For this week’s Free Basin’ Fridays, we’re shining a spotlight on one of our favorite new labels, Paradise of Bachelors, and their latest release, the first-ever reissue of the sole eponymous album by Willie French Lowery’s interracial swamp-psych band Plant and See. We first got a sneak peek at this release last year when we profiled PoB on the blog and holding the LP in our hands today, it was clearly worth the wait.
Originally released in 1969 on L.A. label White Whale—home of Jim Ford, the Turtles, and the Rockets—Plant and See is the strange fruit of disparate people, places, and players in dialogue. Its humid, storm-cloud guitars, ductile vocal harmonies, and intuitive, loose-limbed drumming are redolent of a specifically Southern syncretic musical identity and sense of place, testifying to the outstanding, colorblind musicianship of Lowery, African American drummer Forris Fulford, Latino bassist Ron Seiger, and Scotch-Irish backup vocalist Carol Fitzgerald.
American Indian frontman Willie Lowery (who sadly passed away this year) grew up in swamp-laced, tri-racial Robeson County, North Carolina, the state’s geographically largest, economically poorest, and most ethnically diverse county. Shaped by his own Lumbee Indian heritage as well as the influence of local African American and European American musical traditions, Lowery’s style developed into a powerful, singularly soulful sound that appealed to contemporary psych-rock audiences while directly addressing the concerns of his own Indian community. Plant and See represents his first major recorded work, following stints playing for the “hootchie-cootchie women” of a traveling carnival and the lite-psych group Corporate Image, as well as serving as Clyde McPhatter’s bandleader.
Reissued here for the first time in a limited pressing of 1,000 copies, Plant and See features newly remastered audio, restored artwork on a deluxe “tip-on” jacket and new liner notes by Lumbee historian and folklorist Jefferson Currie II. You can order a copy now here, or for your chance to cop one for free, leave a comment below. Winner will be announced next Friday, July 13 at 12pm PST.
Tags: Free Basin' Fridays, Jim Ford, Lumbee, Paradise of Bachelors, Psych, Rock, Swamp, White Whale, Willie Lowery
Everything on Light In The Attic sounds delicious! I can’t wait for my ears to taste this release!
Today I noticed your slogan: ‘We dig through crates so you don’t have to.’
Brilliant.
Please re-release everything from White Whale!
Three tracks in on the player above and I’m in bliss. Damn, this is good. The perfect soundtrack for a hazy Friday afternoon.
sign me up, friends! i love light in the attic!
Had a nice discussion with someone today about how amazing Light in the Attic is. Looks(or sounds) like you’ve done it again!
Swamp? Rock? Psych? Count me in!
Groovy baby. . .
I have a nice place on my shelf waiting for this.
This would bring more paradise to my bachelorism.
Wow this sounds so fantastic. I am eager to hear it. You never let me down LITA.
Always my favorite label. Always.
This is kind of cover I’d like to have in my collection!
I could say you guys had me at Jim Ford (His Harlan County LP is badass, as is your vinyl reissue of it). But the truth is you already had me at “interracial swamp-psych band”.
Another great offer, and, judging from the pictures, a beautiful work of art.
Wow! Yet another one-off gem I would never have heard of if it weren’t for you guys. Thanks LITA, thank you Paradise of Bachelors (great label name, by the way).
Looking forward to spinning this one. Wasn’t Love the first interracial band?
This would make a great 40th b-day gift (I turn that undeniably old age on July 18)!
Ohhh, nice.
looks great, looking forward to giving it a spin!
Guess I’ll wait until Friday to buy one, just in case.
This gives me a half chub…but only cuz Donnie & Joe just took me all the way.
Love it.
Right up my alley… Cheers!
My turntable told me not to come home until I had a free copy of this in hand. Please LITA, I want to go home again!
Sublime vibes from the res overtook me the other day. Need to give this one a permanent home amidst the monstrous mess that is the archives.