Linn County - Fever Shot (1969 us, splendid west coast psych blues rock, 2007 Foot Print issue)

In the 1960s, several regional music scenes developed in cities across the United States and caught the ear of a national audience. The music revolution that took place in San Francisco was for real. The times they were a-changin. The 60s counterculture revolution that was taking place in the Bay Area made it ripe ground for a musical phenomenon to develop.

The birth of the hippie scene, the advent of underground FM radio which gave non-Top 40 music a chance to be heard, and several venues (Fillmore, Avalon, Matrix etc.) willing to booking up-and-coming local talent all made the Bay Area a fertile place for groups to grow and develop. The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin and The Jefferson Airplane are a few of the best-known bands that emerged from this creative environment.

Although they never enjoyed the same national fame, Linn County was one of the most musically sound, in-demand and highly admired outfits in the Bay area, especially by other Bay area musicians. To trace the roots of Linn County's genealogy, one must venture back to their early days to the home state of Iowa when they were known as the Prophets.

An unusual late-'60s band that combined horn-embellished soul-rock with more interesting material utilizing jazz-colored arrangements and somewhat spacy songwriting. There were few parallels for this kind of thing at the time, other than perhaps the only slightly less obscure Insect Trust.

In 1968, the band signed with Mercury Records, moved to San Francisco, California, and changed its name to Linn County. They released their first album Proud Flesh Soothseer in 1968 and toured, performing with bands and people such as: Albert King, Led Zeppelin, Sly & the Family Stone, Eric Burdon & the Animals and Ten Years After. They never became too well known.

Futher albums followed in 1969 and 1970. The band broke up after Clark Pierson left with Janis Joplin. The solo album released by band member Stephen Miller in 1970 includes 4 tracks recorded by the final Linn County line-up.