Merrell Fankhauser

A cult hero with an eclectic body of work, Merrell Fankhauser is a guitarist and songwriter whose repertoire embraces surf music, folk-rock, psychedelia, and several stops in between. While his earliest work was rooted in straightforward rock & roll (Merrell & the Exiles) and surf (the Impacts), he began exploring more ambitious musical and lyrical themes with his folk-rock group Fapardokly, and he dug in even further with the pop-psychedelia of Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S. Bounty. He dove deep into tales of lost continents, UFOs, and spiritual searchers with his next project, Mu, who blended acid rock, blues, and progressive accents. In his solo work, Fankhauser focused on artful soft rock with expansive guitar work; an excellent overview of his most fertile period can be found in the 2022 box set Goin' Round in My Mind: The Merrell Fankhauser Anthology, 1964-1979.