I must admit to being underwhelmed upon my initial introduction to Will and James Ragar. When their long player on the NoMountain label first came to my attention it was not without a bit of hype- over and over again it was being pushed as some kind of psych-folk monster and the going rate often passing the $100 mark. And without ever having actually heard Will & James I bought in. This surely had to be something special... how else could you explain all of the attention being paid to a 1980-something record from Midland, Texas?
I was able to procure a copy of the Will & James Ragar lp from a stash that Douglas at Yoga had come into about a year after first hearing about it. I remember excitedly ripping the shrink from the album and throwing the lp on the hi-fi. I was not met with phased out guitars or acidic vocals. This was largely an acoustic affair with an occasional woodwind, bongos, organ, and an overall sun baked jazziness. The closest it got to psych was a reverb'd quality about the vocals which probably had more to do with the production of Nick Carlton than anything else. I think I was expecting something akin to a late blooming Elevators and instead got private press James Taylor.
Just as I didn't hear the psychedelia in the grooves neither did I hear the money. I shrugged my shoulders, filed it next to my other NoMountain records (Shine, Preston Springer, and the Marbles at the time) and walked away. Every once in a while I would see mention of the album and pull it from the shelf for another go round hoping to get it.
I finally got it during a midnight windstorm just below the Candelaria Rim, deep inside the most remote area of Presidio County in far southwest Texas. We had spent an early winter's day in 2008 driving the whole stretch of highway along the Rio Grande from the western entrance of Big Bend National Park to Study Butte, Terlingua, Lajitas and along the famed River Road to Presidio. From Presidio it was on to the loneliest and smoothest road in the whole of 
Texas-- FM 170-- which took us on to Ruidosa(NOT to be confused with Ruidoso in New Mexico) and Candelaria and the road's end at Chispa Drive. From there it was dirt roads, stream crossings, and some of the roughest terrain in the state... the last of the untamed lands in Texas. These are (private, gated) roads traveled by coyotes and illegals, narcotraficantes, federales, utility repair men, and the occasional rancher or landowner. After some time and some miles we eventually managed our destination, a trail head of sorts that would guide us to the highest year-round waterfall in Tejas. The six of us followed a faint path running beside the cliff face along the stream, past old adobe ruins, over boulders, through thick vegetation. As the size of boulders grew and as the canyon narrowed we kept waiting for the payoff. Around every bend in the stream we anticipated the 'finale'. When it finally appeared after 3 miles of scrambling it was spectacular...
The hike out was rushed by the setting sun. Every so often we would crawl over a boulder or turn a bend in the stream and be blessed with beautiful landscapes like the sun lighting up gold and amber leaves that had never fallen to the ground. Or the escarpments along the Candelaria Rim aglow in the dusk.
We set up camp next to a quonset warehouse we had been given permission to make use of for the evening. The hulking WWII artifact revealed itself to be a retreat for hunters, a hiding spot for illegals, and a den for a mountain lion of some size. While waiting for 16 oz. ribeyes to finish up on the grill a windstorm blew in out of Mexico forcing our expedition party to beat a retreat into the shelter of the cavernous warehouse where we circled our "wagons" so to speak and chowed down in a daze, listening as the aluminum and steel of our confines stressed and rattled in the wind. Once steaks, beer, a 27-coal cobbler, and La Gloria's had been consumed we broke company and headed for tents. I spent the next few hours drifting between awake and asleep while listening to a howling wind and an iPod playing a mix of David Crosby ("Traction In the Rain"), Townes Van Zandt ("Flying Shoes"), Bob Desper, Fred Neil ("The Dolphins"), and Will & James Ragar. The music would sometimes mask the sound of the gusting wind and sand pelting the tent walls. A lot of listless time was spent worrying about what exactly the winds and dusts might be hiding... what creatures lurked out there, drawn in by the uncommon aromas of grilled fat and baked butter? Were we under the gaze of coyotes of SOME kind? Or a cat anxious to bed down? At some point a particularly violent gust brought the tent down around our ears and I awoke to "As the Day Grows Tired". Or maybe it was "Just A Wanderer" or "Louisiana Falls". Regardless... at that moment I started to get it. Between the gusts of wind and sounds of David and Townes, the Ragars had finally started to make sense.
We finished off the trip the next morning by traveling the "road to nowhere" out of Ruidoso. Across the desert in the shadows of the the Chinati Mountains and up through Pinto Canyon, almost and seemingly touching the sky we finally crested atop the Marfa Plateau. The Ragars were far from my mind at that point... food in Marfa, getting rid of trash bags, and an impending stop by the border patrol weighed more heavily on my mind. (see U.S. v Guillermo Rodriquez Martines and Auscension Rodriguez De Leon)
The weekend following my return from the border expedition I acquired a couple of copies of Joseph Brunelle's EXCELLENT NoMountain release Round To It (stomped HERE) from a local collection. Listening to Midlander Brunelle pick and sing/speak through a dozen laid back acoustic numbers, combined with my midnight storm experience at the falls, prepped me for another session with the Ragars. My initial approach was tainted. The 'hype' of the record had clouded what I heard. Joseph Brunelle's folky singer/songwriter style provided a better angle... my palette had been cleansed.
Will & James Ragar released two records for Nick Carlton's No Mountain (sometimes seen as NoMountain) label in 1980. According to the liner notes penned by James for the reissue the brothers had run into Nick at their first gig in the Midland area and he offered to record them in his new studio. What was put to tape by Nick eventually became the self-titled lp and 3rd release on No Mountain.
The album is made up of 11 original numbers penned by one or both brothers. The backing combo sounds like a band that has honed their sound playing to happy hour crowds... like a cosmic lounge act. I would guess them to have all been local players rather than steady supporters of the Ragars. Songs like the instrumental "Melting Pot" and "She's Laughter" lock you in in a bob-your-buzzin'-head sorta way. "Just A Wanderer" and "Louisiana Falls" have a burnt, late night groove to them. Or maybe it's sunrise music for people that haven't quite stumbled to bed yet. And "As The Day Grows Tired"... a member of the waxidermy forum described it as "redonkulous" and I tend to agree. Most of it sounds like the rays of a rising or setting sun. Just like the publicity photo back at the top.
Before the album had even been pressed Will and James returned to their native Louisiana where they recorded two more songs, "Bayou Paradise" and "Forever", which became the very first release on No Mountain.
"Forever" seems a bit bigger than anything from the album. The sound has more 'punch' to it and seems as though the return to their Louisiana environs was also a return to their rock roots. While not cut from the same cloth as the material from the NoMountain sessions "Forever" obviously has the Ragar groove and it's easy to imagine the number being tapped for the distance in a live setting... just on and on and on. And while it is closer to a rock sound, I'm still not hearing the 'psych' sound so often associated with the group. Hippy AOR? Yes. Happy hour SSW? Sure. Cosmic folk? Okay. Trippy dawn and coffee pop? Yep. But psych? I ain't buying.
Hard to believe that it's been 30 years since these sides were first released, but it has now been re-issued by Riverman Records out of Korea on cd and in the digital format via Douglas's excellent Yoga Records. The sound is INCREDIBLE and the package itself is fine. The cd is readily available online (HERE through Forced Exposure, for example). The album can be downloaded through the excellent Other Music site HERE for purt' near nothing.
And visit Yoga Records HERE while you're at it.
Please don't head out to Ruidosa with thoughts of a quick trip to Capote Falls. This is privately owned land and shortly after leaving FM 170 a locked gate limits further access.
"Nature" photos and scans by Westex... Ragar Brothers photo from Yoga with a slight edit.
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