bottom of the glass I did see a fair of sediment at the bottom which I have yet to see in any of the other beers I have tried.

On the turntable is Art Garfunkel- Watermark- I found this LP when I was actually looking for Simon and Garfunkel's In Central Park Lp. I found that LP, with its original booklet. The Watermark LP I had never heard of and just happened to look at it when I found the other LP. Looking on the back of the LP I found a whole bunch of things that peaked my interest. First off it was recorded with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Then I noticed a lot of cool session musicians and guests who are notable. David Crosby, James Taylor and Paul Simon provide backup vocals. Paul Desmond on Alto Saxophone, the "cool jazz" musician, who played with Dave Brubeck and wrote the cracklin' "Take Five". Richard Tee on the electric piano, who played with a who's who of the 60's and 70's soul jazz scene. Billy Payne of Little Feat played keyboards and the traditional Irish group The Chieftains added their instrumental backing to a number of tracks. To top it all off 10 of the 12 tracks were written by none other than Jimmy Webb. Jimmy Webb wrote some of my favorite pop songs from the 60's, largely popularized by Glenn Campbell, including By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Wichita Lineman and Galveston along with dozens of other songs. All in all this is a really good album if you can find it. I don't know if it has ever been reissued on CD but you should pick it up if you find it. A pretty mellow album on the whole with polished mid seventies arrangements, think Steely Dan-lite, augmented tastefully on a few tracks by The Chieftains. Suprisingly the song Paper Chase on Side Two reminds me of Billy Bragg a bit.