These Trails | Interview | “Psych-folk delight from 1973”
About a decade ago Drag City reissued this absolutely stunning 1973 psych folk rock album recorded in Honolulu, Hawaii.
These Trails’ sole album was released on Sinergia label, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Prominent members of the group were Margaret Morgan (vocals, guitar and dulcimer), Patrick Cockett (guitar, slide guitar and vocals) and Dave Choy (ARP synthesizer, recorder, arrangements and final mix). Margaret Morgan handled most of the lead vocals with Patrick Cockett. These Trails’ album is a very unique sounding recording that perfectly catches specific moments of time and space.
“Everything was based on our acoustic tracks”
Would you say that growing up Hawaiian had an influence on who you became as a musician?
Patrick Cockett: For Hawaiians, music and dance are integral to our culture. My father came from a family of 12. When his siblings would visit it was a great pa’ina (party). When I went to the Kamehameha Schools, after the first lunch at the prep school, Rev. Abraham Akaka pulled out his ukulele and delivered a sermon. Choir 7th and 8th grade, song contests at the higher grades, and the concert glee club in high school. I learned the words to Hawaiian songs singing after dinner in the dining hall.
Meanwhile, Margaret Morgan was growing up on Oahu. Daughter of an old sugar family, she went to Punahou, an exclusive private school Barack Obama attended. I was Hawaiian and she was a haole girl. We liked Punahou girls.
After high school, I went to college in California in the 60’s. I was into all the bands and psychedelics.
Was there a certain moment in your life when you knew that you wanted to become a musician?
I was always into music.
Would you like to talk about the musicians involved in the ‘These Trail’ album? Where they were from and what occupied their life?
Margaret Morgan was the other half of this music. Everything was based on our acoustic tracks. During the summers, I would see her in Hanalei Bay staying at her family’s house. I stayed down the beach, so we hung out during the summers. The first year she came back from college in Marin, she was playing music. Everything changed. We started hanging out and playing music. She was doing Samuel Barber on the piano. I was impressed. Her compositions were quite unusual and appealed to me. We spent a lot of time playing music – up in Hanalei valley, Roundtop Drive, tipi on Maunalani Heights, like that.
How did you originally meet them?
I had a classmate named Ron Rosha. He was a DJ on KPOI radio. He also wrote some lyrics for ‘He Hawai’i Au’ for Peter Moon. He liked what Margaret and I were doing and set up a demo at Sinergia. This studio was created by Peter Corragio as a vehicle for his new ARP synthesizer. Peter liked the demo, and said he wanted to do an album with us. The best thing about Peter was his girlfriend Cheryl Akaka. She was Miss Hawaii. Peter turned our project over to David Choy, who was a very eclectic musician. He played Hawaiian music, classical music, Beijing Opera, and
Samuel Barber. The electronics and strings were his arrangements.
We also invited some friends to play on some of the tracks. The first person we asked was Carlos Pardeiro. A great composer from Uruguay. We were spending time with him learning his songs. When we drove to the country we were singing all the way and playing with the harmonies. He lived under the Chart House and surfed Rock Piles with us. He now owns a TV station in Arkansas and many thoroughbred horses. He has a lot of music available (www.safetv.org/dvds.html). We recorded two of his songs, but only one made the cut. I have not been able to access everything we recorded because Peter died and his girlfriend walked out on the CD. None of the 8-tracks survived.
Another friend we invited to play on a Jeff Fitzsimmons song was Eric Kingsbury. He was a great luthier. And made my 6 string Lili’u with steel strings. He was perfect for the song. D tuning.
So the core of this CD was Margaret, me, and David. Our guests were Carlos Pardeiro and Eric Kingsbury – both great friends.
“The heart of this music was Margaret’s songs”
Who wrote the tracks and what inspired the album?
The heart of this music was Margaret’s songs. Her music and lyrics were so original I was enthralled. She liked to climb trees. If you met her on the street, you would have no clue to all the incredible music and poetry in her head. Her journals tell it all. Just one problem – She cut them up in a fit of passion… We do have the lyrics of the album’s songs. There were some of her songs not used in the final. She recorded one about Majagua – First line: “There’s a way through the bush, back to home, shed a glass eye, butterflies fill the sky.” She had other wonderful songs we never recorded. She was a “nature girl” for sure, strange and enchanted.
