Singin' Our Mind is perhaps the most interesting album of
the Chad Mitchell Trio's career. The record was released in 1963, smack dab in the middle of a profound shift in the landscape of American popular music. With the growing mass appeal of
Bob Dylan and his interpreters (most notably
Peter, Paul & Mary), the mainstream folk scene was swelling with a newly embraced social consciousness. The album's title reflects
the Chad Mitchell Trio's efforts to firmly establish themselves as part of the new movement. The liner notes make this abundantly clear, purposely distancing the group from "button-down" folkies and describing
Mitchell and his compatriots as "young men of conscience, with a serious purpose." Luckily, however, the album is no mere marketing ploy. The material here is truly first rate, and is performed with loads of enthusiasm as well as the typically impeccable technique that has always made aficionados single out the
Mitchell Trio as musically the best of their breed. In this respect, each member gets his spot in the limelight. The often-underrated Michael Kobluk gives the album's most stirring performance on
Ian Tyson's now classic "Four Strong Winds."
Mitchell himself gives a surprisingly hip and jazzy reading of the
Bessie Smith tune "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," and Joe Frazier's powerful tenor soars above it all, giving an extra boost of energy to even the weakest tunes. The only heavy-handed moment comes in a parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" inspired by the death of a Nazi war criminal. Though somewhat embarrassing due to the use of stereotyped German accents, the performance is also a fascinating glimpse into the early '60s, when wartime bitterness remained fresh in the American consciousness, nearly twenty years after the conflict's end. ~ Pemberton Roach