Paul And Georgia - The Paul And Georgia Album (1968-76 us, classic folk intertwined with acid psych, blues, country and roots 'n' roll including members from the Doors)

 

This album introduces the songs of Paul Ferrara and his wife Georgia, recorded between 1968 and 1976. In the early sixties, Georgia Newton, a teenager with a love for music and a strong desire to search for something more, became part of the Sunset scene as she hitchhiked her way down Beverly Glen every night, leaving behind her conventional family. While on the famous Strip, she met John Densmore and Robby Krieger, two talented musicians who would soon form half of The Doors. 

Paul Ferrara, who studied film at UCLA with Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, later became the band's photographer and cinematographer, filming their exploits on and off-stage and giving birth to Live at the Hollywood Bowl as well as the yet-to-be-officially-released Feast of Friends. In the process, Paul developed a close friendship with Jim Morrison. 

They wrote songs together like Waiting For the Sun and played music late into the night. In 1968, at a showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Paul and Georgia met for the first time, and the two soon became a couple. Paul had always played the guitar, and Georgia started to sing along with him. Their songs, along with her stunningly natural and almost haunting voice, caught the attention of several producers, including Doors' producer Paul Rothschild. Rothschild was particularly interested in the song One More Drink and wanted to give it to a young female artist he produced named Janis Joplin. Paul and Georgia refused, wanting to keep the song for themselves -- a decision they've both regretted to this day. 

Paul and Georgia recorded two of their songs with The Doors backing them, following the band's rehearsal. Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robbie Krieger are featured on the tracks One More Drink and Hopi. The couple would also record two more songs with the band Nite City, Manzarek's post-Doors project. 

They also recorded at Elektra Studios with actor and musician Tim McIntire, the man who scored the music for the motion picture Jeremiah Johnson. Jim Morrison, who would usually attend Paul and Georgia's recording sessions, fell in love with the song Bald Mountain. Morrison used the song in HWY, a film he wrote. In HWY, Morrison plays the lead part of the killer on the road in the desert near Joshua Tree, California. 

Paul was the man behind the camera for the filming of the movie, a cult classic in Europe only seen in art houses that will soon be released in the USA. In 1970, Paul and Georgia's son Rio was born. Soon after that, Jim Morrison left Los Angeles and flew to Paris to join his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson and pursue his life as a writer and poet. Paul, Georgia and Rio began to explore the USA and decided to settle on a ranch near Taos, New Mexico where the couple continued to write music.

Thought to be lost, these recordings were recently found at Paul's New Mexico ranch, preserved and digitally remastered from the original analog masters that had not been heard for almost thirty years. Paul's arrangements, melodies and simple yet intricate instrumentation are a perfect complement to Georgia's gorgeous and ethereal voice. That voice will bring to mind the likes of Laura Nyro, Janis Joplin, and Grace Slick.

Paul and Georgia were more than their recorded legacy. They embodied the struggles that young couples of the late 60's faced fighting for independence and against conformity. At ground zero of the rock'n'roll world of The Doors, they embraced the counterculture, the anti-war sentiment and the consciousness expansion movements of the times. Their love bond would lead them on a return to the country and a spiritual quest; their story is worthy of a major motion picture. 

A biography of Paul Ferrara is also in the works. He will discuss the years he attended the UCLA Film School with Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, his career as a Hollywood photographer for Nancy Sinatra, her father, Ravi Shankar and many others, including The Doors. He will also discuss his acting career, including his part alongside Peter Sellers in the motion picture The Party, and his relationship with Georgia. 

If you are too young to have lived through the tumultuous sixties, when these songs were created, or if you are lucky enough to remember the musical renaissance that the period produced, you will find comfort in the beauty contained in the recordings of Paul and Georgia's long overdue debut album. 

by Anne Sophie Dacosta and Kyle Vincent