Michael Fennelly - Lane Changer (1973/2015)

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Michael Fennelly isn’t the most obscure of cult heroes, but his status as a critic’s darling and favorite of 1960s-era rock aficionados is undeniable. Hitchhiking from New Jersey* to Los Angeles at the tender age of 17, Fennelly was subsequently signed to a song publishing deal with musician and producer Curt Boettcher’s Mee Moo Music. Fennelly contributed to Boettcher’s studio project Sagittarius, and was a member of legendary pop-psych band the Millennium.

By 1969, Fennelly wanted to pursue music with his own band. He hooked up with the members of a blues-rock outfit called Stonehenge, forming a new band named Crabby Appleton and earning a recording contract with Elektra Records on the strength of Fennelly’s original songs. Although the band’s self-titled 1970 debut barely charted, it nevertheless scored a Top 40 hit with the Fennelly song “Go Back,” the album displaying an invigorating mix of power-pop and boogie-oriented rock that would become the band’s signature sound. A year later, Crabby Appleton released its sophomore effort, Rotten To The Core, moving as a band away from 1960s-styled power-pop and into a harder rock direction. The album failed to chart, Crabby Appleton broke up, and Fennelly took time off the road to write new songs.