Spencer Perskin & Friends
Magic Feather (Bluethroat)
In between adulation of the 13th Floor Elevators and Doug Sahm’s enduring roots-rock, Spencer Perskin has fallen through the cracks. Perhaps it’s the guitarist/violinist’s never having stopped performing his homegrown brand of psychedelic roots music with Shiva’s Headband or caring if it was hip or popular. Spencer Perskin & Friends’ Magic Feather, therefore, floats in a delicate net, caught between the rootsy grooves he’s played since 1967 and the lyrical path of enlightenment. If that sounds like the Elevators sans jug and screaming vocals, so be it, yet Perskin follows his own lead and no one else’s. Not-so-vague biblical references abound in “Forty Years,” and a jaunty beat turns “Queen of the Cowboy Underground at the Reggae Rodeo” into a country rocker. There’s a wholly organic flow to Perskin’s 14 originals that has to do with more than just the vaguely ethereal sounds of “Bird of Paradise,” “Moth and Butterfly,” “Shoshana,” and “Spinoza.” Where does it lead? To the compelling “Mystic Vision” and to the Dylanesque flavor of “Alfred the Great” and “Jack of Diamonds.” What’s clear is that with rustic vocals and a determined vision, Spencer Perskin’s journey continues.
This article appears in April 22 • 2005.