Judy Henske & Jerry Yester - Farewell Aldebaran (1969/2005 Radioactive)
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Album: Judy Henske & Jerry Yester - Farewell Aldebaran
Released: 1969 (2005)
Genre: Psych-Folk
Gnosis Rating: 9.84
Radioactive Records - RRCD133
First ever reissue of this cult-classic folk/rock album, originally issued by Straight in 1969. Super in-demand for the last decade plus (even if fucking Christgau gave this one a B+ upon release) and now finally available. - ProgNews
Timely reissue of this late '60s folk/psych classic from husband and wife team Jerry Yester and Judy Henske. Yester had previously enjoyed an element of fame courtesy of his stint with The Loving Spoonful, but following the band's demise in 1969, he set about producing this little gem with acclaimed folk singer Henske and a bunch of pals which were said to have included Ry Cooder and David Lindley. Farewell Aldebaran, which is often heralded as one of the most proficient and creative albums of its genre, with Henske's incredible range of vocal styles (during her short solo career she had effortlessly made the transition from comedian to folk singer and then onto an accomplished rock singer) elevating the album to a higher plane. Her mind-blowing vocals on the opening track, the hard-fuzz "Snowblind," gives an early clue to Henske's talent and range, and although this particular vocal style only features on the one song, the sheer diversity of her singing makes every track on this highly original and experimental album a unique experience. Yester and Henske attempted to scale the same artistic heights with their next collaboration, Rosebud, but sadly, it was not to be, and Yester, fearing that he had already peaked as a musician, turned his attention to production, working with other Californian bands and singers of the time including The Association, The Turtles, Tim Buckley and Tom Waits etc. - Freak Emporium
Judy Henske had already recorded folk for Elektra and pop for Mercury and had a relationship with Woody Allen (allegedly inspiring the titular character in “Annie Hall”) by the time she teamed with her then husband Jerry Yester (once of The New Christy Minstrels, The Lovin’ Spoonful and Modern Folk Quartet) for this 1969 spaced oddity. It’s not a huge shock to discover “Farewell Aldebaran” was originally released by Frank Zappa’s Straight label and executive produced by his manager, Herb Cohen.
Taken as a whole, “Farewell Aldebaran” is a mad acid-folk-psych curio, somewhere between Jefferson Airplane and Pearls Before Swine, or Linda Perhacs fronting The Pink Floyd. On “Snowblind” Henske screams and hollers like a female Jim Morrison; “Horses On A Stick” is all thin, tiny keyboards and string instruments playing distorted sunshine pop, like a lysergic musical box. “St. Nicholas Hall” is perhaps the album’s most initially approachable moment, a biting satire on organised religion joined by what sounds like a Mellotron choir. “Three Ravens” and the banjo-pickin’ “Raider” are more conventionally attired and gently persuasive folk rock, like a Californian Steeleye Span. There’s a rolling, red carpet majesty to “Rapture”; “Charity” reaches for, and receives, a heavenly chorus, before morphing into some kinda cosmic sea shanty. The closing title track reminds me, perhaps somewhat unfairly, of the “Pigs In Space” theme from “The Muppet Show”, all early Moog action, mystical astronomy and crazy vocal effects. - PAST ARCHIVES
Farewell Aldebaran by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is a remarkable album of folk rock and psychedelic songs issued in 1969.
Henske and Yester met while both were working in the West Coast folk scene in the early 1960s, Henske as an uncategorizable solo singer recording folk, blues, jazz and comedy, and Yester as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet. They married in 1963. A few years later, Henske's career was faltering as a result of ill-advised forays into the cabaret market, while Yester had produced albums by Tim Buckley and the Association, and had also replaced Zal Yanovsky in the Lovin' Spoonful.
