The Hemp Necktie formed in the idyllic Southern California mountain valley artist community of Ojai, California during the blues-influenced semi-psychedelic surf-ish music boom of the first half of the third week of April, 1967, from remnants of six local jug bands, including Donny Shetland’s Jug Chuckers and The New Western Old-Timey Banjo Fiddlers, as well as various disenfranchised ejectees from three local psychedelic-rock upstarts, including the locally well-known group The Electric Starfish. Also in the original group were a freeform jazz saxophonist from Bakersfield named Arlo McStarr, a young bluesy keyboardist from Victorville named Tyrone Freeman, Janis Joplin’s distant cousin Dolores (providing backup vocals), a guitarist and a bass player from a rockabilly outfit formerly popular in the bars and clubs of Burbank who had been out of work since 1962, a percussionist named Randall who claimed to have played a very brief part in one song on the Mothers of Invention album, "Freak Out!", three former members of an Ojai church choir, the entire six-piece horn section of a club-hopping local soul/R&B/jazz/blues group called The Black Tar Heroine Family, two members of a psychedelic-folk experiment from the San Francisco bay area called The Flowermen, a former local-news-weathergirl named Cindy who slept with someone and ended up in the band, nine local teenagers who volunteered to yell shit and hit things together, and finally, three violinists, two cello players, and an oboe player who were the only six survivors of a bus crash that had killed the rest of their 64-piece symphony orchestra, as they departed Ojai at insane speeds after a concert, which was part of their unbelievably fast-paced Spring ’67 Kalifornia Klassical Koncert Kavalcade, which included stops in Paso Robles, Templeton, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Santa Maria, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, Buellton, Solvang, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria, Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Saticoy, Camarillo, Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Santa Clarita, San Fernando, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Canoga Park, Burbank, Glendale, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, Culver City, Los Angeles, Alhambra, Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, El Monte, Baldwin Park, West Covina, Diamond Bar, Pomona, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Riverside, Rialto, San Bernardino, Victorville, Palmdale, Lancaster, Rosamond, Mojave, Edwards Air Force Base, Olancha, Cartago, Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, Tom’s Place, Mammoth Lakes, Lee Vining, Bodie, Bridgeport, Stateline, South Lake Tahoe, Placerville, Folsom Prison, Citrus Heights, Sacramento, West Sacramento, Davis, Vacaville, Fairfield, Vallejo, Hercules, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco (x3), Millbrae, Burlingame, San Mateo, Half Moon Bay, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Stanford, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Monterey, Salinas, Gonzales, Soledad, Greenfield, King City, San Ardo, Bradley, San Miguel, Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Clovis, Modesto, Manteca, Stockton, Lodi, Concord, Walnut Creek and San Francisco again -- some 120 full concerts, all over California, some in towns with populations in the single digits, in the space of 26 days.
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ADC Jam @ Awesomefest, June 11th, 2007
The following is our performance of the song "Open the Door" by Dan, played at the Verity Room in Canoga Park, CA on July 28th, 2007
Below is our cover of Pipeline by The Ventures, at the same show. There’s a wee bit of a mixup betwixt bass & guitar towards the end, however, you get the idea.
