Dreamin’ Wild

Released

Everyone loves a good “lost record” story, and it doesn’t get much better than the one behind Donnie & Joe Emerson’s Dreamin Wild. The two boys grew up on a farm in the tiny, isolated community of Fruitland, Washington, and their only access to music was through the AM-FM radio built into the tractor that their dad bought in the summer of 1978. The next year they recorded and released their one and only record, which with its mix of soul and meandering funk captures the boys’ wide eyed naivety and innocence. Only 2000 copies of Dreamin Wild were pressed, but most of them were never sold. Until, that is, a record collector came across a copy of it in 2008,  kicking off a series of unlikely events that would culminate with Dreamin Wild being reissued in 2012. The album won legions of fans with its charming sincerity, a throwback to a romanticized, more innocent time. But not only that: the boys could really make music. Just listen to the roadtrip jam “Good Time,” or the brothers blend of smoldering funk and trippy synths on “Give Me The Chance,” or the effortlessly transportive piano ballad “Dream Full Of Dreams.” And then of course there is “Baby,” the album’s dreamy, soulful, standout killer.

Megan Iacobini de Fazio

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