Biography
Gentle Soul formed as a vocal and songwriting partnership between Pamela Polland and Rick Stanley. Their lone album appeared on Epic in 1968 and linked the tail end of folk-rock with the emerging style of introspective soft rock. Although issued by a major company, the untitled record remains scarce and has never reached compact disc. Terry Melcher, already known for his work with the Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders, handled production and assembled an impressive roster of studio players that included Ry Cooder on guitar, Van Dyke Parks on harpsichord, Paul Horn on flute, and Larry Knechtel—later a founding member of Bread—on organ, along with noted arranger Jack Nitzsche.
The collection stays understated, relying chiefly on the close male-female vocal blend between Polland and Stanley, who composed nearly all of the material, most often together. Its acoustic-leaning yet not wholly acoustic atmosphere and harmonic approach bring to mind the Stone Poneys, though the vocal balance here distributes parts far more evenly than on the Stone Poneys’ recordings, which centered on Linda Ronstadt even when she shared lead lines. A less familiar but comparable reference point is the Bay Area folk-rock pair Blackburn and Snow; Gentle Soul, however, stayed quieter and pointed ahead to the soft-rock sound that would flourish in the early 1970s.
Before the group existed, Polland had already placed songs in the folk-rock world, supplying “Tulsa County” to the Rising Sons and “I’ve Got to Know” to the Stone Poneys for their second album; the Byrds and Jesse Ed Davis later recorded “Tulsa County” as well. Polland and Stanley cut two Columbia singles, “Tell Me Love” and “Our National Anthem,” ahead of the Epic release. The duo lasted roughly three years and worked with several supporting musicians, among them Jackson Browne, who briefly substituted for Stanley without ever recording, and drummer Sanford Konikoff, who had accompanied Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s. Epic’s promotional push appears to have been minimal; aside from the album’s rarity, the label omitted Polland and Stanley’s full names from the sleeve, although a photograph was included and the credits listed “P. Polland” and “R. Stanley” as the principal writers. Polland later issued solo work on Columbia during the 1970s and continued to record into the 1990s.
The collection stays understated, relying chiefly on the close male-female vocal blend between Polland and Stanley, who composed nearly all of the material, most often together. Its acoustic-leaning yet not wholly acoustic atmosphere and harmonic approach bring to mind the Stone Poneys, though the vocal balance here distributes parts far more evenly than on the Stone Poneys’ recordings, which centered on Linda Ronstadt even when she shared lead lines. A less familiar but comparable reference point is the Bay Area folk-rock pair Blackburn and Snow; Gentle Soul, however, stayed quieter and pointed ahead to the soft-rock sound that would flourish in the early 1970s.
Before the group existed, Polland had already placed songs in the folk-rock world, supplying “Tulsa County” to the Rising Sons and “I’ve Got to Know” to the Stone Poneys for their second album; the Byrds and Jesse Ed Davis later recorded “Tulsa County” as well. Polland and Stanley cut two Columbia singles, “Tell Me Love” and “Our National Anthem,” ahead of the Epic release. The duo lasted roughly three years and worked with several supporting musicians, among them Jackson Browne, who briefly substituted for Stanley without ever recording, and drummer Sanford Konikoff, who had accompanied Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s. Epic’s promotional push appears to have been minimal; aside from the album’s rarity, the label omitted Polland and Stanley’s full names from the sleeve, although a photograph was included and the credits listed “P. Polland” and “R. Stanley” as the principal writers. Polland later issued solo work on Columbia during the 1970s and continued to record into the 1990s.
Albums
Singles
