High Moon Records is pleased to announce The Nest, the first-ever anthology from enigmatic 1960’s San Francisco vocalist Jeannie Piersol. The 12-track collection arrives Friday, January 24, 2025 on CD, vinyl LP, and digital download, accompanied by an extensively illustrated booklet that includes liner notes from 5x GRAMMY® Award-nominated compilation producer Alec Palao (featuring exclusive interviews with Piersol and many of her musical collaborators), plus lavish artwork, never-before-seen photos, memorabilia, and more. Pre-orders are available now.
PRE-ORDER JEANNIE PIERSOL – THE NEST
With her hip hybrid of rock, soul and Indian flavors, Jeannie Piersol is one of the enigmas of the mid-1960s San Francisco scene. Though little known, the distinctive singer emerged from the same Marin County community that nurtured the principals of the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and other leading lights of Bay Area’s future rock meritocracy. Close friends with Grace Slick and her brother-in-law Darby Slick, Piersol duetted with Grace in an embryonic line-up early Bay Area outfit The Great! Society before leaving to front her own bands, The Yellow Brick Road and Hair, both of whom worked the clubs and ballrooms of the emerging SF circuit, including such legendary venues as The Matrix.
The Nest gathers together the handful of tracks Piersol recorded during her all-too-brief but blazing career, including a pair of sought-after singles released on Chess Records’ psychedelic Cadet Concept subsidiary, plus studio outtakes, demos, live performances, and material by The Yellow Brick Road and Hair. Highlights include the slow-burning, psychedelically informed 1969 single, “The Nest,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. An official music video premieres today at the High Moon Records YouTube channel.
LISTEN TO “THE NEST”
WATCH “THE NEST” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
A siren song marked by its ear-catching flourish of sarod, funky backbeat, and – seemingly out of nowhere – Piersol’s honeyed, hypnotic, eminently seductive voice, “The Nest” has become a chill-out favorite in recent years, lionized by DJs, reprised by indie rockers, and frequently pondered in blogs and podcasts. For decades, the backstory to this alluring track (which notably features backing vocals from iconic soul singer Minnie Riperton) was ambiguous at best, but it can now be revealed as a landmark by-product from the crucial formative years of the fabled Bay Area rock scene.
“A full 55 years since its release, ‘The Nest’ still entrances, and perhaps has now found its true place in a world where records this disarmingly ingenuous can probably no longer be made,” write Alec Palao in his liner notes. “Along with most everything else Jeannie recorded, it’s something to be justly proud of.”
Jeannie Piersol’s tale may be just one of the multiple strands that make up the fabric of West Coast rock ’n’ roll mythology, but it nonetheless remains instructive. There is the distinct air of unfulfilled potential that spills from The Nest, but the singer was subject to the variegates of an industry that still flung new acts at the wall and would happily abandon anything that failed to adhere commercially. So, like many of her generation, rather than succumb to the showbiz grind, Piersol decided to walk away and live a normal life. Now, High Moon’s welcome release of The Nest, what for decades have been Jeannie Piersol’s own personal keepsakes and memories are now something we can all appreciate.
