WESTERN FLIER

Two years after their freak out album, Waymouth reformed H&TCC, with only him as an original member, but he got the help of The Groundhog's Tony McPhee. Filled with a brand new line-up, it appears that Waymouth wouldn't have even played on this album, even if he wrote all but one of the original songs and arranged two of the three covers.

The album sounds nothing like its predecessor, more than doubling the tracks, with some mega weird Budreaux phone dialogue, than some whacked-out Acadian/Cajun country folk (Callinda), some weird blues (Chicken Run) mixed with strange choirs from the RnR Women and wild percussion works from the Heavy Metal Kids (I imagine not the future Glam rock group), some pure RnR (Big Po Peep) with a country-esque violin, Car Car and Milk Shake Knock are pure country music. The Wall returns with some interesting female celestial choirs, and its high-flying vocals make it the album's highlight, coupled with You And Ophelia. But the closing 9-mins blues Fare You Well is overstaying its welcome by well over its half distance.

Personally this writer's hate for country music (and its successor country rock) is too strong to give any credits to artists that regularly plunge into progressive forms of their crafts, but this album's flipside helps forgetting the catastrophic side A with the last two second last tracks, showing that the Hapshash had some kind of possibilities.

This is one of the stranger progressive albums to come out of the sixties, and that’s saying something considering there was some awfully weird stuff put out back then. This one isn’t one of those really whacked-out American psych albums like Joe Byrd’s American Metaphysical Circus or Fresh Blueberry Pancake, although there were clearly some psychedelic stimulants involved in the artistic process. Instead, the Brits seem to have trolled through some traditional American folk numbers and either adapted them for the times, or used them as inspiration. The result is something that is not only nearly unclassifiable; it also lacks much of a point of reference in anything of its day or since.

The album was the follow-up to British artists Michael English and Nigel Waymouth’s first attempt at translating their poster and design art to music. By this second album Michael English had abandoned the band though, and Waymouth only played a nominal role. Instead Waymouth recruited a young Mike Batt (the Wombles, Steeleye Span) on piano and accordion, Michael Mayhew on guitar, guitarist Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs, Michael Ramsden (the Silkie) on vocals, drummer Andy Renton (another Wombles alumnus) and session musician Eddie Tripp along with the Heavy Metal Kids and violinist Freddie Ballerini. This eclectic and rather unrelated crew put together nine of the ten tracks that make the album, combined with a strange recorded-voice intro that sounds like some mid- twentieth century southern American politician’s stump speech.

The best description I can think of for the music here is something akin to a blend of Buckwheat Zydeco’s musical style combined with Joe Byrd’s Americana psych and a little dose of Reverend Glasseye & His Wooden Legs’ off-kilter folk showmanship. It’s a real mixed bag.

The traditional folk tune “Colinda” is the most accessible track on the album, if you can imagine that tune sung as a Cajun love song. The Woody Guthrie standard “Riding In My Car” (titled “Car..Car” here) is recognizable but has a piano line that sounds like one of those nineteenth-century player- pianos and a tinny vocal track from someone trying really hard to sound like a bijou hayseed. The spoon & washboard percussion combined with ball-horns completes the strange arrangement. It’s inconceivable that this rendition of Guthrie’s classic was meant to be taken seriously.

The other ‘cover’ (so-to-speak) is “Fare Thee Well”, a fleshed-out and psyched-up version of an old American Negro spiritual that is set to a decent blues guitar riff and stark piano. Even this one dips into psych territory on the instrumental passages, with some feedback and vocal echoing to make it sound both creepy and more intense.

The rest of the tracks were apparently written by Waymouth with some help from Mayhew and Batt, and they vacillate between more Cajun-sounding music, blues and psych. None of them really stands out much.

I really have no idea how to assess this album. It has no parallels except for some other irreverent acts of that period (Joe Byrd) and now (Reverend Glasseye), but both of them are American. I’m not sure what Waymouth was trying to accomplish here, but the album faded almost immediately when it was released in 1969 and can only be found today as Repertoire’s CD or Imperial’s vinyl reissue. I’m going to go with three stars simply because this thing is like watching a train wreck – you know it’s no good but you can’t turn away. I’ve found myself playing this CD numerous times over the past couple of months and that’s more than I can say for a lot of my collection, so it deserves at least that much acknowledgement.

peace

HAPSHASH AND THE COLOURED COAT may not have delivered the most competent set of albums in the 1960s but arguably this art ensemble that specialized in psychedelic rock posters that decorated all of London during the late 60s was certainly the weirdest act to have unleashed a copy LPs before the 70s emerged. The freaky debut "Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids" created one of the memorable freak out experiences with its bizarre mishmash of psychedelic rock, Indian ragas, group chanting, free folk and acid rock band jamming. The memorable artwork was the perfect representation of what to expect and fit in perfectly with the free for all Summer of Love year 1967.

