Since May 1976, I have written in journals. When I have nothing particularly resonant to say about my own inner turmoil, philosophic ramblings, sexual peccadillos or whining on about the state of the world around me...I have always fallen back on reporting the cultural time consumption that takes up in inordinate portion of my daily goings on.
In the 40+ years since my first concerts seeing Children's Symphony presentations on Sundays at the Pasadena Civic or The Hot Jazz Society's monthly Dixieland romps in an old meeting hall on the edge of the L.A. "River" across from Griffith Park, I have been sold heavily on the magic of live music. As Neil Young so aptly put it, "Live music is better bumper stickers should be issued."
Growing up a few orange groves and canyons length away from Hollywood also contributed greatly to my family's addiction to movie going. From the time I was a small there were weekly trips to the drive-in theaters that dotted the landscape, or the local Temple theater for the Saturday matinees. Once in a while we'd drive the 12 miles into Hollywood and see something in one of the magnificent old movie palaces like Grauman's Chinese, the Egyptian, The Pantages or later the Cinerama Dome. My dad loved Westerns and War movies, as if he didn't get enough shoot-'em-up as an L.A. County Sheriff in his day gig, my mom adored musicals and comedies. My brother and I loved them all.
At SDSU, I played in my first gigging band and began booking concerts on campus as part of the well-funded Cultural Arts Board, kindling for my future life in and around music.
So it's not surprising that my first jobs out of college were working in local video rental places (which were all the rage) or managing a couple of Sam Goody record stores in Mall's on the East Coast where we marveled at the new CD format and sold the first home computers and video games (yes Commodore and Pong and Atari).
So these are really just extensions of all of those journal entries talking about the great new movies I was seeing and LPs/CDs I was listening to.
Though iPODS/iPADs, apps, smart phones and downloads now make music and movies accessible in your own pocket, there is still nothing like sitting in front of a stack of speakers with a room full of people swaying to music created before your eyes. Nor is there anything that works quite so well for me to escape the real world and all of it's pressures just outside than two hours in a dark theater, absorbing the stories flickering across that wide screen as they pull you into their world.
As my regular readers know, I'm a big fan of bassist Mike Watt. I won't regurgitate his history yet again but check out my past blogs for more on that or better yet tune into THE WATT FROM PEDRO SHOW.
Before I sling some visuals at ya from the first fIREHOSE shows in 18 years got to give the END FREEWAY scene some props...I must like to mention another great WATT + THE MISSINGMEN show in his hometown of San Pedro this past April 26th. He headlined a gig featuring a handful of cool punk bands at the San Pedro School of Ballet. Not that I saw any ballet being done that evening but it is a nice space for a low-key, homegrown show with a nice large room for the music and a similar sized "lounge" for 21-and-over fans. We missed most of the first two bands due to taco wagon muzzle loading and long stumble for chugs down Pacific.
photos by Skipper Jeff
The show was put on under the auspices of being a release party for the new CD release by TOYS THAT KILL, Fambly 42. They hit just before Watt's set with great energy and ferocious spirit. The drummer was incendiary. Tunes were all high speed, buzz-saw rave-ups. Check these guys out on the road now.
Watt, Tom Kidd Watson and Raul Morales performed Watt's HYPHENATED-MAN, his 2011 punk opera (his 3rd) in it's entirety. The piece gets tighter and tighter due in part to their having played it over 51 times in 52 days back in late 2011. On this night, Watson in particular was on fire. His guitar work shredded the air around home even as one particualrly out-of-it fan took a long cat nap on the floor right in front of the monitors. Watt wasn't happy with the vocals feeding back which seemed due in part, unbeknownest to the bassist, of a fan leaning against the speaker and having it slip around a bit due to the fact that a fan was drunkenly leaning on it and pushing it off its axis and pointing in to the vocal mics. Oops. Sounded great out front though.
Watt was heading out early in the morning to kayak around the bay with a
reporter from the L.A. Times and would play Coachella Festival with fIREHOSE within
the week.
Peeped: ed fROMOHIO bopping in the hat behind Watt's rig during the set. The fIREHOSE reunion gigs were big news in the crowd. Some various bits from the tour..
Unfortunately, there seems to be no decent Coachella video but you can snag most of Harlow's and Belly Up on YouTube.
