aglasshouse I really gotta replace that thing. Every single day the beaten doors fly open ajar I hear the damned ringing of that bell on the door-sounding after awhile like a minature Notre Dame was being kept in my bar. The man who to cause today's disturbance walked in close to closing hours and took a heavy seat on one of my moth-eaten seats positioned right in front of me. He was a hairy, huge man to say the least, and wore a uniform showing he worked at the lumber mill only a few miles down the road. Unsurprising seeing the way he strong-armed his way into the bar, setting Lucifer's jingling keys a-ringing like mad as he unintentionally made the door tremble on it's hinges. After exhaling deeply with a breath that created a cloud in the cold air of the room, he sat there in silence for a minute or two. When he did speak it was with a surprisingly gentle air, like the whisper of a father talking kindly and curiously to his child.

"S'there a problem sir?"

Confused I looked up from a glass I was drying with one of my rags and directly at the stranger.

"Pardon?"

"Yer eye's been twitchin' like crazy since I walked in."

I reached up with one of my hands to touch my left eye, which I realized really was quivering like mad.

"Sorry," I muttered, "it's the claxon of my welcome bell that gets me- it's got nothing to do with you."

The man glanced at the door then back at me, one eyebrow raised.

"Really? I do enjoy that bell. Everytime someone walks in as I'm walking down the street I hear it- makes it almost feel like Christmas is always here."

"Doesn't really reflect the mood though does it?"

The stranger looked around at my dank and dark barroom, and I felt a pang of embarrassment as he saw the flickering overheads and dusty windows.

"Before I got here it was only you right?" He said. "Don't really expect much from a room with one man in it. Not like there's suppose t'be any upbeat atmosphere."

I smiled and looked back down to continue my cleanup but I was interrupted once more.

"You could spruce it up a bit y'know? Maybe make it a bit lighter in here."

I ignored this because I'd convinced myself long ago to not touch those window-frames in fear I'd get tetanus.

"At least change the music to somefin' good. This sounds like Gloomy Sunday or somefin'."

I obliged, turning around and lifting the needle from the record that was spinning and spilling out the 'depressing music'.

"What would you like? Seeing as you're the only other one here and I got no taste in upbeat music you might as well decide."

The man put both beefy hands upon the bar, lifting himself forward to inspect my shelf full of records I'd brought from home to keep here at the bar. His eyes squinted as he tried to read the titles of the tilted LP's.

"ZZ Top wouldn't be too bad- I do love that Le Ranche or whatever s'called...but then there's Zepp's IV which has the Levee song with the great Bonham drummin'..."

He leaned back to his seat and fell down with a puff from the chair's stuffing.

"I really like that raucous stuff like Dio or somefin'. Ever since I heard he died I been listenin' to all his stuff- Sabbath, Rainbow, Heaven and Hell, you name it."

Something came to mind suddenly and I pulled a certain LP from it's holding.

"So that means you must've heard of Elf, right?"

"Err, 'fraid not. S'it a band er a person?"

"It's a band Ronnie and some friends formed in '57 in Cortland. They went through a few name changes but in '72, along with their first album, they changed it to Elf."

"Sound's pretty interestin'. S'that what you got there then? An "Elf" album?"

"Yeah. This is their third and final album before they called it quits. It's called Trying To Burn The Sun and I've never actually heard it."

"Sounds cool with me. Put in on then, barman!"

I took the black disc out of the red and bright-orange packaging and slit it onto the player. Setting the needle on it, the first track began. It was an extremely upbeat tune, with Edwards' classic rock n' roll guitar style mixing well with Soule's electrifying piano playing. This was prevalent to the majority of the record, all backed by the conjoined chorus of Soule and the ever-magnificent Dio belting out every single word with awe-inspiring skill. A subtle Rolling Stones-esque influence was very present from the swinging beats laid down by Driscoll made for very typical 70's funky tunes with toe tapping moments.

We listened through the whole eight tracks until the moon came out from behind the clouds. As the ending epic 'Streetwalker' came to an end, the stranger let out a loud laugh.

"That was quite the ride! Wasn't anyfin' too complex but still loved it!"

I nodded, slipping the LP back into it's home and sliding it back into it's place among the collection.

"It really was a great piece of rock history. It had all the tropes you'd expect from cheese in 1975, but with the great instrument playing and the unmatched talent of Dio made it pretty fun!"

The stranger finished his mug and made his way towards the door.

"You should play that more often! Don' think many people know of it- thas' gotta change!"

I chuckled and waved as the door slowly shut behind in the wake of his exit. The record had been a great, fun experience for me, and as that bell rung for the last time that night, I'll admit it was much less painful as I thought it was before.

