The Skygreen Leopards - Disciples of California (2006)

Pastoral folk-pop duo the Skygreen Leopards formed in 2001 in California.
Bandmates Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Ivytree, and co-founder of the Bay area experimental folk label Jewelled Antler), and Donovan Quinn (Verdure) released their first collection of improv folk songs -- some of which were recorded outdoors, with the bulk being laid down on an old reel-to-reel -- as two companion albums named Life & Love in Sparrow's Meadow and I Dreamt She Rode on a Pink Gazelle & Other Dreams. Both discs appeared in 2001, as did a handmade vinyl 12" titled Child God in the Garden of Idols.

The group issued Story of the Green Lamb & the Jerusalem Priestess of Leaves in 2002, followed by One Thousand Bird Ceremony in 2004. Life & Love in Sparrow's Meadow and the six-song Jehovah Surrender EP arrived in 2005, followed by Disciples of California in 2006. The latter album was the first to be recorded outside of the Leopards' own studio, as the band decamped to Jason Quever's studio in San Francisco and tracked the bulk of Disciples of California during live recording sessions. They reprised their collaboration with Quever several years later, when Gorgeous Johnny marked their sixth full-length album in 2009. The band faded out of the activity for a bit, Quinn teaming up with Six Organs of Admittance main man Ben Chasney in the early 2010s to work on side project New Bums. Skygreen Leopards would return in 2014 with their considerably poppier album Family Crimes, their first for the Woodsist label. ~ James Christopher Monger