Hootch – You Can’t Come In
Hootch – Blue Bird
Hootch – Eyes Of The Raven
For the first album to be shared here in this 15th year of Melting Pot, we have this rather obscure album from a quintet of teenagers (at least, likely teenagers) from Wisconsin. I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted a record literally on the same day it arrived to me, but this is one that had been on my mind for months. I first came into contact with Hootch at February’s Rappcats pop-up featuring records from the collection of Joe Benson, and titled, “Records From Big Red,” I imagine in reference to Benson’s Nebraska origins…This record was one of the first that drew my attention, both in the initial announcement and when I arrived at the spot. I took a long long hard look at the album as it sat on the wall, and for reasons that are beyond me, I just left it there.
Well, roughly an hour later, as I’m sorting out which records I’m going to add to my collection, the first notes of lead track, “You Can’t Come In,” begin, all pensive and light guitar with a shade of percussion and then only 17 seconds in, comes one of the most hypnotic psych grooves I’ve ever heard. Dumbfounded, I make my way to the house turntable to see what is playing and run into that distinctive cover and that face on it, which at the time felt like it was mocking me for not adding it to my own pile when I had the chance. Turned out head honcho Egon had dropped the needle on it and had claimed it, much to my dismay and disappointment. I also lost out on a OG copy of Billy Brooks’ Windmills Of The Mind that day, but felt good nonetheless to go home with a handful of records I didn’t know previously and a Townes Van Zandt album that I had long coveted. But that hypnotic groove remained with me, haunting me repeatedly over these past five months…At a period of time here during the summer when I was dealing with a little minor heartbreak, I finally made the decision to engage in a little record therapy, got the album from a dealer in Athens, Greece and here it is.
There’s very little info on Hootch, all the information for the record is there on the front cover, with nothing but blank space on the back. The band had five members, Thomas S. Henry, Bob Maloney, Doug Lemirande, Henry Erkelenz & Laura Schaefer, and being on the private press looking label of Pro-gress Records, it looked like they likely hailed from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. But that is all we have. The album was released in 1974, but to my ears sounds more like 1968 or 1970. Of the six songs on the album, four are instrumentals. It’s an album, like a lot of psych albums, is likely an acquired taste (on Discogs someone, rather humorously, derided the rare nature of this album by scoffing, ‘I laugh while scratching my old balls,” Ha!), there doesn’t seem to be anything else that any of those people recorded, but for reasons that remain slightly mystifying to me, the sound of the record has burrowed deeply inside my mind. It’s something about when the band does get locked into a groove, and the stereo separation with tambourine and maracas (or magic egg) split between the two sides along with guitar, bass & drums, that just fucking does it to me. Same goes for the other two songs I’ve shared here, “Blue Bird,” and the ominous vocal track “Eyes Of The Raven.” I can’t always explain why some music has a stronger hold over me than others, but at this stage in the game, I know enough to pay attention to that feeling and rectify mistakes whenever I can.
Happy hunting y’all, and make sure to listen to your intuition when you run into those rare, rare records on in the wild,
Michael