"I would sooner lose my life than trade my halo away"

Photograph of the Honorable John Jordon Crittenden of Kentucky, c. 1860

There was a folk rock revival in California in the late '80s, apparently. Possibly best remembered in the form of Camper Van Beethoven's Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, other bands like Swell, World of Pooh, Cat Heads, and even Game Theory were mixing hippie stylings with the '80s DIY-punk approach at the time. But the best of the bunch, in my opinion, was the Donner Party, a SF power trio formed by Melanie Clarin, Sam Coomes, and Reinhold Johnson. This is the same Sam Coomes that went on to work with Elliott Smith and form the band Quasi with Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss. In his early days, however, Coomes was interested in making amped-up folk rock with a large doses of humor. The Donner Party released two self-titled albums, 1987's Donner Party and 1988's Donner Party, and recorded a third album that was never released. All three albums are a mess of off-the-wall ballads, instrumentals, novelty songs, and straightforward pop, but the songwriting is high quality and the performances are sloppy in the best possible way.

Take the song "Halo", from the Donner Party album - it comes barreling out of the gate with a country twang and some nice banjo. The lyrics are religious country-rock, but the energy is all '80s college rock. The band's secret weapon, sombrero-wearing drummer Melanie Clarin, is put to good use here with great harmony vocals, and both vocalists crack up for a few seconds on the last chorus. The Donner Party may be a historical footnote at this point best remembered for writing "When I Was a Baby", which was covered by the New Pornographers, but their music is well worth tracking down, especially the Complete Recordings set released by Innerstate Records in 2000.

"Halo" by the Donner Party