Opera 2nd act 28 years later

IT took a while for the band to get that second album out - 28 years to be exact.

But the progressive-rock foursome from Fort Worth, Texas, known as Space Opera is back and better than ever, more than making good on the promise of their 1973 major-label debut. No one-shot wonders these, no sir, although some fans had surely written them off as such long, long ago.

However, a surprisingly large number of fans are still faithful after all these years, including no less than the right honorable John Peel, royalty among British radio jocks, who was playing old Space Opera tracks on the BBC as recently as 2001.

Reunion gigs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have drawn big crowds and rave reviews from another diehard fan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram pop music writer Dave Ferman, that sound like pronouncements of a rock 'n' roll Second Coming.

And then there's John Reagan, an Oklahoma City attorney - and guitarist - who bought that self-titled debut album by Space Opera back in spring '73 and has been hooked since. Reagan is the guy who e-mailed me with the news that this band had finally released their sophomore effort Dec. 29.

I have to admit I was unfamiliar with the band, although the cover art from their first release on Epic Records did jar my memory. I knew I'd seen it somewhere in the record bins of long ago. I've always had a habit of buying records and CDs I've never heard or known anything about if the covers intrigue me with their artwork or liner notes, but I somehow managed to pass on Space Opera.

Reagan brought me up to date with a copy of the band's new CD as well as a compact disc burned from his pristine vinyl copy of their debut, which has long been out of print.

What I heard on that 1973 effort were wondrous tunes such as "Guitar Suite," which sounds like one of those complex, multi-tempo'd guitar symphonies from such grandiose bands as Yes or King Crimson, and warmer tracks including "My Telephone Artist (Has Come and Gone)" and "Blue Ridge Mountains," which resemble the folk, country and acid-rock 12-string flights the mighty Byrds used to take in the '60s.

What I'm hearing on the new CD, self-released by the band and available only on their Web site - www.spaceopera.net - is a 2002-technology version of the same group, with denser production and much more accomplished musicianship (which is saying something, since they were already amazing in their early 20s) and remarkably original (and intelligent) songwriting.

The Byrds influence is still evident in the layered harmonies and 12-string guitar beauty of numbers such as the hyper-gliding "Welcome" and "Vieux Carre," the majestic "Stolen Ground" and the cosmically bluesy "Blavatsky."

Guitarists David Bullock and Scott Fraser readily admit to being Byrds lovers but credit their classical influences to the choral-orchestral works of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

"During that summer when 'Sgt. Pepper's' came out and the Beatles were taking everything so far, I was at a guy's house, and he put on a record by Stravinsky called 'Petrouchka,' and it totally caught me off guard," Bullock says. "I was totally addicted to Stravinsky after that, and Scott was a big fan of Stravinsky, too."

Self-taught musicians Bullock and Fraser eventually teamed with high school buddies Phillip White (vocals, bass) and Brett Wilson (drums) and began honing a sound and style of their own. They soon made a name for themselves regionally, opening for national acts such as Jethro Tull, Jefferson Airplane and their idols, The Byrds. Those gigs led to a move to New York and their big brush with the big time when they showcased for record industry mogul Clive Davis in 1972.

But they passed on a chance at a Columbia Records contract, because they brashly insisted on creative control and the right to produce their own record - something unheard of in the early '70s when you were an unknown and untried band.

"Had we gone with the standard contract, we would have been fighting some staff producer and might not have ended up with any promotion or any follow-up, and an album that we didn't like," Fraser says.

Oddly enough, the Canadian branch of Columbia was willing to give them the artistic freedom they demanded, and the resulting album was released in America on the Columbia subsidiary, Epic. But follow-up promotion and tour support never happened, and the album went nowhere, saleswise.

"We ended up getting it (creative control), and we paid the price, because the trade-off was that we were pretty much left on our own," Fraser recalls. "But the good thing is, all these years later, we can say, 'Well, that's our record.' We did it, we're entirely responsible for it, and we're still proud of it."

After the label dropped them, Space Opera continued to perform live, mainly in and around Fort Worth, through 1980. Singer-songwriters Bullock, Fraser and White continued to write songs, and they've stayed in touch through the years, occasionally recording together as a foursome with drummer Wilson, sometimes just as the twosome of Bullock and Fraser.

These days, Bullock's bread-and-butter job is making educational videos for doctors and drug companies; Fraser, inventor of the special 12-string tuning technique that distinguishes the band's orchestral sound, teaches guitar; White is a professional musician living in Colorado; and Wilson is an accountant.

But they never really broke up as a band; they've just done things at their own chosen speed. Since their first "reunion" concert at Fort Worth's Caravan of Dreams in 1997, Space Opera has been doing "about three" live performances a year while meticulously assembling their second album - also self-titled "Space Opera" - at Eagle Audio studios.

Meanwhile, Reagan is representing the band in contract negotiations with Sundazed Records to have the first album remastered and released for the first time in CD format. He's also shopping for a live venue in Oklahoma City, where Space Opera hasn't played since they opened for Sly and the Family Stone in 1971.

Why the long absence, the long wait, the maddening procrastination, fans might ask?

"I really can't explain it," Bullock says, "and especially now that we have a CD out, it's like even more absurd that we let all of those years go by without putting stuff out, because we've gone into the studio pretty consistently all that time.

"But we're still kickin', you know? As long as you're still alive, and you don't give up... ."