Blackburn & Snow were a folk rock duo popular early in the mid-1960s San Francisco music scene. The group consisted of guitarist-singer Jeff Blackburn and vocalist Sherry Snow. The two were active in Bay Area music circles since the early sixties, and became romantically involved in 1965, living together in Berkeley and performing together in local clubs. They signed a contract in December 1965 with Kingston Trio producer Frank Werber's Trident Productions.
Trident issued two Blackburn & Snow singles which were recorded in 1966: "Stranger in a Strange Land", released late December 1966 and "Time", released October 1967; the former has been said to have been written by David Crosby of The Byrds, although it was credited to the fictitious Samuel F. Omar. The duo's recording of "Stranger in a Strange Land" has been called "a lost masterpiece".
Snow was considered by friends in Jefferson Airplane as the replacement for the departing Signe Anderson in late 1966, however she chose to remain with Blackburn; Anderson was replaced by Grace Slick. The duo played a part in the popularization of the San Francisco Sound, performing throughout 1965–67 at venues such as the hungry i, the Fillmore Auditorium, Avalon Ballroom and Marty Balin's nightclub The Matrix. Blackburn & Snow performed at the KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, a seminal rock festival in Marin County at the beginning of the Summer of Love.
Trident Productions intended to present Blackburn & Snow as a major new find, with Frank Werber later stating "my perception was that they were going to be huge." Enough material for an album was recorded through 1966 and into the spring of 1967, with Blackburn writing nearly all of the songs. The music the duo had been performing was electric folk rock similar to their close contemporaries Jefferson Airplane, with unique harmonic interplay between the couple. Influenced by The Everly Brothers, The Beatles and Buddy Holly, Blackburn & Snow recorded a number of straight rock songs with the backing band Candy Store Prophets, as well as some country and folk flavored material. The Candy Store Prophets were also the backing band for The Monkees first album and included Larry Taylor of Canned Heat and Gerry McGee, the long-time guitarist for The Ventures who joined that band in 1968. Gary "Chicken" Hirsh, later of Country Joe and the Fish, also drummed on some tracks. Production and engineering was handled by Randy Sterling. Though many completed songs were recorded, due to wrangling between Trident and distribution partner MGM-Verve, combined with some tension between the duo and Sterling, they did not see an album released during their partnership. In 1999, the mid-sixties Blackburn & Snow recordings from Trident Productions were finally released as a 20-song compact disc, titled Something Good for Your Head.
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