Shiva's Headband - Take Me to the Mountains

Back in the '60s, when every town in America seemed to have its own burgeoning music scene, Austin was strangely quiet. Long before the city became filled with clubs and began its hosting of the SXSW music festival, there wasn't much happening on the cool Texas plateau. Not much at all -- save for one group that all but dominated the scene from the late '60s to the early '70s. That group was the eclectic, country-fried psychedelic outfit known as Shiva's Headband. Leader, violinist, guitarist, and vocalist Spencer Perskin was (and still is) the quintessential Austin hippie, who not only lobbied for city-based cultural support for local artists (and succeeded, by founding the Armadillo World Headquarters) but also put Austin on the worldwide music map with the release of Shiva's first major-label effort, Take Me to the Mountains on Capitol (the first ever major-label release by an Austin band). Read More