Schibbinz - Livin' Free (1968) [Reissue 2009]

There's nothing unusual about four kids who go to school together starting a rock band, but Schibbinz were a bit different than most garage bands of the '60s -- the band was formed in 1965 in Cordoba, Argentina and featured Mike McNertney (guitar and vocals), Pat McNertney (bass and vocals), and Kelly Fero (drums and vocals), three sons of American diplomats assigned to the South American nation, with Carlos "Payo" Giraudo, a Cordoba native, joining them on guitar and vocals. Even without the exotic locale, the group's sole album, Livin' Free, would probably have earned them a cult following among collectors of '60s rarities; it's an uncommonly artful and intelligent exercise in folk-rock with fine guitar work, excellent harmonies and unusually strong original tunes written by Giraudo and Fero. (Giraudo would later go on to a career in classical music and was director of a symphony orchestra in Cordoba). Though the opening title cut is energetic and there's a fiery remake of "Ghost Riders in the Sky," this album clearly leans to the folkie side of folk-rock, and while the CD reissue includes a cover of "Gloria," it's significant that when these guys reached for a Rolling Stones cover, it was "Lady Jane." The album's biggest flaw is the audio; the album was recorded on semi-pro gear using a single microphone and no overdubs, so plenty of subtleties get lost in the shuffle here, and this is music that seems to have more than its share of fine details (not helped on the reissue by the fact the master tapes have been lost so the music had to be remastered from a clean LP copy). It's overstating the case to call this a lost classic, but Livin' Free is certainly a cut above the average home-recorded garage rock stuff of the era (especially considering the fact the oldest member of the band was all of 17 when this was cut), and it's interesting to speculate where a group with this degree of talent and ambition would have gone if they hadn't split up a few months after its original release.