History:

The Tears Of Joy were a folk group with christian leanings from Jeromesville, Ohio. The group consisted of six students from Hillsdale High School.  Kim Smalley sang and played acoustic guitar, Deb Raudebaugh also sang and played acoustic guitar, and Dan Austen and Doug Smith both sang. Jim King was the group's lead arranger and also played lead acoustic guitar. Dave Raubenolt is credited for bass but I am unsure if he played upright bass or just sang. 

The group decided to record their only album "Dream A Dream" in 1973. It was recorded at their high school auditorium hence the large amount of reverb and dreamy echo on the recording. The group was assisted by Reverend Cecil King who also produced the recording. John J. Schrader engineered the session.

Two students from the school were on the album but not credited as members of the outfit. This included Greg King on bass guitar and Edwinna Cox who helped out in a variety of ways. She played dreamy marimba lines on two tracks, drums on a few others, and some tambourine. She was not credited for her drum work on the album. 

The album contains covers of popular folk, pop, country, and rock tunes. Two originals by Raudebaugh are on the album. The group's sound is a blend of loner folk, dreamy folk rock, and a couple country numbers. Nothing more came from the group other than this album as they split after graduating high school.

In 2008, the group reunited at a high school reunion to perform a one-off show for their fellow graduates.

Review:

Dream A Dream (1973, Century Advent Custom Records)

Rating: 6.5/10

​

There are some really beautiful cuts on here. "Clouds Above" is a wonderfully fragile version with a touching lead vocal and dreamy use of marimba. The group was very talented in the vocal harmony department, so the small choir vibe works on many cuts. "Mr. Bojangles" is a nice duet with some groovy drum work and more nice marimba lines. I like what the group did with "If" and "Come Unto Me" too. "If" is such an eerie version with tons of reverb. Raudebaugh's original tracks are nice loner tunes with good vocals and some nice lead guitar parts. There are three country-folk tunes on Side B that are not that well done ("Green, Green" is at least charming) that drags the rating down a bit.