In the pantheon of strange political gimmicks, The Goldwaters would have to rank fairly high on the list. Right up there with Michael Dukakis "boxer" action figures. The idea to assemble a conservative folk combo, have them record a bizarre, nearly unlistenable album and then put the group on the road with the 1964 Republican nominee for President was the warped brainchild of the Nashville-based Bates Brothers, Buford and Mark Clark. To fulfill their unique vision, the brothers recruited four kids with moderate musical skills from nearby colleges. The result was the Republican answer to the Chad Mitchell Trio. And in an odd example of conservative folk music convergence, The Goldwaters once shared the stage with another CONELRAD favorite, Janet Greene.

While Barry Goldwater carried on a long and distinguished senate career after his disastrous presidential bid, The Goldwaters, as a group anyway, were never heard from again (they apparently decided to pass on an ideal comeback opportunity to re-form in '96 as The Doles).

The first e-mail arrived following some back-channel negotiations with an associate of the ex-Goldwater. We weren’t sure which ex-Goldwater. The associate had only recently learned the true identity of his friend and had dutifully dropped a dime to CONELRAD. CONELRAD immediately begged for an interview—recognizing that opportunities like this one do not come along very often. Then the aforementioned e-mail appeared. In it, Ken Crook, the lead singer for The Goldwaters, took exception to CONELRAD's posted assessment of his former combo. "Our album wasn't 'nearly' unlistenable, Crook wrote, "it was completely unlistenable." Crook, who is now a broadcast news personality in the Southwest, reacted to CONELRAD's obsessive interest in The Goldwaters with good humor, "You do realize you need to get a life," he remarked over the phone at one point. Yes, we know.

KEN CROOK: The Goldwaters were conceived by a couple of brothers who lived in Nashville, Mark Clark Bates (named after the WWII commander) and his brother Buford. I first met Mark when I worked during high school at the local radio station in my hometown. Mark was the editor of the weekly newspaper that also owned the radio station and he knew that I was interested in music and somewhat in politics. I lost track of him after leaving for college but he tracked me down in 1963 and told me about the idea for the "Goldwaters" and that he and Buford had written new lyrics to a number of old folk songs. Folk music, of course, was co-existing with Rock and R&B as the popular music of the day, popularized by such acts as The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Limelighters, The Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others. I was somewhat astounded by the whole proposition of putting together an album and I remember asking him how he knew Barry Goldwater would be the Republican nominee since it was well over a year prior to the election. He was unshakeable in his belief that he would, and that proved to be correct. Mark was, at the time, head of the Nashville office of Billboard Magazine.

KEN: Groupies? You bet, as hard as it may be to believe. One young lady latched onto Bob in Oklahoma and even went to the national convention in San Francisco that year to hook up with him. There were also "The Goldwater Girls" who would dress in cowgirl outfits. Many of them would treat us like rock stars.

KEN: Yes, I'm surprised there is still any interest in The Goldwaters. In some ways, I'm surprised there was ever any interest in The Goldwaters, but I do remember meeting many people who thought what we were doing was important and there were those who knew the lyrics to every song. Oh, there was another Goldwater release, a single 45 rpm called "I'm No Communist" (a real toe-tapper) b/w "The Ballad of Bobby Baker." I don't know how many copies of that we sold.