The sepia-toned group shot of Dakota Moon on their CD's cover photo evokes those used on Crosby Stills and Nash's first album and the second album 'Deja Vu' . The influences and sounds on the eponomously-titled debut album by this relatively new Los Angeles band have an undeniably strong LA-rock feel. There's the 'Love The one You're With'-era Steve Stills slide guitar on the opening track 'Another Day Goes By' which ends up sounding like Eric Clapton doing the vocals for The Doobie Brothers. Then it's what sounds like England Dan and John Ford Coley singing the lovely 'Violet' with Seals and Crofts guesting here and there on vocals. There's even a perky, harmonised cover of James Taylor's 'Your Smiling Face' towards the end of this very interesting album. Who is Dakota Moon and what is this Seventies revivalist rock, rhythm and blues?

Dakota Moon are four young African-Americans who found themselves jamming at the studios of LA producers Andrew Logan and Mike More. The resulting union developed a loyal club following in LA and they were signed to Elektra after a private acoustic set. The members of the group, Ray Artis (bass and vocals), Joe Dean (guitar, and vocals), Ty Taylor (Guitar and vocals) and Malloy (just "Malloy") (percussion and vocals) all brought a buffet of different influences to their musical picnic from r&b to rock, pop, soul and jazz as well as a love for the Brill-iance of Carole King and the aforementioned James Taylor.

In 1997 they grabbed the prestigious support slot, and a host of new admirers, on Tina Turner's 'Wildest Dreams' tour as a result of the incredible word-of-mouth buzz on their live shows. They subsequently entered the studio with Logan and More and co-wrote most of these songs with this production duo. The album that has emerged is an intriguing mix of harmonic r&b, spiritual soul and California soft country rock. The 13 songs here maintain a steady groove, while the four voices weave spells over the acoustic guitars melodic background. The tempo picks up with 'Snow In July' and 'Won't Be Alone Tonight' but for the rest of the songs it's a slow glide through the joys of 'She Knows', 'Black Moon Day', 'Sweet Lady Jane' and 'Sing You To Sleep'.

If you really like Babyface, Charles and Eddie and Boyz II Men but still miss Loggins and Messina, The Eagles and Steve Miller then I've got something very special to recommend to you!!

Stephen "Sugar" Segerman

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