Candle Wax

Description

Candle Wax is the solo debut album by the American singer and songwriter Randy York, independently released on Rockwood Records in 1976.

Another backwoods scruffy rocker guy that successfully avoided the sanitized ccm scene. We’d heard from York previously as half of the duo Rockwood. Brad Nelson (the other half of Rockwood) is part of York’s band on Candle Wax, contributing some blistering scratchy lead guitar on top of Randy’s 6 and 12-string guitars and bass. Other participants are Harry Long, Dan Reifsnyder and Randy Weiss. Side one contains the raw electric stuff, including the primitive hard-rocking «So This Is Life» and «Wallace», the latter a re-worked version from the Rockwood LP (“My Country ’tis of thee, seet land of bigotry”). «Your Faith Will Make You Whole» has an attractive rural west-coast dreaminess, while «Hello Thomas J» provides handclapping hippie country folkrock. Side two explores acoustic rock, evoking the unplugged moody quality of Ron Moore’s early albums on «J.C.», «Lady», «Window», «A Brother’s Prayer» and «Welcome Home». Appealing homemade natural sound throughout. Comes in a mostly plain white cover, blank on back, and with only the artist’s name in tiny letters on the front. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Our Lord, Come!” – 2:35
A2. “Hello, Thomas J.” – 3:10
A3. “Wallace” – 4:04
A4. “So This Is Life” – 3:50
A5. “Your Faith Will Make You Whole” – 3:35

Side Two
B1. “J.C.” – 2:50
B2. “Lady” – 2:40
B3. “Window” – 2:25
B4. “A Brother’s Prayer” – 1:20
B5. “Welcome Home” – 3:00