Biography
James Hendricks, occasionally credited under the name Jim Hendricks, moved through multiple folk and folk-rock ensembles during the 1960s. Several of those groups later supplied key voices to the folk-rock scene, yet Hendricks never reached the prominence enjoyed by his better-known associates. Early in the decade he helped form the Big Three, a folk trio completed by Tim Rose and Cass Elliot before her Mamas and the Papas years. After Rose departed to launch a solo path that earned him cult status as a folk-rock songwriter, Hendricks and Elliot joined Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty in the briefly active Mugwumps. Those sessions produced some of the earliest American recordings that edged toward the folk-rock sound, though the lineup dissolved quickly. Doherty and Elliot soon achieved recognition as half of the Mamas and the Papas, while Yanovsky entered the Lovin’ Spoonful. Hendricks and Elliot supplied the two original compositions on the Mugwumps’ album, released after the group’s demise in 1967, among them the folk-rock ballad “Here It Is Another Day,” which might have become a hit given wider airplay. During the Big Three and Mugwumps period, Hendricks and Elliot were married, an arrangement made so he could avoid the military draft.
Hendricks next appeared on a little-known folk-rock single of Pete Seeger’s “The Bells of Rhymney”—a song the Byrds also recorded for their debut album—as one half of the duo James Hendricks and Vanessa. He moved deeper into pop-inflected folk-rock with the Lamp of Childhood, which issued three singles on Dunhill. Following that band’s breakup he began recording alone, releasing the little-heard 1968 album Songs of James Hendricks on Soul City. Johnny Rivers produced the set, which offered subdued and unremarkable country-rock supported by session players including James Burton, Pete Drake, Jerry Reed, and Kenny Buttrey. In the early 1970s Hendricks placed an album and two singles with MGM; he also contributed vocals to Rivers’ Blue Suede Shoes album in 1973 and issued a lone single on Starcrest in 1976.
Hendricks next appeared on a little-known folk-rock single of Pete Seeger’s “The Bells of Rhymney”—a song the Byrds also recorded for their debut album—as one half of the duo James Hendricks and Vanessa. He moved deeper into pop-inflected folk-rock with the Lamp of Childhood, which issued three singles on Dunhill. Following that band’s breakup he began recording alone, releasing the little-heard 1968 album Songs of James Hendricks on Soul City. Johnny Rivers produced the set, which offered subdued and unremarkable country-rock supported by session players including James Burton, Pete Drake, Jerry Reed, and Kenny Buttrey. In the early 1970s Hendricks placed an album and two singles with MGM; he also contributed vocals to Rivers’ Blue Suede Shoes album in 1973 and issued a lone single on Starcrest in 1976.
Albums
