Sailcat was the brainchild of John Wyker, a veteran of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama rock music scene who had been in The Rubber Band with John Townsend (later of the Sanford-Townsend Band). Sailcat's vocalist was Court Pickett, brother of The Rubber Band's Ed Pickett. An early demo tape cut by the duo, which included the song "Motorcycle Mama", was initially discarded by the band but after it was presented to Elektra Records led to a record contract and an invitation to cut an album. On the 1990 compilation album Rubáiyát the song is covered by The Sugarcubes featuring Björk.
The resulting album, also titled Motorcycle Mama, was a concept album with biker theme, about a motorcycle riding drifter in the Easy Rider vein who tires of life on the road and falls in love with a young woman. The cover art was drawn by Jack Davis and featured a series of motorcycle related drawings for each song on the album. The concept album's songs loosely tell the story of a motorcycle vagrant, who apparently steals for a living, meeting a woman and settling down to start a family. However, he apparently keeps some of his selfish behaviours as the last drawing shows him reclining on his porch while his wife hangs the laundry and his child hoes the garden.
The single "Motorcycle Mama" hit #12 on the Billboard magazine singles charts, and the album went to #38. Sailcat toured to promote the album, released one more non-LP single, "Baby Ruth" which did not chart, then broke up citing burnout from touring.
Although a hit at the time, the album fell into obscurity and did not see official re-release on CD until 2004.
Courtland Pickett later issued a solo album, Fancy Dancer, on the Elektra label in 1973. Court Pickett now lives in Rock Hill, S.C.
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