Spring is in the freaking air and Robert Lester Folsom is coming to Oxford!

 

The March selection for our Record of the Month Club is a fresh batch of archival tunes from Georgia-born songwriter, Robert Lester Folsom. Folsom’s cult-classic LP, Music and Dreams, was self released in 1976 and has been in rotation on the shop turntable since it was reissued some years back by excellent record label, Mexican Summer. Luckily for us, Mexican Summer, has lovingly compiled more of Folsom’s music.

Also! Robert Lester Folsom will be performing at Proud Larry’s in Oxford on Thursday, March 26th. Tickets are available now. Before the show, Folsom is going to swing by the shop and sign all of our records for the Record of the Month Club! 

Club Members will be getting a signed copy of the limited, purple vinyl pressing of record as well as some other goodies. 

The full story: 

Robert Lester Folsom is a Georgia-born singer-songwriter and guitarist whose music blends soft psych, Americana, and sun-faded AM gold into a sound unmistakably his own. First self-released in 1976, his cult-classic LP Music and Dreams quietly circulated in the Southeast before slipping into obscurity—until crate diggers and reissue labels revived his recordings in the 2010s. The album was re-released in 2014 by Anthology Recordings (a Mexican Summer imprint), bringing Folsom’s homegrown vision to a new generation of listeners.

Following that rediscovery, Folsom’s previously unheard material was brought to light through Ode to a Rainy Day: Archives 1972–1975 and Sunshine Only Sometimes: Archives Vol. 2—two acclaimed compilations of heartfelt demos that deepened his reputation as a lost master of homespun pop.

If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975 is yet another magical discovery from Robert Lester Folsom’s oeuvre of soft psychedelia and rural Southern rock n’ roll, written and recorded over fifty years ago yet prophetically relevant today. Born of lost summers, new love (and the breaks that follow), and hippie bluegrass shakes, these spirited takes to 4-track tape capture Folsom’s earliest wizardry. A prismatic window into a young artist finding their artistic footing, and a testament to why Folsom’s legacy burns bright to this day.

More on the release: 

If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975 is another magical discovery from Georgia-born singer-songwriter Robert Lester Folsom’s oeuvre of soft psychedelia and rural rock n’ roll, written and recorded over 50 years ago yet prophetically resonant today. Born of lost summers, new love (and the breaks that follow), and hippie bluegrass shakes, these spirited takes to 4-track tape open a prismatic window onto a young artist finding their footing, and are testament to why Folsom’s legacy burns bright to this day.

Drawing from the same archive of homespun demos and informal studio sessions rediscovered on the two previous volumes of Folsom’s early musical wizardry from Anthology Recordings, Ode to a Rainy Day and Sunshine Only Sometimes, the songs on If You Wanna Laugh offer candid snapshots of the hazy yet hugely formative years that ushered in the release of Music and Dreams, the revered, privately pressed studio album which serendipitously enjoys its Golden Jubilee this year.

As Folsom recalls, most of the songs that weave the tale of this third anthological chapter were written during the long and languid summer vacation days of his late teens, which were largely spent bumming around with friends in his sleepy hometown of Adel, Georgia. The young visionary, accompanied by an eager troupe of local conspirators, spent his free time putting pen to paper and filling tape on his beloved Sears 3440 reel-to-reel in the off-hours that stretched wide between half-hearted summer jobs and hitting the road with eyes turned and ears tuned to the rhythms of the world passing by.

The resulting sun-soaked takes were recorded at home, across an array of improvised off-spaces in Adel (including the local hog parlor), and at one of Folsom’s favorite local studios at the time in Atlanta. A few tunes were set down as far away as Auburn, Alabama, the college town where Folsom briefly relocated in 1975 along with his bandmates from the short-lived but beloved soft rock outfit Abacus. These unpolished, lived-in environments pepper the recordings with a local flavor and characteristic drawl, their singular sonics echoing Folsom’s off-the-cuff songwriting that, then as now, is set alight by an old-soul wit and charm.

Like all great wordsmiths, Folsom has that rare ability of always saying just enough, whether he’s translating woozy daydreams about paint colors into offbeat tales of heartbreak (“Burnt Carmine”) or flooring hearts with raw verses of clear-eyed feeling. “I Don’t Know” and “What Are You Thinking Of?” are love songs that transcend time and place, and find the young Folsom at some of his songwriting best, leaning into unfettered rhyme structures and plainspoken emotional turns that touch on universal experiences.

Interspersed throughout the collection is also a bundle of bluegrass-inspired instrumentals that were set off by a fateful encounter with legendary fingerpicker Doc Watson at a local music festival. “Mountain Air Rag,” “And God Made the Pine Trees Too,” and “Gene Autry” shadow the sudden rise in popularity of bluegrass music that seized the South during the early-to-mid 1970s (and was particularly potent among the hippie set) with Folsom riding the trend’s smoke trails with high-flying charisma.

Like a series of old postcards that offer a glimpse into an almost forgotten world, the lo-fi gems on If You Wanna Laugh welcome longtime listeners ever deeper into Folsom’s inner sanctum, while inviting new ears into the orbit of a songwriter whose work has always existed just outside the frame of its time. Equal parts naïve and knowing, lighthearted and serious, these recordings reaffirm the enduring spirit of an artist that’s kept touring, making music, and living out his dreams until this day. Eternally guided by a golden soul that’s still shining forever young.

Robert Lester Folsom’s If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975 is set to arrive on Anthology Recordings on March 20, 2026. Lester and his whip-smart crew of young collaborators will tour around the release, with extensive North American dates throughout March and May.