The new folk sound of Terry Callier

"This is where the Terry Callier story begins and, in its new incarnation, the album is in better shape than ever before. The new notes speak of a "haunting grace", and there could be no better or more accurate summation of the music than that".

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"The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier was not released until 1968, about three years after the project was originally completed; while the long delay almost certainly crippled the momentum of Callier's fledgling career, the impact on the music itself was at most minimal -- while not the singer's best album, it's his most timeless and inviting, adhering closely to the folk stylings addressed by the title while largely ignoring the mystical jazz dimensions which texture his later material".

"The Chicago-born and -bred singer/guitarist's history is as eclectic as his artistry. His hometown pals included Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler of The Impressions and jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis, and he honed his vocal chops singing in local doo wop groups. A college dorm mate hipped him to folk music and he began gigging in coffee houses, making him a member of a small but talented group: African-American folk musicians who were contemporaries of Dylan and Joan Baez during the '60s folk explosion ... His first album (...) is as fresh and different in 2019 as it was [in 1964] ... While most of the tracks are traditional folk songs, Callier added inventive, contemporary chord changes and melodies ... Callier was a nimble finger-picking guitarist and, turned on by jazz giant John Coltrane's doubling of instruments, was solely accompanied here by two bassist playing simultaneously ... His debut album also introduced his phenomenal singing voice. No twee folknik, Trane's influence extends to his high-powered vocal delivery. Even when he's intentionally under-singing a ballad, he's full-throated. His blue-noted and soulful secular-gospel phrasing is often reminiscent of Charlie Rich".