Before The Tyme Was Right...
Part One - Formation & Album One
By
Arthur Wood
First Goldebriars Photo (L to R): Sheri
Holmberg, Ron Neilson (standing),
Curt Boettcher, and
Dotti Holmberg
A few years on from the great acoustic Folk
music scare of the early 1960s, a number of musicians
plugged-in and Folk Rock was born. Concurrently, and pretty
much concentrated on America's West Coast, although the
contributors came from all over North America, a number of
musicians with a Folk music background also plugged in and
leavened their songs with a Pop beat. For the sake of a better
name, the concoction was dubbed "Sunshine Pop." Practitioners
included the hit-making Mamas And Papas, Harper's
Bazaar, Spanky & Our Gang, Sunshine
Company, The Association, and more...
Prior to forming the Mamas And Papas,
initially accompanied by Scott McKenzie and Dick
Weissman, South Carolina-born John Phillips was
leader of The Journeymen. Between 1961-1963 this New
York-based Folk trio cut three albums for Capitol Records. The
latter label was also home, for a time, to contemporaries
The Kingston Trio. Even though both trios included
songs composed by group members on their recordings, the vocal
style utilized is lovingly referred to in traditional Folk
circles in the U.K. as "hand on ear, woolly sweater." This
earnest and urgent form of delivery - a marriage of the
group's members singing in unison, aided by occasional solo
voice - simply lacked vocal subtlety. By 1964 McKenzie and
Phillips had fallen out while Weissman headed for academia, so
Marshall Brickman and John's second wife, Holly
Michelle Gilliam, performed as The Journeymen for a short
time. When Brickman departed, Phillips recruited Denny
Doherty from The Halifax Three/Mugwumps, but
The New Journeyman never released any recordings.
Following a sojourn in the Virgin Islands where Cass
Elliot joined them, the quartet moved on to California. In
October 1965, while aiding their old friend Barry
McGuire (ex-New Christy Minstrels) record an album,
the quartet met producer/label owner Lou Adler.
According to legend, on the Islands, driven by John, the
quartet had created/invented a more fluid, layered,
harmony-rich vocal style. Adler obviously saw their potential
and signed them to his Dunhill label. With their star in the
ascendancy, Mamas And Papas entered the U.S. Pop Top Ten five
times during 1966. The ensuing five years were something of a
musical roller coaster ride, but that's a whole other
story...
I have to admit that for me four decades of
the Mamas And Papas recordings remain as fresh and vital as
the day they were made. Furthermore, the harmony groups
name-checked at the close of the opening paragraph all enjoyed
chart success during the 1960s, but there was a parallel
universe of Sunshine Pop groups who didn't. That's not to say
the music they produced was any less valid. I have my CD
collection set out alphabetically until you come to recordings
by The Millennium. Many people consider The
Millennium's Begin to be this musician's masterpiece.
(Their debut album, Begin [1967], was reputed, at
$100,000, to be the most expensive album Columbia had released
up to that date.) Adjacent to The Millennium are almost two
dozen discs that bear names such as Lee Mallory,
Joey Stec, Dotti Holmberg, Sandy
Salisbury, and Eternity's Children - a small sample
of the recordings which this virtually unknown genius
contributed to, either as songwriter, session producer, or
session vocalist/musician. The genius I'm referring to is Eau
Claire, Wisconsin-born Curtis Roy Boettcher [January 7,
1944 - June 14, 1987]. In addition to The Millennium and
Boettcher's solo albums, my collection also boasts recordings
by Curt's bands California Music, Sagittarius,
and The Ballroom. Missing, until recently, were
recordings by the Minneapolis quartet that launched Curt's
recording career, the Goldebriars. Long out of print,
Collectors' Choice Music recently reissued the
Goldebriars [1964] and Straight Ahead! [1964] in
the United States. A third album was begun, but only one 7"
single from those sessions was released. More about that
later...
