This week’s Monday Magick comes from Salloom, Sinclair and the Mother Bear, a late 60’s Psyche/Folk experiment fronted by Western Massachusetts native Roger Salloom. The tune, “Marie La Peau”, comes from the group’s self-titled 1969 LP, which they cut for the short-lived Chess Records subsidiary Cadet Concept.
An ode to a life-altering lady or mystery, the 8+ minute jam “Marie La Peau” references New Orleans hoodoo, and several other icons of psycho-magick, and sort of splits the difference between Bob Dylan’s talkin’ style and the proto-Jam Band sound of The Grateful Dead, while also freaking an ill baroque breakdown. It’s a lot groovier than some of our other, more eldritch, selections, and firmly links the grand magickal tradition with the psychedelic hippie experience.
While Salloom and co-lead Robin Sinclair continued to record, both together and solo, through the years, this was the Mother Bear’s sole release.
Music is magick.
