JEANNIE PIERSOL - The Nest

Jeannie Piersol’s hip hybrid of rock, soul and Indian flavors is revealed for the first time in this unprecedented collection that features her sought-after 1968 singles for Chess along with material by The Yellow Brick Road and Hair. • Studio outtakes, demos and live performances from the legendary Matrix nightclub are joined by an extensively illustrated 16-page booklet with a 7500 word essay from Grammy-nominated producer Alec Palao Jeannie Piersol is one of the enigmas of the mid-1960s San Francisco rock scene. Though little known, the distinctive singer emerged from the same community to the south of San Francisco that nurtured the principals of the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and other enabling constituents of the city’s future rock meritocracy. Close friends with Grace Slick and her brother-in-law Darby Slick, Piersol duetted with Grace in an embryonic line-up of pathfinding early SF outfit The Great! Society, before leaving to front her own band, The Yellow Brick Road, who worked the clubs and ballrooms of the emerging SF circuit, including legendary venue the Matrix. Upon his return from a sojourn to India to study sarod, Darby Slick transformed the YBR into a multi-racial psychedelic soul outfit know as Hair. This is turn led to Jeannie getting signed as a solo act to Cadet Concept, the hipster imprint of venerable R&B label Chess Records. Slick and Piersol travelled to Chicago in 1968 to record with by the master musicians of Chess, the result a unique hybrid of rock, soul and Indian flavors. Despite healthy airplay, neither of Jeannie’s two singles managed to make any commercial headway and she would soon leave the rock scene behind. Nevertheless, a growing cabale of collectors, deejays and indie rockers have since discovered the delights of tracks like the slow burning, entrancing ‘The Nest’, the rousing Airplanelike ‘Gladys’, or the fuzzed-out dancefloor fave ‘Your Sweet Inner Self.’ Piersol’s brief but fascinating 1960s career is anthologized for the first time on High Moon’s The Nest, which features her two sought after singles and various other studio outtakes from Chicago and Los Angeles. The tracklisting also features material by the rarely heard San Francisco rock groups that Jeannie fronted: Hair (featuring Darby Slick) and The Yellow Brick Road, the latter represented by live recordings from the Matrix. The handsomely-appointed package comes with a deluxe and extensively illustrated 16- page booklet with a 7500 word essay from Grammy-nominated producer Alec Palao. RIYL Jefferson Airplane, Great! Society, Rotary Connection

Vinyl release of Jeannie Piersol - The Nest. Released through HIGH MOON RECORDS and available on LP.