The Arthur Gee-Whizz Band - City Cowboy

Not sure about the history of these guys, but as far as I know they only made this one album in 1972 for the Denver-based Tumbleweed label. Either collectors don't know/care about this record or there were a lot of them in circulation at the time, because there seem to be a number of copies readily available for reasonable prices. Otherwise, this is the sort of thing that would be a big-bucks collectors' item. It's a strange, loose-but-professional-sounding mixture of country-rock and late-psych/early-prog, with extended song structures, varied textures, and jammy instrumental sections brushing up against rootsy country/Americana touches. The misguided twentysomethings who think My Morning Jacket is the greatest thing since sliced bread would lose their minds over this one, but they'll probably never hear it; don't be like them.

Today's bounty:

Just a few quick words on a new arrival from Ebay:

Paul Masse - Butterfly Lake

Sometimes even I have to wonder where some of these guys came from and where they went. Paul Masse was an L.A. singer/songwriter who put out two late-'60s albums on Liberty. This was his first one, which sports a gloriously psychedelic cover and dippy liner notes by Masse's girlfriend Suzanne, who identifies herself only by her first name in classic '60s chauvinism style (hippie enlightenment my ass), and is the subject of a song on here called (guess what) "Suzanne" (not the Leonard Cohen song). Basically, this is hippie-dippy folk-pop with fruity orchestration, and a nice dose of windmills-of-your-mind lyrics, not too far from that other famous Butterfly guy Bob "Bright Elusive Butterfly of Love" Lind. One interesting touch is that the title track actually turns out to be a rather cleverly written murder ballad lodged amid all the dandelions and tangerines. Not essential, but kind of cool if your collect this sort of thing (which I do), and to some degree it's worth it just for the cover.

Let's hear it for the Goose Creek Symphony:

As a country-rock aficionado, I like the Flying Burrito Brothers not only as much as the next guy, but probably a bit more. Nevertheless, Gram Parsons's much-ballyhooed "cosmic American music" term has been taken entirely too literally. Certainly, the Burritos were bringing country music to a new, young audience of hippies/freaks/stoners, and putting it into an electrified rock-band context, but there was absolutely zero psychedelic, spacey, or otherwise "cosmic" aspect whatsoever to the actual music the band made. The full extent of their association with such things was an offstage fondness for illicit substances and the pot-leaf design on Parsons's Nudie suit. Latter-day country-rock revivalists like Beachwood Sparks and armchair historical revisionists seem to forget this, with the former filling in the psychedelic blanks themselves.

That's one of the reasons I find Goose Creek Symphony so interesting. They were part of the first country-rock wave, releasing their first album in 1970. But their albums actually DID sound like a collision between a San Francisco Be-In and a night at the Grand Ole Opry. On the one hand, they didn't merely twang up rock-based material by throwing in pedal steel and the occasional 2/4 beat a la Poco, but they also had a hell of a lot more freaky, countercultural stuff going on in their music than the comparatively straight-ahead Burritos. There's a very strong element of traditional country, folk, and bluegrass to their albums, and it's very obvious that the bandmembers were extremely adept in that format, as borne out by numerous covers of trad country tunes. At the same time, there are crazy psychedelic effects, some West Coast psych-style fuzz lead guitars, and general stoned-out odd touches. These guys were no one-shot, come-and-gone deal either; they released about five albums before calling it quits around '76, and by about the third one they were growing in even more interesting directions, like making extremely original use of a horn section and unusual time signatures, while still maintaining their rootsy, organic feel. Perhaps most importantly, they never lost their oddball sense of humor.

I'm also given to understand that the group reuinited sometime in the '90s and is still performing and recording today. I believe their activities are centered around a part of the country nowhere near me, though, so I don't know much more about their current activities. I've read that they still have a fanbase that turns out to see them, though. See? Not all these stories have crash-and-burn endings.