Texas Psych 2010 Cosmic Campout w/ George Kinney of the Golden Dawn

Hello Everybody, the 2010 Cosmic Campout w/George Kinney is a GO! The date of this event will be over Memorial Day Weekend of 2010.

This will be a long weekend of camping, fun with fellow list members along with music and quality time with Texas Psych Legend – George Kinney of the Golden Dawn.

Send your indications of interest in participating to this email address: Rokysyd11@yahoo.com

I am creating an email list for this event. This way I can easily keep in touch with those who might be going and forward information and receive communications.

The best part is that we have already done something like this before with the 2004 Cosmic Campout. THAT was lots of fun.

As in 2004, we will be camping up on Mingus Mountain above Jerome, Arizona. The campground is 7,500 feet up on the slope of Mingus and it’s GORGEOUS. I know Ranger Dave too so it’ll be totally cool.

We can grab a few campsites and everybody can crowd in. The campsites feature chemical toilets (clean) and running water. Showers ($2.00) are available in the Town of Cottonwood at the base on Mingus.

Jerome is an actual Wild West ghost town. The only people that live there now are some hippies and oddball characters. It’s a really, really cool spot. Look:

Jerome has an actual Wild West bar! It’s called the Spirit Room. George has played there many times. Check it out:

We’re going to be less than 20 miles from beautiful Sedona, Arizona. Check it out:

2010 Cosmic Campout Participants will get at least two George Kinney concerts. These will be unplugged and out in nature’s beauty. One concert will take place at famous Bell Rock in Sedona. Look:






Bell Rock is the site of a documented Energy Vortex. Sedona is full of them. In Sedona vortexes are made up of spiraling cosmic/spiritual energy. The vortexes of Sedona are believed to be spiritual locations where the energy is optimal to facilitate prayer, mediation and healing. These Vortex sites are thought to be locations having energy flow that works on multiple dimensions. The power of the vortexes interacts with a person’s inner self and is not easily explained. Obviously it must be experienced.



Prices for the 2010 Cosmic Campout are as follows:

$50.00 – 1 person

$75.00 – 1 couple

$100.00 – 1 family

This is a great deal in that it features a whole weekend vacation, along with hours of music and quality time with George Kinney.





I’ll be there too.

Start sending your indications of interest in participating to this email address:

Rokysyd11@yahoo.com



PUT: "COSMIC CAMPOUT" IN THE SUBJECT LINE.

I’ll collect them and make up an emailing list. This way, we can stay in touch and exchange information and phone numbers. This is going to be a hoot!

Kiloh

Golden Dawn - Tell Me Why / Reaching Out to You

Two from one of my favorite groups the Golden Dawn. Tell Me Why /Reaching Out to You from the 1968 album Power Plant.

As has been documented elsewhere, Power Plant was recorded shortly after The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. However, not wanting to “compete” with Easter Everywhere, International Artists help back the release of Power Plant until after Easter Everywhere came out. The Golden Dawn were even precluded from gigging as IA had their management contract too.

Thus, the Golden Dawn were derided as an ‘Elevators “copy” band by some. Today, we can listen to those backwards instruments and psychedelic lyrics and know that the Golden Dawn were progenitors of psychedelic music. Life just isn’t fair.

Join the Golden Dawn Yahoogroup!

We hang out with George Kinney every day and discuss the Quest for Pure Sanity! Join us! Look:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/G_Dawn

Golden Dawn Every Day Video

I found this on Youtube. It’s a great fan video celebrating the Golden Dawn Every Day. I absolutely LOVE Power Plant!

Jimmy Bird - Original Member of the Golden Dawn Passes

From George Kinney:

I am very sorry to report that another original Golden Dawn member has passed away. Jimmy Bird, rhythm guitar player and vocalist died at this home in Utah last Saturday evening. We all knew he had been ill for a few years and it finally got the best of him. He died at home surrounded by his loving wife and children. I talked to Jimmy last week and he told me he was ready and that he did not want me to come to Utah to see him off.

Jimmy was always a straightforward, honest man, and fearless in a fight. He sang on the latest Texas Medicine CD and was a true, dear friend of many, many years. He and his daughter, Kady, were members of the new Golden Dawn during the Psych Fest days in Houston and Austin in 2002. We started the band in high school and have been close friends ever since. He was always a model for me as to what a good man should be. I will sure miss him.
G

George Kinney: My Friend Bobby Rector

Billy Hallmark called me a couple of days ago and told me the bad news about Bobby Rector. I am deeply saddened by his passing. Although most of you know I am a believer in the idea that human beings possess an eternally evolving soul, the loss is no less for us left here to mourn. He is on a completely new journey by now, but I will miss him greatly.

I met Bobby back in 1966, after my fellow Golden Dawn members insisted that we find a new drummer due to several problems we were having with our current drummer at that time. Bobby was recommended by Billy Hallmark, largely due to Bobby's close association with Stacy Sutherland and John Ike Walton, Ronnie Leatherman, Terry Penny, Johnny Gathins and others. He was "one of those Kerrville boys."

He drove into my life in a red Corvette and a winning smile. He won the gig at the first audition...he was simply the best drummer we had ever picked with. His drumming was always on beat, and he threw in stuff we had never heard before...it matched our music perfectly. He was a strong, intense drummer, but a very gentle, kind person.

Bobby was also a very accomplished artist. He designed many posters for our band and his design for the cover of our album, Power Plant, was preferred by the band for production, but we were overridden by Intentional Artists producer, Leland Rogers. The cover that came out was designed by George Banks, from Houston, and, I admit, it was a great cover as well. But Bobby drew stuff all the time and we were always impressed by his artistic ability.

Like most bands of the era, there was a lot of debate and variance of opinion among members about a lot of issues, both philosophical and strategically. I was the poet/leader with dreams of world reform and belief in the emergence of an enlightened species that would save our world and propel us into the next phase of human evolution with expanded capacities for compassion, reverence, and conscious abilities. I have devoted my entire life to these goals and ideals. But others, like Bobby, were much more pragmatic about these goals. Bobby believed in living life as it is and making decisions that reflected traditional concepts of success. That is, Bobby wanted to us to be a money-making band, based solely upon musical ability and good business planning. I welcomed Bobby's ideas, because I saw the value and necessity of them if we were to continue to make music professionally. So all in all, we made a good strategic team. The rest of the band had varying ideas blending the benefits and downsides of each of the more polarized ideals, which essential boils down to spirit vs. matter, or art vs. money.

In all cases, though, Bobby was open-minded and fair in his assessments and contributions to our discussions, and, primarily, he was always a reliable and trustworthy drummer and a close, dear friend.

After the band broke up, I lost contact with Bobby for many years. Then when I contacted him again, in 2002 to join the Texas Psych Fest for gigs in Houston and Austin, he was suffering from several illnesses that prevented his participation. I have always regretted the fact that he did not play for those gigs. It would have been much more of a "real" reunion if he and Tommy Ramsey had played. As it were, Jimmy Bird and Billy Hallmark and I did the shows as the only original members of the Golden Dawn. And while we did our best, and put together a really great band, it would have been a great comfort to my heart to have played a few more gigs with Bobby setting the beat and keeping everything where it was supposed to be musically.

Bands are only the expressions of the members therein. And Bobby Rector was an integral, respected, essential member of the Golden Dawn.

PS.
Keep up the chops, Bobby; I guess the rest of us will be there before too long to start a new band. And it will truly and forever be a Golden Dawn.

RIP
Your friend and brother in music,
George Kinney