Tell us about the Sinergia label? Was the album self-released? How many copies were pressed?
Sinergia was the creation of Peter Corragio. He was a professor and concert pianist, He played at Margaret’s funeral. In the same building as Sinergia, Keola Beamer was down the hall, finishing his first album.
Sinergia released our album. It was more of a vehicle for his ARP synthesizer. It was not a huge pressing. I remember giving away albums from the box that I got. Those original pressings were semi valuable later on. After the album was released, Peter was the face of it, playing our songs on television. The album never went anywhere… I don’t believe Margaret and I ever made any money when it was first released. Or got any notoriety.
What are some of the strongest memories from recording the album? Who was the producer and where did you record it? How long did the session last? What kind of gear did you have?
The best memories I have are about the creation of these songs. We were drawn to doing it. We wrote the lyrics to ‘Garden Botanum’ while driving to Hanalei. Just feeling these songs coming to be was a blast.
Peter Corragio was the producer. His studio. Carlos, Boogie, and Bla recorded a demo there for Ron Rosha – the first recording of ‘Hula Lady’ (‘Beat the Brothers’ to it) and ‘Hanalei Bay Blues’. Buffy’s husband Dewayne was rolling it in the room. Historic session.
Our sessions lasted a series of weeks. 3-4 hours each, usually. The studio was in an old warehouse with other studios. Close to Ala Moana Center, across from the beach. Aloha Shoyu was down the street.
Recording gear was a wide 8-track. I wasn’t really familiar with the process. Margaret was playing the dulcimer, recorder, and guitar. I was playing my guitar and the tabla. Ron Rosha played ipu on one song, Carlos Pardeiro played sitar on his song.
“We were pretty stoned in the studio mixing”
Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?
‘These Trails’
These trails run the coastline
don’t trace the valley
this river flows but downstream
from where the source lies
I can’t find the beginning
Here a spring its floor a donor
of sifted waters ever seeping
brimming through drought
never drying with sun
spring is ever becoming
‘Our House in Hanalei’
My father raised cattle up in Hanalei valley. It came with a taro patch shack. Margaret wrote this song about our time there. Fractured pidgin, funky slide, ipu, taro patch slack key. Jack Demello Sr. wanted to do an album with us of songs like this. Despite his patent leather shoes, we had to say no.
‘Of Broken Links’
I love Margaret’s attitude on this. Her descriptions of loss and endings totally match David Choy’s arrangement. Five fingers strong, not enough to change my destiny.
‘El Rey Pescador’
The King Fisherman by Carlos Pardeiro. I first met Carlos when he and his friend, Ariel, came to Kauai with Joey Cabell to surf. He had been a pop star in South America with a Beatles type group. When I met him, he and Ariel were doing Carlos originals. Beautiful. I learned as much as I could. This song has a great duet of Carlos and Margaret.
‘Psyche I / Share Your Water’
Margaret and I would often play in slack key tunings, traditional and original. ‘Psyche 1’ is a tune Margaret started and I played an accompaniment in G Taro Patch tuning. Margaret wrote a few songs in her own tunings. My favorite is one she wrote, but never recorded, about her mother:
There’s a shadow losing ground, falling from mother’s eye
once did please her sky. Now she knows to rain down.
The longest night, could it be, approaching light
the moon ceases to fight, her sinking into some sea
some see the one. some see the light.
Is only one the way to shine the light?
Come be my fondest star. Be near from far.
far away, come on and sweep me away – away.
The music is just as haunting. I may record it this year.
‘Hello Lou’
Jeff Fitzsimmons wrote this one. Good friend and musician. Half Portagee. He wrote a lot of nice songs. David Choy’s synth is wonderful. “Glad you came today.”