Watt's appearance at the Hollywood Palladium on December 1 as bassist in The Stooges was also very well received by Watt fans. Here's a taste from the crowd.
Don't know where this pic came from. Anyone have credit please let me know. I will delete if necessary. What a great shot, though.
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was born in Stoney Fork Township, near Deep Gap, North Carolina, on March 3, 1923 and when he passed away yesterday from complications from colon surgery the 89 year-old master guitarist had influenced generations of acoustic guitar players and folk music fans like.
Many folks of my generation first heard Doc Watson on the groundbreaking 1972 album, Will The Circle Be Unbroken which gathered together some of the early superstars of country, folk and bluegrass music along side the younger Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in a three-record set of essential songs from the pantheon of American Roots Music. Watson's signature performances of "Way Downtown" and "Tennessee Stud" sent pickers to their instruments to try and figure out his tasteful and lightning fast guitar lines.
Losing his sight to an eye infection before his first birthday, Watson was given a banjo by his father who insisted he learn to play an instrument. His father saw music as a way for him to make his way in life. Watson told NPR'S Terry Gross in 1988 what his father said as he put him on his path as a musician, "It might help you get
through the world."
He started playing on street corners in North Carolina at a young age with his brother Linny. They loved the music and close harmonies of the Delmore Brothers, The Monroe Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers. Doc would soon be picking up the electric guitar as well to play in the Tennessee-based Jack Williams Swing Band where Watson picked up fiddle tunes on the electric from the influence of the seminal swinging country sounds of Hank Garland and Grady Martin. But by 1960 as the folk music revival took hold Watson switched permanently back to acoustic guitar, banjo and harmonica.
Soon his masterful flat picking style began to turn heads not only in Nashville but in the burgeoning urban folk communities of the mid-60s. His big break came in an acclaimed performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He toured nationwide on college campuses and in folk clubs of the day and in 1964 recorded his first solo album. By the time of the ...Circle sessions he had released numerous albums and was at the forefront of the bluegrass and folk festival circuits on a level with his occasional collaborators and friends, Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.
For the next 40 years Doc Watson would continue to regale audiences world-wide with his homespun stories, open-minded appreciation of contemporary roots music as well as the music that he grew up on and made his own. His clear voice, earthy and neighborly demeanor, consummate flat-picking and fingerstyle guitar and banjo playing made him a consistent draw on the folk music circuit and a huge influence on guitarists and performers for generations. He recorded throughout his career and often would appear on record and stage with the cream of the acoustic music crop such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss and so many more.
By 1985 when his immensely talented son Merle Watson passed away in a tragic farming accident, the father-son team had been touring touring since 1964 when the younger guitarist joined Doc onstage in front of 12,000 people in the Bay Area and recorded their first album together in November of that year. For the next 21 years they thrilled audiences with their exciting guitar duos, accompanied by long-time bassist T. Michael Coleman. In later years, Doc was often accompanied by David Holt or Jack Lawrence.
above with Jack Lawrence on 2nd guitar.
Doc honored the legacy of his son with MerleFest, one of the events of the festival season beginning in 1988. The festival has become on of the most popular roots music festivals drawing upwards of 70,000 visitors every year. Watson's final appearances at MerleFest occurred the last weekend of April 2012.
After Merle's death Doc decided to call it quits but the night before the funeral his son came to him in a dark and intense dream and told him to carry on.Among the many honors he would subsequently receive were seven Grammy Awards, a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in 1997 and in 2004, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
When I first experienced Doc and Merle Watson, we had booked them into San Diego State University's Montezuma Hall and they raised the rafters with their exhilarating showmanship. A couple of semesters later we brought them to the much larger outdoor amphitheater on campus in a double bill with the legendary Pete Seeger which resulted in a long and inspired evening of a treasure trove of some of the greatest indigenous music this country has produced.
Having been blessed to have experienced Mr. Watson many times before and after Merle's death, I can tell you personally that the music world has lost one of it's great showmen and musical masters. Here's to you, Doc.
Robin Gibb, one of Gibb brothers from the popular Bee Gees musical group passed away on May 20 after a long battle with cancer at age 62 . Brother Barry Gibb is the last surviving brother of the hit musical family. Fellow band member and brother Maurice passed in 2003. Younger brother and pop star Andy Gibb died in 1988 of a heart condition. Andy was never an official member of the Bee Gees but collaborated with his songwriting brothers on his biggest hits.
