CARROLL & FRIENDS, CORKY - Laid Back

Laid Back by Corky Carroll & Friends is a warm-hued snapshot of the musical life of one segment of the American surfing world, circa 1971. This album, the first ever recorded by true surfers, captures the relaxed, truly laid back feeling of the surfing life. The album features none of the tropes of surf music": no reverb, no sugary vocal harmonies. Simply recorded with warm fidelity, what we hear is pro-surfer Corky Carroll and his surfer pals in various combinations delivering songs and instrumental pieces, perfectly capturing the sultry seaside atmosphere and their idyllic oceanic lives. All the performers were, in Corkys words, "real surfers" (unlike the Beach Boys), well-recorded in casual circumstances in California in 1971. Beginning (and closing) with Hawaii-born master board-maker Raymond Pattersons joyful slack-key guitar fantasias, the album features the famed Denny Aarberg on guitar (with Kathy Dragon of the legendary Dragon family), the articulate folk picking of David