Episode 7, Acid Cowboys & Highway Hippies, Rural Psychedelia and Singer-Songwriters

The topic of today, rural aspects of psychedelic and singer-songwriter music, is very broad and here we loosely define rural as music that mediate a “countryside” feeling by drawing inspiration from roots genres like country and bluegrass or takes a nostalgic perspective, which is not always self-experienced, with topics of freight train drifting and the old west. The rural style is mainly related to the 1970s and usually has a laidback atmosphere, like a countryside retreat in the aftermath of the psychedelic heydays in the late ‘60s. Many favorites are included in the episode, from the Midwestern singer-songwriter duo Modlin & Scott and the reflective mood of the collage friends Thrower, Spillane and McFarland to the psychedelic cowboy Bill Madison, whose interpretation of “Buffalo Skinners” takes this traditional folk song into the third eye dimension, and the country-rock of McKay’s “This Road”, where Ray Pierle dreams of the freedom on the highway.

Special for this episode is that Bill Madison joined us to talk about the recording of his album “Sunday Mornin’ Hayride”. He also played two songs for us over Skype (so the sound quality might not be the best but the music is) and the tunes can be found on our webpage. 

Modlin and Scott-The Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore (700 West, 1976)-Loser, LoverThrower, Spillane and McFarland-Blue John (Ranger, 1973)-You Led MeBill Madison-Sunday Mornin’ Hayride (Saloon Records, 1973)-Buffalo SkinnersCambridge-Share A Song (Green Dolphine, 1977)-Faithless LadyWilcox-Sullivan-Wilcox-An Album of Original Music (Golddust, 1973)-Snow on a MountainMcKay-Into You (No label, 1978)-This Road