The Floating House Band LP–Takoma Records C1029, 1970 As the '60s ended, Tucsonan and Stone Poneys founder Bob Kimmel created the legendary Concert Series at McCabes Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California, featuring a diverse roster of performers such as Jackson Browne, Tom Waits and Chet Atkins, along with hundreds of others. The series gave McCabes the reputation as being the top acoustic and folk venue in the country. Also after the Poneys breakup, Kimmel teamed up with The Dearly Beloved's Shep Cooke, also from Tucson (he played on the final Stone Pony's tour) along with L.A. local Kit Alderson and formed The Floating House Band, releasing one album on guitarist John Fahey's independent Takoma Records label. Wow!
The album is full of marvelous vocal harmonies, similar to what Cooke was doing with the Beloved and it combines folk and country with a tad of psych. And, as was to be expected on the Takoma label, some fancy acoustic guitar picking. Fans of CSN&Y, The Dead's Workingman's Dead, Laurel Canyon, and that debut album by the band America, and anyone who loves the sound of an honest, earthy, low-cost production, will enjoy this album. Lee Joseph grew up in Tucson. He's a DJ (Luxuriamusic.com), marketer of cool shit (Reverberations Media) and founder/CEO of internationally respected Dionysus Records, an indie that has long specialized in releasing super-rare music, and more. He came of age in the first wave of Tucson punk rock and is an expert on Tucson music. He now lives in California.
