In Search of the Turtle's Navel

Scott Saxon engineered and mixed it. Ackerman recalls about three two-hour sessions of solo guitar, and friends who had heard him play paid $5 each to fund the pressing, with 300 copies the minimum, more than he expected to sell. The title comes from a bet at age 10, when he lost to the schoolmate Bill Sterling over finding a photo of a turtle's navel, and Sterling later paid him 10 marks for the idea. The first copies had brown paper glued to plain white Mantra covers, the second black covers from Arhoolie Records, and he believes there were seven variations in all. The cover photo shows his sister as a child. For the 1977 reissue "Dance for the Death of a Bird" moved to the end and "Woman She Rides" was dropped.

In his 1997 CD reissue notes he said he had not heard it straight through since 1976, and called it simple, even primitive, but also sincere. AllMusic gave it 3 of 5 and Pitchfork 8.6 in February 2025. Some consider it the start of new age music.