I was never a HUGE Bee Gees fan though from the mid-60s until
the '80s their songs were pretty hard to avoid. In the early days, Robin was
always the one we’d make fun of as kids with his weird finger-in-the-ear stage
stance. Little did I know that in those days before decent monitors and the
present day in-ear monitors, he was just trying to hear himself and when you’re
singing close harmonies like the Gibb Brothers were known for the importance of
hearing yourself was more important than looking silly to unknowing fans. While
Barry got the lion share of the lead vocals and Maurice was the major
multi-instrumentalist of the band, Robin was always the oddball in the big
sweater with the swoop of shoulder-length hair and his finger in his ear. But
boy, could he sing. The strange timber of their individual voices always made
it a bit of a stretch for me to really embrace them until I really noticed just
how well-written the songs were and how great they sounded when the three of
them sang together.
Some of the biggest early hits featured Robin’s voice
including “Massachusetts” from their 2nd album Horizontal released in 1968. Though Barry’s was the
most heard lead voice on hits such as their breakout tune “To Love Somebody”, and later when he patented the
helium disco tweet of the Saturday Night Fever-period songs like “You Should Be Dancing”, the harmonies of Robin and
Maurice were essential to the band's sound.
Like most brotherly singing groups, The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys
and many great bluegrass bands like Jim & Jesse, The Monroe Brothers, there
is something about the blend of the voices is impossible to approximate with
bands of unrelated singers.
Probably Robin’s most popular showcase number was “I Started
A Joke” from their 3rd album, Idea. Reached No. 6 in the US.
Robin quit the band for about a year and a half beginning in early 1969. Once he was back in the fold, the Bee Gees scored their first US #1, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” which
followed the No. 3 hit “Lonely Days’. The latter has always reminded me at the outset of
a CSN-type harmony tune before tearing into the Beatle-y production elements.
Love the later, more up tempo live versions of it better the the original in fact. The videos below are for the latter two songs and are gems of early promo music video. Very basic and static in today's post-MTV age.
After a lull in the mid-70s the band took Eric Clapton’s
suggestion (they shared Robert Stigwood as a manager) to record in Miami with
the recording team and studio that Clapton used on his comeback album, 461 Ocean
Blvd. The result was a more R&B and
dance influenced record ripe with Barry’s falsetto vocals and tastes of the
disco groove that was beginning to be heard in clubs around the country. Main
Course, is quite possibly the Bee Gees crowning achievement melding
the ballads of their early records with the danceable sounds that would launch
their chart-topping rejuvenation. “Jive Talking” and “Nights On Broadway” (#1 & #7 on the charts respectively) got things rolling. I remember hearing
this album in my first semester in college and being bowled over by the
crisp production and the freshness of the sound. In a few short years, the bane of
the unavoidable disco tidal wave that this album helped spawn would
practically kill my enthusiasm for this band. Barry has noted that the huge success of SNF was both a blessing and a curse. While the world went nuts for Saturday
Night Fever (granted the album is still
quite listenable especially the gorgeous melody of “How Deep Is Your Love”), I was attending my first batch of Grateful Dead
shows, discovering the initial wave of American punk bands out of CBGBs while
still under the thrall of the fusion jazz movement and prog rock like Yes,
King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Weather Report. I was getting my jazz ears in shape listening to Miles and Trane and Mingus daily as I roamed the used record bins around San Diego State University.
But what do I know, even at this late date Saturday Night Fever is the 4th largest selling album
worldwide.
One forgets that this band has had so many big hits in their
long and storied career, quite monumental by any definition. A self-contained group for the most
part, like The Beatles, who wrote all of their own hits, much less producing
and writing huge hits for so many others.
Just a few of the Gibb written hits they were a part of: “I've Got To Get A Message To You”, “Words”, "One", "Staying Alive", "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick), "Grease" (Frankie Valli), "Guilty" and "Woman In Love" (Barbra Streisand), "Chain Reaction" (Diana Ross). "Night Fever", "More Than A Woman", "Tragedy", "If I Can't Have You" (#1 for Yvonne Elliman), "Islands In The Stream" (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton). With over 2,500 covers of their tunes (400 alone for "How Deep Is Your Love") they've been interpreted by artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John, Flaming Lips, Tom Jones, Destiny's Child, Faith No More, Conway Twitty, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Joss Stone and many others. The Bee Gees were inducted in to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
ONE NIGHT ONLY, the full length version recently removed from YouTube is a worthwhile, a nearly two-hour concert which can be purchased on DVD.
