Garage rock is an amorphous label, embracing virtually anything from the mid-1960s that sounds intense and energetic and isn’t overly polished. The term has been used interchangeably with punk rock and has been applied to surf music, psychedelia, and more. That’s one reason why you’ll find extremely disparate material on the three-CD Steppin’ Out: The Roots of Garage Rock 1963–1965.

Another is that the anthology’s compilers included the word “roots” in its title and used that as a rationale for featuring examples of folk rock, frat rock, and other subgenres that arguably contributed to garage rock’s rise. The set makes room for numbers as different as the Trashmen’s frenetic novelty hit, “Surfin’ Bird,” and the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” a sweet midtempo pop number.

The good news is that for the most part, the 94-track anthology is as likable as it is varied. It features many of the best and best-known acts associated with early garage rock, such as the Seeds and the Sir Douglas Quintet. It even includes a few tracks that were recorded and/or released after the time frame referenced in the album’s title, such as the 13^th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”

(A 2024 companion box, Pushin’ Too Hard; American Garage Punk 1964–1967, delivers more essentials from a bit later in the decade, such as  Love’s “My Little Red Book” and the Squires’ “Going All the Way.” Both sets omit a few other classics of the genre—the Swingin’ Medallions’ “Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love)” and the Syndicate of Sound’s “Little Girl,” for example—but you can find most of those on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era.)

You’ll probably recognize some of the tunes on Steppin’ Out, especially if you lived through the era it covers. The anthology offers such popular tunes as “Hanky Panky,” by Tommy James and the Shondells, “I Get Around,” by the Beach Boys, and “Hang on, Sloopy,” by the McCoys, all of which topped the charts. Also featured are such Top 10 hits as the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie,” the Rip Chords’ “Hey, Little Cobra,” the Chantays’ “Pipeline,” the Marketts’ “Out of Limits,” Jan & Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve,” the Gentrys’ “Keep on Dancing,” the Standells’ “Dirty Water,” the Shadows of Knight’s “Gloria,” the Rivieras’ “California Sun,” and Mitch Ryder’s “Jenny Take a Ride.”

But while some of the compendium’s tracks scored commercially, this set also includes lots of lesser-known performances. Among those from luminaries are such numbers as “Gone for Bad,” a self-penned folk-rocker from the soon-to-be-famous Johnny Winter, the Byrds’ “You Movin’,” from its Preflyte collection, and “Man with Money,” from the Everly Brothers’ relatively obscure Beat & Soul album.

You’ll also find more than a few songs from acts you’ve likely never heard of, such as the Twelfth Night, the Tropics, the Denims, Conrad & the Hurricanes, and the Actioneers. A surprisingly large number of these no-hit bands produced one or more songs that are well worth hearing, and this box puts them all in one place.

The box set is available here.

Tom Paxton & John McCutcheon Reunite

Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon might be old folkies, but they’re definitely not old fogeys. Ever since the pandemic began, Paxton, 88, and McCutcheon, 73, have been meeting over Zoom on Monday afternoons to collaboratively write songs. Together Again is the second album resulting from those sessions, following 2023’s Together.

Like its predecessor, the new CD delivers political commentary, personal reminiscences, a bit of humor, and even a song about the pair’s weekly meetups. Last time, on “Same Old Crap,” they sang about a day when they had writer’s block; now, on “Every Monday at Two,” they tell us how much they enjoy their collaborations.

That shouldn’t come as news, because their pleasure in the process is evident throughout this well-crafted album, which features McCutcheon on guitars and banjo and a backup ensemble that adds piano, organ, accordion, bass, drums, fiddle, and steel guitar.

Several numbers find the singers pondering their ages and looking back on people they’ve known and experiences they’ve had over the decades. In “Old Dog,” for example, they sing about an aging pet, but, in the last verse, they add, “These days I am an old dog, too / I take my time with stairs, and I’ve picked up a scar or two.” In “Pathfinder,” Paxton and McCutcheon recall and pay tribute to Pete Seeger, while in “Artie’s Last Stand,” they fondly remember the heyday of print newspapers.

There’s also a humorous tune about dietary digressions called “Cheatin’ While I’m Eatin’,” and a poignant song about school shootings called “Stop at Nothing.” (“Reading, writing, ’rithmetic, and active-shooter drills / Eight-year-olds preparing for the visitor who kills.” But the subject matter gets personal again on the final track, “Lay This Old Guitar Down,” where they contemplate putting an end to touring. (Paxton did just that between the time they wrote and recorded the song.) “I’m gonna lay this good old guitar down,” they sing, before concluding, “This is a young man’s game.”

You may doubt that last line after listening to this duo’s sweet, wisdom-packed folk collection. 

The album is available here.