360. Elf / Carolina County Ball. 1974. 1.5/5

Having been in a multitude of bands – or at least been in bands that have had a multitude of band name changes – Ronnie James Dio appeared to have hit paydirt when his latest iteration had settled on the name of Elf for their current formation in 1972, having originally been called the Electric Elves in 1967, before shortening that to the Elves in 1969, and finally Elf in 1972. With that name the band had released their self-titled debut album produced by Roger Glover and Ian Paice from Deep Purple, the story of which you can hear on the episode dedicated to that album in Season 3 of this podcast.
Following this album, Dio, who both sung and played bass guitar on the album, decided they needed a new member to take over the bass duties, and so Craig Gruber was hired to perform that task. Also guitarist David Feinstein, who was Dio’s cousin, quit the band, and Steve Edwards was brought in to replace him.
Elf then supported Deep Purple on two separate tours, becoming a well liked touring partner with the band and in the process making other connections that would be instrumental in future plans. After this the band entered the studio to write and record their follow up album in January and February in 1974, and album that when released in the United States and Japan was titled “L.A. 59” after the second track on the album, but for the rest of the world would be known by the first track on the album, “Carolina County Ball”.

Listening to this album, it is interesting even today to hear the kind of music the band plays. For 1974, several songs here are just old time blues ragtime songs. Sure, you may well have heard a bit of this from Marvin Hamlisch on the soundtrack to the movie The Sting, but it probably isn’t what you expect from this album. “Carolina County Ball”, the title track, is very much what this is. The boogie woogie piano throughout, before the wailing blues guitar riff at the end, sets up exactly what you can expect to hear on this album from the outset. And yes, the debut album had this kind of heavy blues influence upon it. But is this what people expected that the follow up would be like as well?
All of the songs on the album are written by Dio and keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, who also contributed rhythm guitar when needed... which wasn’t often. The piano is the overwhelming influence in the music on the album, probably to excess when there are other elements of the band that could have been utilised better. The opening tracks including “L.A. 59” and “Ain’t it all Amusing” are entertaining enough but are countered by songs such as “Happy”, which paradoxically is quite dreary and uninteresting. "Rocking Chair Rock 'n' Roll Blues" has the quiet slow start that builds to something more powerful by its conclusion, and is a reasonable example of what Dio can do with his voice at both ends of the spectrum, but maybe making this two songs instead of just one would have worked better.
Dio’s vocals showcase here exactly what was being searched for by two of the main influences on his climb to immortality. The power he exhibits at times on songs such as “L.A. 59” and "Annie New Orleans” are certainly more important than any of the music produced here.
The drumming by Gary Driscoll is especially imposing on songs like “Ain’t It All Amusing”, a song dominated by his drum work and the blues guitar of Edwards who also shines when given a decent opportunity to do so. Indeed, this is where the band needed to steer their direction – more guitar from Edwards, and less keyboards from Soule. As it turns out, the future was to pan out in that way, which worked for some of the members of Elf, and not so much for others.

One of the things about doing a podcast called ‘Music from a Lifetime’ is that not all of the albums that I review from the music that I have listened to and/or purchased over the course of my lifetime, turn out to be good. Sometimes it just turns out to be very very different from what you expect it is going to be.
I don’t think anything could have prepared me for Elf and the music they produced on their three albums. Because I came into Elf as the result of one man – Ronnie James Dio. Because at some stage in the early 1990’s, when the band Dio had begun to run out of steam, the Black Sabbath mark II lineup had finally been brought undone by the same jealousies as they had with their original break up, I felt a need to go back and find the roots of the man with the magic voice.
The first time that I heard this album was having purchased the CD from Utopia Records in Sydney, a CD that contains both this album and its follow up “Trying to Burn the Sun”. And I can’t tell you the excitement I felt as i headed for home with the anticipation of what I was going to hear. And then I put it on... and in the immortal words of Edmund Blackadder... “I think the phrase rhymes with clucking bell”.
This was simply nothing like what I imagined I would hear. I would probably have been less surprised if it had been full of Dio just singing gospel songs. The blues? And, I mean, almost pure, unadulterated blues?! I just couldn’t imagine that this was the kind of music that Ronnie James Dio would be involved in. Of course, over future years and further deep diving, I discovered Ronnie and the Red Caps and Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, and got a much clearer aspect of his musical journey. But that doesn’t make this any less difficult to digest.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have resurrected that same CD, the one that I purchased all those years ago, and promptly abandoned to the shelves to collect dust, only moving when I moved house, and it went from shelves to moving box to shelves again. And I have played it again, and searched desperately for something to grab a hold of. And of course, being older and wiser now, I found... not much. I enjoyed Gary Driscoll’s drumming. Steve Edwards when given the chance plays some nice solos. Ronnie’s voice is amazing. There are several pl aces throughout where you can hear exactly why Roger Glover asked him to participate on his post-Deep Purple project “The Butterfly Ball” and then create the best moments on hat album, and why Ritchie Blackmore asked him to join a new project with him post-Deep Purple, the project that became the band Rainbow. So there are moment here that sparkle. But, through the whole experience, every time I have listened to this album over the last little period in order to do this podcast episode, I spent the whole time the album was on looking forward to it being over, so I could then listen to something that I WANTED to listen to, something that I would ENJOY. And sadly, that is the only true impression I can offer of “Carolina County Ball”. The almost desperate desire to run as far away as possible from it. It led to much greater things, but that doesn’t make it a good album. I will say this though. Compared to albums such as Echobrain’s self-titled debut album, or Metallica and Lou Reed’s “Lulu” album, this album is a bloody masterpiece.