Back in the early 1980's I discovered an independent recording label based out of Palo Alto, California. Originally a folk music studio founded by Will Akerman and his wife at the time Anne Robinson the label would evolve into what came to be labeled New Age. I immediately fell in love with many of the artists such as Mark Isham, Michael Hedges, The Turtle Island String Quartet and tonight's featured group Shadowfax.
Named after Gandalf's horse from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the band was founded in 1972. Lead by Chuck Greenberg on Lyricon and other woodwinds they blended numerous musical genres into their signature sound. Over the years, until Chuck's death from a heart attack in 1995, they released a number of albums and gave numerous concerts to there fans.
Tonight I start with a half dozen live performances, opening with a short introduction by Chuck Greenberg and then follow with a number of fan generated slide shows with backed by album tracks. So sit back, relax and let the music take you to another place...
While attending Wisconsin State University, Steven's Point, in the late 1960's early 1970's, Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the two beer bars out in the woods north of campus and just north of the city limits. I no longer recall the names of the places, one was a sprawling single story structure rather L shaped with the bar in one leg of the L and the dance floor and stage in the other area. The bar across the street was built like an old barn with a loft.
At the time the statewide drinking age for beer was 18 and for wine and liqueur it was 21. However individual municipalities were allowed to set their own limits for the beer bars and in Steven's point it was 21. Needless to say, on every major road leading out of town there were several beer bars just outside the city limits. These two bars were the closest to campus and only one other bar had live music on the weekends, but it was a fair distance away on the south east side of town.
Local bands plied their stuff on those evenings as we downed pitchers of Point Special, the local brew, or some other cheap brand such as Pabst or Miller. The music was loud and raw, the dance floor was packed and the next morning was a painful haze, yet we persisted!
From a peek at Google Earth I see those bars no longer exist, the area where they were having been consumed by the campus with new buildings and sports fields, but tonight's featured performances bring back those memories of the bands and beer of my youth. Raw and rough around the edges, full of energy and a roaring good time. After all isn't that what Rock & Roll is all about? Makes me want to be 18 again!
Several weeks ago I received a comment at my YouTube channel from a guy from Vancouver calling himself SupeMan. He hosts a YouTube channel called theSupeShow and features videos of various bands at local bars, many with Supe taking to the stage in the lead vocal spot. He's the guy hiding in his hair!
Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1952, Gary Moore picked up the guitar at age eight and by his teen years began playing with the band Skid Row. This was not the glam-metal band of the same name. His association with Phil Lynott from Skid Row lead him to several stints with the Irish band Thin Lizzy after Phil moved to that band.
Mentored by Peter Green of the early Fleetwod, Mac Gary began to develop his own style of blues guitar. He eventually bought Peter Green's Les Paul guitar which became his powerhouse instrument.
Over the years, besides his solo career, he has also performed with Peter Green and likes of B.B. King, George Harrison, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, and Gregg Lake as well as a short time with the band Colosseum II.
In my humble opinion Gary was equal to or even better than the the likes of Eric Clapton and other guitar greats of the time and much under-appreciated.
Gary passed away this past week in his sleep of a suspected heart attack. Tonight I bring you a collection of his live performances over the years.
Those were the days, care free with no responsibilities other than to myself. Riding in my 1963 Ford Falcon van, cruising Hwy 1 and the high Sierra, cassette deck blasting Tim Buckley, with me singing along at the top of my lungs as I searched the next place to explore. My dog Pepper, the Horse Terrier, was always at my side riding shotgun on our excursions. I called her a horse terrier because I got her at the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Animal Shelter when she was approximately 4 weeks old. They told me she was an eight week old terrier mix, but when I got her home she couldn't even eat or drink. I had to bottle feed her for four weeks before she was weened, at which time she was larger than any terrier I had seen. When mature she weighed in at 135lbs. and would stand up, put her front feet on my shoulders and look me straight in the eye. (I'm 6'5" tall). The best bet for her true lineage was a Great Dane - Golden Lab mix.
Anyway, I digress.
Tonight's artist is one of my favorites but was taken from us much too soon. Dead of a heroine overdose at the age of 28.
Initially Tim's style was in the folk and folk rock genre, but over time it evolved into jazz and avant-garde. Sometimes it was difficult to access, but nevertheless it showcased his incredible vocal range.
Tonight I open with a number of live performances followed by other audio samples featuring slide shows and static photos.
When I was in eighth grade, the local AM station began playing songs from this new surfer band in the way the stations did back then. Over and over again, never letting the song end before injecting the next commercial over it. While I liked it a t first, I soon tired of Surfin and would change the channel when it came on. Then my friend bought the album Surfin Safari and I instantly fell in love with the song Summertime Blues, an Eddie Cochran piece.
It kind of went that way over the years that followed, I would like one or two pieces on each album but would be mildly irritated by other songs. Then in 1966, first with the issuing of Sloop John B and the subsequent release of Brian Wilson's masterpiece Pet Sounds, I finally found them frequently on my turntable.
After that I was off to college and my musical tastes took a huge turn with the likes of Pink Floyd, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendix, Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead. Needless to say, the Beach Boys became relegated to the back of the stack.
So tonight I revive those olden days of high school dances and AM radio stations and bring you The Beach Boys.
Well this totally sucks folks! YouTube has taken down all of the Don Kirshner Rock Concert videos rendering this show useless. Sorry about that! I hope you caught it before it went down.
Update 2/9/11 - Some of the videos have now been magically restored - I'll be looking for new links to fill in the blanks.
During the '70s hardly a week went by that my friends and I sat down to watch Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. The show featured live performances of all the greatest bands of the day.
In his early years Don started off writing songs for Bobby Darin, although none became hits. During that time he also met Connie Francis while doing TV commercials with Darin.