What's instantly noticeable about the
groups listed at the end of the opening paragraph is that
compared with the Goldebriars only the Mamas And Papas
consisted of two male and two female members. Spanky & Our
Gang, Sunshine Company, and mixed-sex Folk groups like
Peter Paul & Mary, The Seekers only featured
a single female voice. In actual fact there was only three
vocalists in the Goldebriars, but I would contend that it was
the dynamic of two female voices - Sheri Holmberg
sang alto and harmonies, Dotti Holmberg sang the high
parts - merged with a male voice that made the Goldebriars so
unique and ahead of their time. While the late John
Phillips [d. 2001], leader, hit songwriter, and vocal
arranger of Mamas And Papas is the often credited with being
the lead architect of sunshine pop as I've already hinted,
that's not strictly the case...
The Goldebriars' story begins in 1963, on a
January evening in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Onstage that
evening at Le Zoo Coffeehouse you would have found Curt
Boettcher, Folksinger, the son of a career navy officer. Curt
had spent a couple of his influential teenage years living in
Iwakuni, Japan, and in late 1962, enrolled as a language major
at the University of Minnesota. In his spare time Boettcher
continued to dabble with his first love - music. Sheri and
Dotti Holmberg happened to be in the audience that evening
waiting for a ride home in their brother Gary's car. Harmony
singing was not unknown to the Holmberg sisters, and by the
end of the evening they had joined Boettcher onstage.
Intrigued by the sound created by their voices the threesome
decided to continue working together, and a couple of weeks
later recruited Ron Neilson, a sixteen-year-old banjo
playing acquaintance of the Holmbergs. Sheri had recently
turned nineteen, Curt was eighteen, while Dotti was aged
seventeen. As Dotti recalls in her liner notes to the
Goldebriars reissue, by February the quartet had adopted
that name because "'Gold' we thought meant something special
and 'Briar' fit on with the Folksong era, so we added a silent
'e' to link them." From the outset Boettcher was the
acknowledged group leader, vocalist, and rhythm guitarist; Ron
played lead guitar; and while Sheri shook the occasional
tambourine, the Holmberg girls simply sang and harmonized
their hearts out.
The Goldebriars were soon booked to perform
a fourteen-week residency at Le Zoo and there was even talk of
an agreement that the club owner would manage the group. By
the end of the residency Boettcher had abandoned his
university studies, Sheri gave up her day job at a St. Paul
insurance firm, and that summer Dotti graduated from high
school. Once he began working with the group Ron continued his
school studies as a remote student. Being paid for their Le
Zoo performances was not always guaranteed and as Dotti
relates in her CD-ROM book Whatever Happened To
Jezebel? [2004] in the summer of 1963, to make ends meet
they all took day jobs, "Sheri got a job in a seed company,
Curt in a tractor factory, and myself in a flour company. We
felt like starting our own agriculture department. Ron was
working for his Dad." Having mentioned her name it seems
appropriate to introduce Jezebel at this juncture. She was a
two-and-a-half-foot-high, brown, fertility goddess, carved
from a palm stump by native of the Marshall Islands. Ron's
father had brought her home after serving in the Pacific
during World War II. Adopted as their good luck mascot,
Jezebel appeared on both their album covers and for a time
accompanied them on concert
appearances.
The group's first touring vehicle was,
according to Dotti, "an ugly, gray, 1951 Dodge," which the
group christened "THE." The Goldebriars were introduced to
their first real manager, John Haeny, by Judy Helgeland, a Le
Zoo waitress and Mark Hollenquist. Hollenquist was a
member of another Minneapolis Folk group, The Flinthill
Singers, that Haeny already managed. When Haeny entered
the picture Le Zoo's pretensions to managing the quartet
quickly melted and in July 1963 Haeny's Contemporary Talent
signed them to a management contract. Haeny contacted the Al
Sheehan Booking Agency who began booking the group appearances
at local charity events, benefits, and a variety of club
venues in the Twin Cities. That fall Tom Peterson
joined the group for a short time as a second male vocalist.
