Since finding out about Robert Lester Folsom from a friend a few weeks back, we have been hooked. His record Music and Dreams instantly became a favorite of ours, and it is quickly becoming the soundtrack of our summer. When researching the man behind the record for our review on Music and Dreams, we found almost nothing on him, leading us to believe that Robert Lester Folsom was a musical mystery.
We were delighted to get an email out of the blue from one of Lester's labels, Yoga Records, shortly after we posted our review. It simply said, 'You wrote in your review that Robert Lester Folsom is 'shrouded in mystery' so I wanted to give you a chance to interview him if you wanted.' Did we ever! In just a few short days we got an email from Lester himself setting up a time to chat, and we got to speak to him at length last week. Here's a few things we found out about Robert Lester Folsom, he is a really cool dude, he might be playing some new shows in support of Music and Dreams, he is the pioneer of the DIY yacht-rock scene, and that if you talk bad about Ringo he might just lay you out! We are delighted to be able shed some light on the man, and hope you enjoy the conversation.
DV - So what was the scene like in 1976, set up Music and Dreams for us?
RLF - I was a music major at South Georgia college in Douglas, GA, and mostly I just wanted to make music, I didn’t want to study it. I kept running into people that made music locally, and Sparky Smith was probably one of those first people. Pretty soon we started getting the right people together (which would become the band Abacus), and I started showing them my original music. We did a demo in Atlanta, Ga, which we titled the Atlanta demos, and things didn’t quite happen like we hoped. In the Summer of ’76 I just said “I’m going to do a solo album.” So I started using the same guys that were playing in Abacus. They were up for it, they were just not willing to financially get involved, but they were at least willing to give their time. After the Atlanta Demos Stan Dacus, who was the main engineer at LeFevre Sound in Atlanta, was somewhat impressed with the original material, and he was able to give me a wonderful deal on recording time, mainly because he was in charge. Whatever it took, he had a vested interest in it. Aside from Abacus we pulled in a few session musicians from Atlanta, and we came up with a pretty good project I thought. When it was done we pressed 500 vinyl copies, some 8-tracks, and singles with “My Stove’s On Fire” on the A side, and “Show Me To The Window” on the flip side, and I maybe sold like 70% of that stuff. We had local airplay in South Georgia, maybe some in North Florida, and maybe in the Atlanta area, but other than that it never really happened then.
DV - How long did you guys play shows for after you guys put the record out?
RLF - We may have stayed together for not quite a year, because there was some tension since I was the one who put something together, and since it was solo we had not put something together as a band, and if you've ever been in a band, and I feel like maybe you have,
DV - Yeah I know, definitely.
RLF - You know, you get frustrated, “why don’t we do my songs,” and it’s like “why don’t you put the money into making your songs,” so it’s stuff like that. I had planned to do a second album and I ended up doing a single, but it was maybe 2 years after Music and Dreams, and that single is available now on the CD re-release now.
DV - Is it? What’s the name of the single?
RLF - It’s called “Blues Stay Away,” and the flip side was “Warm Horizon,” which is a 5 or 6 minute instrumental. I played all the guitars and I had a fantastic drummer and a bass player.
DV - Was it any of the guys from Abacus on that track?
RLF - On the A side “Blues Stay Away,” Sparky my bass player played on that. I was using guys from around the Valdosta, GA area mostly. I did that in like 3 different studios, I felt like maybe I was the new Brian Wilson or something, working on my “Good Vibrations.” It got well received, especially the longer song, the instrumental-type song, it got college FM play, which was big back then, FM played the cool music. But after that there was marriage and babies, self-employment and Florida.
DV - So are you still playing, are you still making music?
RLF - Oh yeah, I play every Sunday in my church in a contemporary prayer service, and I have an acoustic trio called Jen and The Tonics. And now because of the interest in Music and Dreams I am rehearsing a band to possibly recreate that music. We rehearse about every other Sunday.
DV - That would be amazing! I wanted to ask if you were going to do any shows.
RLF - Well the guys at Mexican Summer have stated that they would like me to head up to NY and play. Somebody has also thrown the idea of going to Japan, cause there was a lot of interest in my music in Asia.
DV - Really?