This is a rare full-length concert video recorded in late
1997. Maurice died in 2003 and Barry and Robin retired the name of the band until 2008. This DVD is a
wonderful career spanning collection. Especially cool are the early tunes
“Morning of My Life”,“New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “Too Much Heaven” sung
primarily band less around one microphone with Barry’s acoustic guitar as the
main accompaniment. Great harmony singing. Also in this little break from the
huge sound is the Robin feature “I Can See Nobody”. The signature sound of the
Bee Gee’s early ballad sound was Robin’s crystal clear vibrato. Barry’s great
vocal on “Run To Me” is next with Robin hitting the chorus before the signature
3 part hook, unfortunately, they only do one verse of the tune here. Robin’s
vibrato reigns in “And The Sun Will Shine” and is followed by a killer stripped
down roar through just one verse of “Nights On Broadway” possibly my favorite
from Main Course. Makes me want to
go back and revisit that album
again after 40+ years.
Robin’s signature verse which opens “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”
was nabbed by Al Green and turned into one of the great soul covers of
all-time. Green had a real thing for the Gibb Brothers tunes as evidenced by
his original version of this tune from my Al Green blog posted here on Sept. 8, 2011 and a more recent take below. Here are some more interesting covers of signature Robin Gibb tunes.
There's a fun band in the resort town of Big Bear Lake in
the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California called SKELETON KEY BAND
("skeleton keys in the rain") and they are having their 1st Annual
ZIMMY-A-THON on June 2nd at the Skeleton Key Folk Music Center in Big Bear Lake. It's a great resort
town with lots of motels and B&Bs, a beautiful lake, hiking etc. in the
middle of the national forest only 2 hours from downtown L.A.
It's only a $5 suggested donation which helps to keep the
SKFMC alive and supporting the local roos music scene.
JUNE 2nd - 8pm-midnight
The club is all ages, no liquor and holds about 50 people so
it will be intimate and fun.
SKELETON KEY BAND will be playing the BLONDE ON BLONDE album
in it's entirety for set one and collaborating with a handful of other local
are musicians in a long 2nd set covering tunes from Bob's career. Other
featured artists include multi-instrumentalist RUSTY SMITH from L.A./Dallas,
mandolinist/singer ROY COULTER, singer/guitarist MIKE O'DONNELL,
singer/guitarist DAVID GRAHAM from Damned Good Question, acoustic duo SILVER
MOON, rock bands A FULL DECK and THE WRINGERS, raconteur ART HARRIMAN (played
on HEE HAW back in the day), and guitarist SCOTT WILLIAMS from Blind Corner.
BRAD RIESAU from the East Coast based Dylan cover band LOVE MINUS ZERO helped
co-ordinate the event and will be joining SKELETON KEY BAND and others onstage.
SKELETON KEY BAND is Bear Valley premier American Folk-Rock
ensemble. Their repertoire includes lots of early country, bluegrass,
Appalacian, Delta, Chicago Blues, psychedelic, country/rock and lots more. On
June 2 all the music performed will be written by Bob Dylan in honor of his
recent 71st birthday.
The Skeleton Key Folk Music Center is dedicated to keeping
all kinds of roots music alive and is a wonderful place for musicians and music
fans alike to network, book their own gigs and hear quality local, regional and
national artists. They recently had Texas singer/songwriter Butch Hancock in concert.
For more information contact the SKELETON KEY FOLK MUSIC
CENTER at 909-866-6064
560-B Pine Knot Ave. Big Bear Lake, CA 92314
Below are photos taken at the 5/25 and *5/26 rehearsals at the SKFMC.
Skeleton Key founder and proprietor of the Skeleton Key Folk Music Center,
Rich Spaulding. Photo by Mike O'Donnell
(l-r) Roy Coulter, Hank Kalvin, Brad Riesau. Photo by Mike O'Donnell
Skeleton Key co-founder Tom Burton on guitar and Jim Runkle. Photo by Mike O'Donnell
Skeleton Key drummer Jim "Rocko" Runkle, Photo by Mike O'Donnell
*(l-r) Rich Spaulding, Jim Runkle, Hank Kalvin, Scott Williams and Brad Riesau plahying Dylan's "Meet Me In The Morning". Photo by Tom Burton.
