Sunday Mornin' Hayride is my first album pressed in 1973. I recently sold the last copy to Jens Unosson of Sweden. He is a collector of vintage LPS and has a wonderful site called Farm Faves - www.beautifullies.se/farm%20faves.htm - where he comments and reviews vintage albums. I am very pleased that Sunday Mornin" Hayride is one he chose. He also sent this commentary by Armin Steiner, a Swiss collector who wrote this about the album:

"Early 70s private-press of rural-basement folk gem out of New Hampshire! Good -timey, jazzy, western swingin' bits ripe w/weedy, gentle athmo-paint n' bluesy taint! Quivering lead-electric guitar on the great "Kingdoms" track slidin' from khool, boppin's shelf...(his voice has a similar gone-to-the-skids typo rambler-edge as Hyde!)...and oh yes! His version of "Buffalo Skinners" alone is worth laying hands on this album!! A freezy, rural haunt reigns w/ a menacing/lost steel pedal sound that puts the chill on the spyne n' chases frost from vintage trunks of whyne!"

Here is the wonderfully magical review written by Jens Unosson:

"A little known gem out of New Hampshire, this terrific acid cowboy in the wild west outlaw private pressing simply reeks of a rural America that probably doesn't exist anymore, and I imagine it wasn't much left of it back in the early 70s either. But Bill Madison delivers such a solid songbook that you'll be excused if you find yourself believing you've been taken on a ride in a time machine - only the captain here's a  bonafide head & wouldn't drop you off in the 19th century without first stopping at the local freak shop for a pocketful of smoke. How about this to get you in the mood:

"Well I got an old house upon a hill - where they got some woodsmoke and dungaree silk - And all the time the front door rattled to the beying of the cattle down... beddin' down - I got a palamino, pinto clip-clop heels - And a wagon wheel too splintery to feel - And just as Custer fired his last shot - With war hoop cries and whiskey casks I Got drunk" ("Old House")

"A cool, lazy vibe permeates the entire LP, rootsy countryfolk with a slight jazz influence at times, which may sound like it'd be out of place but in fact just broadens the palette with a small-town smoky nightclub feel. "Rather Be The Devil" actually goes pretty far in this direction, but yet fits perfectly in the overall atmosphere which is an equal mix of the gentle and dreamy ("Penance"), good-timey ("Sunshine Cowboy"), and haunting ("Buffalo Skinners"). It's hard to say whether the very consistant feeling of the album is carefully planned of just the only way it could've been, and it really doesn't matter much. What does matter is that it's really, really good & that it works just as well in the end of the year December midnight darkness as it does in the sunshine of an early July morning; "Sunday Mornin' Hayride" has that hard to define aura that some music carries with it, which makes you feel you're allowed a glimpse into a secret room behind the bookshelf, where a band is forever captured in playing mode - all mystical musical magical hour all day & night long. As you stand there watching in silence, the band gets going with "Sunshine Cowboy" where Bill hips you to the basics:

"Well he walked out, stalked out and blew his lid - He barely knew all that he hid - With Lady Godiva naked on some horse - She proclaims in jest... the world seem rather course

But the sunshine cowboy, he never gets mad - you come on to heavy, and he extends his hand

Six-shooter saloon you got no backs down to the door - Black-Jack and whiskey, he knows the score - Setting up the bar with coke and ginger ale - That slick-eyed gambler, he knows he cannot fail"

...and just as you think you'd better close the door before someone sees you, the light dims & a cold wind chills you to the bone & you won't be able to shake that feeling for days... such is the spell of the "Buffalo Skinners". Seance-like and mysterious in its quiet magnificence this is the track that will call you back over and over, and soon you realize that all the other songs have crept under your skin as well. Or at least that was the way it worked for me - Just like Red and Mescalito, Bill robbed my head in no time. Another case of great packaging too, neat paste-on cover with a huge four-page insert with lyrics & photos that go hand in hand with the music itself. I'm sure both Zeb Macahan and Ken Kesey would agree wholeheartedly."

The Musicians who made Sunday Mornin' Hayride:

       Bill Madison - acoustic guitar and vocals

       Ken Girard - lead acoustic and electric guitar

       Ed "Jingles" Richman - electric bass

       Chris Pimental - electric bass

       Jeff Lind - upright acoustic bass

       Josh Dubin - steel guitar

       Charlie Bechler - keyboards

       Chip Chase - fiddle

       Debbie Rose - vocal on "Sister Kate"

       Charles "Chuck Wagon" Saloio - drums and percussion and vocal on "Sister Kate".

Produced by Chris Biggi and Bill Madison - Recorded, engineered and mixed by Chris Biggi. The album was recorded at 99 Lime St. Newburyport, Massachusetts; a house built in 1690, and at The Stone Church in Newmarket, New Hampshire, (no religious affiliation), but none the less an old church converted into a venue for playing music and eating and drinking of beer - light and dark - which at the time was famous for it's Sunday afternoon roast beef dinners and open mic format which we all particated in quite vigourously and enjoyed enourmously. Check out my photo page for some pics from that time. Now the album has been re-released in S. Korea and Japan by Riverman Records and Bella Terra Records. Digitally re-mastered by Jae Soo Yi from the original master tapes with 3 added bonus songs: Violets of Dawn written by Eric Anderson, Softly and Just Your Way written by myself - recorded in the late 1960's. Check out http://www.imusic.co.kr/cd/detail.php?code=AO320662 . The album is now is distribution with yogarecords.com and available at that site. Thanks for your interest in Sunday Mornin' Hayride.

Now as of December 2009, Doug Mcgowen of Yoga Records is distributing the album in the U.S. for Jae Soo and Riverman Music.