‘Rosebud,’ Judy Henske and Jerry Yester’s Lost Folk-Rock Classic, Returns

Picture this: a promising rock band featuring a married couple whose relationship falls apart after recording just one album — then, the wife starts dating the group’s keyboardist.

Sounds like some Fleetwood Mac drama, but in fact, it happened years earlier with Judy Henske and Jerry Yester’s short-lived band Rosebud. Now, their sole, self-titled 1971 album is getting a long-awaited re-release, courtesy of Omnivore Recordings.

The brief musical collaboration — just two albums in total — between then-husband and wife Henske and Yester is a fascinating, yet undoubtedly overlooked one. Henske was, of course, known to folk fans for her husky vocal tones on the hit “High Flying Bird” and for her appearances on The Judy Garland Show in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Yester replaced Zal Yanovsky in the Lovin’ Spoonful and served as producer to the likes of Tim Buckley, the Association, and later, Tom Waits.

Despite marrying in 1963, it took a few years before the couple teamed up in the studio. After the birth of their daughter, Henske and Yester moved to Laurel Canyon where they became friends with Frank Zappa, who was pretty much king of the Canyon at that time. At his suggestion, Henske began turning her poems into songs and recording them with Yester. Zappa, obviously impressed with the results, signed them to his new Straight label — and just like that, Farewell Aldebaran was born.

Released in 1969, Farewell Aldebaran is easily the most eclectic album of both Henske and Yester’s careers. Listening to it now, it’s clear why Zappa dug it: It’s a hugely joyful barrage of styles with the couple pretty much throwing any and all of their influences into one giant, glorious ’60s stew. The album garnered good reviews at the time and has since gained a cult following. At the time, however, it was perhaps a little too eccentric for mainstream success and didn’t get its due. (On a side note, Omnivore nicely re-released it last year after many years out of print.)

It did, however, plant the seed for the couple’s next project together: the band Rosebud. For this record, Henske and Yester decided to form a more straightforward folk-rock band in the hopes of making it a true group effort, rather than just another Henske/Yester collaboration. They brought former Turtles drummer John Seiter and session musician Craig Doerge, who had previously been a member of Henske’s band, on board.

The album cover itself —  Henske looking positively bridal in a long white dress and the rest of the dapper band surrounding her in tuxedos — does suggest something a little more traditional. But the first track, “Panama,” puts paid to that as a Henske-sung piano ballad emerging from sound effects and then suddenly turning into a grooving funk jam, complete with Latin drums. Soon after, things move in a completely different direction altogether as Henske gives us the angelic-sounding, French-sung “Le Soleil.”

Spooky and plaintive, “Loreli” begins as a sparse ballad and builds to a chorus of sweet, lulling voices (not a million miles from the atmospheric folk of Tim Buckley, for whom Yester produced two albums). “Lullabye II (Summer Carole)” features some stunning folk harmonies with a hymn-like feel.

There are also moments when the band seem to be tapping into the country-rock trend, which was going from strength to strength at the time, most notably on gospel-tinged country ballad “Western Wisconsin” (sung by Doerge), the more upbeat “Salvation,” and the laid-back California rock of “Roll Home Cheyenne.”

It’s Henske’s contributions that stand out, though, partly due to her clearly being the best vocalist of them all. (It would have been interesting to hear the whole album sung by her, but at this point, she was stepping back from the limelight; this would be her last album for 28 years.)

Her songs also stand out because they’re easily the most eclectic of the bunch. These include “The Yum Yum Man,” a Bobbie Gentry-esque shuffle featuring Buddy Emmons on pedal steel, and perhaps most stunning of all, the closing track “Flying to Morning,” which starts out like a late Joni Mitchell tune and builds into some beautifully cool baroque pop.

The band only played live a couple of times, which is no surprise given that by the time the album was finished, Yester and Henske had split and Henske had begun a relationship with Doegre (the pair later married and remain a couple to this day). With the band essentially broken up, the label must have thought there was little point in promoting it — and sadly, it sunk into obscurity.

Thankfully, though, Rosebud is back. The new release even contains some great bonus tracks, some of which give an idea of what a second Rosebud album could have potentially sounded like. “Lazy” has a lovely cabaret feel and “Mercury of Fools” sounds like a lost part of some early ’70s rock opera. “What’s The Matter With Sam,” “Easy on Me, Easy,” and “Father of Souls” continue the gospel-inspired country rock found on the LP and could have easily fit in with the original release. But the most interesting bonus tracks have to be the two takes of “Hey Old Friend,” one sang moodily by Henske and the other given a completely different feel with yearning vocals by Yester.

The bonus tracks, along with the album itself, certainly prove that Rosebud was a band with huge potential. And while we will never know just what they could have gone on to create, this excellent re-release is a fantastic reminder of the weird and wonderful world that Henske and Yester briefly created together.

Rosebud will be released on June 16. Pre-order the album now from Omnivore Recordings.

Sharon Lacey

Sharon Lacey has spent most of her career as a home entertainment journalist, but has always loved writing about music ever since her first pop review was published in a UK mag at age 15. She lives in London and still loves going to see live bands, old and new, which she writes about on her blog The Boho Dance.