RICE, LARRY SUNSHINE - Here's Sunshine

Top quality official reissue of this wonderful album. This project is a bit different from other Time-Lag reissues, as the original isnt exactly a mega-rarity. Thats not to say that theyre easy to find, but our motives for the reissue have more to do with the fact that this great LP has been seriously overlooked by so many, and feels very ripe to reach some new ears. This ones got a pretty wild backstory too, being a rather undiscussed piece of 60s Texas underground history: in 1966 Larry Sunshine Rice was feeling burnt by the increasingly superficial hippy scene in San Francisco, so headed to Dallas, Texas, the center of darkness and the place he was raised, with a vision to transform minds. A random gig doing psychedelic light shows at a local bar led to a job managing a new hip church. And so the Satori House was founded. Through this outlet Sunshine held experimental light & sound worship sessions, began hosting underground rock concerts, launched a free press, and just about any & all other activities towards the goal of turning on Dallas. It was, of course, a great success while it lasted, which was not long once a federal drug bust (total set-up) went down, and the higher-ups in the parent church organization got wind of just exactly what their cash had been backing. During the extended trial that followed Sunshine split the city for tiny Justin, Texas and founded The Church Of Changes Texas first marijuana church, claiming grass as their sacrament and legal right. It was at this point that a series of truly unlikely synchronicities led to a record deal & recording session, but by the time Heres Sunshine was released in the summer of 1969, Sunshine was back in California living as a fugitive. He never showed up at his meeting with the bigwigs at blue thumb records who were planning to release his follow up album, thus quickly and purposely ending his connection to the music industry. If thats got your head turned, youll almost certainly dig the music. Its a mystical and convoluted folk trip, executed with the lonesome single-mindedness of a true searcher. Warm intense vocals are delivered in a magically loose, flowing style. Tim Buckley comparisons pop up, and thats not totally off the mark if you replaced any avant/jazz leanings with more of a tripping-in-the-desert vibe. Lyrically things get truly bent, venturing into some deeply surreal & glassy-eyed zones. There are a few grasps towards religious ponderance, but its very far from a xian album. Stream of consciousness broodings on nature, work, love, god, Satan, sex, hallucinations, and so forth. Its a totally solo recording centered on understated but effective acoustic guitar, and fleshed out via overdub with rather unusual use of electric bass, organ, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica. Things get especially psychedelic when the bass comes in, either as an ultra-minimal echo-drenched pulse or a flowing tonal improvisation. The hyper compressed and reverb saturated production somehow suites the material perfectly, and the combination of elements creates quite an immersive, mirage-like and exploratory space. This one is far stronger, more hallucinogenic, and has gobs more personally then most of the over-hyped, mega-bucks coffee house folk strummers passed off as loner/downer/acidfolk these days. This records got a real spirit of its own, that with repeated listens will sneak right into your mind before you even know it. And Im sure thats the way Sunshine intended it. Beautiful exact reproduction art packaged in a lovely heavy 60s style cover and pressed on 180gm audiophile vinyl. Includes an insert with new notes from the artist, as well as a short except from his book Morning Glory, which was written in 1968 and tells the story behind the album, but has yet to be published. One time vinyl only edition of 500 copies. -Time-Lag