Wheatstraw Suite - The Dillards (1968)
Track List:
I’ll Fly Away
Nobody Knows
Hey Boys
The Biggest Whatever
Listen to the Sound
Little Pete
Reason to Believe
Single Saddle
I’ve Just Seen a Face
Lemon Chimes
Don’t you Cry
Bending the Strings
She Sang Hymns out of Tune
Yesterday I was reading comments people made about the death of Bill Walton
And I came across a comment thread of some people arguing about if bluegrass can be psychedelic music. I personally feel that bluegrass can indeed be psychedelic, and point to many jam bands to prove this point. However as I didn’t want to engage in a debate I read the comments and saw someone suggested this album as an example of psychedelic bluegrass from the 60’s. I made a note of the album and proceeded to develop what I think is COVID. I’ve spent most of today sleeping and was thinking about skipping but I kept having this nagging feeling that I had committed to listen to an album a day for a year and if this was a good psychedelic bluegrass album from the late 60’s that would be awesome.
I finally got up the will to listen to this album. The description on YouTube includes “...the album showcased an ‘unpredictable’ mix of bluegrass, country, folk, rock, and pop.” Now while I am firmly in the camp of “there exists psychedelic bluegrass” but this ain’t it. I think the description does a great job of describing the band. There is clearly a lot of bluegrass influence, some attempts to make it more pop sounding but it never reaches into psychedelic territory. I did absolutely love the penultimate song “Bending the Strings” which is a great romp. There are some obviously gospel inspired songs on here.
Finally a note I took while listening:
The chorus of The Biggest Whatever is very similar to Ballroom Blitz by Sweet.
I’m going back to sleep now.