While probably nobody was expecting a followup, Nigel Waymouth returned two years later without Michael English to create a second chapter of this bizarre mishap of the 60s. WESTERN FLIER came out in 1969 with a completely new set of vocalists and musicians and therefore sounded absolutely nothing like its predecessor. While the debut focused on loose collective improvisational settings, WESTERN FLIER features genuine musical compositions this time in the form of a more folky psychedelic rock. Michael Ramsden provided the lead vocals and the musical accompaniments featured Michael Mayhew (guitars), Mike Batt (piano, accordion), Andy Renton (drums), Tony T.S. McPhee (lead guitarist of The Groundhogs), Eddie Tripp (double bass), Freddie Ballerina (violin) and the backing vocals of The Rock'n Roll Women. This time around even Waymouth got in on the action and provided some vocals. Mike Batt became an official member of the band at this stage.

While based in real melodic compositions, this album is still tripper's paradise with crazy performances however given the actual musical performers is more in line with late 60s and early 70s folk / country / psychedelic rock of the era. One major difference is that there is a real singer with actual lyrics! While the debut provided strange chants and cult leader type evocations with responses from a drugged out group of followers, WESTERN FLIER is filled with the bluesy shuffles, boogie rock, bluegrass and even some honky tonk piano rolls. It really couldn't be more different from the debut! Like the debut it featured multiple album covers but only two in this case and has had the same album title for its entire history.

Sounding something like Country Joe and the Fish meets Wildman Fischer who joined a Krautrock band, WESTERN FLIER existed in a strange new world where the psychedelic 60s suddenly merged with the folk and country rock style that would become more of a thing in the 1970s. The tracks may sound closer to "normal" but the album's flow is quite wild. The opening "Telephone Budreaux" is a one-minute spoken word segment that makes no sense whatsoever but hey, this was the 60s! "Colinda" follows and is a traditional Cajun tune and for some reason was released as a single in France, Germany and the UK where not surprisingly failed to chart. "Milk Shake Knock" also rocked the Cajun traditionals while "Car-Car" turned the catchy kid's song into a rockin' sensation! "Big Bo Peep" is probably the catchiest track with as a heavy blues rocker with an excellent guitar solo from McPhee.

"Blue Narcissus" is a bluesy ballad with lots of slide guitar while "The Wall" is the only truly sounding psychedelic pop rock song on the album with lots of fuzz guitar and lots of backing from the Rock 'n Roll Women vocal group. Sounds something in the vein of late 60s Moody Blues. "You For Ophelia" features an energetic barrelhouse piano blues style and also displays perfectly the limitations of Mike Ramsden's vocal style. The earnest lyrics tend to outstay their welcome a bit. The closing "Fare You Well" is the longest track at nearly 9 minutes and takes nearly a minute to fade in completely. Somewhat of a country rock song with lots of slide guitar and the backing singers actually engaging in a call and response rather than just the usual ooo's and aaah's.

While neither of HAPSHASH AND THE COLOURED COAT's two releases could be considered essential by lovers of psychedelic rock or competent music in general, this second release WESTERN FLIER will at least be recognized as "music." It's a strange followup to the bizarre psych-fueled freak out of the debut but hey, the Summer of Love burned out and ran its course so the hepcat COLOURED COATS moved on as well. While all of the tracks here are catchy and nicely played, the lead vocals are a bit lackluster and the album's a bit all over the place to have a cohesive feel but in a way that's what makes it unique. It's another anomaly of the 60s where the psychedelic 60s butted heads with the country rock 70s along with some old fashioned Cajun and piano blues thrown in for good measure! While still trippy and psychedelic, if you're looking for freak out jams then skip this and go to the debut. However if you have a hankering for some psych-fueled Cajun country rock then by all means jump in!