Skeleton Key's Rich Spaulding, guest Mike O'Donnell, Silver
Moon/Skeleton Key member Brad Riesau (l-r) playing Dylan's "All Along
The Watchtower". Photo by Tom Burton.
Bob Dylan's self-titled debut album was released on Columbia
Records on March 19th, 1962. Join us 50 years later as Delaware's premier Dylan
tribute band, LOVE MINUS ZERO, spreads the Zimmerword throughout the greater
Delaware Valley. Formed in the spring of 2009, Love Minus Zero has headlined
Dylan birthday festivals as well as prestigious venues like the Tin Angel in
Philadelphia.
LOVE MINUS ZERO & FRIENDS featuring
Mad-Sweet Pangs / Porch Chops / Chip Porter & Friends / The Sin City
Bullets / Leslie Carey / Stackabones / Pete LeRoy from The Snap / Kevin McCabe
from Mallory Square / Aaron Poole from Bullbuckers / Becca Calabrese / The Mona
Lisas
LOVE MINUS ZERO was formed in 2009 by Delaware musicians Rob Grant and Brad Riesau, but the real
genesis for the band came back in he early-90s when Grant was a frequent
customer at Rolling Thunder Records, a North Wilmington music store co-owned by
Riesau from 1987-1997.
“Rob used to come in and we’d talk for hours about music and
frequently Bob Dylan. We’d jammed together a bit over the years and when fellow
Delaware musician Nik Everett and I were musing on Facebook over the lack of a
Dylan cover band in the area, Rob chimed in that he’d love to be involved.”
After a few truncated stabs at putting something together,
Rob and Brad pulled in players they had known for years and in short order
began gigging.
“Our second gig was to headline a Dylan Birthday Bash at the
prestigious Tin Angel in Philly which we did for two years running,” muses
Grant. “From there we were hooked.”
Since Brad has recently moved back to his home state of
California after 25 years on the music scene in DE, he was inspired by the
recent Rolling Stones tribute, SHINE A LIGHT on the QUEEN and has invited many
of the participants on that sold-out show to return for a night of Bob Dylan
songs. “I really miss the DE music scene when I am not here and especially all
of my long standing friends and their bands. For me instead of just doing a
night of Love Minus Zero I thought this would be a great excuse to again share
the stage with some of my favorite talented people. I’m just sorry we didn’t
have a whole weekend of shows to do, there are so many great musicians in this
town.”
On the bill on May 11th adding their own
performances to an evening of LOVE MINUS ZERO sets will be:
MAD-SWEET
PANGS – local favorites fresh from their gig at the RamJam Arts & Music Festival!
THE
SIN CITY BULLETS – made up of members from two of the most beloved legendary
local bands,
The Sin City Band and The Bullets, this will be a rare treat.
LESLIE
CAREY – The popular Arden-based singer/songwriter will be performing some solo treats
for you all.
PORCH
CHOPS – The long-time eclectic favorites launch their celebratory 25th
year at the Queen for
this show.
CHIP
PORTER & FRIENDS – Chip, KURT HOUFF, and TONY CAPELLA from Montana Wildaxe
with some special friends
STACKABONES
– Local musician Butch Zito’s latest version of his long-time Austin/Long Island/BayArea
band takes time off of the festival circuit to add their country/jam sounds.
THE
MONA LISAS – The luminous folk/rock duo from Newark
PETE
LEROY from The Snap
AARON
POOLE from Bullbuckers
BECCA
CALABRESE – solo artist and member of The Calabrese Sisters
KEVIN
McCABE from Mallory Square
LOVE MINUS ZERO is
BRAD RIESAU on vocals, guitar and harmonica and his fellow
band mate for the past 14 years in the Porch Chops, MR. STEVIE HOBSON on vocals
and lead guitar. Bassist/vocalist ROB GRANT and LMZ drummer VINSON HENDRIX
first played together in The Cameltones which has a big following in the
Centreville/Hockessin/Chadds Ford party circuit and which hosts the annual Jam
On The Brandywine and DeadFest every summer at the Brandywine Valley
Conservancy near Unionville. JOHN DIGIOVANNI also drums with LMZ. John’s been a
fixture on the DE music scene for years and currently leads the hip jazz group
Kombu Combo. LMZ keyboardist and vocalist MARILEE “CANDY” CALABRESE will
unfortunately not be able to make the gig due to recent back surgery but will
be spotted by the talented keys and vocals of JORDAN LEITNER from the Mad-Sweet
Pangs. Original LMZ singer GUEN FINLEY will provide the gorgeous harmonies with
her sister BECCA CALABRESE both of the Chester County group The Calabrese
Sisters.
