The Kaleidoscope

Like a mind-boggling combination of Summer of Love acid-rock, goodtime saloon music and a Middle Eastern jam session, Side Trips, the debut album by Kaleidoscope, stood out, even in the eye of the psychedelic hurricane, as something altogether different! Staffed by a hall of fame roster of multi-instrumentalists? David Lindley, Chris Darrow, Solomon Feldthouse, Chester Crill (aka: Fenrus Epp) and John Vidican's This San Gabriel Valley, Calif.-based combo cut their dazzling 1967 album with a startling arsenal of instruments that included banjo, fiddle, doumbeg, mandolin, viola, saz, bouzoukee, dobro, vina, authoharp, oud and clarinet. When they entertained the wide-eyed customers of San Francisco's Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms and Los Angeles' Ash Grove, they frequently employed flamenco and belly dancers onstage. Just like the see-through tube with bits of colored glass and mirrors that gave the band their name, the Kaleidoscope was never the same, no matter which way you turned it!