Early Cast of Thousands,
Stevie Ray Vaughn (center), Stephen Tobolowsky (right)
Listen/Download – Cast of Thousands – The Cast’s Blues
Greetings all.
This week I bring you a very groovy 45 by a band with an exceptionally unusual pedigree.
Years ago, back when I was first digging around for info about garage bands, but before the interwebs were up and running, I’d heard that Stevie Ray Vaughn had played with a band called Cast of Thousands.
Flash forward a few decades and I discover that the band in question was also home to ubiquitous character actor (and podcaster) Stephen Tobolowsky.
In between those two dots on the timeline, I happened to find a couple of 45s by the band, ‘Girl What You Gonna Do’ b/w ‘My Jenny Wears a Mini’ (both sides of which have appeared in Iron Leg mixes and poscasts) and the disc you see before you today, ‘Country Gardens’ b/w ‘The Cast’s Blues’.
As it turns out, SRV only played in (and recorded with) an embryonic version of the band that laid down two decidedly non-garage tracks.
The Cast of Thousands hailed from Dallas and had a series of 45s released on Tower, Amy and Soft (as well as the two SRV tracks released on a local comp) in 1966 and 1967.
‘The Cast’s Blues’ was the b-side of their final 45, and also featured Buggs Henderson before he joined Mouse and the Traps.
‘Cast’s Blues’ starts out as a slow, psyched out jam (with what sounds like electric sitar) before picking up the pace into a slightly harder-edged sound.
The a-side is an odd mix of folk rock, phased vocals and just a touch of psychedelia.
I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry
Iron Leg 
thanks Larry, this grooves along pretty nicely, would you be able to post “Country Gardens” one day? as it is the only track by them I’ve not heard yet