Hamilton band’s album to be re-released in Jan.

European labels cite ‘raw quality’ of Brotherhood’s sound.

HAMILTON — Impressed with the “raw quality and sincerity of the sound” of an album Hamilton band The Brotherhood released in 1972, a Spanish record label plans to release a new edition of it in January.

Alex Carretero of Guerssen records, which plans to release the album and CD on Jan. 26, said that as with other self-produced music of that time, The Brotherhood’s album “Stavia” lets listeners “hear the band playing the music they really liked without any interference from a major label or a producer.”

“We especially like the fusion of the soulful voice of John Hurd with the psychedelic/acid-rock instrumentation, where it also shines the superb guitar playing of Jeff Hanson, who was very young at the time,” Carretero added.

The Spanish record label joins two others — Tramp Records in Germany and Shake It Records in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood — in releasing the recording. The album, which was on local jukeboxes but never won radio play, for years has been a cult classic worldwide, and has been bootlegged.

Also reissued this year was the single, Tragedy, which was released by a slightly different lineup of the band, called The Revised Brotherhood.

The Carretero said he believes “a legit, nicely done reissue of ‘Stavia’ was something that somebody had to do, knowing that the original album is very hard to find.”

“There was a previous bootleg vinyl reissue which was atrocious: They eliminated two songs from the original album and added two other tracks from an unrelated band,” Carretero said. “No wonder John Hurd and the band were really heartbroken about this. So when I contacted John about the possibility of doing a legit Vinyl/ CD/Digital reissue, he was delighted with the idea.” The recording can be obtained by digital and streaming now, but the official LP/CD release date is Jan 26. Pre-orders can be made via www.guerssen. com. People in this country also can order through their exclusive distributor, Forced Exposure, at www. forcedexposure.com.

Meanwhile, 2017 was a big year for Hamilton music. Among developments this year, Eric Nally recorded a music video in town. And thanks to a music reviewer, Hamilton was christened Jam!lton.