Jimmie Spheeris' followers swore up and down that he deserved to become as famous as
Neil Young or
Jackson Browne -- and in a perfect world, he would have been much better known in the singer/songwriter field. But when his sensitive, contemplative debut album,
Isle of View, first came out on Epic in 1971, it was hardly a big seller. Nonetheless, it did earn
Spheeris a small but extremely devoted cult following, and it isn't hard to see why his followers thought so highly of him. Acoustic-oriented selections like "I Am the Mercury," "For Roach," and "The Nest" are superb -- when you aren't admiring
Spheeris for being such an expressive, charismatic vocalist, you're loving his way with words.
Spheeris' lyrics had a very poetic quality, and the more you listen to these songs, the more you get out of them. Anyone with a taste for introspective singer/songwriters would have a hard time not cherishing
Isle of View.