These Trails

These Trails are often credited as a band, though they weren't one in the traditional sense. Instead, they were an adventurous group of people who came together under that moniker to create one long lost (and rediscovered) self-titled psych-folk-world music album. Margaret Morgan and Patrick Cockett grew up on the island of Kaua’i. Each had been studying traditional Hawaiian music individually; after their informal meeting and exchange of views and interests, they decided to continue their studies while writing and playing music together. As they progressed, they added Dave Choy, who played an ARP synthesizer, and Uruguayan musician Carlos Pardeiro on guitar and sitar; the group eschewed a drum kit, instead employing Hawaii’s traditional gourd drum, the ipu, as its percussion. The collective's music is a classic slice of Pacific folk-rock that melded psychedelia with various Hawaiian and international folk traditions. The group's lone, eponymously titled album was pressed privately and released locally on the Sinergia label in 1973. It slipped quietly out of print after going virtually unnoticed. A number of rabid vinyl collectors stumbled across copies and began whispering about its eerie, sunny quality, and the album gained an underground cult of fans. Drag City re-released the album in 2011.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo