Wide Prairie

Personnel includes: Linda McCartney (vocals, piano, keyboards, electric piano, Mellotron, Moog); Paul McCartney (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, banjo, strings, clarinet, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, Rhodes, organ, Mellotron, electric organ, acoustic & electric basses, drums, congas); Denny Laine (acoustic & electric guitars, flute, piano, background vocals); Laurence Juber (acoustic guitar); James McCartney (acoustic & electric guitars); Jimmy McCulloch (guitar, electric guitar); Vassar Clements, Johnny Gimble (fiddle); Thaddeus Richard (alto saxophone); William Puett (tenor saxophone); Norman Ray (baritone saxophone); George Tidwell, Barry McDonald (trumpet); Hewlett Quillen (trombone); Davey Lutton, Joe English (drums).
Producers: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Lee Perry, Ian Maidman.
Engineers include: Geoff Emerick, Ernie Winfrey, Mark Vigars.
Recorded between November 20, 1973 and July 3, 1998. Includes liner notes by Paul McCartney.
It's difficult to know what to expect from a Linda McCartney album. Whatever your preconceptions, WIDE PRAIRIE may surprise you. The record is, in fact, a quirky hodge-podge of fun, carnivalesque romps that tread the line between bar-room sing-alongs and nanve, acid-flavored pop. In a sense, this is more of a nod to such crackpot back-to-childhood pop wizards as Syd Barrett than any approximation of the obvious influences. While Paul produced the album, his involvement bears no traces of his radio-friendly melodicism. WIDE PRAIRIE is more on the order of such Beatles zaniness as "Ob La Dee" and "Yellow Submarine," spoken word narrative mixed with sound bites and instrumental collage to add psychedelia to loping campground tunes.
Faux-innocent ballads ("Endless Days") alternate with skewed covers--a warbly "Poison Ivy" and a slow, psychedelic ska version of "Mr Sandman," produced (strangely enough) by Lee "Scratch" Perry. The instrumentation is adventurous as well, including electric guitar, synthesized strings, a Mellotron, violin, and a full brass section. Ignore the fact that the very thought of listening to an entire album by Linda McCartney is, in itself, a surreal experience. The pop idiosyncracies that characterize WIDE PRAIRIE give the endeavor a weird, off-kilter charm that holds a very distinctive appeal.