Remembering Dave Cousins & Strawbs

Photo courtesy strawbsweb.co.uk

British folk-rock innovator Dave Cousins passed away on Sunday, July 13th, 2025 after a lengthy illness; he was 85 years old.

Cousins is best known as the frontman and creative force behind the Strawbs, the ground-breaking and influential 1970s-era British rock band. Cousins and the Strawbs took on many faces over the years. The band’s first incarnation was as the Strawberry Hill Boys, a traditional bluegrass band formed in 1964 by Cousins, guitarist Tony Hooper, and bassist John Berry, who would later be replaced by double-bass player Ron Chesterman. 

The band changed its name to the Strawbs for a 1967 concert, and gradually began to move towards an original folk-rock sound fueled by Cousins’ imaginative lyrical prowess. The trio added singer Sandy Denny to the group and recorded 13 songs in Denmark for a proposed debut album, All Our Own Work. When the band couldn’t find a record deal in the U.K. Denny left to join Fairport Convention. All Our Own Work was later released in 1973 by budget label Pickwick Records, the album including one of Denny’s most beloved songs, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?,” which she later re-recorded with Fairport Convention.

The Strawbs were the first British band signed to the American A&M Records label, the trio releasing their self-titled debut album in 1969, accompanied in the studio by bassist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and pianist Nicky Hopkins. The Strawbs followed up its debut a year later with the critically-acclaimed Dragonfly, after which Chesterman left the band. The Strawbs expanded its sound, adding keyboardist Rick Wakeman, bassist John Ford, and drummer Richard Hudson for the mostly live album Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, which was the band’s first charting album, peaking at #27 in the U.K.

After recording 1971’s From the Witchwood, Wakeman left the Strawbs to join Yes, replaced by keyboardist Blue Weaver for the band’s 1972 breakthrough, Grave New World. Peaking at #11 on the U.K. charts and inching onto the Billboard ‘Top 200’ albums chart stateside, songs like Cousins’ “Benedictus” and Ford’s “Heavy Disguise” received heavy FM radio airplay. Feeling that the band was moving away from folk and deeper into rock ‘n’ roll, Hooper left after the release of Grave New World, replaced by guitarist Dave Lambert of the psych-rock band Fire.

During a short summer hiatus, Cousins recorded his 1972 solo album, Two Weeks Last Summer, with guest musicians like Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, Miller Anderson of the Keef Hartley Band, and Jon Hiseman from Colosseum as well as members of the Strawbs. Underpromoted by A&M, the album failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. Returning to the Strawbs, Cousins pursued a harder-rocking, almost proggy sound for 1973’s Bursting At the Seams, scoring hit singles in the U.K. with Cousins’ “Lay Down” and the Hudson/Ford song “Part of the Union.” The album proved to be their most commercially successful, hitting #2 in the U.K. while also charting in the U.S. and Canada. Tensions grew during the album’s supporting tour, however; afterwards Hudson and Ford left to form the pop-oriented Hudson Ford band while Weaver went to work for the Bee Gees. 

Cousins and Lambert recruited keyboardist John Hawken of the Nashville Teens and Renaissance along with bassist Chas Cronk and drummer Rod Coombes of Juicy Lucy. This is the line-up that recorded 1974’s classic Hero and Heroine and 1975’s Ghosts, the former being the last Strawbs’ album to chart in the U.K. while the latter achieved the band’s highest position on the U.S. chart, rising to #47 as the band toured heavily in North America. Released in late 1975, Nomadness found critical acclaim but continued the band’s commercial slide; it was their last album for A&M Records.

The band’s tenth album, 1976’s Deep Cuts, was released exclusively in the U.K. by Deep Purple’s Oyster Records imprint, while the following year’s Burning For You was picked up for North American distribution by Polydor Records. Cousins intended Burning For You to be the band’s swansong, but the band’s management got them a deal with Arista Records and the singer was convinced by label head Clive Davis to record one more album. Working with an unsympathetic producer for 1978’s Deadlines – one who Cousins felt didn’t understand the band – the Strawbs recorded Deadlines in Dublin, Ireland.

