Ray Owen´s Moon-Moon (1971)

In 1970, guitarist Ray Owen left Juicy Lucy, with whom he had recorded their debut album a year earlier, to begin his solo career. He founded Ray Owen's Moon with guitarists Dick Stubbs and Les Nicol, bassist Sid Gardner, and drummer In McLean. That same year, they were invited to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival and shortly afterward at the Midnight Sun Festival in Sweden, alongside Elton John, Blue Mink, Chuck Berry, Canned Heat, and Hawkwind. In 1971, they released their only LP, titled "Moon", which, like Owen's subsequent solo career, faded into obscurity. However, in the following years, Owen actively collaborated with the band Killing Floor, with Vincent Crane, and in the mid-1990s, he resurrected Juicy Lucy, with whom he recorded several albums during that decade. In "Moon", Ray Owen presented a psychedelic rock sound with blues and funk influences, full of great riffs, at times quite saturated due to the sound of the three guitarists (Owen, Gardner, and McLean). The funk-rock track "Talk To Me" combines all of the above with a funky bassline. In contrast, the hypnotic and atmospheric "Don't Matter" provides a moment of respite from the album's frenetic pace, which resumes with the powerful funk of "Ouiji" and the psychedelic-tinged hard rock of "Hey Sweety". The album concludes with the acid-tinged cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile". one of the highlights of a work considered by the prestigious magazine Classic Rock to be a lost gem of rock.