Kingcrimsonprog Elf was a band that Dio was in early in his career; before his solo band, before Black Sabbath and even before Rainbow, although the early line-up of Rainbow was made up primarily of members from Elf. Ronnie James Dio The Elf Years is a compilation album released in the early nineties that features the second and third studio albums by Elf together on one disc. The albums in question are 1974’s Carolina Country Ball and 1975’s Trying To Burn The Sun.

There are a few flaws with the package that a lot of people can sometimes have a problem with; the artwork doesn’t fully replicate either album’s artwork, there is a slight audio flaw on one of the tracks and the mastering isn’t especially good. For a lot of people this will only be a set of minor inconveniences, but if you are usually upset strongly by similar circumstances then it may be worth avoiding this set.

As for the albums themselves, the quality is relatively strong although arguably not on the same level as any of the bands for which Dio would later become famous.

Musically the albums are driven primarily by piano and vocals, with guitar taking something of a back seat for the most part. There is a very clear influence of blues, country and 1950s Rock n Roll on display and it would not be unreasonable to call them more indebted to Honkey Tonk than Hard Rock.

If you can imagine the more boogie orientated tracks by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foghat, such as ‘I Know A Little’ and ‘Trouble Trouble’ respectively, mixed with the more 1950s influenced moments by Deep Purple and Queen like ‘Freedom’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ respectively, then you can get some idea of the material on offer here.

Even if you prefer a much heavier style of music than is available here, Ronnie James Dio’s incredible voice is still there to keep your interest, although he hasn’t developed some of his signature techniques yet which makes for interesting listening. You can hear the potential for what he would do in his solo career but with the benefit of hindsight you can pick up some of the same influences that Ian Gillan and Freddie Mercury had in Dio’s performance.

If you go in more for the less-heavy moments, or just want an interesting record of Dio’s voice before he had finished creating his own delivery style then Carolina Country Ball will be the more interesting of the two records on the set, and if you want something harder and more similar to Rainbow’s debut album (albeit mixed with the style Queen’s first three albums) then Trying To Burn The Sun will likely be where you get your money’s worth here.

In all honesty it isn’t an absolutely essential record by any means, but it is a welcome addition to anyone’s collection that will bring at least one or two loveable tracks into your longer-term rotation and is worth checking out to satisfy your curiosity.

1967/ 1976 Ronnie James Dio: a great voice but in this case without great music. In fact "Carolina Country Ball" is an album that is aged not so good. Due to the music, a sort of Blues Rock with Rock'n'Roll flavor and with tons of Jazzy moments!

The first song is "Carolina Country Ball": Not bad. Only "Carolina Country Ball" is a strange mix of Rock'n'Roll, Blues and Jazz that is aged bad, due to the strange final result: Jazz or Blues? Hmmm...! "L.A. 59" is, vice versa, a good Hard Rock that is only a pure Rock'n'Roll song with good piano and simple guitars. Good Ronnie vocal parts, wuth great choruses (refrain) and interesting guitar solo. "Ain't It All Amusing" is a simple unpretentious Boogie Rock but pretty "wild", so that the paragon with certain Psychedelic Californian Rock is not totally forced. "Happy" is an interesting Jazzy Blues that IMHO, is the song aged more worse in this album, despite being one of the most powerful and best-written, arranged and performed. "Annie New Orleans" is the a good Boogie Rock, simple and elementary. A good song if the '70's were 50's. But '70's are '70's and "Annie New Orleans" is a great song also for '70 's! "Rocking Chair Rock'n'Roll Blues" is a great ballad that remember me Queen's ballads but without the inventive structure of Freddy Mercury. "Rainbow" is a perfect ballad that have his DNA in Folk Rock and Blues but also in Country. In few words "Rainbow" is a great American Folk ballad that is at the same time a great power ballad. Probably (or not, maybe or exactly) "Rainbow" is my preferred song of "Carolina Country Ball". Strange this fact? Maybe... Maybe. "Do The Same Thing" is another Boogie Rock with the same ingredients of other Boogie Rock songs of this album: melodic but aggressive, not technical but with certain magic and feelig. In a few words "Do The Same Thing" is a great song if you love bands similar to MC5 or Steppenwolf (for a general example). "Blanche" is the final composition of "Carolina Country Ball" ansd with "Do The same thing" is part of a double song but it is a song for piano, trombone and voice. Basically is a sort of ballad but in truth is a happy song vaguely Bluesy / Jazzy.

In definitive view "Carolina Country Ball" is a good album if you love '70's American Hard Rock and Ronnie James Dio. But if you are a simple metalhead "Carolina Country Ball" is an album as other albums.