In the mid-60’s, the British Invasion stormed American shores and conquered all in its path — like Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes, or cronuts — and far more effectively than their red-coated forefathers 200 years prior. Every North American musical artist had to adapt to the changing styles or risk obsolescence, but perhaps the greatest effect occurred among the folkies — considered some of the hippest artists around in the early 60’s — all of whom suddenly looked antiquated in the face of all that electric rock. Subscribing to the ancient adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” artists like Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and The Byrds all happily picked up electric guitars and a drummer and rocked their little socks off.

Also among those who decided for amplification rather than extermination was a group out of Los Angeles called Kaleidoscope.

In the early 60’s, David Lindley (a champion banjo player) and Chris Darrow were members of rival folk bands who joined forces to create a new folk band, then left each other to form two other bands, and then reunited in 1966 to form Kaleidoscope, a group who fused folk, rock, R&B, blues, Middle Eastern, and Indian music into a great melting pot of sound. Between them, the members played just about every conceivable stringed instrument, from run of the mill to exotic.

Kaleidoscope may actually have been too eclectic for their own good, and certainly far too progressive for AM radio at the time. But they maintained a cult following which included Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and they produced four critically well-received albums for Epic Records.

In 1969, they released “Lie To Me” as the lead-off single for their third album. It was straightforward rock and easily the most accessible and radio-friendly single they would ever release. It’s a song that would have fit comfortably on a Black Crowes record 20 or 30 years later. Although the single didn’t chart, the album (barely) did — the band’s only album to reach the pages of Billboard — but they still weren’t exactly a household name. Co-founder Darrow didn’t even make it to the third album because he left to join The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band while David Lindley eventually became a solo artist and renowned session player who spent many years working with Jackson Browne.

Here’s Kaleidoscope with their funkiest electric folk rock: