Stone Country
Listen – Stone Country – Love Psalm – MP3
Greetings all.
This week I’d like to close things out with a record that is a very recent – and happy – discovery for me.
If you follow all things Iron Leg you’ll already be aware that I am a huge fan of the music coming out of Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 60s, especially the sounds that erupted as rockers started to weave a little country into the musical fabric. The Byrds, Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers, Dillards, Monkees (Yes, the Monkees), Buffalo Springfield, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Stone Poneys, Rick Nelson (again, YES Rick Nelson) etc etc on and on ad infinitum, or at least I wish it went on forever, so deep is my thirst for these sounds.
It was only very recently, during an extended bout of E-digging that I heard a sample of today’s selection by Stone Country. I have to be honest and tell you that before I came across this particular auction I had never even heard of Stone Country, which it turns out is a shame since the music they made is very groovy.
Founded in 1967 by Steve Young – who went on to a substantial solo career as a country rock pioneer – Stone Country recorded four 45s and an album for RCA before splitting up soon after. They also managed to make an appearance in one of my favorite bizarre movies of the 60s, ‘Skidoo’ (which if you haven’t seen, you simply must since it features Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, Carol Channing and a soundtrack by no less a light than Harry Nilsson).
The tune I bring you today is the top side of their third 45, written by bassist Dan Barry and songwriter Diane Hildebrand. ‘Love Psalm’ is the kind of record that nobody was making outside of LA IN 1967, a perfect mix of psychedelia, folk rock, lush production (the record was produced and arranged by Rick Jarrard and George Tipton who worked on Nilsson’s early albums) and pop sensibilities. There are touches of the Kaleidoscope (though not as far out), Gene Clark (not quite as countrified) and the great early sounds of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, all blended together into a perfect, almost flower power-ish mixture.
I really dig this record. Now I have to start looking for the album.
NOTE: Head over to Flower Bomb Songs for a very comprehensive post about Stone Country
I hope you dig it too, and I’ll see you all on Monday.
Peace
Larry
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some more Northern Soul.
3 Comments
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Hello Larry,
Glad you found this group. I’ve been a fan since I picked up the LP long ago (in the 70s) for under a dollar. It is as you describe it (why challenge perfection?) baroque psychedelic folk country at its finest. There IS an extra 45, a two sided Bob Dylan fest of Million Dolllar Bash b/w This Wheel’s On Fire that is available on the latest CD reissue, I believe.
If you wish, I can get you MP3 files of the LP and 45. You know where to get me.
Duncan
There’s more information about Stone Country on my blog….
http://expo67-cavestones.blogspot.com/search/label/Stone%20Country
This is really nice stuff, Larry. I’d run across the album on a blog somewhere and had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder . . . and for keepin’ on.