Town Criers featuring Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane) Reissued on Collectors' Choice

Press release
Source: conqueroo / Cary Baker

While mid-‘60s Greenwich Village laid claim to the most vibrant folk scene in the nation, San Francisco sewed its pre-hippie seeds with clubs like the Drinking Gourd, Coffee ’n’ Confusion, My Apartment and hungry i. It was on this circuit that the Town Criers cut their teeth. Perhaps best known as the first band of Marty Balin — later of the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship — the Town Criers played the Bay Area circuit not with flowers in their hair but with crew cuts.

Collectors’ Choice Music will on April 3 issue rare, never-before-released live recordings from band in the form of The Town Criers: Live in San Francisco.

Recognized not only for their great vocal blend and instrumental prowess, combining folk with unexpected jazz twists, the Town Criers consisted not only of Balin (tenor vocals, six-string guitar and string bass) but Jan Ellickson (soprano vocals, piano and guitar), Larry Vargo (bass and baritone vocals, and 6-string classic guitar) and Bill Collins (baritone and tenor vocals, 12-string guitar, 6-string classic guitar and banjo). The group came together when Vargo (then of the Saints three) and Collins (then of the Tallymen) met at the Drinking Gourd and decided to form a quartet. Balin and Ellickson were quickly recruited.

In addition to the aforementioned drinking and coffee establishments, the Town Criers also played early ‘60s student rallies and Holiday Inns. Save for an engagement with Hoyt Axton in Honolulu, their circuit was pretty much limited to the Bay Area.

However, their work — captured in this eight-track mini-album — did not escape the notice of the press. The San Francisco Chronicle’s “Datebook” section in winter of 1963 called them “a great find” and “a beautifully harmonizing folk-singing group.” In January of ’64, the Chronicle added, “The up-surging folk group pours out three-part harmony, then doubles back with their counter melody . . . strong, unusual balanced sounds that have been exciting audiences since they first joined forces.”

The mini-album contains eight originals, recorded live in 1963: “Daddy Roll ‘Em,” “900 Miles,” “Virgin Mary,” “Go Home to the Valley,” “Hellbound Train,” “The Lesson,” “99 Years to Go” and “Jubilee.” Equally of interest to Jefferson Airplane fans will be Marty Balin’s between-song monologues, which reveal a real raconteur.

The Town Criers broke up in ’64 — just as the Beatles were invading America and the folk scene was beginning to fade. Balin became co-lead singer (with Grace Slick) of the Jefferson Airplane and Starship. He has since returned to folk music as well as painting and sketching, his work featured in galleries and private collections. He is based both in Mill Valley and Tampa. Ellickson returned to her prior career in the medical profession. Vargo continues to play folk music and formed the Mayflower Chorus. He passed away in 1991 at age 54. And Collins became an award-winning writer, producer and singer of TV and radio commercials. His music has appeared in several LucasFilm motion pictures as well.

The Town Criers never achieved the status of folk counterparts like the Kingston Trio and Limeliters. But as a document of the little-known phenomenon of San Francisco folk — and as a glimpse of one of the major figures in ‘60s psychedelia just at the start of his career, polishing his vocal chops and stagecraft-- this album will prove a satisfying document of an era.

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