Robert Lester Folsom

Robert Lester Folsom is a Georgia-born singer-songwriter and guitarist whose music blends soft psych, Americana, and sun-faded AM gold into a sound unmistakably his own. First self-released in 1976, his cult-classic LP Music and Dreams quietly circulated in the Southeast before slipping into obscurity—until crate diggers and reissue labels revived his recordings in the 2010s. The album was re-released in 2014 by Anthology Recordings (a Mexican Summer imprint), bringing Folsom’s homegrown vision to a new generation of listeners. Following that rediscovery, Folsom’s previously unheard material was brought to light through Ode to a Rainy Day: Archives 1972–1975 and Sunshine Only Sometimes: Archives Vol. 2—two acclaimed compilations of heartfelt demos that deepened his reputation as a lost master of homespun pop. If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972-1975 is yet another magical discovery from Robert Lester Folsom’s oeuvre of soft psychedelia and rural Southern rock n’ roll, written and recorded over fifty years ago yet prophetically relevant today. Born of lost summers, new love (and the breaks that follow), and hippie bluegrass shakes, these spirited takes to 4-track tape capture Folsom’s earliest wizardry. A prismatic window into a young artist finding their artistic footing, and a testament to why Folsom’s legacy burns bright to this day.