White Summer

White Summer were a Chicago-area rock trio that was active during the mid-1970s.

Members: Jimmy Watkins (lead vocals, guitar, drums, percussion), Rick Lowe (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals), David Wheeler (bass, backing vocals)

In 1976, the band self-released a homonymous longplayer. Recorded on a shoestring at Uncle Dirty’s Sound Machine Studio in Kalamazoo, Mich., the album hints of the band’s epic if underfunded potential.

The tick-tock tonic/third bassline of “The Tank” is flanked left and right by the other two instruments until the trio is sucked into a 5/4 windmill. Minutes later, tom-enswirled chordal sustains frame brief lyrical passages concerning immortality.

An oft-syncopated/tom-rolled pogo beat facilitates the twisty fretboard interplay of “Misty Morning,” which soon rescinds to slow lyrical verses in D#min.

A tone-darting bass ostinato in Fmin propels Lowe’s wailing runs during the middle of “Omega,” which grapples with omniscient concerns over the course of it generous length. Further bass/guitar dexterity is displayed in fifth gear over the half-step progression that mark’s this number’s climax.

Befitting to its topic, “Laugh When I Die” sears and drills Wheeler’s down-tuned tonal end like a jackhammer through granite. Back a side, “Sail” evolves from mid-paced, tom-bombarded strums and bends to an intensified, maraca-sprayed trio workout.

The members of White Summer would never record again, though their lone album has witnessed a cult resurgent amidst several reissues during the 21st century.