After recording two Goldebriars demos at
Gaiety Recording Haeny scored the quartet a recording deal
with CBS. In late November the quartet headed for New York and
took up residence at the Victoria Hotel on 7th Avenue at 51st
Street. Columbia's studio was located on 30th Street in an old
deconsecrated church. The first session took place on the
evening of November 21, 1963. They continued recording till
midday the following day when the news came through that John
F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The group
was back in the studio that night and the album was completed
within a week. CBS house producer Bob Morgan worked
with the Goldebriars on their debut album. It would appear
that Morgan produced two final mixes, one without and one with
overdubbed voices. In her book Dotti describes the latter as
sounding like "a cherub choir." When Morgan offered Boettcher
the choice he chose the overdubbed version.
Epic Records, a CBS subsidiary label,
released the Goldebriars' self-titled recording early the
following year. According to Ray McCarthy's interview with
Boettcher that appeared in 1974 in ZigZag Magazine
(U.K.), "In the States the Goldebriars was
released on the same date as Meet The Beatles." That
would make the release date January 20, 1964, while Dotti
clearly recalls that their debut disc appeared during early
February 1964. Irrespective it's the impact of The
Beatles' arrival in the U.S. and the promoted release of
their albums and singles by Capitol Records that is the point
here. Their recordings, previously released on Vee-Jay and
other small U.S. record labels, met with little or no success.
The Beatles' first U.S. visit began on February 7 and was
preceded by their debut Capitol single "I Want To Hold Your
Hand" reaching #1 Pop on February 1, while Meet The
Beatles became the U.S. #1 album on February 15 and
remained in that position for eleven weeks. British artists
suddenly became America's favourite musical flavour for a time
and the Goldebriars and countless other young homegrown acts
suffered as a result.
Nothing, however, should detract from what
was achieved in their chosen musical sub-genre by the
Goldebriars on their self-titled debut outing. By way of
introducing the quartet to America's listening public, Epic
Records issued a radio station only EP, the GoldeBriars:
Your Special Introduction To The GoldeBriars, that
featured the group performing the traditional songs "He Was A
Friend Of Mine," "Shenandoah," "A Mumblin' Word (He Never
Said)," and "Old Time Religion." The label also commercially
issued one single from the album featuring "Pretty Girls And
Rolling Stones" (Boettcher, Neilson, D. Holmberg, S. Holmberg)
b/w "Shenandoah" (traditional arranged) while the
GoldeBriars (Index # BN 26087 stereo, LN 26087 mono) was a
twelve-song collection. Haeny and Contemporary Talent parted
company with the Goldebriars around the time that the album
was released and Burt Block became their manager.
The Goldebriars
First Album
Click Cover For
More Info
Unlike most reissue labels, to date
Collectors' Choice has operated a policy of releasing albums
in their original form (with no bonus or unreleased tracks).
Employing the original (LP) artwork on the outside of the
fold-over CD case insert, the inside of that insert generally
contains a new, specially commissioned liner note by a
(well-known) music journalist/writer. With the release of the
two Goldebriars albums, that policy has altered rather
radically. the GoldeBriars features twelve additional
tracks, a mix of previously unheard songs and alternate takes.
In addition to the aforementioned original (LP) artwork, Dotti
Holmberg has penned a liner note for each release and each
eight-page booklet also features all the song lyrics. The
original twelve tracks on the GoldeBriars was composed
of seven traditional tunes, a cover of Huddie
Ledbetter's train song "Alabama Bound," and four songs
that name-checked Curt as a contributing writer. Similarly,
the bonus unreleased tracks feature seven traditional songs,
plus two penned by Curt and one each by Richard Adler and
Bob Goldstein. Just in case you're counting there are
two versions of the Adler composition. Goldstein wasn't
involved with the group till a few months after their debut
was released and his song "I'm Gonna Marry You," listed in the
credits as an alternate take, dates from the Straight
Ahead! sessions.