Disaster struck when the tapes for Deadlines were almost entirely accidentally erased; Strawbs re-recorded the songs, but as Cousins stated in the liner notes for the album’s CD reissue, the new performances failed to capture the unique flavor of the original recordings. The Strawbs completed a second Arista album in 1978, Heartbreak Hill, recorded largely without Lambert, who was working on a solo album. When Cousins decided in 1980 to leave Strawbs and get into the radio industry, the album was shelved and remained unreleased until 1995. Cousins recorded a second solo album, Old School Songs, in 1979 with guitarist Brian Willoughby. 

Invited to headline the 1983 Cambridge Folk Festival, the Strawbs’ Grave New World line-up reunited to perform with Willoughby on guitar in place of Lambert. The reunion led to a 1987 album, Don’t Say Goodbye, released by the band’s own Strawberry Hill Productions label. It was fairly quiet for the Strawbs during the ‘90s, the band releasing a single album – 1991’s Ringing Down the Years – and touring the U.K. in 1993 in celebration of their 25th anniversary. Cousins’ second album with Willoughby, The Bridge, was released in 1994. Cousins staged a 30th anniversary Strawbs reunion performance at Chiswick Park in London in 1998, which led to a relatively prolific and productive period for the band, versions of which (“Acoustic Strawbs” and “Electric Strawbs”) toured the U.K. and North America throughout the early 2000s.

The Strawbs and Cousins were both busy in the studio during this period. Cousins released a number of acclaimed solo albums, including 2002’s Hummingbird (with Rick Wakeman), 2005’s High Seas (with German guitarist Conny Conrad), 2007’s The Boy In the Sailor Suit (with Miller Anderson), 2008’s Secret Paths, and the live 2008 set Duochrome (with violinist Ian Cutler), all distributed through the Cousins’ own Witchwood Media label. The Strawbs were no slackers during this period, either, the acoustic version of the band comprised of Cousins, Willoughby, and Lambert releasing 2001’s Baroque & Roll. 

Strawbs’ 2003 album Blue Angel featured new material alongside re-worked versions of Cousins’ solo songs and 1970s-era Strawbs tunes. The album also featuring a literal Strawbs’ “Hall of Fame” of bandmembers, including Lambert, Willoughby, Blue Weaver, Richard Hudson, Chas Cronk, and Rod Coombes. The band’s 16th studio LP, 2004’s, Déjà Fou, brought John Hawkens back into the fold, and was followed by critically-acclaimed fare like Painted Sky (2006), The Broken Hearted Bride (2008), Dancing To the Devil’s Beat (2009 and featuring Rick’s son Oliver Wakeman on keyboards), Hero & Heroine In Ascencia (2011), the band’s previously-unreleased debut album Of A Time (2012), Prognostic (2014), The Ferryman’s Curse (2017), and Settlement (2021) as well as a number of live performance albums.

The Strawbs toured the U.S. in 2019 in celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary, including a three-day event in New Jersey that included former members and friends of the band like Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Larry Fast (Synergy), and singer/songwriter Wesley Stace. Cousins released his autobiography, Exorcising Ghosts: Strawbs and Other Lives, in 2014 and retired from live performances at the end of 2021 due to health reasons. 

When South African filmmaker Niel van Deventer contacted Cousins about creating a Strawbs documentary, the director wanted to film the recording of new songs at a studio in Cape Town. These sessions, featuring Cousins, Blue Weaver, and John Ford resulted in the final Strawbs’ album, 2023’s The Magic of It All. Released by U.K. label Cherry Red Records, who had bought the entire Strawbs catalog, van Deventer’s documentary film will be completed sometime in the future. Cousins and Strawbs performed their final concert in August 2023.

Dave Cousins had a unique creative vision and performance style, and he managed to record a massive body of impressive work that spans seven decades and better than two dozen live and studio albums. In my dealings with the artist, he was also the consummate British gentleman, wryly humorous and as enchanting as Strawbs’ music. He will be missed by the band’s loyal worldwide legion of fans...

