Arkivet

The topic of today, rural aspects of psychedelic and singer-songwriter music, is very broad and here we loosely define rural as music that mediate a “countryside” feeling by drawing inspiration from roots genres like country and bluegrass or takes a nostalgic perspective, which is not always self-experienced, with topics of freight train drifting and the old west. The rural style is mainly related to the 1970s and usually has a laidback atmosphere, like a countryside retreat in the aftermath of the psychedelic heydays in the late ‘60s. Many favorites are included in the episode, from the Midwestern singer-songwriter duo Modlin & Scott and the reflective mood of the collage friends Thrower, Spillane and McFarland to the psychedelic cowboy Bill Madison, whose interpretation of “Buffalo Skinners” takes this traditional folk song into the third eye dimension, and the country-rock of McKay’s “This Road”, where Ray Pierle dreams of the freedom on the highway.

Special for this episode is that Bill Madison joined us to talk about the recording of his album “Sunday Mornin’ Hayride”. He also played two songs for us over Skype (so the sound quality might not be the best but the music is) and the tunes can be found on our webpage.

Modlin and Scott-The Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore (700 West, 1976)-Loser, LoverThrower, Spillane and McFarland-Blue John (Ranger, 1973)-You Led MeBill Madison-Sunday Mornin’ Hayride (Saloon Records, 1973)-Buffalo SkinnersCambridge-Share A Song (Green Dolphine, 1977)-Faithless LadyWilcox-Sullivan-Wilcox-An Album of Original Music (Golddust, 1973)-Snow on a MountainMcKay-Into You (No label, 1978)-This Road

In this episode we’re going to focus on the downer/loner folk and singer-songwriter music of the late ‘60s to early ‘70s with an emphasis on the downer aspects. Therefore, we've tried to pick the most haunting songs, which reflects the artists most dark and tortured feeling. Human suffering has always been an inspiration for great art and many of the artists in this episode made music for therapeutic reasons as a way to cure their troubled souls or as in the case with Bob Desper, to help others in their despair. With the selection of this episode we also wanted to highlight both the reflective side, which deals with mankind’s miseries at large but also the more common introspective and self-centered side, which leans more towards the self-abusive and suicidal feelings.

As always we have included some of the true classics of the downer style but also some less discussed artists and one odd choice with Shaun Harris, who is usually not associated with this style of music.

Dave Bixby – Ode to Quetzalcoatl (No label, 1969)-Drug SongMichael Lloyd Lipitz (JMC, 1973)-Search For YouthRichard Kneeland-Present Your Errors (Gothic, 1976)-Present Your ErrorsShaun Harris-s/t (Capitol, 1973)-I’ll Cry OutBob Desper-New Sound (Rose City Sound, 1974)-To a Friend of MineBill Clint-The Crying of a Generation (Joint Artists, 1975)-Angels Don’t Need Friends

It’s time again to return to Midwestern United States with a second episode of local/private press psychedelia from this region. We have already dedicated one episode in season 1 to Midwest, in which we included some of the finest artists of the psychedelic era, e.g. Zerfas and Wizards From Kansas. This time we have chosen to focus on the late ‘70s psych and it’s going to be a lot of melodic guitars, rural vibes and stoned grooves in this episode. To us the Midwest is one of the greatest regions in the US for '70s local/private press psychedelia and is perhaps only matched by the West Pacific (including the hippie states of California and Hawaii). It’s astonishing how so many of the top private press records that came out from the Midwest, like Anonymous and Rick Saucedo, if just mentioning the ones included in this episode. The reason to this is unknown to us but could it be the regions geographical displacement to the major labels in New York and Los Angeles with little chance of being discovered as a small band resulting in the release of the music on local labels or as private presses instead?

Except Anonymous and Rick Saucedo we also tried to add some lesser known bands in this episode, like Windwords and Clockwork, which we hope you will enjoy as much.

Rick Saucedo – Heaven Was Blue (Reality 1978)-In My MindWindwords-Shootin’ the Breeze (WW 1979)-WisdomRay Harlowe and Gyp Fox-First Rays (Waterwheel 1978)-Gettin’ KeyedAnonymous-Inside the Shadow (A Major label, 1976/1981)-Baby Come Risin’Clockwork-Clockwork (Greene Bottle, 1973)-Country Side Woman

It's fascinating how the psychedelic ‘60s lingered on in the private/local recordings and how some artists continued on the psychedelic path long after mainstream popular culture had lost its interest. In this episode we highlight some of the fine psychedelic artists of the early 1980s, which is when many scholars consider the first psychedelic era to end. These artists are still part of the same psychedelic culture with a shared musical vision and aesthetics as earlier psychedelic artists but without any of the intentional revival and neo-psych moves that started to appear in the middle of the decade. The originality of the early ‘80s psychedelic artists comes from the merging of the late ‘60s songwriting with the instrumentations and expressions of the ‘80s to create something very unique and genuine.