RLF - In fact that’s where I think the spark came back up. Some band in Japan, their name is Kirinji, they released “My Stove’s On Fire” from the Music and Dreams album, and they didn’t ask me about it.
DV - They just kinda did?
RLF - Yeah, and I’m finding out about it, they even have it on a live DVD, and from what I understand they are pretty big in Japan. They are either on Sony or Columbia, which is interesting.
DV - Yeah, that’s pretty wild. I mean you must have known you made a great record. Was it your feeling that this would see the light of day eventually? Or did all this stuff, and the Mexican Summer re-release come as a surprise?
RLF - I’m gonna say that my music came back to life, especially this album, because of the Internet. You know I have a huge world market now, where originally I only had south Georgia. It’s just kinda sad that it happened 34 years later.
DV - The Internet is amazing in that sense. Even though it’s 34 years since Music and Dreams it seems you found an audience, and it’s amazing to see.
RLF - I appreciate all that, in fact I’m afraid if I did something now it would really be nothing like that was. It would just be today and then gone, I don’t know if it could be something that special 30 or 40 years from now, you know. It makes me think that maybe I can retire from thinking of making music and rest on my laurels from that thing I did 30 something years ago.
DV - Yeah, I’m curious too. As a songwriter, a musician, someone who studied music; are you contemplating coming out with a new record as Robert Lester Folsom or are your happy just leaving it at Music and Dreams?
RLF - Well, while I’m rehearsing with what I call “Abacus too” every other Sunday, I’m playing some of the stuff off of Music and Dreams, but I am intertwining it with new stuff, and it ends up being pretty much the same sound.
DV - Cool, so when you’re putting a set together are you finding the new and the old stuff just kinda works then?
RLF - I realized that with Music and Dreams that I actually had a sound, and it’s still there! So, maybe a new release would be very similar. But again I think it’s more special knowing it was 30 something years ago, and now it’s depreciated.
DV -There is that certain context. But, it just great music, and that tends to shine through.
RLF - Even now I’m still using a chorus effect, I’m still using reverb, and I’m using a slightly overdriven Fender Deluxe Reverb. I’m mixing those, which is giving me the same sound.
DV - Yeah your guitar tones have a really interesting sound. Listening to the record it does sound very 70s, but I thought that the tones themselves created something really unique.
RLF - At that time we were just discovering flangers, and choruses, and up until then we just had the tremolo on the Fender amplifier, and also cranking it up where we were blowing the speakers out. In fact, the studio had never seen a flanger pedal before us. I was using an Electric Mistress pedal that I was being used for flanging on just about everything that got flanged on that record. They were all kinda amazed by it.
DV - What were the records you were listening to when you were making Music and Dreams?
RLF - I like Dylan of course, but I would never say that anything that I’ve written sounds like Dylan, but he’s one of the biggies. Also, Joni Mitchell during that 70s period, Hejira, I love that album. I really liked the Surf’s Up album by The Beach Boys, and it made me go back and listen to the Pet Sounds record a little more closely.
DV - You can definitely hear some of those Beach Boys qualities on your record, with the harmonies and stuff. Also, your record has just a good summer vibe too.
RLF - You’re right! I never really thought about it until Mexican Summer re-released it, and of course the title track “Music and Dreams” has that line “I’m just waiting in the summer sun.”
DV - Yeah that opening track just sets the mood.
RLF - I was thinking you were going to ask me my favorite song on the record.
DV - Of course! What’s your favorite song?
RLF - You know I really like “Music and Dreams,” cause like you said it kinda sets the tone, and it’s really about who I was. And I really wanted a #1 record, I really wanted that, looking back it seems pretty naive or something.
DV - No, I think that’s what makes the record so charming.
RLF - In fact the single that wound up coming from that record was a completely different track, “My Stove’s On Fire.
DV - I actually wanted to know, where did you come up with that phrase?
