T.C. - Lamanite

Location: Arizona
Year: 1976
Label: Desert City
Catalog Number: DCR 3002

Style: Folk, Country, Hard Rock

For most folks, a record titled “Lamanite” wouldn’t immediately bring the sounds of fuzzed-out guitars and blistering solos to mind, but after hearing TC’s 1979 release “Lamanite,” that will all change.

This tune from the Mormon and self-proclaimed Lamanite, Tom Chambers, features a retelling of the Book of Mormon story about Lehi and his family arriving in (presumably) North America via ship, describes the condition and treatment of indigenous tribes after the arrival of white colonizers, and concludes with some type of cryptic prophecy of what is to come—all with a heavy dose of distorted power chords and rock drumming.

It’s like if a Mormon children’s song was somehow mashed up with a critical perspective on indigenous displacement and then reworked by an energetic ‘70s rock band. Three things you wouldn’t expect to go well together… and you might be right.

- Nicky VA