Description

The self-titled and sole album by the American progressive rock combo Crimson was released on Celesta Records in 1983. The album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Dan Diamond and Steve Avedis at American Recording Studios in Denver, Colorado. Featuring Gail Schiedt on vocals, Teri Dew on keyboards and vocals, Rob Mullins on electric piano and synthesizer, Rudy Bruggeman on acoustic and electric lead guitar, Scott Huebl on bass and vocals, and Scott Douglas Troutman on drums. Bruggeman and Huebl were former members of John Carlson Band who released an album entitled No Longer Strangers on Celesta Records in 1981.

This album came as a result of Teri having a sponsor who wanted her to record a collection of her songs. Teri is an incredibly talented and creative song writer and performer and has written 100+ songs. She is an accomplished pianist and has more than a 3 octave vocal range. She called me shortly after the John Carlson album was completed to ask me to play guitar on a project she was going to do. I was still playing with Scott Huebl and Scott Douglas (a drummer we added to the John Carlson Band after finishing the album because we needed a drummer to sound like the record) and I asked Teri to include them, thus we became Crimson.

The album was recorded by the same engineers who did the John Carlson band. By this time, they had upgraded their studio significantly. John’s album was recorded with only 8 tracks and a very small mixing board. Crimson had 16 tracks to work with, a much better console, and and a much nicer room to record in. There are interesting differences in the recording quality of the two albums.

The performance style Teri had been using was to sing almost everything as a duet with another female vocalist, Gail. Most of the vocals on this album held to that style, however, there are a places where Teri sings alone. Listen to the character in her voice in those passages, she has a great voice. I recorded her in the studio on a multitude of other projects after Crimson. I have never heard her miss a single note and she can conceive complex vocal arrangements and sing all of the various parts, typically in a single take per part.

We had air play on this album in a couple of isolated markets. On one Christian station, we made it into their top 10 with «He Is A Fool». We were #6 and Amy Grant’s song was #5. As a band, we found very few opportunities to perform, it was more acceptable for Teri and Gail to perform an acoustic show, so the band only played a few times around Denver, and we did a few gigs in Florida. [Note by band member Rudy Bruggeman]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Angel Dust”
A2. “Master Of Disguise”
A3. “Light of the Day”
A4. “I Don’t Understand Myself”
A5. “Spinning”

Side Two
B1. “Lukewarm”
B2. “Look at the Lady”
B3. “He Is a Fool”
B4. “Spinning (Reprise)”