John Christopher "Chris" Ethridge was a seminal electric bass guitar player in the early days of the country/rock movement. His most famous work was undoubtedly with The Flying Burrito Brothers whose influence on generations of country and rock musicians since has been pervasive. The Byrds, Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris, My Morning Jacket, Norah Jones have all been inspired by the Burritos mixture on honky tonk, psychedelia, rhythm & blues, soul and country. Ethridge passed away last week of complications from pancreatic cancer in his hometown.
I had been planning the next in my series of blogs on CLASSIC SONGS and near the top of the list was the Ethridge/Gram Parsons composition "Hot Burrito #1 (I'm Your Toy)". A lip-synched version of the Burritos doing the tune leads the blog above. Interesting about this version is the fact that bassist Ethridge actually appears miming the drums and drummer Michael Clarke is attempting to mime playing bass. Seems the boys are getting a nice laugh out of it. The Burritos were a fun loving bunch and indeed a product of the times--their attitude was a bit twisted and tongue-in-cheek, a bit seditious and all about fun but when it came time to write and play the songs they were always serious and respectful students of the music that came before them and that influenced their landmark fusing of musical genres.
Parsons has become an iconic songwriter since his untimely death in 1973 and this gorgeously constructed tune and lyric is one of the most recorded of his songs. Ethridge also penned the moving song "She" as well as the irreverent and more boisterous "Hot Burrito #2" with Parsons. I'll post a couple of the Burrito and Gram's versions of these other songs before dropping a couple of tasty cover versions on you.
"Hot Burrito #2" from the GILDED PALACE OF SIN lp (1969)
In the foreground above that's Chris Ethridge, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman (l-r)
"She" from Gram Parsons solo lp GP (1973)
Born in Meridian, Mississippi the young musician moved west to California at the age of 17. He met up with Parsons in mid-1967 when the latter briefly re-formed the International Submarine Band and played on the band's only full-length lp, Safe At Home. While awaiting the album's delayed release, Parsons left to join The Byrds and participate in one of the most influential country/rock albums, Sweethearts of the Rodeo.
After his short-lived stint with The Byrds, Parsons with Ethridge, ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and pedal steel innovator "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow formed The Flying Burrito Brothers and made their stellar debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin. Before it's time, the album wasn't a huge succes and Ethridge left in mid-1969. Parsons to follow a year later. Though the initial Burritos band would be short-lived it would carry on with a slew of great players who would go on to form or be members of important and successful groups in the country/rock genre such as The Eagles, Firefall, Manassas, Country Gazette. after Parsons untimely death n 1973, his post-Burritos singing partner Emmylou Harris would carry the torch of his music for decades to come.
Ethridge went back to session work where he would contribute to many great albums over the next decade by artists as diverse as ex-Byrd Gene Clark, Linda Ronstadt, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge, The Doors, Paul Kantner/Grace Slick/David Frieberg, Graham Nash & David Crosby, Leon Russell, Jackson Browne, Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Randy Newman, The Byrds, Kudzu Kings, P.F. Sloan, Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield, Johnny Rivers, Bill Withers, Ronnie Milsap, David Blue, the Everly Brothers, Roger McGuinn, Maria Muldaur, Paul Davis, Delaney Bramlett, Steve Gillette, Booker T. & Priscilla Jones, George Jones, John Prine...
He would go on to tour for eight years with Willie Nelson & Family with whom he recorded four albums including the essential Willie & Family LIVE. He had a small role in the Nelson film vehicle Honeysuckle Rose and played on the soundtrack recording. Nelson employed two bassists at that time, the late Bee Spears (see sidebar below) and Ethridge. If anyone can find any video footage of Chris Ethridge and Bee Spears onstage performing together with Willie's band PLEASE send me a link. I'll post it here. Thank you.
