Butterfly Mountain

After what had been a flurry of activity in the early 1990s, the Petals returned for one last album in 2003, and right from the electric-sitar-accompanied start it’s pretty clear how thoroughly the quartet took the spirit of late 60s sunshine pop and folkie psych directly into a new decade. The core vocal/instrumental duo of Cary Wolf and Laurie Kern, working primarily with Wolf’s songs, have at numbers like “Seed Separator” and “A Place In the Shade” with warm ease, as rhythm section Tim Kern and J. D. Tessler plus a slew of guests add to the good playing and good spirits.