 

Remembering David Johansen, R.I.P.

Former New York Dolls front man and solo artist David Johansen passed away this week after a lengthy battle with various health issues. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” his family posted on the Sweet Relief fundraising website. “After a decade of profoundly compromised health he died of natural causes at the age of 75.” A unique and charismatic performer, Johansen never quite received the commercial success his music would seem to demand, but his star continues to shine as young generation of rockers discover the infectious and energetic sound of the first two New York Dolls albums…

Born in Staten Island in 1950, Johansen was, in many ways, the quintessential New Yorker – brash, bold, and loud while performing, but with a reputation as friendly and engaging off stage. Johansen began performing in the late ‘60s, singing with a local band called the Vagabond Missionaries. Johansen later hooked up with guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets, bassist Arthur Kane, and drummer Billy Murcia, forming the New York Dolls in 1971. Rivets was later replaced by Sylvain Sylvain, going on to form proto-punk outfit the Brats. The band members weren’t necessarily serious about the Dolls, but after developing a unique musical vision that placed them firmly on the ramshackle side of the Rolling Stones, the Dolls began to developing a loyal following via raucous performances at Max’s Kansas City and the Mercer Arts Center.

The New York Dolls

The Dolls were dismissed by record labels at the time as a less-talented version of the Stones; the band’s frequent onstage vulgarity and tongue-in-cheek penchant for cross-dressing ruffles some corporate feathers, to be sure. Critics first noticed the Dolls after they opened for the Faces in England in 1972, the band subsequently touring the U.K. Tragically, Murcia overdosed on alcohol and Quaaludes during the tour, the Dolls subsequently bringing in drummer Jerry Nolan, who would later join Thunders in the Heartbreakers. Thanks to support from rock critic and Mercury Records A&R man Paul Nelson, the band received a label deal and it was arranged for musician/producer Todd Rundgren to produce the band’s self-titled 1973 debut.

With original songs penned mostly by Johansen with either Thunders or Sylvain, tunes like “Personality Crisis,” “Trash,” and “Jet Boy” created a blueprint for punk rock to follow. A lively cover of Bo Diddley’s “Pills” was provided a similar proto-punk makeover. Given a meager budget to work with, the Dolls nevertheless delivered a rock ‘n’ roll classic; The New York Dolls album was recorded for a mere $17,000 (the bulk of which was probably Rundgren’s fee). The album was deemed a commercial failure, though, peaking at #116 on the Billboard album chart, but its econo-production costs meant that it likely still made money on its 100,000+ sales. Although it has been reported that the album has only moved around 500k copies to date, it’s a steady-seller year-to-year and has since become regarded as one of the most important debut albums of all time, influencing bands on both sides of the ocean like Kiss, the Ramones, the Smiths, the Sex Pistols, the Replacements, and the Damned among many others. Mercury Records must have seen some light at the end of the tunnel, as they approved a second Dolls album.

Recorded and released in 1974 with veteran producer George “Shadow” Morton (The Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, Vanilla Fudge) at the helm, Too Much Too Soon offered a mix of band originals (“Babylon,” “Who Are the Mystery Girls?,” “Chatterbox”) largely written by Johansen and Thunders, and inspired R&B covers like “Stranded In the Jungle,” “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” and “(There’s Gonna Be A) Showdown.” Although Morton’s polished production smoothed out the band’s raw edges somewhat, critics like Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau were firmly in the Dolls’ corner; sadly, Too Much Too Soon sold less than 100k copies, but likely turned a profit as Mercury had the band lined up to record a third album. A U.S. tour in support of Too Much Too Soon turned into a disaster, with cancelled shows and increased drug and alcohol use by the band creating tensions. Subsequently dropped by Mercury, Thunders and Nolan left in 1975 to form the Heartbreakers, with Johansen and Sylvain carrying on for another year with substitute players before breaking up.

David Johansen In Style

Johansen launched his solo career with a self-titled debut album in 1978; produced by NYC ‘guy at all the best parties’ Richard Robinson along with Johansen, it was released by the CBS-distributed Blue Sky Records label associated with blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter and his manager, Manhattan club owner Steve Paul. The album included musical guests like Dolls’ guitarist Sylvain, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, singer Nona Hendryx, violinist Scarlet Rivera, and Rascals’ keyboardist Felix Cavaliere. Johansen’s critically-acclaimed sophomore effort, In Style, followed a year later; produced by former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, it featured guest musicians like Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople) and Dan Hartman (Edgar Winter Group) as well as Johansen’s old friend Sylvain.

In Style didn’t sell particularly well, but the album yielded lasting songs like “Melody,” “Swaheto Woman,” and “She Knew She was Falling in Love.” Given another bite of the apple by Blue Sky, Johansen recruited South African musician Blondie Chaplin (who had played with the Beach Boys and Rick Danko of the Band) to produce Here Comes the Night. Released in 1981, Here Comes the Night saw Johansen working closely with Chaplin to craft a more commercial sound but, when the album peaked at #180 on the Billboard chart, Blue Sky cut him loose after releasing Live It Up in 1982. The energetic and entertaining live set displayed a portion of Johansen’s enormous onstage charisma on original songs like “Frenchette,” “Melody,” “Funky But Chic” and the Dolls’ tracks “Personality Crisis” and “Stranded In the Jungle,” the album scoring a Top 30 hit with a medley of the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “It’s My Life.”

Johansen signed with Passport Records for 1984’s overlooked Sweet Revenge LP which, like virtually all of the singer’s previous albums, received widespread critical acclaim along with modest sales. Johansen had already cooked up his third act, however – the pseudonymous ‘Buster Poindexter’ – a sort of R&B revue bandleader backed by the Uptown Horns. Performing an upbeat mix of pop, swing, jump blues, and novelty tunes, Johansen scored a Top 40 hit LP with 1987’s Buster Poindexter and its single “Hot Hot Hot.” Johansen appeared frequently on Saturday Night Live as part of the house band, and a video for “Hot Hot Hot” received heavy airplay on the MTV cable network. Johansen released four albums under the ‘Buster Poindexter’ persona circa 1987-1997, each exploring a different musical style.

Coaxed by longtime Dolls fan Morrissey of the Smiths to reunite for the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, the performance by the surviving members of the band – Johansen, Sylvain, and Kane – led to a live album and DVD. Following Kane’s unexpected death of leukemia a few weeks after the festival, Johansen and Sylvain recruited guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney, and keyboardist Brian Koonin to record the 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, which was followed by several festival appearances. This Dolls line-up also recorded 2009’s Cause I Sez So; 2011’s Dancing Backwards In High Heels proved to be the band’s swansong.

David Johansen & the Harry Smiths

Johansen channeled his longstanding love of blues and folk music with the Harry Smiths, a band formed with multi-instrumentalists Brian Koonin, Larry Saltzman, and Kermit Driscoll along with percussionist Joey Baron. Named after music historian Harry Smith, whose 1952 compilation of 1920s and ‘30s country and blues music, The Anthology of American Folk Music, inspired many an aspiring musician in the 1950s and ‘60s, Johansen and the Harry Smiths released two albums – 2000’s David Johansen & the Harry Smiths and 2002’s Shaker – comprised of whip-smart covers of timeless tunes by legends like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Furry Lewis, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Sonny Boy Williams, songs that Johansen’s aging voice was more than world-weary enough to sing convincingly.

Over the years, Johansen also dabbled in acting, his expressive face and over-the-top personality leading to roles in the 1988 Bill Murray film Scrooged (as the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’), Mr. Nanny, Freejack, and Car 54, Where Are You? as well as TV shows like Miami Vice, Oz, and Bill Murray’s Netflix special A Very Murray Christmas. Award-winning filmmaker (and fellow New Yorker) Martin Scorsese directed a documentary film on Johansen for the Showtime cable network, Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which was released in April 2023. Johansen also contributed songs to several compilation albums over the years, including 1984’s A Diamond Hidden In the Mouth of A Corpse, 1994’s September Songs – The Music of Kurt Weill, 2003’s Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen, and 2005’s Jim White Presents Music From Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. He also hosted a weekly show for Sirius satellite radio called David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun.

