Surfing the Great Lakes

Jonah (Vaqueros)/ Heaven's Devil (Boss Tweads) / Caliente (Marauders) / Island in the Sun (Vaqueros) / Shot in the Dark (Mustangs) / Disintegration (Readymen) / Comin' Home Baby (Vaqueros) / Girl Don't Tell Me (Satisfactions) / 80 Foot Wave (Vaqueros) / Za Boo (Valients) / Bird Gasp '65 (Trashmen) / Surfer's Blues (Readymen) / Little Queenie (Furys) / Space Journey Ranger 7 / Surf Beat (Chancellors) / Greensleeves (Trashmen)

Various Artists

// 2023 on Sundazed Records (LP 5614)

7.5

Album Review:

One of the greatest surf compilations from the last 10 years, the folks at Sundazed really outdid themselves with this one.

If you enjoy enjoy obscure, and unreleased surf tunes, then this album is for you. Most of these tracks have been buried for over 60 years at Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota - basically the Midwest headquarters for surf music in the mid-sixties. Landlocked bands like the Trashmen, country artists like Dave Dudley, and early teen idols such as Bobby Vee are just a fraction of the names that trekked across the flat plains to record at Kay Bank.

On this compilation there are a whopping 16 tracks (most new to the public’s ears) from the surf wave. Some highlights are ‘Jonah’, Space Journey Ranger 7’, a stereo version of the excellent ’80 Foot Wave’ (all by the Vaqueros), the Mustangs’ ‘Shot in the Dark’, and ‘Surf Beat’ by the Chancellors. For you Trashmen fans, there’s even a previously unheard instrumental of ‘Greensleeves.’

Sundazed absolutely hit it out of the park with this one!