Lynn and Sue

 Lynn and Sue - Ramblin' (1972)

cf.

Michelle Shocked - Memories of East Texas (1988)

I saw Michelle Shocked playing a gig at the Venue, Edinburgh, 1987.  Some guy was heckling, giving her a hard time over her appearance and sexuality.  Her album, The Texas Campfire Tapes, had caused a bit of a stir.  At a time when over-produced music was the norm and folk music unhip, the record, surreptitiously released by Pete Lawrence (according to Shocked), was  recorded on a Sony Walkman during an impromptu  campfire performance at the Kerrville Folk Festival.  It was wonderfully lo-fi, with crickets chirping  in the background.  Shocked looked like an indie kid’s country cousin with kicked-in converse, boyish haircut and fisherman’s cap.

Memories of East Texas was from her second album. I can’t share it, but might be one you know anyway, a beautiful song of feeling the need to leave your home and hit the road.  Michelle, now an evangelical Christian, fought for the rights to her back catalogue and in protest to the lack of remuneration for artists has boycotted streaming services.

Lynn and Sue were at a different point of their spiritual journey,  having joined The Way International, (TWI) led by Victor Paul Weirwille,  in the early 70s.  Relocating to its rural H.Q.  they self-released their sole album Timothy there.  Ramblin’, the second track reminds me of how Michelle Shocked could write a beautiful melody with lyrics that create a sense of nostalgia whilst remaining  questioning.  The expression ramblin’ itself is immersed in folk and beat culture and is predominantly a male construct, the freedom of the road,  as expressed by  Jack Elliot,  Hank Williams or Woody Guthrie.

 

If you think the devil has the best tunes, then perhaps you should give Timothy a spin - it might be a revelation.  What an album this is, full of gorgeous melodies and lyrics that merge King James scripture with the personal.   Little details of childhood, travel or nature pepper the songs of devotion with undiminished  personality.  Both human and heavenly, two voices combined with a bright ringing acoustic guitar.  Simplicity, with no obvious overdubs, it is as comforting as a camp blanket.

The only real reference to this album is in the Archivist by Ken Scott, (who catalogues the Jesus Music Movement).  In it he writes  “In an industry that feels more comfortable with the female gender singing adult contemporary whatnots, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear Sue Pierce snidely talk-singing through a former marijuana-and-beers lifestyle in Before I Was Born Again Blues on this obscure custom.  Together with Lynn Perrigo she follows this one hippie moment with an album of wholly self-composed and angelically harmonised folk ballads”.

 The Ohio  based Way International's popularity had spread rapidly amongst young people of the counterculture.  With ex-hippie followers it is unsurprising that TWI organised their own music festival.  More generally,  the Jesus Music Movement provided an  audience for  private press records away from the mainstream. 

TWI Rock of Ages music and Bible teaching festival, 1972, Knoxville  Ohio.

Caught in a controlling cult, the album was never  sanctioned by TWI and yet Lynn and Sue had the fortitude to put it out completely themselves.   As a former member of TWI noted in a forum:

Great songs and vocals...but they never "shot it through" the TWI prism of censorship and control and they were pushed out the back door...

...Another example of how Wierwille insisted that everything was to be be controlled by him...I remember his arrogant rhetoric of "teaching" musicians how to be "right on" spiritually. What a crock of sh *t...

Lynn and Sue didn't seem to get to perform on stage of the 1972 Rock of Ages Festival.  It wouldn't surprise me, however if they were singing and playing guitar anyway around a campfire. if so it would have been an absolute highlight, creating wonderful music with spirit and spirituality.

Whilst respecting Michelle Shocked's view on streaming, for the most obscure artists, social media and file sharing has also helped shine a deserved light on those who would otherwise be forgotten. 

For anyone interested, a high quality free download is available here:

https://music.sogwap.net/lynn-sue/