Homestead Act: Gospel Snake

Posted on February 13, 2006 by hcrink

homestead act

Writing about these largely unknown, home-made records can be tough. Take this private press hipster bluegrass lp here… which is particularly a head scratcher. If the cover (which as always is scant on vital info) is to be believed, these kids were from TN, and this record was released in "AD 1972″.

What is very cool about this stuff is that it is far more pure sounding than most hippy country experiments of the time, yet they are doing covers of the Beatles and Flying Burrito Bros. I realize that this sounds quite incongruous - and it really is for that matter - but it works quite well. For example, it is truely bizarre and wonderful to hear the Burrito's Hollywood take on country played through a far more rural filter as is done here with "Christine's Tune".

Filed under: Country / Blues, DIY / Outsider

8 Comments to “Homestead Act: Gospel Snake”

Lazer on February 14th, 2006 @ 2:33 pm

SirH of Crinkle,

Any chance I can get you to copy this whole album? Greatly appreciated, you don’t even have to chop tracks. Just send as “sides”.

Love,
Nick

hcrink on February 14th, 2006 @ 3:07 pm

haha! yeah, gimme some time. It’s a pretty cool record!

cary grant on May 23rd, 2006 @ 10:58 am

yeah if you ever convert the whole thing to mp3 drop me a line…

Pam on August 16th, 2006 @ 3:57 pm

Hi! I would LOVE to speak with you about this album. How can I talk to you? Could you please email me your phone #?

Or, if you can give me your direct email address, I will email you mine.

I am Elmo’s wife. He will be 70 this year. I would love to find a copy of this album and surprise him with it.

Thanks!

Pam

Jeff on May 17th, 2007 @ 1:55 pm

i picked up a 45 of the homestead act on kim-pat (kp-1731) a few months back…

1 track is superb…

Joy (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring–Bach)

listen here:

http://users.marshall.edu/~rockwell6/Homestead Act - Joy - KIM-PAT 45.mp3

Peter on April 29th, 2008 @ 1:06 am

Just picked this record up from Amoeba Hollywood tonight because Steve Young is all over the album: four compositions and all lead guitars.

cracker on April 29th, 2008 @ 2:43 pm

RE: Steve Young via google: “His guitar picking is all over a hard-to-find Patsy and Elmo LP, “Gospel Snake”, recorded in 1972, when they were billing themselves as “The Homestead Act”. The LP features 4 songs written by Young, as well as one written by his then-wife, Cheryl.”

banana on June 18th, 2008 @ 2:09 pm

finally scored a copy of this ‘in the field’… great record!! just spooky/local enough to make it worth your time. would love others like this if people have any similar titles.

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