All posts tagged: Al Jardine

Al Jardine’s A Postcard from California

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Available Digitally for Streaming and Download; Rereleased on Compact Disc A Postcard from California, Al Jardine’s delightful debut solo album, was released digitally for streaming and download worldwide by Universal Music Group (UMG) September 2, 2022, and rereleased on compact disc December 9. This wider distribution will help bring this joyous, life-affirming music to new generations of music lovers. I spoke with Al recently about this re-launch of A Postcard from California. But first, a little background on the history of the album.  Postcard was recorded in Al’s Red Barn Studio. It was first released as a digital download in 2010 and contained a dozen tracks. A subsequent CD release in 2012 added three additional songs. A promotional Extended Play CD previewed four songs before the CD was released that spring. In Japan, Postcard was issued with two additional bonus tracks—an alternate version of “Waves of Love” and “Eternal Ballad,” a poem by Vietnamese spiritual teacher Ching Hai which Al set to music. Vinyl enthusiasts were treated to a thirteen-track release of Postcard on translucent …

Be True to Your School: the ’59 Cinderella Season

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This article commemorates the 56th anniversary of the start of the 1959 football season for the Hawthorne High Cougars.  In this Cinderella season, the Cougars went undefeated in eight regular season games, two post-season play-off games, and squared off against the mighty Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship in front of 14,906 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Friday, December 11, 1959.  In a happy coincidence, dates and days of the week are the same this year as they were in 1959.   The night before Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev landed in Los Angeles to begin his historic visit to the United States, Hawthorne High students had a decidedly less global event on their minds.  The traditional Kick-Off Dance was held in the boys’ gymnasium Friday, September 18, from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.  The dress code was dressy cottons for girls and slacks and sport coats for boys.  It was the first social event of the new school year and was designed to get the student body pumped …

The Tikis

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In spring 1959, Gary Winfrey, Al Jardine, and Bob Barrow formed a folk music trio called the Tikis, inspired by their shared admiration for the music of the Kingston Trio. When I began researching the book, Bob and Gary graciously spoke with me about their days at Hawthorne High School, their friendship with Al Jardine, and the Tikis. I am happy to share more of their stories. Bob Barrow As the Kingston Trio’s Tom Dooley hit big in fall 1958, the start of their junior year, Bob Barrow, Al Jardine, and senior Gary Winfrey, discovered a shared musical interest in the Kingston Trio and began singing selections from the Trio’s eponymous debut album after football practice in the locker room of Hawthorne High School. By spring 1959, they formed a folk music trio called the Tikis. Although Brian knew Jardine, Barrow, and Winfrey from football, he didn’t socialize with them off the field. But he certainly knew of the Tikis. Everyone at Hawthorne High did. The musical spark that motivated Jardine to help form the …