Sweetwater - Cycles: The Reprise Collection (1999)

As the opening band at the original Woodstock festival, Sweetwater was a rock & roll footnote that was almost completely forgotten until VH1 decided to inaugurate its series of original films with a TV movie about the band -- or, more specifically, about Nanci Nevins' role in the band. The day after the film premiered, the release of Cycles: The Reprise Collection was announced on Rhino's website. It was the second release by Rhino Handmade, a division of the reissue label that specializes in limited-edition collections sold only over the Internet. Cycles was their highest-profile release, simply because VH1's constant airing of Sweetwater made the band absurdly collectable. Their albums had never been released on CD, so original vinyl copies of their three records fetched inflated prices on the Internet auction site eBay -- the debut LP was going for nearly $100 at one point. Prior to the film, only '60s fetishists even considered Sweetwater. After the movie, the band seemed to be written back into '60s rock history. So, Cycles arrived at the perfect time -- in fact, the only time that it could have arrived, since even a month after its announced release, the Sweetwater craze began to fade. And justifiably so, since this "definitive" 19-track collection proves that they were not that great of a band. They effectively aped the Mamas & the Papas and Jefferson Airplane (Nevins is a dead ringer for Grace Slick), with a slightly jazzier bent, but their music is too much of its time -- decades later, lyrics like "What's wrong with our schools/What's wrong with our zoos" elicit nothing but cringes. Some pop artifacts of this nature are quite entertaining -- nearly everything Sundazed has unearthed, for example -- but Sweetwater was stunningly average, lacking memorable songs or distinctive performances. They were a hippie folk-rock band perfect for opening Woodstock, but removed from its context, their music doesn't hold up. But if the VH1 movie sparked your interest, Cycles is ideal. There's no need to pay $100 for the debut, since nine of its 11 tracks are here, along with a version of "What's Wrong" from Woodstock, four songs from Just for You, three songs from Melon, and two previously unreleased songs: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Home Again." It's a perfect distillation of a perfectly average career.