‘Rusty’s House / Lost in Space’
Rusty Miller showed up on Kauai with Joey Cabell. To see them surf Hanalei was a treat… Impeccable big wave riders. Rusty was a harp player, and we had a lot of jams at his house in Ha’ena. It was down the stream a ways from the road. Great walk. This era was so great. Music and surfing. The second song should be ‘Lost in Space’. About my friend Carlos and his love affair with the ocean and canoes. He sailed on the “Hokulea” and wrote some great songs about that voyage for the Nā Pali albums.
‘Psyche II’
‘Psyche II’ was ‘Psyche I’ with psychedelic make-up by David Choy. At this point we were smoking elephants.
‘Waipoo’
Waipo’o is a waterfall on the rim of the Waimea Canyon. I love how David’s string arrangement complements this song. Think I had a dried piece of peyote under my tongue.
‘Garden Botanum’
Margaret and I stayed for a time in a caretaker’s cottage on Roundtop Drive. There was a lovely garden on the rim of Manoa Valley. Many of the flowers in this garden appear in the lyrics of this song. Lots of joy in this one.
Were you inspired by psychoactive substances at the time of writing the album?
I went to school in LA in the 60’s. Took a lot of acid. When I was hanging with Margaret I was doing the golden voice and elephant. Margaret had her one and only acid trip that blew her mind. Not sure she ever came back. She was straight, but she wasn’t straight. One day I came home and she was gone. Her mother sent her back to her Catholic college. After that, we were pretty stoned in the studio mixing. She had finished her songs and was gone.
Would you say that there’s a concept behind it? To me it feels a concept about sea, nature, living?
Think “These Trails” kind of says it.
Did you do any shows at all?
We never did a show or live performance. Once the disc was done, Peter pushed it as a demo for his ARP synthesizer. He had no plan beyond that.
What was the songwriting process like for you?
Writing songs has always been a passion of mine. However, I am really slow. Margaret was always brimming over with music, lyrics, and poetry. Her journals were quite amazing.
I love the cover artwork, whose idea was it and how did you do it?
The feet on the cover belong to Boogie Kalama, a wonderful waterman and musician. He and Buffalo were on the original Hokulea voyage. I thought some kanaka feet might express the wonder of these trails. So the pictures were taken.
Tell us a bit more in-depth about Nā Pali?
At the beginning, Nā Pali was me and Carlos Andrade. We were at Kamehameha together. He used to give me demerits to bug me. After high school, we met at the airport and realized that we were stoners. Later, our first gig was playing at a party for tourists in Ha’ena. We pulled out all the Hawaiian music we learned at Kamehameha, and were getting into the current psychedelic music. It was a major time for revolution in Hawaiian music. New music, new players. Then we were gigging at the Princeville Lanai with Dana Nicely. We still weren’t Nā Pali yet. We called ourselves Umiumi Kapulu, which means careless beards. Then Pancho Graham moved to the island. We met him surfing Pakala. Then we added Fred Lunt on steel guitar. This was the classic, Hawaiian quartet, modeled on the Sons of Hawaii. Fred was great, because he sponsored our first album and we became Nā Pali. By this time we were writing songs. Carlos and I co-wrote ‘Moonlight Lady,’ which was recorded by The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band – ‘The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band Vol. 1’. It was a huge hit, and we included it on our first album ‘Pacific Tunings’. Carlos had several favorites on this album – ‘Hokulea Hula,’ ‘Limahuli,’ ‘Nā Pali Outlaw,’ ‘Hawaii Loa’. Taj Mahal came into the studio and played on a few tunes: ‘When The Rain Is Over,’ ‘Sinking,’ ‘Pau Hana Blues’. This would be the start of our music with Taj Mahal. The title of this album was ‘Pacific Tunings,’ which referred to the slack key tunings for most of the songs. It would be almost 20 years before the second album.
How did you get to know Taj Mahal and what led you to tour with him for several years?
We met Taj Mahal because Maile, Carlos’ wife, was giving Taj’s wife, Inshirrah, windsurfing lessons. Wherever he goes, Taj is interested in the local music. He found out we played music, and that was the start. Taj’s kids were in school with mine. We definitely knew who Taj was because we had been doing his stuff. His last release was ‘Giant Step’. We had a great version, guitar and dulcimer. Taj was all over Kauai musicians, and there were a few. He went to school in Maine with Buffy Sainte-Marie, who still lives here. He was tight with the westside Hawaiians. He fit into every situation. When Nā Pali went into the studio, he played on a few tunes. He was so generous. He liked our stuff, and we ended up recording some of our tunes with Taj later on.