No matter when it was recorded we think that the open-minded listener (which we know that you are) will enjoy the timeless psychedelic quality of the music in this episode.

Doc Holiday-Lady Free (no label, 1980)-(I Dreamed) I Went Sailing Last NightT Kail-Somewhere, Sometime (Jade 1980)-Peace of MindCarl Erdmann-Bizzarophytes (no label 1980)-Turritella FlatsJohnny Blackburn & Mary Lauren-Echoes of Love’s Reality (Wind’s Eye Music 1981)-Beautiful DreamerSteve Linnegar’s Snakeshed-Classic Epics (Snake 1982)-Desert

In this second and last part of our interview with Rich Haupt we continue to listen to some of the mind expanding releases of Rockadelic Records, and just as in the first part the music here include contemporary acts, reissues of truly rare records and unreleased archival material from 70s psych bands. Rich also tells us the legendary digging story of how he and Mark Migliore found the Jr. and His Soulettes album in a record warehouse in Oklahoma City, which led to the bizarre meeting with Harold Moore Sr, who was the father to the children that recorded the album, and everything about this story is just unbelievable.

Rockadelic Records was a unique label in the early days of reissuing obscure music as they also put out unreleased recordings, which today are standard procedure among reissue labels but was largely unheard of in the late 80's. True is also that much of the unreleased material matches the quality of many of the classic titles of the era and has now become classics themselves among underground psych collectors.

Brain Police-Rather See You DeadStone Garden-Oceans Inside MeMill Run Band-EasyPeacepipe-Bikers Tune/Open Your MindWailing Wall-Scissor-Tailed SwallowKath-Lonely AgainFish Eyed Lens-Turn It Up

This is the first part of an interview with Rich Haupt from Rockadelic Records, one of the earliest and most important labels for reissuing and releasing unreleased material of '60s and '70s psychedelia and heavy rock. Rockadelic was founded by Mark Migliore in 1988 to release records by contemporary Dallas bands and after a few 7” releases Mark invited Rich to join him. Both of them were heavy collectors and during that time they got the idea of releasing older material. This development seemed to have happened by coincident as Rich tracked down members of the band Hickory Wind and found out that they had unreleased recordings of their previous band, BF Trike. This became Rockadelic’s first LP release and was the first of many classic and today desirable titles from the label. The most notably of their records is the legendary Cold Sun album, which was previously unreleased but is now seen as one of the most important artifacts of the Texas psych scene. Mark Migliore tragically passed away in 1996 and Rich continued with the label on his own until the late '00s before he called it a quit.

In this interview Rich picks some of his favorites out of the around 60 releases that Rockadelic did and gives us the full backstory on them. The selection is varied and spans the whole Rockadelic discography from the earlier 7” releases of the Dallas neo-psych scene to some of the most well-known releases of the label.

Lithium X-mas-Message To CharlieBurnin' Rain-DreamsBF Trike – Time & ChangesCold Sun – South TexasKennelmus-Sylvan ShoresGold-High On Your LoveSeompi – Summer’s Comin’ On Heavy

Eastern philosophy and religion became highly interlinked with the psychedelic culture in the '60s as comparisons between the psychedelic experience and religious concepts of higher mental states were made. Eastern practices, such as meditation were approached as alternative to psychedelics because the method can lead to similar mental awareness and for reaching higher mind stages. However, as noted by Patrick Lundborg that “the religious model is an interpretation, whereas the psychedelic experience, if registered according to proper phenomenology, is simply a description”* and these organized religions with their explanatory belief systems and traditions is not always the ideal model for the psychedelicists exploring their personal inner cosmos. One of the most famous examples of the merging of Eastern religion and psychedelia is Timothy Leary et al.´s guide-book The Psychedelic Experience where they linked the psychedelic trip to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and similarities were drawn between the effects of psychedelics and the intermediate steps of life and rebirth.

The Eastern influences also made its way into the music and many artists started to incorporate Indian instruments, Eastern melodic structures and scales. For some, this was just a way to ride the hype whereas some had a more original approach to it and here we cherry-picked some of the ones that we think where more genuine in their influences of Eastern culture.

