* En anglais uniquement
Michael Oosten began his musical journey like most Sixties kids playing around in various rock and cover bands during high school and then throughout college. Because keeping a band together was such hard work and because
Oosten, at the age of 21 or 22 in 1969 and 1970, had begun writing songs that veered away from pop-song copies, not to mention the relative ease and lack of responsibility required for hauling around a single guitar, he began considering a solo folk music career. With a Martin guitar in hand,
Oosten took off, playing his songs in coffeehouses and clubs across the country. By the end of 1973 and the beginning of 1974, he was ready to record an LP.
Oosten settled on five songs and rounded up a couple of friends to fill out his folk/rock/psych sound with various instrumentation: some piano from Madison, Wisconsin resident and friend Tom Hennick on "Hey Boy," vocals from Jan Reek on "Garden," and bass from Al Byla--later a violinist for Piper Road String Band--on "Sunny Day." True to Oosten's nature, the album was sunny and full of whimsical charm, and it reflected his--the entire period's, really--itinerant philosophy of life at the time, from the old high school composition "Wayfaring Boy" and his days in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the album was recorded, to "Hungry Horse Montana," an homage to one of
Oosten's favorite places, Glacier National Park. University of Wisconsin art professor George Cramer came up with airbrushed artwork to grace the album's sleeve, and
Oosten and friend Lester D'ore-- the former editor of Chicago countercultural paper Seed and designer of the Yippie flag--holed up at D'ore's Wisconsin commune farm, Karma, to silkscreen each LP jacket individually by hand. Needless to say and in the individualistic nature of the album's genesis, marketing and publicity for the eponymous album was limited to
Oosten driving to radio stations in surrounding cities to hand-deliver copies to DJs. "Wayfaring Boy" received quite a bit of airplay in Madison while the album as a whole gained solid play on Midwestern college campuses, and Columbia records expressed interest in
Oosten's music. After a single meeting with the label, though, it was determined that the album would be too difficult to market.
Oosten continued playing across the states at coffeehouses and parties, but Michael Oosten turned out to be his sole contribution to the hippie musical scene. ~ Stanton Swihart