An introspective folkie with an innate desire to rock, Lee Mallory is one of the great troubadours of his era. Born to cab driver parents on January 10, 1945 (Capricorn), Lee was raised in Berkeley, California. He first picked up the guitar at the age of sixteen, and by nineteen he had begun playing local venues like the Coffee and Confusion in the North Beach area of San Francisco. In 1965 Lee journeyed to Greenwich Village in order to sing and play alongside folk musicians like the Lovin' Spoonful (whom he opened for at their first gig at the Cafe Bizarre). After spending time in New York City, Chicago and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, Lee ventured back to California later that year. It was at Claudia Ford’s La Habra home that Lee would first meet the man who would help guide his early career, Ford’s boyfriend Curt Boettcher. Lee and Curt's first evening together was apparently a prolific one, as the duo penned four songs that night including the gorgeous "Forever". When Lee explained to the young producer that he was in town looking to get something started musically, Curt suggested that Lee accompany him back to Hollywood, and the rest is music history.

Lee remembers: "When I met Curt he had a deal going with the Association. He lived out in Hollywood. Someone said, 'you need to meet this guy', and so I said 'okay'... So I went out there and hooked up with him and he says, 'what are you doing up here?' and I said 'fucking around, you know, trying to get something going.' And he said, 'well come on back to Hollywood with us.'"

Much of Lee's early musical past has remained largely undocumented. Many fans of the Millennium are not aware that Lee was already a prolific writer by the time he met up with Curt. One of Lee's earlier compositions is "Better Times", which was recorded by the Association for their Boettcher-produced debut album. Though the Association would ultimately pass on "Better Times", the song was picked up by another band named Brother Cain (Acta 810), who recorded what some consider to be the better of the two versions. Another one of Lee's early songs, "Sing to Me", was given to the popular vocal group the Clinger Sisters for an unreleased, Curt Boettcher produced single in 1966. In between penning songs, Lee was building up his chops by jamming with the Our Productions House Band and was starting to lay down some of his own tunes in the studio. Lee's early recordings had a style all their own; a sparkling brand of modern folk music, infused with a grooving rock backbeat and topped off with a dollop of majestic, Boettcher-arranged vocal harmonies.

This new CD collection contains most of Lee's solo recordings produced by Curt Boettcher and, later, the Millennium. We begin with Lee's 1966 debut single, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be" b/w "Many Are the Times" (Valiant 751). "That's the Way" was a Bob Gibson/ Phil Ochs song Lee picked up on during his stay in Chicago. By the time he cut the track with Curt Boettcher, it had morphed from acoustic folk into a sinister electric jam complete with backwards tape effects and amazing vocal harmonies from Curt and crew. The recording was so ahead of its time that none other than Brian Wilson was reported to have turned white with shock upon hearing a mixdown session for the track at Columbia studios. The flip side of the single was the first original song Lee Mallory ever recorded himself; "Many are the Times" was a hypnotic ballad featuring tingly electric guitar and otherworldly harmony vocals. Taken as a whole, Lee’s first two solo recordings surely comprise one of the era's best debut singles.

When the 45 hit big in Seattle (eventually peaking at #2 there), Lee undertook a tour of the Pacific Northwest with Tommy Roe and Butch Parker. Arriving back in L.A. in early 1967, he recorded another 45 with Boettcher-- a version of a new Addrisi Brothers' tune “Take My Hand” b/w “The Love Song” (Valiant 761) which was composed by Lee with assistance from Randy Naylor of the rock group the Poor. As Lee recalls today, "Curt had met those guys (the Poor)... He was friends with them in Hollywood. They were a hot band!" Also recorded around this time was Lee’s stunning arrangement of the Celtic folk ballad "Wild Mountain Thyme", as well as another Mallory original entitled "Come On In (Ode to the Be-In)" which was a perfect summer of love anthem. Lee was also playing shows around L.A. with "the Lee Mallory Group"-- actually Our Productions regulars Jerry Scheff, Ben Benay and Toxey French. During 1967, Lee also participated in numerous studio projects, most notably the Ballroom (of which he was the unofficial fifth member) and Sagittarius. There was some talk of a Lee Mallory solo album at this point, but plans were scrapped when Mallory and Scheff came up with an idea for a new "supergroup". It was Jerry Scheff who would eventually create a new name for this all-star collaborative: the Millennium.

