Kontiki (album)

Following the commercial failure of the group's first album, Cotton is King, bassist Matt Hovis and drummer Greg Thibeaux left the group and were replaced by George Reiff and Dana Myzer, respectively, both of whom were involved with several local bands around Austin. Initial recordings with producer Dave McNair did not yield the results that Harrison was looking for, leading McNair to suggest Harrison produce the album himself.[13]

Harrison's friend Joe McDermott owned a small house in Leander, Texas, which had a small recording setup. Harrison and Whit Williams began writing and recording what would become Kontiki at the house, on McDermott's ADAT machine and Harrison's 4-track cassette. At first, Harrison had doubts that the music would be taken seriously due to the quality of the recording gear, but the encouragement of former bassist Matt Hovis towards the material pushed him to continue the recording. Reiff, Myzer, and Darin Murphy contributed to the recordings made in Leander via overdubbing, but the basic tracks of "Camp Hill Rail Operator", "Password", and "She's Only Cool" were also recorded live to tape in Harrison's living room, with assistance from Dave McNair.

When the recording was done, Harrison contacted Nashville musician and producer Brad Jones, and the two assembled the album from the various cassettes and ADATs the songs existed on. For his assistance in assembling the album, as well as suggesting and recording several overdubs, Harrison gave Jones a co-production credit. Jones said that if he was listed as a producer, listeners would think that he had done the bulk of the production, rather than Harrison; years later, many sources still incorrectly cite Jones as the album's primary producer.[14]

Kontiki was released on November 26, 1997, on Copper Records. Despite receiving highly positive reviews and being played on independent radio stations, listeners had difficulty finding the album in stores because Copper had only produced a limited amount of CD copies. Harrison felt, based on the reviews, that the album could have been a success had it been distributed properly. The disappointment of this would inform his next batch of songs, which would become The Big Picture.

Following the album's muted release, a copy was played at a party hosted by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. Noel Gallagher of Oasis, in attendance at the party, tracked down a copy of the album and began to praise Cotton Mather in interviews.[13] Following this, the label Rainbow Quartz International licensed the album and released it in the UK in 1999, along with three singles from it. Cotton Mather performed in the UK, opening for Oasis, in 2000. An electric version of "Spin My Wheels", recorded during the early sessions with Dave McNair, was included on a bonus track on the Japanese CD edition, also released in 1999.

Cotton Mather entered a hiatus in 2003, following the muted reception of 2001's The Big Picture. During this period, artists such as Nicole Atkins and Britt Daniel of Spoon praised the album in interviews, and "Lily Dreams On" was used in the 2005 television series Veronica Mars. With copies of the CD becoming increasingly hard to find, Harrison launched a Kickstarter project in 2011 to reissue Kontiki with a second CD of bonus tracks. The campaign was a success, and the expanded reissue, titled Kontiki Deluxe Edition, was released on February 14, 2012. In addition to the bonus disc, Harrison wrote an essay in the CD booklet detailing the creation and recording of the album, which included contributions from George Reiff, Dana Myzer, Dave McNair, Darin Murphy, Whit Williams, and Brad Jones.

During the summer of 2019, Harrison provided an in-depth look at the process of writing and recording Kontiki via his Patreon. This included unlisted YouTube videos discussing the tracks in detail, a home-made CD-R containing the mixes Harrison originally sent to Brad Jones, instrumental mixes of several tracks, and a downloadable folder containing the stems for eight of the album's songs.

• Cotton Mather's 'Kontiki,' The Album That Won't Go Gently — David Brown (radio host), NPR