Chris also played on three lps by eclectic slide guitarist, songwriter and musicologist Ry Cooder in the 1970s.
In 1975, Ethridge and Kleinow re-formed The Flying Burrito Brothers with fiddler/vocalist Gib Gilbeau, drummer/banjoist/vocalist Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram although he was also an ex-Byrd) and guitarist/vocalist Joel Scott Hill. The latter two had played informally in 1974 as The Docker Hill Boys. Hill and Ethridge had previously played music together shortly after Chris had moved to L.A. in the pre-ISB days. They had also recorded an album in 1971 alongside Johnny Barbata (CSNY/Jefferson Starship drummer) called L.A. Getaway.
Ethridge remained with this incarnation of the Burritos only through mid-1976 though he appears on the 1996 release Eye of the Hurricane. The live albums of the Burritos with Ethridge, From Another Time (recorded live in 1975) and Red Album: Live Studio Party (recorded in 1976) were released for the first time in 1991 and 2002 respectively.
Songs by Ethridge have been recorded by artists as diverse as Dinosaur, Jr; The Pretenders, Emmylou Harris, David-Clayton Thomas, Jefferson Starship, Belly, Big Star, The Coal Porters, McGuinn, Clarke & Hillman, Elvis Costello, Country Gazette, Norah Jones, Gene Clark & Carla Olson, Jose Feliciano, Sylvester, The Black Crowes and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Here are a couple of my favorite cover versions...
Norah Jones performs "She" live in 2004
The Black Crowes perform "Hot Burrito #1" live in 1997. I
absolutely LOVE Raul Malo's version of this song but this really
surprised me by the delicacy the Crowes brought to the tune. Sweet.
Stephen Stills & Manassas live from Amsterdam 1972. This great band featured both Chris Hillman (who is singing lead and playing rhythm guitar here I believe, Stills on lead guitar and backing vocals) and Al Perkins (pedal steel) both ex-Burritos.
Okay, one more round of great covers...I can't help myself. I have to included Elvis Costello's version of "HB #1" from the much maligned but, I believe, essential LP, Almost Blue. The night after Chris passed Elvis played a nice version of this on the road. He introduced the song mentioning that when Jim Dickinson, who had filled in a gig for Attractions' keyboardist Steve Nieve, mentioned to Elvis that Ethridge really loved that Elvis covered his tune.
Dinosaur Jr.'s take on "HB#2" increases the edge of the original as only J. Mascis can do. It was a bonus track on the 2006 re-release of the Green Mind CD. Listen for the interesting little lyric change.
Here's to you, Chris.
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DAN "BEE" SPEARS (1949-2011)
For anyone who has seen Willie Nelson perform live since 1968 you have seen Bee Spears play the bass. Nelson's Family band has been exactly that with very few changes in the core line-up since Nelson, drummer Paul English and bassist Spears left Nashville for the more tolerant confines of Austin, Texas in 1971. Struggling to make it as a performer in the music machine that was the country music business in Nashville, they headed home to Texas where the looseness of the 60s met the hard-scrabbled reality of the Texas sun and earth. Where being an individual was the norm not the road to failure. Taken his songwriting talents, his unique vocal approach and his left-of-center perspective on life, Nelson and his band mates began playing for the long-hairs and the cowboys and their neighbors alike and finally doing it their way. In short order, the burgeoning Austin music scene where like San Franciscoo a few short years before fostered an openness in the music fans where blues, rock, country, folk and Tejano music could co-mingle, interact and blossom into an overflowing bucket of new sounds. For Willie and company, the freedom bred the new hype of The Outlaw movement in country music which in reality may have been more PR than any real movement per se but which allowed a cornucopia of new and not so new musicians a chance to break beyond the endless honky tonk gigs and into some much deserved spotlights. From Austin to Lubbock to Dallas and Houston, new names were poppin' up in venues and on play lists and people like Willie, Waylon Jennings, Tompal Glaser, David Allan Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt started making some headway,
Willie's story is well-known. From Abbott, Texas to dj stint and honky tonk gigs, finally to Nashville where he had a couple of quick hits he'd written break for other people like Faron Young singing "Hello Walls" and Patsy Cline's version of "Crazy". Then there were tough times trying to get known as a recording artist himself while still pitching songs in the back room of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge to the Opry stars on their break. The move back to Austin seemed to be the right thing to do and in short order his first Gold record The Red Headed Stranger catapulted Nelson to the top of the country heap. From that time forward his Family band would tour the country insatiably, upwards of 250+ dates a year by bus. By the time "On The Road Again" and "Always On My Mind" hit the pop charts Nelson was a national icon, a movie star, a familiar talking head on TV news and talk shows.
