7/26/10

Sugar Hill Golden Ale- Whole Foods Houston St., NYC- 12oz glass into Brandy Snifter- ABV?- Dark orange bordering on amber in color, which is curious since this beer is described as a golden ale. Little to no head with no retention or lacing. All I can smell in this beer is malt. No real hop or fruit presence in the aroma that I can detect. Minimal carbonation and a medium to light body mouthfeel. Taste is actually a little unpleasant, I almost taste a sourness. I'm not sure if I got a bad bottle but I would take an ice cold Budweiser or Miller over this beer any day. The label on this bottle is kinda cheesy, as you can see, and I assume was stewed up to evoke the Harlem jazz age. Unfortunately its a poor design and looks like it was produced with a cheap clip art computer program. If I saw this somewhere on tap I would try it again just to see if this bottles freshness may have had any affect on my experience with this beer.

On the turntable is The Box Tops- Best of, issued on Bell Records. The Box Tops were a pop/rock, some describe them as "blue eyed soul", combo out of Memphis, Tennessee lead by a teenage Alex Chilton. Mr. Chilton recently passed away and was also known for his influential early 1970's group Big Star. The Box Tops recorded in and around Memphis at American and Ardent Studios under the sometime tutelage of Dan Penn (writer of Dark End of The Street) and later Chips Moman (Stax and American Records producer). Mr. Penn wrote there first and probably most recognizable hit The Letter. I recently picked up this record and I'm glad I did. I have never owned any of there records before and have been curious about them for awhile. This record contains some really cool songs like the aforementioned The Letter, Soul Deep and nice version's of Break My Mind and I Shall Be Released. The real gem on this record for me is the last song on side two called I Met Her In Church. This song is a great example of what these southern artists of the time did so well: a fusion of gospel, country and soul music. Bold gospel chord changes, mighty background singers and a few measures of nice, swirling pedal steel guitar which really lends itself to the mix. There is something about the mix of an organ and a pedal steel guitar that just really does it for me. My only regret is that this song does not last any longer and that this record only has ten songs!