Review for Sons of Champlin "Hip Lil' Dreams"

By John Metzger
The Music Box August 2005

Though it was forged within the bubbling cauldron of San Francisco’s psychedelic scene — right alongside the likes of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead — Sons of Champlin followed a different path toward enlightenment. Distinguishing itself from its Bay-area brethren, the group embraced soul, funk, and R&B. Indeed, its music was punctuated by horns and laced with heady swirls of Hammond B-3 organ long before Chicago and Blood, Sweat, and Tears rose to prominence.

Although Sons of Champlin has reunited sporadically in recent years for an array of concert performances, it has been nearly three decades since the collective ventured into a recording studio. Therefore, in the eyes of its fans, Hip Li’l Dreams has been long overdue. Granted, throughout the endeavor, Sons of Champlin offers little that is new: the opening For Joy sounds like a collaboration between Little Feat and Chicago; Maybe’s jazz-oriented textures are drawn from Steely Dan; the tender ballad I’m Not Your Lover recalls Abandoned Luncheonette-era Hall & Oates; and the title track finds common ground between David Crosby and James Brown. Yet, the rhythmic drive provided by bass player David Schallock and drummer James Preston significantly livens up the proceedings by lending the material a sense of urgency around which the rest of the instrumentation can coalesce. In other words, unlike Sons of Champlin’s earliest efforts, Hip Li’l Dreams is a professionally polished affair. Nevertheless, it also proves that even after all these years, the group still has a lot of life left in it.