In 1969, he was in a band called Plant and See, which released a self-titled album on the White Whale label that some music experts consider a lost (or at least hard-to-find) classic of psychedelic swamp-rock. On July 3, Carrboro, NC-based record label Paradise of Bachelors will give the album its first proper re-issue, on vinyl, in a limited edition of 1000 copies. Plant and See dissolved soon after the album came out, then largely reformed as Lumbee, which also put out just one album, Overdose. Lumbee stuck around long enough to get noticed by the Allman Brothers, who took them on tour for a spell.
Interviewed for an article in Indyweek.com written soon after Lowery’s death, Brendan Greaves of Paradise of Bachelors offered his thoughts. “What’s really fascinating about him,” said Greaves, “is that he put out these two LPs that are classic to the canon of psychedelic music, if little known beyond that, but then turned his career into a vehicle for articulating American Indian identity and politics.”
Below: "A detail of the inner artwork from Plant and See's self-titled release. Willie French Lowery, Lumbee, was joined in the band by Forris Fulford (African American) on drums, Ron Seiger (Latino) on bass, and Carol Fitzgerald (Scotch-Irish) on backup vocals."
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A Tribal Anthem's Author—And A Cult Rock Hero
In the 1960s, the late Lumbee Indian singer, composer and activist Willie Lowery led a band called Plant and See—as in, plant the seed in the ground and see what comes up.
The band recorded only one album, Plant and See, which went out of print shortly after it was released in 1969, but psychedelic rock fans have always held it in high esteem.