Seriously, this is one of my forever faves, a haunting and stunningly abstract piece of jangly folk rock that seems utterly out of time. For years, before it finally got reissued on CD in the late 90s, I used to play it for people and ask them to guess when and where it was recorded. Invariably, the answer would come "Athens, Georgia, early 80s?"
Incidentally, I don't know if you can read it on the album cover, but the Skip Boone in the picture, the bass player, is the brother of Steve Boone of the Lovin' Spoonful. The Spoonful were apparently mentors to these guys.
I interviewed the lead player, Rick Turner, a few years ago. A nice guy and a very interesting character who went on to a successful career as a luthier on the West Coast. Used to write a column for GUITAR PLAYER magazine, and has made and maintained all of Lindsey Buckingham's custom instruments for ages. You can read more about him here.
In any case, you can download "Parahighway" HERE. As always, if the authorization has expired by the time you arrive, just e-mail me for the mp3.
And if you're wondering why I didn't put up a DivShare permalink like I did for the last couple of days, it's because I feel guilty about leaving a free download for this one in perpetuity. The album's still in print, and there's a part of me that sympathizes with musicians who think filesharing is ripping them off.
Hey -- I'm being inconsistent about this, I know. So sue me.
Actually, please don't.
2 comments:
Wow! Just wow. This one really came out of left field. Thanks for sharing it, Steve. It prompted me to listen to the song samples at Amazon - I gotta get this CD!
Mister Pleasant:
Glad you liked the song. Truth be told, though, the album's inconsistent -- if you're gonna download another song, I highly recommend the ballad "Land of Our Dreams," which also could be an REM outtake.
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