Jerry Jeff and Circus Maximus

I had been a Jerry Jeff Walker fan for a good two decades before I ever knew that he used to play with a rock act in the late 60s. Yes, I had seen him play Christmas shows, Fourth of July shows, and shows on the days in between, but I never knew about his rock 'n roll days. To tell the truth, I had heard about him playing on the streets of New Orleans when he was young, but that was about it.

So, here's the story. Once upon a time, before Jerry Jeff became the Jerry Jeff I somehow thought he must have always been, he was in a band called Circus Maximus. Circus Maximus, it seems, was a band that took things seriously. They even had a song based on the work of 14th century French composer Guillame de Machaut, who is, and I am not making this up, my favorite medieval composer. Anyway, the cover of Circus Maximus' second album, which bears a striking resemblance to Cream's Disraeli Gears, says it all. Any way you look at it, I think it is super groovy to see where the career of Jerry Jeff Walker of Viva Terlingua fame actually began.