Blue Wood has the third release on the Jet Set label of Santa Barbara, California, though this time the label features a detailed logo.

The A-side has a somewhat rural psychedelic sound (harmonies and no fuzz) on “Turn Around” by Rich Geiger. The flip is a lightweight country-rock song, “Happy Jack Mine” by Ralph C. Multon and Lance Rose. Both songs published through Jet Set Publishing ASCAP, as were all the other original songs on the Jet Set label.

I didn’t know anything about the group until Chuck Cummings, a friend of bassist Lance Rose sent in the posters and photo seen here.

The first mention I can find of Blue Wood comes from a notice for their appearance at the Hangout (formerly Snoopy’s) in December, 1967. They played the Hangout again in May, 1968, and the Establishment Coffee House on Milpas in July, 1968.

The Santa Barbara News-Press published a note on January 30, 1968 of a benefit show with an awesome lineup of artists:

‘Lights Up ’68’ To Benefit Stadium

“Lights Up ’68,” a program of recording groups playing their latest hits, will be staged Feb. 21 in the San Marcos High School auditorium.

The event is being sponsored by the Channel Islands Region of the Junior Statesmen of America to benefit Valley Stadium.

Among the headline groups will be October Country and the Bonniwell Music Machine; Pat Briley; Floyd and Jerry, the Count Five, and the Venus Fly-Trap.

Also on hand will be the Valiants, the Novell’s Happening Inc., the Lollipop Fantasy and Hammermill Butter. Santa Barbara’s own Blue Wood, Giant Crab and the Calliope will also perform.

Tickets are on sale for $2 a person at the Record Rack …

An autograph party will be held on stage immediately after the show.

Proceeds will be turned over to the Valley Stadium Fund to help provide needed lighting equipment and a fence, according to Les Asher, a junior at San Marcos High School, who is serving as mayor of the sponsoring Junior Statesmen.

The poster of Blue Wood, Moby Grape and PG&E at the Santa Maria Fairgrounds on April 27 took place presumably in 1968 as it was a Saturday that year. Chuck recalls Lance telling him Moby Grape cancelled that show, so it is not certain if the show took place. I can find no newspaper notice of the show at the Fairgrounds.

It’s interesting to note “A Jetset Production”, and the credit “Poster by Ecstasy Inc. (Subsidiary of ‘Visual Agony’), with a signature by the artist Daryl Dane ’68.

The last mention I can find of Blue Wood is James N. Doukas’ column “Small clubs; small groups” from the Goleta Gazette-Citizen on September 26, 1968, which laments:

Last week I stopped in one of Goleta’s music hang-outs. The group that was playing was Blue Wood.

About ten flashes went through my mind while they performed.

The first one seemed to explain why the Santa Barbara area produces very little creative musical talent: its environment is dead. If clubs like the Brother’s Galley, the Hang-Out or such places are serving as centers for learning and developing new sounds, it’s literally no wonder that only two or three rock groups over a period of six years have matured musically.My mind recalls these three groups as Alexander’s Timeless Blues Band [Bloozband], the Travell Agency [possibly The Travel Agency, who had a 1968 album on Viva], and … Blue Wood.

I say that these groups have developed in an area which just doesn’t care if they were great, poor, termendous or boring. At the club with Blue Wood performing, the audience’s concerns were far from listening to music. Most people were caught up in the way they were looking …

Unfortunately there is no info on the group in Mr. Doukas’ article.

Chuck reported that Lance Rose passed away on September 11, 2024 in Kalispell, Montana. Thank you to Chuck for providing the posters and photo from Lance’s collection.

The Jet Set label:

Tom Lubin produced the Blue Wood 45, with Doug McGuire, the owner of the label, listed as executive producer.

As far as I can tell there were four releases on Jet Set:

JSR-45-2: Planned Obsolescense – “Exit Sticky Icky” / “Still in Love With You Baby” (Sept. 1967)
JSR-45-3: The Calliope – “I’ll Take It Back” / “Ryan 5” (eng. by Frank Kajmar, February 1968)
JSR-45-4: Blue Wood – “Turn Around” / “Happy Jack Mine” (1968)
JSR-45-5: Don Robertson – “Yesterday’s Rain” / “California”. Executive Producer Doug McGuire, Produced by Tom Lubin

Don Robertson also had the only album on Jet Set, titled Yesterday’s Rain, which has cover art by Daryl Dane, who also did the Santa Monica Fairgrounds poster at top.

Jet Set was located at 4296-A Modoc Road, Santa Barbara.

For more on Planned Obsolescense, see the post I wrote last year.

This is not the same Jet Set label that released singles by Jimmy Armstrong, Barbara Long, Jimmy Castor, Eldridge Holmes and others.