The pair, with their new-born daughter, moved to Los Angeles in 1968. Henske shared a manager, Herb Cohen, with Frank Zappa, and it was Zappa who suggested to her that she should put to music some of the verse she was writing. Yester, at this point, was working with Yanovsky on the latter's first solo album, and experimenting wildly with new electronic and other sound effects. The trio combined to put together "Farewell Aldebaran", drawing on a varied selection of their musician friends, and it was issued on Zappa and Cohen's new Straight label.
The album contains a wild mixture of late 1960s styles, as though recorded by ten different bands, but all featuring Henske's almost gothic lyrics and remarkable vocal range. The opener, "Snowblind", is a Janis Joplin style belter which was issued as a single, but is immediately followed by "Horses on a Stick", almost a parody of "sunshine pop". Next is the quasi-classical "Lullaby", and then a melodramatic hymn with strong anti-clerical lyrics, "St. Nicholas Hall". From here, the album picks up even higher in quality. "Three Ravens" is a sublime slice of baroque pop; "Raider" has been described as an acid sea shanty; "Rapture" is a folk-rock waltz; and the upbeat "Charity" is possibly the best track of all. Finally, the title track is the most overtly "psychedelic" track on the album, featuring electronically treated vocals and Bernie Krause's Moog synthesizer.
Although the album got some good reviews, it failed to sell, purchasers possibly driven away by its sheer eclecticism. Henske and Yester went on to form a more conventional band, Rosebud, before they went their separate ways at the start of the 1970s.
The album was finally reissued on CD by Radioactive Records in 2005. - Wikivisual
Success is a matter of luck as well as talent. Given different circumstances, Henske could have certainly been a much bigger star than she was. Instead she's a hazily remembered figure, known if at all for some recordings that faintly prefigured folk-rock, and tangential associations with more famous performers. Her strong, bold, and versatile delivery would have been well-suited for the folk-rock era; her timing was just a bit off.
Before beginning her solo career, Henske worked with ex-Kingston Trio member Dave Guard in the Whiskeyhill Singers in the early '60s. Soon she was recording under her own name for Elektra. High Flying Bird is the best of her Elektra efforts, anticipating folk-rock with full arrangements that featured drums (by top session musician Earl Palmer), guitars, and bass. Certainly someone in the Jefferson Airplane must have heard a copy, as the group recorded the title track at their first studio session in 1965.
A stay at Mercury later in the '60s presented her as an all-around entertainer, capable of folk, pop, blues, and Broadway, all backed by middle-of-the-road production. Henske wasn't bad at this, but one got the feeling that her truest talents were being under-utilized. She finally got her chance to blossom on the 1969 LP Farewell Aldebaren, a collaborative effort with Jerry Yester that appeared on Frank Zappa's Straight! label (an association that probably arose because Henske and Zappa were both managed by Herbie Cohen). The album was a wildly eclectic, impressive effort that showcased an astonishing range of vocal delivery on Henske's part, and owed more to psychedelic music than folk (the Henske-Yester project and LP is detailed in a separate entry). That proved to be a one-shot, and aside from an effort as a member of the band Rosebud, Henske was not heard from again until the early '90s. She began performing around Los Angeles, and released her first album in a quarter-century, Loose in the World . - Richie Unterberger, AMG
1 Snowblind (03:04)
2 Horses On A Stick (02:14)
3 Lullaby (03:01)
4 St. Nicholas Hall (03:40)
5 Three Ravens (03:31)
6 Raider (05:14)
7 One More Time (02:20)
8 Rapture (04:11)
9 Charity (03:19)
10 Farewell Aldebaran (04:07)
Judy Henske - Vocals
Jerry Yester - Bass, Guitar, Vocals, Piano, Moog Synthesizer, Orchestra, Chamberlain Tape Organ
Eddie Hoh - Drums
Joe Osborne - Bass
Dick Rossmini - Nashville Guitar
John Forsha - 12 String Guitar
Toxie French - Drums
Zal Yanovsky - Bass & Guitar
Jerry Scheff - Bass
David Lindley - Bowed Banjo
David's friend (Solomon Feldthouse, Kaleidescope?) - Hammer Dulcimer
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