released December 16, 2016
Buzzy Linhart - acoustic guitar (Gibson harp guitar)
Serge Katzen - two-side hand drum
James Rock - acoustic guitar
Frank Eventoff - flute (and live sound engineer)

NOTE: These are the correct credits. This historically significant work has been illegally reissued on CD by small european labels such as ESP Disk, Fallout Records and get back, none have been authorized by any of the Seventh Sons nor their estates and all prior reissues were interrupted mid-jam by the side break. Some reissues called the work "4 AM at Franks", because it is not truly a raga, and all prior version have errors in the credits. Please let this correct the record. Buzzy Linhart has referred to this as "ragoid" and he wants us to keep in mind that all Seventh Sons performances were improvised with no set list and rare breaks. This early recording is a glimpse into what became "Sing Joy" first released on his album "buzzy" (1969, Phillips). The original vinyl "RAGA" and CD reissues include liner notes written by Steve Denaut who was the original bass player for the Seventh Sons when they backed Fred Neil at many gigs in Greenwich Village. Steve went on to be an actor, writer, director educator for stage making immense contributions to the West Coast Rep Theatre.

Buzzy Linhart himself oversaw the restoration session based on his best personal archival recording. Harvey Mandel restored and enhanced this split track (previously side A and side B) for modern mono enjoyment by Harvey Mandel in Electric Snake Studios, San Mateo CA (3/23/2001). Buzzy explained that this was really just a loose jam, testing Frank's new (at the time) Ampex 601 reel-to-reel recorder at his loft in Baltimore. The "4 AM at Frank's" moniker gets at the late night vibe, this coming long after the Seventh Sons gig earlier in the night. "I'm glad he did record it and it was released as rough as it was, because it turns out we never did have any other official releases as the Seventh Sons." Buzzy went on to have a successful but still quite obscure solo career, and Frank Eventoff (correct spelling) was in other bands before becoming well-known for inventing several unique electric instruments involving computer programming.

Buzzy recalled details of this session and The 1910 Gibson Harp Guitar in an interview with Robert Steven Silvertstein for The 20th Century Guitar Player magazine:

"Oh...on open tunings...originally with the Seventh Sons...and there’s a terrible bootleg called '4 AM at Franks' or 'Raga' by The Seventh Sons. Please guys call me, I’ve got a good version for ya. And edited back together so its not in two sides like that one is. And re-digitized. It was us warming up in the dressing room to perform “Sing Joy.” It was very interesting as a improvisational piece. But please call BuzzArt, call me at BuzzArt north. Send me an e-mail. I’d be glad to hand make you any of my records you want and hand sign ‘em almost any way you would like me to. It would be a lot of fun. I miss being on radio shows, getting interviewed on radio shows, having the phone ring and then getting to talk to twenty, thirty fans. There’s nothing like it in the world. Telephones aren’t expensive now guys, let’s do some communicating here and maybe you’ve got a story to add onto the web site about where you saw me the first time or something like that. Also, in the Seventh Sons, what I wanted to mention, on this raga that was released without our permission...I’m playing a famous guitar called The Gibson, from about 1910. It’s a Gibson harp guitar, have you ever heard of one? It has a six string neck and then you can see what I believe is probably the same actual guitar. Because when our band, The Seventh Sons went belly up, a lot of our equipment wound up in Woodstock and I’m sure a lot of people paid good bucks for it. I believe its the harp guitar that Robbie Robertson is playing in The Last Waltz. We were close in the old days, the Band and us. So there’s a 1910 Gibson harp guitar. The reason I’m talking about this is so I can discuss a little guitar with you guys. A very, very famous guitar. And there’s sixteen strings and six strings I believe for a total of twenty I think, all together. And they don’t ring sympathetically, you’ve got to actually strike the ones that are on the harp part, but it’s just great. You put big old fat piano strings on the low and you get a real low note. And string it any way you want it to and of course we put it together to play in this B mountain modal tuning and during that particular Seventh Sons raga that we’ll be releasing officially soon, but you can get one if you give me a call, that’s part of how we get the sound in there. Actually, James Rock and I pass it back and forth a couple times. One is playing a six string and the other is playing the twenty string and we pass them back and forth. But a wonderful instrument that unfortunately I had to let go when the band broke up. Actually I had to let... I lost seven guitars, seven guitar amps, a whole bunch of stuff that I’d been given by Baldwin to outfit the band. Originally I had to choose between my guitar and a set of vibes when I left the band."

For the complete 13,000 word interview, see:
www.mwe3.com/archive/pastfeature/featureBuzzyLinhart08.htm