Psychedelic Jukebox: [1968] Neighb'rhood Childr'n - Hobbit's Dream

 

Neighb'rhood Childr'n began as a teenage combo around Medford and Phoenix, Oregon, under the earlier name The Navarros, and that small-town origin is the first key to approaching Hobbit’s Dream: the record is the product of musicians who learned their trade in local clubs and then travelled to the Bay Area to work in a commercial studio. The group’s only original LP was issued by Acta in May 1968 under catalog number Acta A-38005, and the record’s production window sits inside a span of sessions documented between March 28, 1967 and July 8, 1968. This placement matters for how the track sounds and how it has been preserved, because the band’s recording dates place them inside the San Francisco technical environment of late-1960s independent studios, with engineers and producers who favored echo and tape treatments that shaped many regional releases of the era. From that context emerges a recording that is concise and purposeful.

The sessions that yielded Hobbit’s Dream took place at Golden State Recorders, the San Francisco facility owned and run by Leo de Gar Kulka, with production associations that include Larry Goldberg. The tapes cut there are the masters that later reissue compilers used when assembling bonus material and alternate takes, and reissue documentation shows that compilers returned to those Golden State masters to create the CD packages and compilations that widened the record’s audience decades after the original pressing. The technical lineage of those tapes explains a recurring phenomenon in the record’s modern availability: the same song appears in different releases with different edits, mixes, or silence at the ends. Among the most concrete session details tied to the piece is a date recorded in compilation documentation that assigns the performance to June 19, 1967 at Golden State Recorders.

The musical character of Hobbit’s Dream is direct and compact. The arrangement centers on chiming twelve-string guitar parts provided by Rick Bolz, whose arpeggios and occasional distorted electric sheds give the short track its melodic thrust, while the lead vocal, sung by Dyan Hoffman, carries a clear, breathy timbre that sits lightly in the mix. Backing harmonies fold around that lead in tight close intervals, and the production adds reverb and echo that place the voice and instruments in a slightly distant, dreamlike space. Brief electric guitar stabs and a restrained drum presence from W.A. Farrens keep the momentum moving through the short form, and additional guitar work from Ron Raschdorf fills out the harmonic bed. The effect is not an extended instrumental exploration but a concentrated vignette that favors mood and melodic contour over extended soloing, and it aligns the band with other Bay Area acts while keeping a pop sensibility that makes the song accessible to listeners who prefer tidy song structures. Critics and reissue notes have often placed the band sonically between the trippier edges of Bay Area groups and the polished pop approach of mainstream harmony acts, with comparisons to acts like Jefferson Airplane and The Turtles.

The title (Hobbit’s Dream) invites an image of imagined pastoral reverie, and attentive listening to the recording supports a reading of the lyrics as evocations of imaginative retreat and dreamlike pastoral scenes rather than a strict narrative plot. Authorship credits across surviving press paperwork and discographical databases commonly tie the song to Rick (Richard) Bolz, with some releases or entries listing joint Bolz/Hoffman credits. Hobbit’s Dream succeeds as a brief, evocative closing moment — or mid-album interlude, depending on the pressing — that condenses the group’s approach into a compact musical sentence.

Key verifiable anchors include the Acta release in May 1968 as A-38005, the recording window from March 28, 1967 through July 8, 1968, the Golden State facility and its owner Leo de Gar Kulka, the production association with Larry Goldberg, the session date found in compilation notes for June 19, 1967, the common attribution of authorship to Rick Bolz, and the presence of the band’s distinct instrumental and vocal signatures led by Dyan Hoffman.

    You might also like following track from the Psychedelic Jukebox: "[1967] The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - Light Bulb Blues".

Sources:

1. https://www.45cat.com/vinyl/artist/neighbrhood-childrn
2. https://music.apple.com/us/song/hobbits-dream/1468573589
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17. https://www.discogs.com/master/266267-Neighbrhood-Childrn-Neighbrhood-Childrn
18. https://neighbrhoodchildrn.bandcamp.com/album/neighbrhood-childrn
19. https://itslostitsfound.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-neighbrhood-childrn-long-years-in.html
20. https://psychspaniolos.blogspot.com/2008/04/neighbrhood-childrn-neighbrhood-childrn.html
21. https://goldenapplecomics.com/products/neighbrhood-childrn-cd
22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_State_Recorders