Perth County Conspiracy, also known as Perth County Conspiracy (Does Not Exist) was a Canadian folk music group based in Stratford

Stratford, Ontario

Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. It was formed in 1969 and was active until at least 1977. The founding members were guitarist-singers Richard Keelan (formerly of the American band The Spike Drivers

The Spike Drivers

The Spike Drivers was a band from Detroit, Michigan and played from 1965 to 1967.The Spike Drivers began by working in various coffeehouses and clubs in the Detroit, Michigan folk rock music scene. Their music was rooted in folk, blues, and classical music...

)and Cedric Smith

Cedric Smith

Cedric Austen Bardell Smith was a British statistician and geneticist. Born in Leicester, he was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School until 1929 when the family moved to London. His education continued at Bec School, Tooting for three years then at University College School, London...

, who were joined by Terry Jones (guitar, vocals), Michael Butler (bass) and George Taros (piano, vocals) and other friends and family members.

After two major label albums for CBS, the group went independent and released a string of records on their own. Bob Burchill (guitar, vocals) joined the group in 1973. They lived together as a commune, similar to the Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

. The music is characterised by its message-oriented lyrics and unconventional arrangements. The 1970 self-titled album features Shakespearian dialogue and audio collage elements mixed with folk and folk rock music that might place it in the genre of psych folk

Psych folk

Psychedelic folk or psych folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s through the fusion of folk music and psychedelic rock...

.

Perth County Conspiracy recorded several albums of material including at least two on the Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

label.[]

Discography

1970 The Perth County Conspiracy (CBC Radio)

1970 Does Not Exist (Columbia) EKL-375

1971 Alive (2 LPs, Columbia) GES-90037

1973 What School Bus Tour (Rumour/Mushroom) RUMOUR-II

1975 Kanada (Rumour) RUMOUR-IV (also released as Amiga 855 424 in GDR)

1976 Breakout To Berlin (Rumour) RUMOUR-V

1977 Ten Lost Years - And Then Some (Rumour)