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FRED AND ETHEL Can You See the Future? (Spiritone)
No, the Mertzes don't have unreleased material. Fred and Ethel is the pseudonym for the local folk-rock duo of Tom Janezic and Jude Kinnear. Recording acoustically for some time and contributing to numerous folk/benefit compilations, the pair is proud to share their latest album with a full band. Producer Kenn Fox maintains the majority of rhythm, fill and bass guitar on the album along with Randy Mueller on drums, while Fred and Ethel-excuse me, Tom and Jude-focus on a most nostalgic sort of vocal harmonization.

Although titled Can You See the Future?, the album concentrates more on a past generation, where similar mystic phrases were pondered in bare feet and passed around a smoky huddle on a California beachfront. The title track does, however, hold more resonance as a concerned question, drawing upon aged lessons in peace and political activism and pleading, for us to "wake
up and realize where we're heading."

Musical style has a definite link to the 1960s fusion of folk and
psychedelia, incorporating the sounds of all the notorious pop vocal groups of the time. Take the harmony of a congenial twosome like Sonny and Cher, the sun-shiny instrumentation of the Mamas and the Papas or the Lovin' Spoonful, the darkness and peculiarity of the Airplane, a bit of Monkees folly, and you're close to knowing Fred and, Ethel. What distinguishes the group from comparison is their own infusion of rockabilly twang and hard-rocking rhythm with the homey heritage of Americana. Transcendent tracks are "Rifles" with its infectious chorus and sing-along accessibility (a constant for most of the group's songs) and the live-show-favorite "In Cement."


-Graham Fons