Folk music is a source rich with train
songs and the GoldeBriars the reissue opens with
"Railroad Boy" originally included "Linin' Track" and now
features the outtakes "Freight Train Blues" and "Sunshine
Special." Dylan was known to perform "He Was A Friend
of Mine" during the early 1960s and the Byrds (finally)
covered it on Turn! Turn! Turn! [1965], albeit using
lyrics that McGuinn is said to have written on the eve
of JFK's assassination, while the Goldebriars version is
underpinned by a gently loping guitar driven melody. Towards
the close of the Boettcher/Neilson original "Come Walk Me
Out," there are melodic and lyrical references to "Morning
Dew," a song Tim Rose recorded as a solo artist circa
1967. The question arises...what was his source? It's obvious
why the bubbly, effervescent group original "Pretty Girls And
Rolling Stones" was chosen as the single, while Boettcher's
voice intertwines beautifully with the Holmberg sisters on the
energetic Eastertide spiritual number "A Mumblin' Word (He
Never Said)" - both cuts are templates for the plethora of
harmony rich, sunshine Pop songs that would appear a couple of
years down the road. As for a slower-paced template, their
interpretation of the traditional "Shenandoah" is most
certainly one of those. Pursuing further a quasi-religious
theme, "Old Time Religion" was also a track on the 1964 album,
while the previously unreleased Boettcher original "Noah"
proves that he was well familiar with the requirements of the
genre, musically and lyrically.
No sixties Folk recording would be complete
without "We Shall Overcome," although the Goldebriars'
interpretation is a previously unreleased track. The song was
featured on Joan Baez's late 1963 release In Concert
Vol.2. In fact if you trace the evolution of the song it's
directly related to "No More Auction Block," the original
track #10 on the Goldebriars. Both interpretations of
Adler's "Nothing More To Look Forward To" are previously
unreleased and this Calypso-style number originated from the
composer's 1961 musical Kwamina, which he set in
Africa. Credited as a group composition, "Voyager's Lament,"
the final track on their debut album, also melodically
references "Plaisir D'Amour," a song Baez covered on Joan
Baez, Vol. 2 [1961]. Coming full circle and back where we
stated, the latter Baez collection also included "Railroad
Boy."
To be continued...
Arthur Wood is a founding editor of
FolkWax. You may contact Arthur at folkwax@visnat.com.
Real Sounds From
the Work Place
The following are the Top Five most often
listened-to recordings in the FolkWax office this week,
November 2, 2006 (in no particular order):
1. Tony Furtado -
Thirteen (Funzalo Records) Release: Jaunary 23
2. Peter Joseph Burtt -
Sunken Forest (Ten to Twelve Productions)
3. Andy Statman - Fast
Flatbush Blues (Shefa Records)
4. George Nostrand - Radio
Songs (self-produced)
5. Ben Bowen King -
Sidewalk Saints (Talking Taco)
This Week in FolkWax:
Steve Gillette
- In the E-zine:
The FolkWax Spotlight is on Steve Gillette. Arthur Wood
takes an in-depth look at this unique American
singer-songwriter, complete with interviews and background
information...a must-read for all Gillette fans new and
old.
- On our News
Page: Music Publisher Buddy Killen Passes; Songwriter
Marijohn Wilkin Passes; Tillman Franks Passes; Voting Opens
For Scottish Music Awards; Bungendore Bush Ballad Finalists;
Americana Playlist; and much more Facts For Folks!
- On our Front
Porch feature page: The FolkWax Spotlight is on
the Goldebriars. Arthur Wood takes a closer look at this Folk
group on the heels of Collectors' Choice reissues of their
classic albums the Goldebriars and Straight
Ahead!.
- On the Pickin'
'n' Grinnin' page: Arthur Wood reviews Martha
Tilston's Of Milkmaids & Architects and David
Olney's Lenora; Kerry Dexter reviews The Missing
Gift by Anna Massie, Jenn Butterworth, and Mairearad
Green; Adam Harris reviews Chris Thile's How To Grow A
Woman From The Ground; plus reviews of Ellis Paul's
Essentials and Sherry Austin's Drive On
Back.
- One
Year Ago Today In FolkWax: FolkWax was "Sittin'
In With Billy Joe Shaver." Adam Harris sat down with one of
the great American songwriters and discussed Shaver's
autobiography, personal losses, music, and his CD The Real
Deal.
- Don't forget to play the Folklore
Trivia Game: Remember, everyone who plays is in the
drawing for the prize! This week's prize: a Folk Ten-Pack! The
vault has been tapped once again and we are giving away a ton
of cool CDs. Play today for your chance at ten
CDs!
