Drag City is excited to present the first ever vinyl pressing of guitarist Lee Underwood's under-sung 1988
acoustic guitar opus, California Sigh.
Lee Underwood had been Tim Buckley's stalwart, inspiring, accompanying and being inspired
by Buckley as they both navigated a heady set of changes in the late 60s and early 70s. Then, he
abruptly stopped working as a professional musician, leaving behind a body of work, that, as noted by
Eugene Chadbourne, was the work of "a loner, who didn't quite march under any one flag...whose
improvisations involved the level of sophisticated harmonic development one finds in jazz...floating as
freely as Ornette Coleman."
If, like us, you ever wondered, "whatever became of that trippy picker from those Buckley records",
then you too missed California Sigh when it first appeared in 1988. Then again, it was easy to miss a
cassette-only private press release in the late 80s-and highly likely that Lee's acoustic guitar-based
instrumentals were filed without proper distinction among the avalanche of New Age cassettes in that era.
So 35 years later, yet still in time, train your ears on the meditations of California Sigh! As Byron Coley's
liner notes observe: "The music is guitar-based acoustic instrumental melodicism with a lovely tone and
alternately ruminative and jazzy structuring. The playing is generally in the vein of William Ackerman
and Alex de Grassi rather than progenitors like Basho and Fahey, although "Lady of the Streams" does
display a bit of a Fahey lilt at times. Throughout these pieces there are also flashes of single string runs
straight out of the Django Reinhardt playbook. But the overall mood is tranquil-reflecting the musical
joys Underwood found when surrounded by nature."
The tenor of the production is transcendent to be sure. It had been years since Lee had moved from
L.A. to Northern California, years since he traded the work of writing and recording songs for an editorial
position at Down Beat. With his guitar leading the way again, an expansive mood is evident throughout
California Sigh. Additionally, Lee had new love in his life-the partnership of Sonia Crespi, whose
warmth and inspiration shines through all the material. The playing of Chas Smith and Kevin Braheny
Fortune, on pedal steel and soprano sax respectively, lend additional colors to Lee's music on several
songs, but it is largely the soulful depth of Lee's guitar figures, limned by Steve Roach's synthesizers and
the Roach/Underwood co-production, that give dynamic shape and elevation to Lee's lovely cycle
of songs. And now, with this remastered vinyl edition, the air around the instruments-both real and
implied-and the full sonic impact of California Sigh-alternately gentle and mighty, like the natural
world that inspired it-is magnified incomparably.
In the years following the release of California Sigh, Lee wrote and recorded two solo piano CDs,
Phantom Light and Gathering Light. Additionally, he wrote Blue Melody: Tim Buckley Remembered,
a memoir of their time together, as well as three books of poems, Timewinds (2010), Diamondfire (2016)
and Into Light (Poetic Matrix Press, 2021). He continues to live in Northern California.
California Sigh is "dedicated with love and respect" by Lee to his late wife, Sonia Crespi, for the
friendship and inspiration she brought.