Then Taj came up with a gig on Maui with Nā Pali, minus Carlos. Kester Smith, his longtime drummer, and Ben Harper, who was just 18 at the time. He and Fred had some great steel duets. Then he came up with a tour of Australia. We played the Eastside Blues Festival in Byron Bay. Got to surf The Pass with Rusty Miller. Then we opened for Angelique Kidjo in Melbourne. We also did a few Blues Cruises with Taj. Dr. John was on one.
It really started in 2000. We played The Montreux Jazz Festival. First gig of a European tour. We discovered a Pan Band from Jamaica that knew our stuff, so they did a few tunes with us. Too much. There is an unreleased tape. Then we flew to Portugal and played at a festival in Evora. Most of the time was spent in a back room of a restaurant eating and drinking amazing food. That’s how the tour went. We toured Europe for four years, and the US for two.
What was he like and how did you enjoy that?
Taj was great. I loved his music. Meeting him was beyond. His children were young and in school with mine. Once he was here, he was part of the community. He was very connected to the local musicians and their traditions. Westside Hawaiians, north shore pop stars, regular people, we all loved him. Carlos and I were playing his tunes, and he was an influence. Playing with him was like getting on a jet plane.
I bet you’re full of stories… Please share a story or two.
When Taj figured out he was going to play a show on Maui at Casanova’s with us, he had to teach us his songs.
We met in my classroom in the evenings. This was a wonderful experience. We spent a few nights doing this. Every song had a story and history. We learned a lot about the culture that produced them. This was a really wonderful time, and revealed a lot about the depth of Taj’s music and history. He was, simply said, very cool.
At the same time, Ben Harper was in town recording for a PBS special with Taj. We played a little on that, but by the time we got to Maui, we were wasted. First gig with Taj, too much. I spent 6 years playing and touring with him. One of the highlights of my life.
You actually played in a film “The Calypsonians” in the movie with Harrison Ford and Ann Heche.
Ivan Reitman liked a song we did on our first album called the ‘Calypsonians’. He wanted to use it in the movie with different lyrics, but there was a problem with the session. The ‘Calypsonians’ was the final song we put on the album. Petra, our producer, wanted one more. Taj went deep and came up with the ‘Calypsonians’. Our part in the movie was filmed all night at a mock nightclub on the beach. Harrison Ford really liked Taj. So he was hanging with us that night. We still get residuals. Hanging with Taj got us into some interesting situations.
What else currently occupies your life?
I live on Kauai with my partner, Tukta. I am prepping for the changes that are coming. I have two grandsons, 10 and 14, going to the Kamehameha Schools, a school for Hawaiians. My whole family went there. I am gardening, doing water catchment and storage. I fear for my grandchildren.
“There were two songs we recorded for These Trails that were never released”
Is there any unreleased material by These Trails, your own songs or anything else?
There were two songs we recorded for These Trails that were never released. One was by Carlos Pardeiro, and the other by Margaret Morgan. I was never able to obtain the masters. They were both great.
I also did a series of sessions for George Winston over several years… Solo guitar, no edits..
At the moment, I am working on recording some songs from the last decade.
Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? Which songs are you most proud of? Where and when was your most memorable gig?
The highlight of my time in the band was being on stage and playing with Taj. He was always playing with it. If I did something new on my uke, he would look over at me and nod. Think the most memorable gig was Montreux. The history, the lake, the casinos, the beautiful women, and the music. Our first album with Taj was my favorite. The Hula Blues Band fit right into his groove. It’s like Taj said, when we played the Kate Wolf Festival, “Ain’t nobody going to show up with three ukes and a steel guitar.”
Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.
Thanks for encouraging me to revisit these memories. They are a base to navigate these precarious times. Aloha pumehana.
Klemen Breznikar
Patrick Cockett YouTube
