Parish Hall

Parish Hall was a power trio from the California Bay Area. The band consisted of Gary Wagner (guitar, piano, vocals), John Haden (bass), and Steve Adams (drums). Specializing in a hard rock/blues rock sound, their album was originally released near the end of 1970 on a small local California record label. Reminiscent of the sound of another popular trio of the day, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Parish Hall had begun to gain the recognition of some European collectors by the late 1990s, and originals have fetched high prices in collector's markets. All songs on this album are originals written by Wagner and hold up well when compared to other hard rock acts.Reissues now appear on the Akarma Label with the original artwork.

This, Parish Hall's lone album is ten songs of well played hard soulful blues. There are a few good hard rock blasters in "My Eyes Are Getting Heavy," "Skid Row Runner" and "Lucanna" with some impressive guitar work from Gary Wagner.

I know the pensive sleeve makes this one look like a folk rock release or some kind of singer-songwriter production full of introspective thoughts about the nature of existence. But fear not, it's actually some quite strong heavy rock with damn good guitar work and a dark, blues feel. This album delivers some fine stuff...it is one of the Rock world's well kept secrets that has begun finally to get out there.