Karl Thaler plays acoustic guitar and sings doom-laden lyrics on his original composition “The Storm”, and plays guitar and harmonica on the instrumental “Phoebe”.
I had no info other than what’s on the label, which includes the deadwax stamp “45 202 385” / “45 202 386”. A comment, below, informs me that this single was included with the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania’s literary magazine Esprit in 1969, when Karl Thaler was a student there. Any further info on about Mr. Thaler or the University of Scranton music scene this came from would be appreciated.
Those look like Decca matrix numbers which usually show up on custom pressings from New England … maybe that’ll point you in the right direction.
Karl was a student at the Univ. of Scranton, PA when he composed these songs. The recordings were on a record that was included in a cover flap of the university’s literary magazine, Espirit, around 1969.
I just picked up a copy of the 45 at my local thrift store — where your label is blank at the top someone has written “Keystone Records.” On both sides.
I found a pdf of the esprit magazine with a short story and two poems by Karl Thaler. Fun lil read. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28874394?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
The song Phoebe is also about a train not a lady. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Snow_(train)
Karl Thaler, originally from Baltimore MD, was a sophomore at the University of Scranton when this record was released in spring 1969. He graduated with an English major in 1971. Here’s his photo from the 1969 University of Scranton Windhover yearbook (citing his involvement with the school’s Esprit literary magazine): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yF8N5ZNi4hZxtJBb1lG0czmYng5KNhaX/view?usp=sharing