Take A Musical Trip Down US 69

US 69: Yesterday's Folks and Miss Goodbody
From: Yesterday's Folks [Buddha, 1969]

How you doing? Hope you all had a good new year and are now back in the swing of 2008. Apologies for not posting for a while, I've been mentally preparing a few wider in scope posting themes but these are sadly all still buried inside my private mind garden, hopefully to be excavated when my brain kicks into gear.

Instead today I come to you with an album that once again defies easy categorisation. The front cover of US 69's Yesterday's Folks suggests a journey into epic guitar solos of a progressive nature, but, while the album is far from mainstream, this couldn't be further from the truth my friends.

A group comprising of American and Mexican musicians, US 69 absorbed the changing face of the music scene around them to produce a real slept on gem of an album, covering rock, funk, and psych.

Yesterday's Folks is the only track that ever appears to have been comped and it's an absolutely fantastic tune. Kicking off with a funky bass riff the track offers up a great blend of bluesy rock with great percussion work, horns, and even a few breaks for an added bonus.

Miss Goodbody offers more percussion heavy funky rock and as an added bonus for the completists out there, was also sampled by Shadow on Red Bus.

The album has now been reissued on vinyl and I can happily recommend it as one that doesn't disappoint from beginning to end - a real slept on beauty. All this and not one pun on 69ing either.....


On a side note, it's a new year and one of my resolutions (probably the only one I've got a chance of keeping) is to expand and improve this website. Therefore, if you've a keen eye for design I'd certainly be interested in talking to you about potential rejigging of the site to make it a more beautiful thing to look at (difficult, I know) and, yes, money can be involved. We're also always on the lookout for new writers (sadly no money involved here) as well so holler if you think either of these are up your street.