Spikedrivers (OM 1966)-Often I WonderOrient Express-same (Mainstream 1969)-AzzarBhagavan Das and Amazing Grace-Swaha (1974)-Just Can't Keep From CryingNew Age-All Around (RD 1967/2007)-Alone in a WonderlandAnanda Shankar-Ananda Shankar and His Music (EMI 1975)-Dancing Drums13th Floor Elevators-Easter Everywhere (IA 1967)-Slip Inside This House

Finally it’s time for an episode devoted only to Canadian artists. However, to narrow it down a little bit we’ve chosen to focus on some of the excellent major label folk-rock albums recorded in the country during the 70s and for the most part we’re going to bury ourselves deep into the CSN and Neil Young influenced folk-rock but also have a listen to a few stunning acid-folk tunes. It’s striking how many quality artists that were signed by the Canadian offices of Columbia and Polydor, which expect for the artist in the episode, also released Fraser & Debolt, Roger Rodier and Life among others. So hats off to the A&R departments that provided us collectors with so many obscure records that both have that underground feel and at the same time the recording quality of a major label.

The songs in this episode are all good examples of the fine Canadian folk-rock and acid-folk sound and while most of them are renowned and appreciated today we also think that some artists, like D’Arcy Draper should be more well-known and could very well be placed up there with Riverson and Perth County Conspiracy as one of the top Canadian folk-rock albums.

D'Arcy-Back at the Beginning (Absolu 1972)-ForestRiverson-same (Columbia 1973)-Winter GardenTapestry-Down by Maple River (Polydor 1973)-Years Going ByPtarmigan-same (Columbia 1974)-The IslandPerth County Conspiracy-Does Not Exist (Columbia 1970)-Crucifixation CartoonShawi-same (Intervalle 1980)-Un air de printemps

In this episode we're exploring some of the music that came out of the hippie communes in the early 70's. The communal living was nothing new but the 1970's saw an increase of new communes spread out in the countryside across the US and marks the start of the hippie rural movement, where the intense kaleidoscope colors of Height-Ashbury was replaced by a reconnection to nature and the more laid-back lifestyle of the 1970’s. The rural movement was partly a response to the decay of the hippie neighborhoods and the loss of spiritual clearness of the cities. Most of the communes came to existence through a shared spiritual awareness among people seeking a way of continuing their psychedelic lifestyle or the will to follow certain religious and political beliefs. All of this could be seen as social experiments which gave people a chance to distance them self from the rest of society and create their own way of living with rules only applying within the constraints of the collective. The need of detachment from the society could very well be a part of the growing distrust of the western civilization with the raging of the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons and governmental brutality during protests and manifestations.

The music was a major part of the communal living and in many cases used to spread the word of their newfound way of living and to recruit new members but as we are going to hear most of them still kept the creativity and artistic integrity while doing this. The majority of the communes did not last so long due to the hardship of living that close to so many people and following the sometimes unconventional and strict rules, which I can imagine requires true dedication from the members. Another problem, which became clear for many of the communes discussed in the episode, was the increasing power of the spiritual leaders that usually took God-like proportions resulting in delusions of grandeur, so the saying that “power corrupts” holds true, even for hippies. Anyway, the music that came out of this was usually as pure as the ideal that founded the communes and we hope you enjoy the selection.

The Farm Band-same (Mantra 1972)-Let It RideGreenwood, Curlee and Thompson-One Time, One Place (No label 1972)-The Brother(s) songFather Yod and the Spirit of 76 (Higher Key 1974)-Fire In the SkyThe Apostles-The Living Gospel (The Divine Mission 1973)-LilaSun (Up-Sun Down 197?)-Memories of the Mind

In this second part of the interview we talk to Stefan Kéry about Subliminal Sounds as a reissue label. In the mid 80’s a “psychedelic community” started to take form in Stockholm around Stefan and other musicians, writers and friends interested in psychedelic culture. Many of the musicians would also release their music on Subliminal Sounds (see part one of this interview). This “commune” was named the “Lumber Island Acid Crew” (coined as somewhat of a joke by Patrick Lundborg), and where a gathering of friends to explore the realms of psychedelia while listen to rare and at that time unknown records, many of which later found their way into the well-known Acid Archives book. Stefan, being one of the most hard-core collector among them, introduced many new rare records to the group, which he had acquired through dealers around the world. He also located many of these artists and in some cases this contact lead to a reissue of the LP on his label. This did not only spread the music to a much wider audience but also gave the artists a change to tell their story for the first time. The music in the episode is rather diverse stretching from outsider psych-country to lounge-psych and murky downer folk but they are all connected through Stefan’s interest in the weird and esoteric. For all of you Madrigal fans Stefan also gives some new info about this mysterious band and promise that more is to come.

Jade Stone & Luv-Mosaics; Pieces of Stone (1977/2008)-ManSaturn-Saturn (1977/2014)-The Rings of SaturnPeter Grudzien-The Unicorn (1974/2007)-The UnicornMadrigal-Madrigal (1971/2014)-The Ballad (Dreams)D.R. Hooker-The Truth (1972/2000)-Forge Your Own Chains