Relax Your Mind

After a couple of albums on Vanguard Records established Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band as a major force in the folk scene, their leader had something different in mind for his first LP without the group. Billed to Jim Kweskin, 1965's Relax Your Mind gave him the opportunity to, as he puts it in Richie Unterberger's liner notes, record "music that was a little more meaningful to me personally." With accompaniment by the Jug Band members Fritz Richmond on washtub bass and Mel Lyman on harmonica, Kweskin delivered a set just as diverse as his records with the full Jug Band, encompassing traditional folk standards, blues, gospel, African music, and more. Mel Lyman's original, stream-of-consciousness liner notes (also included here) describe an uproarious, impromptu jam session in the Vanguard studios from which much of this record was taken; the rest comes from a live date recorded at Cambridge's Club 47 a year or two earlier. Remastering by Mike Milchner at SonicVision and copious Kweskin quotes in the notes present this fine folk album-which sees it's first domestic release to retail-in it's best light.