Biography
Michael Oosten, like so many others coming of age in the 1960s, first explored music by joining rock and cover bands while still in high school and then continuing that activity through college. By the time he turned 21 or 22 in 1969 and 1970, the difficulties of holding a group together, together with his growing interest in writing original songs rather than pop-song copies, led him to favor the simpler prospect of traveling alone with a single guitar; this shift prompted him to launch a solo folk career. Carrying his Martin guitar, he set out to perform his own material in coffeehouses and clubs from coast to coast.
Late in 1973 and into the first months of 1974, he felt ready to make an LP and chose five songs for the occasion. To enrich the folk-rock-psych textures, he brought in a few friends: Madison, Wisconsin resident Tom Hennick played piano on “Hey Boy,” Jan Reek added vocals to “Garden,” and Al Byla—who later became a violinist with Piper Road String Band—supplied bass on “Sunny Day.” The finished album radiated the sunny, whimsical charm that defined Oosten’s outlook and mirrored the itinerant spirit of the period itself, from the high-school-era song “Wayfaring Boy” through his experiences in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the record was made, to “Hungry Horse Montana,” an ode to Glacier National Park, one of his favorite locales.
University of Wisconsin art professor George Cramer supplied the airbrushed cover artwork. Oosten and Lester D’ore, the former editor of the Chicago countercultural paper Seed and designer of the Yippie flag, then retreated to D’ore’s Karma commune farm in Wisconsin to hand-silkscreen every jacket. Consistent with the album’s self-reliant origins, promotion was limited to Oosten personally delivering copies to disc jockeys at stations in nearby cities. “Wayfaring Boy” received substantial airplay in Madison, while the album as a whole found steady rotation on Midwestern college stations, attracting the attention of Columbia Records. After a single meeting, however, the label concluded that the record would prove too difficult to market. Although Oosten kept performing at coffeehouses and parties across the country, Michael Oosten remained his only contribution to the hippie musical scene.
Late in 1973 and into the first months of 1974, he felt ready to make an LP and chose five songs for the occasion. To enrich the folk-rock-psych textures, he brought in a few friends: Madison, Wisconsin resident Tom Hennick played piano on “Hey Boy,” Jan Reek added vocals to “Garden,” and Al Byla—who later became a violinist with Piper Road String Band—supplied bass on “Sunny Day.” The finished album radiated the sunny, whimsical charm that defined Oosten’s outlook and mirrored the itinerant spirit of the period itself, from the high-school-era song “Wayfaring Boy” through his experiences in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the record was made, to “Hungry Horse Montana,” an ode to Glacier National Park, one of his favorite locales.
University of Wisconsin art professor George Cramer supplied the airbrushed cover artwork. Oosten and Lester D’ore, the former editor of the Chicago countercultural paper Seed and designer of the Yippie flag, then retreated to D’ore’s Karma commune farm in Wisconsin to hand-silkscreen every jacket. Consistent with the album’s self-reliant origins, promotion was limited to Oosten personally delivering copies to disc jockeys at stations in nearby cities. “Wayfaring Boy” received substantial airplay in Madison, while the album as a whole found steady rotation on Midwestern college stations, attracting the attention of Columbia Records. After a single meeting, however, the label concluded that the record would prove too difficult to market. Although Oosten kept performing at coffeehouses and parties across the country, Michael Oosten remained his only contribution to the hippie musical scene.
Albums