The Millennium originally consisted of Mallory, Scheff, Benay, French, Doug Rhodes (formerly of the Music Machine) and Our Productions singer/ songwriter Sandy Salisbury. Curt Boettcher, as well a young songwriter he had recently met named Michael Fennelly, enlisted shortly thereafter. With the line-up now set, the group booked a show at the Glendale Ice House under the old Lee Mallory Group moniker. While the show was not a failure, it represented a turning point in the project. Explains Lee, "We played at the Glendale Ice House... Michael sat down and smoked a cigarette in the middle of the set." Scheff, Benay and French quit the band shortly after the Ice House gig and returned to their lucrative careers as session musicians. Shortly before their brief tenure with the Millennium, the trio had recorded an album as GOLDENROD (Chartmaker CS-91101) that featured an uncredited Lee Mallory on rhythm guitar. The Millennium continued on with new members Joey Stec and Ron Edgar, recording their landmark album BEGIN in 1968. The record featured revised versions of Lee's Ballroom songs "I'm with You" and "Karmic Dream Sequence #1", as well as a remake of "Sing to Me".

Sessions for a follow-up to BEGIN collapsed after Curt and Gary Usher negotiated the group out of their Columbia contract. Fortunately many original songs still survive from these sessions, the majority being Fennelly, Stec and/or Mallory compositions. The second half of MANY ARE THE TIMES showcases several fine songs from these sessions including the funky "I'm Not Gonna Cry", the flat out rocker "Magic Land" and the wistful ballad "Magic Island". Also recorded around this time was the pretty "Smile at Me"; a collaboration by Lee, Joey Stec and Keith Colley, an artist who was also signed to the band's publishing company Four Star Music. "Smile at Me" was a throwback to Lee's folkie days and featured a nice vocal duet with an up and coming singer/ songwriter named Penny Nichols, who had previously written a song called "Look Around Rock" that had been covered by the L.A. folk rock group Ashes. Lee, Penny and Joey Stec would collaborate on another song titled "Sarah" aka "Letter from My Heart" which was recorded by Penny Nichols but sadly remains lost in the vaults.

After the breakup of the Millennium, Lee continued on briefly with Curt Boettcher, playing on the second Sagittarius album THE BLUE MARBLE (Together SR-1002) and co-writing the magnificent title track with Gary Usher. Also hailing from these sessions was one of Lee's best ballads, "All That I Am Is Me". As he recalls, "'All That I Am Is Me'-- that was written during the time of THE BLUE MARBLE and "In My Room". I already had the progression but there weren't words for it, so I finished it up there at the studio. Then I went off into a side studio and played that while they were mixing down BLUE MARBLE." Eventually Lee left to join the first national road company of the hit musical HAIR, first as a member of the chorus, then as the lead guitarist in the band. In 1971 Lee formed a new rock band named Hollywood with his singer/ songwriter pals Russ Giguere (formerly of the Association) and Bill Martin. The group did some studio recordings, but the tapes were never released; they remain one of the most significant missing pieces of the Millennium puzzle. Lee roomed with the Association's Brian Cole until the bassist's death in 1973, and toured with a top-40 cover band named Reign for two years. After spending some time in Hawaii, Lee moved back to the San Francisco bay area in 1982. Today he is a local institution, performing regularly at clubs around the city, both as a solo act and with a versatile backing group of young musicians.

Lee remains active in the studio as well, and two of his new songs have thankfully been included on this CD. "Chill of the Night", co-written with Joey Stec and Steve Hollis, is an evocative song that recalls the surreal mood of earlier Mallory tunes like "Many are the Times" and "Karmic Dream Sequence #1". The song dates back to 1985 and was completed when Stec added a bridge fifteen years later. The second new tune, "Everything Is Alright Now", is a survivor's anthem. When Lee sings "well I've had a little luck, I've had a little pain; all and all you know I guess I can't complain", you get a sense of what he's been through since the day he first ventured east to New York City. The song itself is classic Lee Mallory: a confident, relaxed groove and a killer hook.

It's obvious that Lee has not forgotten how to write songs that are outrageously catchy. Lee Mallory has seen it all, and through the years he has been gracious enough to share his songs with us. In the tradition of Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs, he is the consummate troubadour. We are fortunate, and ought to be grateful, that a collection spanning thirty-five years of Lee's music is now domestically available in the U.S. And we should, perhaps, be even more grateful that Lee is far from finished when it comes to recording. At the time of this writing, he is putting the finishing touches on a new live album and is actively recording more new material in the studio. With most of his original catalog now properly documented and archived on CD, Lee Mallory is once again free to focus on the future.

--Jason Penick