Artist: The Poppy Family featuring Susan Jacks
Song: "Free From the City"
[ listen ]
[ listen ]
Music fanatics (ones with good taste, anyway) have got to do two things when they pass through Montgomery, Alabama. (They can do additional things too if they want, like visit the Alabama State Capitol.) The first is to visit the grave where country music legend Hank Williams is buried, which I did as soon as I pulled into town.
The second is to stop by Montgomery's newest (and only) record store, RAD! Vinyl Records. I found some great stuff there, including this 1969 LP by The Poppy Family (featuring Susan Jacks). The group is originally from Vancouver, British Columbia—my own neck of the woods—but sometimes you have to travel far and wide just to find the gems that have been lying right under your nose! (Or something like that.) Anyway, singer Susan Pesklevits met guitarist Terry Jacks in the mid 1960s while performing on TV; they married and brought guitarist Craig McCaw and tablas player Satwant Singh on board to form The Poppy Family. They went international with the hit "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" in 1969 (it reached #1 on the Canadian singles charts, #2 in the USA, and peaked at #95 in Australia) and had several more hits in Canada in the following years. Sadly, the group recorded only two LPs, and Terry Jacks "released" both McCaw and Singh from the group before making "Poppy Seeds," which was LP #2. Not long after "Poppy Seeds" came out in 1971, Susan "released" Terry from their marriage and The Poppy Family was no more. You can read all about The Poppy Family (featuring Susan Jacks) here, and a photo and some notes from the back of their first LP are included below.
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