Written by James Killen

Having grown up during the sixties and seventies, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart (or maybe my head) for psychedelic music. In the mid to late sixties, the airwaves were full of bands like Vanilla Fudge, Moby Grape, The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane and, of course the Grateful Dead. Most people associate those sounds as being from San Francisco and the northern California area.

Texas had a parallel psychedelic experience going on with The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, The Moving Sidewalks, and Shiva’s Headband. San Antonio had its own scene with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Bubble Puppy, and the Children to name a few. Here now some decades later some keepers of the flame who call themselves Wolverton, have produced an album called “Wizard Land” in San Antonio that follows the psychedelic folk tradition that populated parks and coffee houses back in the day.

The music is an authentic nostalgic reproduction of the music from the time of distorted guitar riffs and wandering melodies with cryptic lyrics and visual imagery describing enigmatic situations and concepts. Kate Terrell’s piano and keyboards form the bae for most of the songs with Hills Snyder adding tasty guitar riffs. The production is live and unadorned, making the presentation all that more authentic.

After a single listen one can tell that the band is having fun and that fun is contagious. Listening to this band is like finding an old pair of bell bottom jeans that you haven’t been able to fit into for decades and discovering a capsule of mescaline in the pocket. Hippies forever!