a few years as lead singer with a band called Sugar Creek. They started in Ohio but later gravitated to Boston, where John still lives. For several years they had themselves a good solid reputation for live performance, and eventually they even got into the studio for awhile. But the label was Metromedia, and Metromedia's big gun was Bobby Sherman at the time. With Bobby to compete with, the Sugar Creek record never got the attention it would have needed and, as a matter of fact, it hardly made it into the stores. It was an instant collector's item and the boys were understandably a little disappointed. Eventually they split up, and John began to gig around New England on his own.

He's been playing alone for better than a year now, and he's got quite a healthy following. This record is good enough, but it doesn't make his appeal fully as apparent as it ought to be. For one thing, it was put together nearly a year ago when all 12 songs were hot off the presses, and John's had a lot of time to work them up since then. For another, his full repertoire now includes a number of things he didn't write himself, and that isn't doing his concert sets any harm. Those of John's own tunes that lean heaviest on the romantic side, with lyrics about walking through clouds and other such cosmic good times, don't exactly show him off to his best advantage.

The high points of this record come, almost without exception, at its most energetic moments. "Train of Glory" is a real gem and likewise "Shanty," both of which give him a chance to do a little fancy blowing on his Hohner. "Athens County" is a curious combination of several distinct melodies plus lightweight lyrics John copped off a postcard sent to him from the Ohio county of the same name. The single is "Sunshine," a cheery little number that turns out to be about feeling bad: not just a standout song, it also surely clinches its title's claim to being Soft-Rock Metaphor of the Year. One or two others are just as tuneful, and "Jesse" is cryptic enough to get by on that alone, John's done a nice job here, and from all indications he's going to be doing an even better one next time around. In the meantime, Jonathan Edwards is a fine introduction and well worth your attention. (RS 96)

JANET MASLIN