The Appletree Theatre - Playback (1968)

The Appletree Theatre - Playback (1968)

Appletree Theatre was the group name of brothers John and Terry Boylan, starting in 1968. They made one album, Playback, which attracted cult attention, after which John became a producer of, among other people, the Eagles, and Terry became a solo artist under the name Terence Boylan.

Playback is divided into three acts, an overture, and an epilogue, with the full-length songs linked by dialogue and snatches of music, sometimes given distorted sonic treatment. That's a style that became trendy during the Sgt. Pepper era, but really wasn't strictly necessary for a set such as this, which in the main consists of fairly conventional songs mixing folk-rock, pop/rock, light psychedelia, and orchestrated sunshine pop. The music is pleasant and fitfully unusual, with the Beach Boys-ish psych-lite of "Hightower Square" recalling the better moments of Sagittarius. There are also lilting, folky, pensive tunes like "Saturday Morning" and "I Wonder If Louise Is Home" that would probably find favor with fans of mildly adventurous 1960s pop/rockers like Emitt Rhodes. Obviously the interludes and jarring bits of country-pop and soul-rock were intended as components of a quasi-psychedelic mosaic. But they often end up distracting from the group's forte, which is nice, dreamy, bittersweet psychedelic-tinged folk/rock/pop, as heard on the closing "What a Way to Go."

Tracklist:

1 Altogether Overture: ...In the Beginning/Hightower Square 3:16
2 Lullaby :25
3 Saturday Morning 1:53
4 Nevertheless It Was Italy 2:15
5 I Wonder If Louise Is Home 2:10
6 Chez Louise 1:02
7 "E" Train 1:00
8 Meanwhile :15
9 Brother Speed 3:15
10 You're the Biggest Thing in My Life 3:35
11 Don't Blame It on Your Wife 2:50
12 Sorry State of Staying Awake 3:54
13 Barefoot Boy 2:43
14 Lotus Flower 2:16
15 What a Way to Go 2:50