Johndavid Bartlett and Acid Carousel premiering ‘True Face’ | Bonus track from ‘In Your Dreams’ session
Exclusive premiere of ‘True Face’ by Johndavid Bartlett and Acid Carousel.
The Story So Far
In March 1968, I went into Gold Star Studios (with Mayo Thompson producing) to begin recording a LP to be called ‘Mother’s Milk’. Mayo’s mom Hazel was my English teacher at Bellaire HS in Houston. The Red Crayola had just been signed to International Artists and were rehearsing in the garage at Hazel’s house. I use to go over after school with my guitar and bang along with the band. In the lulls I’d sometimes get a chance to play one of the songs I’d been writing. Mayo took a shine to my stuff and got me signed to the label. I was seventeen and my Dad had to sign the contract for me. Over the next few months as we worked on the record we had some guests sit in like Johnny Winter, blue harp from Jimmy Reed and Stacy Southerland freaking out. My idea was that the first side would be a statement on urban life, garage bands and sharp edges. The second side would be of the Earth and Love, lyrical, organic and acoustic. I wanted it to be the 13th album released from IA. IA folded after their 12th release. ‘Mother’s Milk’ was never released.
50 years later I was storytelling to Jen and Robby Rux at Dreamy Life Records. Robby asked if I could reproduce ‘Mother’s Milk’. I told him that the tapes had been lost and I only remembered scrapes of lyrics and almost no melodies. I did remember what I was going for and thought that I could recreate the spirit and sound of what Mayo and I tried to do back then. Robby suggested a collaboration with the band Acid Carousel from Denton. We played, it connected and there from comes the genesis of ‘In Your Dreams’.
‘In Your Dreams’ was recorded 2018-19, in a timeline that reflected 50 years past. The release date was set for April, 2020. But the world had stopped turning by then. We finally put it out in February, 2021 (Dreamy Life Records).
We had recorded 13 songs, 11 of them were released on vinyl. ‘Riki Tiki Tavi’, a Donavon song, was released as a “bonus” single. ‘True Face’ is the last track from those sessions. There is an angry edge to this song, you can see it in my eyes. Johndavid Bartlett
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