Archive of McKendree Spring material from the estate of violinist Michael Dreyfuss by [McKendree Spring] Michael Dreyfuss - 1996

N.p.: Various, 1996. Archive of material from the estate of Michael Dreyfuss, violinist for progressive folk-rock band McKendree Spring, including material spanning over four decades, with the majority of the material dating from the band's heyday in the 1970s.

This listing includes 15 posters, 817 pages of material from the creation of at least five McKendree Spring albums, 158 pages of promotional material and reviews, 17 press photographs and 11 inter-negatives taken of the band, and over 200 pages of various other band paperwork such as insurance information and equipment instruction manuals.

The 817 pages of lyrics, research articles, sheet music, and poems serve as the basis for five of their albums: "McKendree Spring 3," "Tracks," "Spring Suite," "Get Me to the Country," and "Too Young to Feel This Old," and offer a unique insight into the band's interests and mindset. Of special note are articles about the Vietnam War and other political conflicts, accompanied by antiwar song lyrics and housed in folders labeled "The Crush on Freedom/Creeping Fascism," "USA," and "Gelbland [sic] War." As a child Dreyfuss fled the Nazis in 1936, likely accounting for his later antiwar sentiment.

Dreyfuss pioneered the use of violins distorted by electronic and analog synthesizers, counting synthesizer inventor Robert Moog amongst his close friends, and McKendree Spring largely became known for the experimental sound that he helped craft. This archive reflects his electronic leanings, containing a block diagram for Moog's 1200 Mixer, manuals for distortion pedals and amplifiers, and a few hand-drawn schematics. McKendree Spring's most noted work includes "God Bless the Conspiracy," "Spring Suite," and their covers of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," and Neil Young's "Down By the River."

Material largely Very Good or better.