RLF - Well, it’s almost like a true story, but looking back on it, it’s really just a huge sexual innuendo. So Disco had just come out, and Abacus was trying to get gigs and we were loosing out on these gigs to DJs and that was pissing us off. Even though we were loosing out on these gigs, I liked some of the Disco music, especially the beat. So I gave my drummer the beat for “My Stove’s on Fire,” and instead of saying “My Soul’s on Fire” I changed it around to “My Stove’s on Fire.” And I did wind up meeting some woman sitting in my kitchen, and that was pretty exciting, and all true. But, in the end I mainly wrote this as a novelty song protesting Disco music.
DV - It’s a great tune.
RLF - Yeah, well there are probably times when I’d be ashamed of that now. I have this wonderful lady I know who’s a retired minister, and I’d love to give her a copy of my album, but I’m worried about what she might think if she hears that song. I mean it can’t mean anything else, I really don’t have a stove that would burn up.
DV - All of these tracks have to give you some great satisfaction knowing that they are going to get some more attention now, and some kid is going to hear this and maybe get a band together or something.
RLF - Yeah, I have great satisfaction for those things now. I can’t say that I’m a working artist living off my music and stuff, but I am proud of what we did then, and I would like to continue to play it.
DV - So what other musical projects where you involved with?
RLF - Have you heard of The Stroke Band Green and Yellow?
DV - No, what’s that?
RLF - It’s a band that I produced, and it’s pretty interesting. It’s very different than Music and Dreams. They had this really spastic leader called Bruce Joyner, and they were doing this avant-garde kind of weird punk stuff, and they asked me to produce it. The record wound up getting some notoriety, and now it’s one of those records that if you find an original pressing it’s like $400. It has really primitive artwork just like mine, except theirs is green and yellow, and mine was blue and black.
DV - Your cover is cool, who did that?
RLF - A friend of mine Danny Dickens did that, he was going to art school and would always follow us around taking pictures and stuff. So I asked him to do the record, and I told him I wanted a sketch for the cover, I gave him a couple of black and white photos for the back, and for the rest I told him to just do what he wanted. He did a great job.
DV - He did do a great job.
RLF - Yeah, but back then I wasn’t so sure, because when you think of doing a record, you think of getting this official release on Capitol or Columbia or whatever. And back then when this came out I really thought we were just amateur.
DV - I think that’s why the record is so cool, it’s a 70s indie record, or what you would perceive as indie. It was DIY, you released it on your own label, the whole thing winds up feeling much different then your typical “1970s” record.
RLF - We wanted to sound like those 1970s records back then, and now I’m really proud that we don’t.
DV - I did see an original pressing of your record recently and they are going for like $250, do you have any of those left?
RLF - Good Lord! I can’t find any myself, I though I had some laying around, but I don’t. I have one good copy that I have for myself, and I can’t part with it. When we first moved to Jacksonville I might have had a box of them on vinyl, but I gave them all to the public library to distribute, and they’re gone now.
DV - We are a vinyl site so I’m curious if you still listen to vinyl, is it still important to you?
RLF - My turntable is the garage and my records are in the closet.
DV - So it’s not set up?
RLF - No, not yet, but it’s getting more tempting everyday. Actually when my daughter graduated from high school about 5 years ago, my gift to her was a turntable, and I even gave her some of my old records just for her to enjoy.
DV - So if you had to pick your favorite record what will it be?
RLF - It’s such a toss up, but I love The White Album by The Beatles. The lyrics were written in it, you had two albums, you had photos; I had like five copies of The White Album. I was also almost tempted to say Sgt. Peppers, cause it was the first album with all the big pictures, the mustache cut outs. In fact the first copy I had of Sgt. Peppers was Mono ‘cause I couldn’t afford the Stereo version, because it was like 50 cents more expensive, and now I find out that Mono was how it was intended.
DV - Since you’re a big Beatles fan, is it John or Paul for you...or is it George?
RLF - I truly loved George, he was out of the limelight, and he was true to himself. He also didn’t have the pressure the other guys did, the only pressure he had was to be as good as they were, and to me he was great in his own right. You know Paul had the melodies and John was so clever, and had the edge. So to avoid that debate I think I just say George.
DV - I think I find myself doing the same thing.
RLF - I also love Ringo. And, don’t ever say anything bad about Ringo man I’ll jump on you!
DV - So you still have the hair?
RLF - I still have the shaggy hair, I just don’t have as much. And now you know, there’s no mystery here.
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