Catch The Wind
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Album Summary
We Five, that beautiful San Francisco-born folk-rock outfit who had set hearts soaring with their lush harmonies back in the mid-1960s, came back around in 1970 with 'Catch The Wind,' released on Vault Records. By the time this record found its way into the world, the group had been through some changes — most notably the departure of the radiant Beverly Bivens, who had been such a defining voice in their earlier sound. The band regrouped and pressed forward, and what they laid down on this album was something quieter, more searching, more in tune with the introspective California folk-pop spirit that was drifting through the canyons and coastlines of the early 1970s. With a setlist that reached out to songs like Donovan's title track and Dylan's 'Tomorrow Is A Long Time,' the group was clearly drawing from a well of deep folk reverence, letting the material breathe and settle into something gentle and sincere. It was a record made by people who still believed in the power of a beautiful song.
Reception
- The album did not make a significant dent on the charts, a reflection of how dramatically the commercial landscape had shifted since the group's peak years in the mid-1960s folk-rock wave.
- Critical attention was sparse, as the music press had largely moved on from the groups that had defined the earlier folk-rock moment, leaving 'Catch The Wind' to find its audience without much fanfare.
- The album has remained one of the more obscure entries in the We Five catalog, never receiving a major reissue or the kind of critical reassessment that might have brought it to a new generation of listeners.
Significance
- 'Catch The Wind' stands as a tender and honest document of We Five navigating the turn of a new decade, capturing a folk-rock group in thoughtful transition as the sounds of the 1970s began to redefine what California music could be.
- The album's harmony-centered, folk-rooted approach connects it to the broader Northern California tradition that had been quietly flowing beneath the louder currents of psychedelia and rock, a tradition built on song craft and vocal beauty.
- As one of the group's final studio statements, the record holds real historical weight for anyone trying to understand how the folk-rock idealism of the 1960s softened, deepened, and searched for new footing in the early years of the following decade.
Tracklist
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A1 Here Comes The Sun —
2:23
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A2 Early Morning —
3:06
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A3 Belong Beside You —
2:46
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A4 Catch The Wind —
3:44
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A5 One Last Time —
3:00
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A6 Oh Lonesome —
2:38
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B1 Never Goin' Back —
2:52
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B2 For Lovin' Me —
2:33
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B3 Come And Sit Down Beside Me —
3:08
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B4 Tomorrow Is A Long Time —
4:44
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B5 Milkcow Blues —
4:18
Artist Details
We Five were a beautiful San Francisco-based folk rock quintet who burst onto the scene in 1965, blending lush vocal harmonies with that breezy, sun-drenched West Coast sound that just made your soul take flight, hitting big with their dreamy classic You Were On My Mind, which climbed all the way to number three on the pop charts. They were right there at the forefront of that mid-sixties folk rock movement, sharing spiritual DNA with the likes of the Mamas and the Papas and the early Jefferson Airplane, helping to define the sound that would bloom into the full San Francisco psychedelic explosion just a couple years later. Though they never quite reached the sustained stardom of some of their contemporaries, We Five left a shimmering mark on the era, and that golden voice of Beverly Bivens remains one of the most underappreciated gems of her generation.
