The Chyknhawks - Mister Organ Grinder (1965)

The Chyknhawks set the tone for the California music scene in 1965, consisting of four young men who had previously come from folk music, and who's shared love of the Dodos from the UK had prompted them to try and merge folk music with beat music, forming something new and original. The four original members are Gary Cline, James McGunn, Daniel Bing & Mike Claire, and the debut album from the Los Angeles quartet was released on June 3rd, 1965. Entitled 'Mister Organ Grinder', the title was taken from their first single of which an alternate take is featured here, and the twelve tracks on the album were written between 1964 and 1965, and include song-writing from three of the four members of the group. Gary Cline dominates the album as far as song-writing credits go (having written or co-written nine of the twelve tracks), with James McGunn getting co-writing credits on four tracks and Daniel Bing getting three solo writing credits. Seen as a very solid start to a short but fruitful career as a band, The Chyknhawks would soar higher on later albums, but as all bands do eventually, they would get too close to the sun and by the end of 1969 the band would split for good. Between this album and 1969 though they would innovate and inspire, and would have multiple line up changes, and this debut album is a great appetizer for what would come.

Track listing

01 Far Out  
02 The Chimes Of Athena 
03 Mister Organ Grinder 
04 No One Should Cry 
05 Jack Of All Shame 
06 Falling Again 

07 King Of The Lost 
08 Is It Me, Man 
09 Here Within You 
10 All I Wanted To Do 
11 Believe In Yourself  
12 I Knew You'd Want Me 

Check out their bandcamp page here