In 2001, Pat Gubler/P.G. Six released his solo debut Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites on the Amish label. In her book, Seasons They Change: The Story Of Acid And Psychedelic Folk, Jeanette Leech described it as the most enduring record of its type, adding “It’s a work of tinctured free folk, its blobs of congealed instruments (including harp) forming little magmas of pastel sound. It is also an emotionally difficult record.” Gubler had not long lost his father and brother and dealing with those losses had an inevitable effect on the music he was creating.
Gubler was aided by Tower Recordings musician Tim Barnes, who also produced this stunning wide-ranging collection that includes a harp-accompanied cover of Anne Briggs‘s ‘Go Your Way’ and a gorgeous fuzzed-up psych rendering of the folk ballad ‘When I Was a Young Man’. The album is now to be re-issued by Amish as an expanded and remastered edition, to be released as a gatefold double LP and digitally on Feb 24, 2023. Fully remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artist Meredyth Sparks reimagines the beautiful Chris Krol cover art in an evocative gatefold design.
Amish have shared that an eight-song bonus LP entitled ‘Live Cuts and Radio Favorites’ will be included. Documenting performances from the calendar year just before and after the release of ‘Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites’, the bonus album gathers radio and live shows. P.G. Six plays both songs off the debut, and the music of others: Pearls Before Swine’s “I Saw the World” (1968) becomes minimalist, approaching modern classical in his repetitive and percussive piano work; X’s “Drunk in My Past” (1983) feels refracted beyond the horizons of Los Angeles punk; Gubler even looks back to his more recent past with “Cover Art,” from the debut album of Tower Recordings; looking forward, the bonus LP also includes versions of songs that would later appear on the album The Well of Memory (2004), which Amish will release in a forthcoming expanded edition.
‘Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites’ (2023 Expanded Edition) 2LP will be available as 140gm standard black and a limited D2C edition of 100 opaque pale yellow. Pre-orders are available now and includes the song “I Saw the World” recorded live at Tonic on 6/11/2000.
Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites (2023 Expanded Edition) Tracklisting
- introduction (letter to Lilli St Cyr)
- When i was a young man
- The Divine Invasion
- Unteleported Man
- Quiet Fan for SK
- The Shepherd
- Go Your Way
- The fallen leaves that jewel the ground
- Letter to Lilli St Cyr
- Divine Invasion (Live at the Flywheel)
- Go Your Way (Live at Dwars Festival)
- When I was a young man (Live on WNYU New Afternoon Show)
- Unteleported Man (Live on WNYU New Afternoon Show)
- I Saw The World (Live at Tonic) 07:29
- Cover Art (Live on WNYU New Afternoon Show)
- Drunk in My Past (Live at the Red Barn, Hampshire College)
- Curragh of Kildare (Live on WNYU New Afternoon Show)