In 1968, Bee Spears from Helotes, TX joined Willie's band and stayed until the day he died. Always over Willie's shoulder keeping one eye on Willie and one eye on the band. For me, Bee was the glue. The first time I saw Nelson back in the early 80s, I was sure that the music was horrible, someone MUST'VE been high. It seemed like no one was playing together, that Nelson was singing twelve bars behind or ahead of everyone else. That they were on a rotating stage and that I was three tequilas and a phatty into the evening didn't help. But by evening's end I realized that it was supposed to be that way. I began thinking of it like a jazz song or of the 2 hour show as one long Grateful Dead set, where things flowed and bounced off of each other and sometimes they got there and sometimes they didn't all get there at the same time. I found that if I listened to Spears bass lines, I could hear some kind of essence of what was going on. He seemed to be reacting to Nelson's idiosyncratic and jazzy behind-the-beat phrasing while goosing everyone else a bit closer to where they needed to be. I was hooked. For the next 30+ years I've been in the audience every chance I get to follow that fascinating flow. Like the Pedernales River in the hill country of Texas, things ebb and things rush and all that's important winds up down stream just where it belongs in good time.
I had the pleasure of working PR for a couple of records Willie did around the turn of the Millennium and was lucky to catch more than my usual share of shows and to spend a little time with some of the guys on the road including Bee. He was always hilarious, slyly grinning about something you may or may not get wind of eventually. A prankster of strange and wonderful measure, his friends and fans will duly miss him and the music will live on.
In addition to the hundreds of sessions he has recorded with Willie, the thousands of nights on the road playing for millions of people Bee also contributed his presence and bass to records by some of
Nelson's peers and cohorts Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Fromholtz, Guy Clark, and Buck White among them. We'll miss you amigo.
Bee doing his very best Merle Haggard...back in the day.
"BEE SPEARS, Al Perkins & Mark Dreyer Playing till the cows come home
RFD TV SONG (Never was aired) IN THE FIELD at Bee's House outro
-Porter Wagoner, LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS & HANK COCHRAN - A 10 YEAR
OLD CLIP...MDP IN MEMORY OF BEE SPEARS, Porter Wagoner & HANK
COCHRAN."
Interview and music with Bee Spears Live in Studio 23 Mark Dreyer Productions for J. Michael Miller www.NashvilleConnection.com
This is interesting. Something you would rarely the Willie Nelson band do is play instrumental music. Here is Bee stretching out with Willie band regulars Mickey Raphael (harmonica) and Billy English (here on drums, with Willie he plays percussion for a good portion of the shows and kit for a few tunes) along with Willie's old friend guitarist Jackie King (in the hat) who was at that time on the road in Willie's band. Jackie had recently recorded an album of jazz and standards that Willie had sang and played on and Willie had also recently recorded his "Night & Day" all instrumental album which was something of a tribute to the great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Here the band members join guitarist Bob Miles and keyboardist Jay Davidson for a sweet version of Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower". It's wonderful to hear Bee play like this. I remember after the show the guys being really happy about being able to go in and do things they didn't usually get to do. Look for their version of "Cantaloupe Island" and "All Blues" from the same program.
Here are three Willie & Family tunes from Amsterdam in the early part of the 2000s. This shows the fluidity of the phrasing and though you don't get to see a lot of Bee you can hear him holding things together. It is an amazing luxury for a musician to have the same band together for so long. Also nice to see Jody Payne and Jackie King with the band at this point.
Here's a wonderful tribute video put together by Bee's long-time friend David Anderson. It's long (51 minutes) and has what is noted as "mild profanity" as well as some very funny, ridiculous and off the wall verbal riffs from the mind of Bee and cohorts as well as some rare music from Bee, some great pics of family & friends and more. A wonderful tribute to an amazingly unique individual.
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Nothing more interesting than a pirate with a heart of gold and a strange, knowing glint in his eyes. Here's to ya, Bee.
