Artist:   Jefferson Starship
Song:   "Maybe for You"
Album: Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty
Label:   The Lab
Year:    2008

Marty Balin is able to sing a love song better than just about anyone alive. And it’s been that way forever, from early solo singles, as a member of the folkie Town Criers, in the band he built from scratch, Jefferson Airplane, and then Jefferson Starship and his own albums. There is a certain catch in his voice that is so full of overwhelming emotion, it can’t be duplicated. “Today” from the Airplane’s seminal Surrealistic Pillow is the perfect example. One listen and it’s all over. In a way, it’s an oddity that Balin is even on this new Starship release. It’s a stirring collection of political songs, to be sure, but  “Maybe for You” is Marty Balin’s only contribution and--you guessed it--a love song. A great one, too. It starts like a long-lost cousin of a Buddy Holly unreleased classic, with chiming guitars and a rolling chord pattern, as Balin’s vocal immediately casts a heart-tugging spell like only he can. It’s a feat of nature that the singer hasn’t lost a note of feeling, throwing himself into it like it’s a Mime Troupe Appeal benefit at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1965. So many things from that period are swept away in the foggy memory of the past, hearing this now in the middle of Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty is akin to running into an old friend at an IRS audit, proving that surprises often await us in plain sight if we keep our eyes and ears open wide. Wow.