had a minor but very interesting role, usually as a supporting player, in 1960s folk-rock and (to a lesser extent) psychedelic music, as both a performer and a producer.
, who did some standard folk-pop albums in the early- to mid-'60s. The
did make the transition to electric folk-rock, but their electric phase is barely documented at all, with just one noted track, "This Could Be the Night," produced by
. This was not released when it was recorded in the mid-'60s, although it came out on the
box set. The track actually sounded less like folk-rock than it did like the mid-'60s
production.
Yester then entered record production with
the Association, whose lineup of the time included his brother,
Jim Yester.
Jerry Yester produced their
Renaissance album, which was about as progressive as
the Association ever got, especially on the minor psychedelic hit single "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies." He was briefly a member of
the Lovin' Spoonful in the late 1960s, replacing
Zaln Yanovsky, although his stint in the group encompassed a period when they were drastically fading both artistically and commercially.
Yester also continued to work as a producer, his finest achievements in that capacity being
Tim Buckley's second and third albums (the latter of which he produced with
Zaln Yanovsky). On
Buckley's second album,
Goodbye and Hello,
Yester was crucial to expanding the singer's sound beyond the basic folk-rock of his debut into more orchestrated and eclectic horizons, particularly on the title track and "No Man Can Stop the War." The subsequent
Happy Sad, on which
Buckley expanded into jazzy directions, was evidently a much less pleasant experience for
Yester, who had remembered that
Buckley's backup group was difficult to work with. Certainly the resulting album, however, cannot be faulted on musical grounds.
Yester's best moment as an artist, as opposed to a producer, was on
Farewell Aldebaran, the record he made in the late 1960s with his wife of the time, singer
Judy Henske. Done for
Frank Zappa and manager
Herb Cohen's Straight label, this was an ambitious and charming mixture of folk-rock, classical-influenced melodies, and creative orchestrated psychedelic production (by
Yester and
Yanovsky), all given a strange patina by the oddball lyrics and varied arrangements. The title track, though not the most impressive song on the record, marked one of rock's earlier heavy forays into synthesizer-dominated production.
The record didn't sell well, but
Henske and
Yester did work together again as part of the group
Rosebud, who did a self-titled album for Reprise in the early 1970s. The inspired and colorful palette of the
Henske-
Yester duo album was muted that time around (though still present), as some of the vocal and songwriting space was given to other members of the band. The result was a far more ordinary recording, also reaching into early-'70s Californian country-rock and singer-songwriter styles.
Rosebud broke up after their album, as
Henske and
Yester's marriage also broke up around that time, with
Henske subsequently marrying a fellow member of
Rosebud,
Craig Doerge.
Other
Yester production credits include tracks by
the Turtles,
Pat Boone, and
Tom Waits' 1973 album
Closing Time. He later toured and recorded with reunited versions of the
Modern Folk Quartet and
the Lovin' Spoonful.
–
Richie Unterberger, Rovi