This next track by Kendell comes from his time in L.A., when he was adjusting, as he puts it, to being “just another nobody” in a town where you “had to be careful not to step on a songwriter in the aisles at the local Ralph’s supermarket.” Leaving his heady and heartbreaking time in S.F. behind, he ended up staying in a cottage that happened to be owned by Gram Parson’s manager, who was also an ex-Navy buddy of the already-jailed Charles Manson. Unwelcome and unfriendly visits from Manson’s people, as well as the LAPD, who were exploring the landlord’s curious gardening habits, made Kendell’s eviction – in order to make way for Emmylou Harris – a matter of understandable relief. Kendell then moved in with a roommate who had a couple of teenage sons, and “Sergeant Barkley and Little Tim” is a tribute to one of the boys’ friends, who had gotten in the habit of “liberating the property of the undeserving” and sharing it with others. This sticky-fingered would-be Robin Hood whose ongoing rivalry with one Sgt. Barkley made for another memorable song from Kendell.
Kendell Kardt – “Sergeant Barkley and Little Tim”