Puneet Varma (Editor)

Side Trips

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Released
  
June 1967

Length
  
26:13

Producer
  
Barry Friedman

Recorded
  
1966-1967

Label
  
Epic

Genre
  
Psychedelic folk, jug band, Arabic

Side Trips was Kaleidoscope's 1967 debut album. It was released in June 1967, on Epic Records BN 26304, and re-released on vinyl by Sundazed Records (2007). The album has a raw, non-limited instrumental mentality, for each member played many instruments; for example, David Lindley played guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin, and Solomon Feldthouse played saz, bouzouki, dobro, vina, oud, doumbek, dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, and vocals.

Contents

Background

After forming in 1966, the group known then as The Kaleidoscope, won a recording contract with Epic Records. They first recorded a single "Please" backed by a non-album track "Elevator Man", that was released in December 1966. The album Side Trips was released in June 1967, and an additional single was released with album cut "Why Try" backed by non-album track "Little Orphan Nannie". The album combined rock & roll with roots and world music, and contained several traditional songs including Charlie Poole's "Hesitation Blues" and Cab Calloway's signature song Minnie the Moocher". Among other cuts, bassist Chris Darrow contributed a couple of trippy songs, "If the Night" and "Keep Your Mind Open", while Solomon Feldthouse contributed an Eastern influenced "Egyptian Gardens". Soon after the release, they re-named themselves as simply Kaleidoscope.

Reception

Allmusic's retrospective review praised nearly all of the individual songs and called the album "arguably the most diverse effort of 1967", but concluded that enthusiasts and collectors would be better off getting the more comprehensive Pulsating Dreams anthology, which includes the entirety of Side Trips.

Track listing

  1. "Egyptian Gardens" (Solomon Feldthouse) – 3:08
  2. "If the Night" (Chris Darrow) – 1:51
  3. "Hesitation Blues" (Charlie Poole) – 2:27
  4. "Please" (Feldthouse, Mark Freedman) – 3:18
  5. "Keep Your Mind Open" (Darrow) – 1:56
  6. "Pulsating Dream" (Darrow, Feldthouse, David Lindley) – 2:16
  7. "Oh Death" (Dock Boggs) – 3:25
  8. "Come on In" (Traditional, arranged by David Lindley) – 2:07
  9. "Why Try" (Lindley) – 3:39
  10. "Minnie the Moocher" (Cab Calloway, Clarence Gaskill, Irving Mills) – 2:15

Musicians

  • David Perry Lindley – banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, harp guitar, 7-string banjo
  • David Solomon Feldthouse – saz, bouzouki, resonator guitar, veena, goblet drum, dulcimer, fiddle, twelve-string guitar
  • Christopher Lloyd Darrow – bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, autoharp, harmonica, clarinet
  • Fenrus Epp – violin, viola, bass, piano, organ, harmonica
  • John Vidican – percussion

    • Technical

  • Barry Friedman – producer
  • Mike Goldberg – production supervisor
  • Arnold Shaw – liner notes

    • References

    Side Trips Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA