Safe In My Garden - American Pop In The Shadows 1967-1972Various Artists

• 1. The Sundowners - Always You
• 2. Mark Eric - Move With The Dawn
• 3. Tommy James & The Shondells - She
• 4. The Groop - A Famous Myth
• 5. Brewer & Shipley - Dreamin' In The Shade (Down In L.A.)
• 6. Tee & Cara - I Don't Think I Know Her
• 7. Harpers Bizarre - Knock On Wood
• 8. The Cyrkle - The Visit (She Was Here)
• 9. Fargo - I See It Now
• 10. Best Of Friends - Summer Sound
• 11. The Critters - A Moment Of Being With You
• 12. The Millennium - Blight
• 13. Gary Lewis & The Playboys - Jill
• 14. Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends - I Can See Only You
• 15. The New Wave - Little Dreams
• 16. The Free Design - My Brother Woody
• 17. Nancy Priddy - Christina's World
• 18. Chad & Jeremy - The Ark
• 19. Smokey & His Sister - Creators Of Rain
• 20. The Eighth Day - How Can I Stop Loving You
• 21. Love Generation - Love Is A Rainy Sunday
• 22. The Sunshine Company - Springtime Meadows
• 23. Thomas & Richard Frost - The Word Is Love

Peace and love in late 60s America did not come without parallel feelings of fear and confusion about the social situation – specifically about Vietnam. “Safe In My Garden” is the latest Ace compilation in an acclaimed series compiled by Bob Stanley – it’s a companion piece to the much-praised “State Of The Union (The American Dream In Crisis 1967 – 1973).

The music on “Safe In My Garden” is harmony-laden, beautifully produced soft rock. Sunshine pop, even - a melodic, innovative style of American music that grew in the mid-60s out of the folk and surf scenes, exemplified by the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. You will hear orchestral arrangements, and soft boy-girl vocals. But it wasn’t made in isolation from what was going on in the outside world. There are clouds and minor chords, plenty of melancholy in those harmonies.

“Safe In My Garden” includes songs of escape (Mark Eric’s ‘Move With The Dawn’, the Groop’s ‘A Famous Myth’), loss (the Eighth Day’s ‘How Can I Stop Loving You’, the New Colony Six’s ‘Prairie Grey’), dreamscapes (Tommy James and the Shondells’ ‘She’, Nancy Priddy’s ‘Christina's World’), rebirth (Smokey and his Sister’s ‘Creators Of Rain’), a simpler world (the Free Design’s ‘My Brother Woody’) and a philosophically sounder future (Chad & Jeremy’s ‘The Ark’, Best of Friends’ ‘Summer Sound’).

It contains some surprisingly dark messages paired with beautiful melodies, as well as songs of hope. Thousands of young musicians in cities, suburbs and small towns across the States from the mid to late 60s spent their mornings hiding from the mailman, dreading the draft. This is the Sound of Young America in the late 60s, keeping its fingers crossed.