In 1958, at age 21, he teamed up with Al Nevins to form Aldon Music. Soon afterwards they were producing songs for Neil Sedaka and Connie Francis. Eventually they formed their own independent recording company producing teen hits. He also hired such greats as Carol King and Barry Mann as song writers and produced the hits of Carol King, Neil Diamond and Bobby Darin among others and discovered the rock band Kansas.
Eventually he was asked to produce music for the TV show The Monkees and after that the animated show The Archies.
Don is perhaps best know for his ground breaking TV show In Concert With Don Kirshner which with its long format live performances was a refreshing break from the over-practiced, lip-synced music shows of the time.
Don passed away earlier this week. In memory tonight I bring you a selection of performances from Don's show running the gamut from ABBA to The Ramones, from Return to Forever to Johnny Winter and everyone in between, finishing with none other than The Monkees and a surprise ending.
After work, second shift, at the Kohler Company I would return home to my house in Sheboygan and go upstairs to party with my roommate Gregg and some friends, all of whom worked second shift at various locations. On the turntable the usual finds were Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes and tonight's feature, Genesis.
This was in the early 70's while Peter Gabriel was still with the band. In keeping with my trend to lose interest as bands began to acquire pop status, so too I lost interest in them when Peter left. Not that they didn't create some good music with Phil Collins in the lead singer position, but I still feel they were most creative with Peter at the helm. My interest instead followed Peter in his early solo career, waning as he also became popular.
Therefore the videos I have selected for this evening feature those from Peter Gabriel's tenure.
Website - Primarily links to the sites of individual band members. Bio Wiki
So, I've finally gotten around to this band. I don't know why it took me so long to get to them. I was blown away the first time I heard them and have been a fan ever since. I did lose some interest in their later works, preferring their early blues/rock fusion sound, but still found nuggets in their later works.
Perhaps the following can explain them better than I can:
After the [Yardbirds] break-up, Jimmy Page was left with little more than a series of concert obligations. He started jamming with John Paul Jones, a session player, who had collaborated with likes of the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits and Dusty Springfield. The duo discussed forming a new group, but ended up delaying their plans to back Donovan on his Hurdy Gurdy LP.
After hearing of Pages' intention of starting a new band, vocalist Terry Reid suggested he hear Robert Plant. When Page got a chance to check Plant out, Jimmy not only ended up liking his voice, but also his stage presence. Plant, in turn, suggested they recruit John Bonham, the drummer of his old Birmingham group, Band of Joy. The foursome clicked so nicely that they toured Scandinavia during October 1968 under the name the New Yardbirds.
By 1969 the group changed their name to Led Zeppelin, recorded, and released their first self-titled album. Within two months the album reached Billboard's Top Ten.
......
The group broke up after the tragic death of drummer John Bonham. He died from what is medically termed as asphyxiation: inhaling his own vomit during sleep after a drinking binge. His hard-hitting style has so integral to the bands sound that the remaining members decided to call it quits. Without Bonham there could be no Led Zeppelin.
The mighty Zeppelin has experimented with several musical styles over the bands reign. Their sound began with Blues and thunderous Heavy Metal, softened to mystical Folk and tumbled into the realm of Funk, Psychedelic Rock, and the fusion and integration of all these styles. [source]
After a short delay I am here this evening to jazz things up a bit with another musician who asked to be friends through YouTube. Gianni Bardaro, composer and musician grew up in Italy and later moved throughout Europe studying the Jazz Saxophone while winning much acclaim as a band leader as well as a sideman to various other musicians.
So sit back and enjoy a change of pace here with this too short list of jazz musings of Gianni Bardaro.
My record collection consists of many early obscure albums of various artists. To a great extent I shied away from the Pop Culture stuff and tended to lose interest in bands once they claimed commercial success. Don Van Vliet was no exception.
It was 1969 and I was at a friend's house when he brought out an album with a pink cover featuring a person with an odd hat and a fish mask. The title was Trout Mask Replica, although the fish looked more like a Koi. The artist called himself Captain Beefheart. My friend informed me that the album was produced by Frank Zappa, another favorite of mine, therefore I was eager to hear it.
Upon the first play I was dazed and confused by the seemingly chaotic nature, similar to some of The Mother's of Invention's works, but even further out there. Upon subsequent listenings it grew on me as the chaos gave way to the complexity of it.
Van Vliet's style was a blend of Blues, Rock, Experimental and Psychedelic with vocals sung in his unmistakable gravely voice and is considered to have "greatly influenced" New Wave artists such as David Byrne of Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo and The B-52s.
Tom Waits' shift in artistic direction, starting with 1983's Swordfishtrombones, was, Waits claims, a result of his wife Kathleen Brennan introducing him to Van Vliet's music. "Once you've heard Beefheart," said Waits, "it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood."
Captain Beefheart and Magic Band went on to record a number of albums which, although gaining critical acclaim, never gained a large following or commercial success.
Performing with various configurations of the Magic Band through 1982, he left the music scene to concentrate on his artwork.
The Captain passed away yesterday at the age of 69 due to complications from multiple sclerosis. May he rest in peace...
Tonight I bring you a collection of his live performances followed by a documentary on his life and works and then wrap it up with a 14 minute performance with Frank Zappa. A song which I used to visualize as pertaining to the mid-evil days but now realize speaks of our current government as well - The Torture Never Stops.
A several months ago I received a friend invite through YouTube from an Australian musician by the name of Matt Gresham. I took a cruise over to his YouTube channel and was impressed by his song "Jack & Jill" which he was running on his channel at the time. So I added Matt as a friend at my channel and tonight I bring you a selection of tunes from Matt. Please bear with Matt as he performs at a number of rather rowdy bars!
