Rocky Mountain Spotlight: The Trolls - That's The Way My Love Is/Into My Arms

Day 8 of the Rocky Mountain Battle of the Garage Bands takes us back to Colorado. This time to the working class city of Pueblo, Colorado. In that industrial town in the southernish part of Colorado we find five ogres who went by the name of The Trolls. The band was Fred Brescher, Richard Gonzales, Doug Rymerson, Phil Head and Monty Baker. The band put out two singles in their brief existence under a bridge. 

Today we spin their first record, recorded in Amarillo Texas at the Ruff Records studio of Ray Ruff. This is the same studio that recorded The Blue Things and the second version of Them. The Trolls debut single was released in April, 1965.

That's The Way Love Is was composed by organ player, Fred Brescher and presents to us a hard edged, Kinks inspired riff that grooves on and on. Guitarist Doug Rymerson lays down a pretty tasty little guitar break for us. 

The flip-side, also composed by Brescher is the tepid Into My Arms. I don't have it, so here is a YouTube vid for your enjoyment.

The band recorded a second, excellent single later that year and it even came with a killer picture sleeve. But more on that another day. The band disbanded sometime late in 1966. 

The picture below, and a lot of the information contained here was inspired by the blog, Pueblo City Limits. Check it out here for an interview with Troll member, Monty Baker. The music file was digitized and given to us by Matt from the blog, Nitro-Retro. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Rocky Mountain Spotlight: The Soothsayers - I Don't Know/Please Don't Be Mad

Day six of the Rocky Mountain Battle of the Garage Bands has us back in Colorado. Today we spin a record by Greeley, Colorado band, The Soothsayers.

The Soothsayers rose out of the farm town of Greeley, Colorado to record two very fine singles for Acropolis Records in 1966. Both had great picture sleeves that show a little bit of artsy-fartsy tendencies of the designer. The front side of the sleeve was taken at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Broadway with the State Capitol building peeking out from behind the fountain. But check out the heart throb photo on the backside of the cover. Nice. The band was Dave Van Omen on guitar, John Gibson on lead guitar, Rich Sallee on bass and lead vocals, Rick Irvine on the keys and Steve Jaynes on drums.

The A-Side is the Zombies-like I Don't Know, composed by Dave Van Omen and some hep-cat named G. Finney. Maybe it is more like The Nightcrawlers of Florida. Hmmm. Harmonies and jangly guitar abound on the gentle, inquisitive number.

The flip-side, Please, Don't Be Mad was composed by the two guitarists, Dave Van Omen and John Gibson. A little bit more of an upbeat rocker, it features Rich Sallee's vocals more front and center but with nice harmonies plotted in at the appropriate times.

The two songs were apparently produced by dad, a Mr. Gary Sallee. Good job, dad. 

 Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Original Song Project: "Boulder Bound", Morgan Young

Here is a little ditty I recorded this weekend while hanging with my kids in Goblin Valley, Utah. My daughter originally came up with the basic melody while singing about butterflies and bacon. Two things she really loves! I added a few flourishes to fill it out and changed the name from Pretty, Pretty Butterflies and Bacon to Boulder Bound, which we were at the time.

It's a one-track recording with no edits and employs a Gibson J-200 in open G tuning and a straight tuned Lee Oskar Harmonica in the key of G and that's all. It's a finger stretcher.

I hope you likey.