Mouse & the Traps

This Tyler, TX, group from your mid-’60s is most known because of their uncanny imitation of Highway 61-era Dylan, “A Public Execution.” Included in the Nuggets compilation, it really is to Dylan the actual Knickerbockers’ “Lays” is towards the Beatles: mostly of the rip-offs so absolutely accurate that it might very easily fool listeners into mistaking it for the initial content. Spearheaded by vocalist/songwriter Ronnie Weiss, the group in fact recorded a number of good singles between 1965 and 1969 without nearing any kind of nationwide recognition. “Mouse” by no means got as explicitly Dylanesque once again, but there is no question that Weiss frequently recalled a non-atonal Dylan along with his nose delivery, and many of their singles had been a more melodic, pop-oriented expansion of Dylan’s middle-’60s sound. Documenting almost exclusively initial material, these were among the better local groups of time, and in addition waxed some able Tx punk-psychedelia and good-time pop/rockers.