After reading about the New York Dolls in Creem magazine – where they were honored with awards as both the “Best New Group of the Year” and “Worst New Group of the Year” in a reader’s poll – I quickly latched onto the first Dolls LP. While in high school, I’d be invited to parties at a former girlfriend’s house, knowing that I’d show up with a stack of records and, plied with a six-pack of beer, would gladly play DJ all night. As my classmates paired up and disappeared up a hill for extracurricular activities, I’d slap on the New York Dolls album…I got all the way through side one once before somebody came down the hill and demanded that I change the record to something like Billy Joel. I remained a steadfast Dolls fan ever since, and I’ve seen initial dismissal of the New York Dolls as low-rent clones of the Rolling Stones give way to acceptance as one of the most groundbreaking bands in rock ‘n’ roll history.

David Johansen may never have gotten rich, or even received anything more than a modicum of commercial success, but his work with the Dolls and his underrated solo albums continue to find new converts to this day. His music has influenced a heck of a lot of people, which is more than you can say about many of those that came before and after the Dolls. Johansen is a legend and his death makes the world of rock music far less interesting. R.I.P.

Funkateer T.M. Stevens, R.I.P.

Word comes from our friend, blues guitarist Eric Gales, that funk innovator T.M. Stevens passed away on March 10th, 2024 at the age of 72 after a lengthy battle with dementia. Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve likely heard the talented and influential bassist play on records by legends like James Brown, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, and the Pretenders, among many others. Stevens also enjoyed a lengthy solo career, as well as playing in bands like Vai (with hot-shot git-slinger Steve Vai), Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, and Temple of Soul (with the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons).

Born Thomas Michael Stevens in July 1951, the young musician was attracted to music at a young age. “I was born in the Bronx, where hip-hop was invented,” Stevens told me in a 2002 interview, “there’s a lot of rich culture here.” A young Thomas Stevens was barely in his teens when he first picked up a guitar. “I was in the Boy Scouts and the scout leader of my troop loved the guitar,” remembers Stevens. “In particular, he loved jazz and he’d go ‘I need somebody to play with me.’ I’d say, “I can’t play,’ and he said ‘well let me coach you a little bit.’ So, I went to his house after the scout meetings and he’d show me the chords.”

Accompanying his scout leader, Stevens began his musical education. “He was a Wes Montgomery freak and he’d start playing and I’d try to play these chords behind him,” says Stevens, “but I noticed that I was gravitating more towards what I didn’t realize then was the bass, what the bass player did. Before you know it, the bass took me, I didn’t choose it.” The young bass player worked after school and on weekends to buy his first guitar. “I used to work in a senior citizen’s home, washing dishes, and saved up while I was going to high school, and saved up and finally bought my first bass…and I still have it,” says Stevens. “Back then, I didn’t have any money, so I carried it around in the box that it came in until it disintegrated. I’d show up with that raggedy box but I’d pull out that bass and start wailing on something.”

The second stage of Stevens’ musical education came in the streets. “I was too young to play clubs so we played ‘after hours,’ clubs in the Bronx that opened up when the clubs closed,” says Stevens. “All the bartenders, streetwalkers, the pimps and whoever wanted to party would come to these clubs. Because they were illegal clubs, it didn’t matter that I was underage. These were the people who encouraged me to play. They called me ‘young blood,’ they’d say ‘young blood, you’re sounding better and better. I like the way you played that James Brown,’ and they’d give me a ten-dollar tip, to encourage me.”

Stevens attended college as a medical lab tech major but dropped out to purse his dreams. “It was struggle city,” says Stevens, recalling his difficult early days as a musician. “I played the amateur hour at the Apollo and I had this raggedy amp and it just wouldn’t go, so the house manager started playing bass along with me to help me sound better,” says Stevens. “We didn’t have the gear, there was some falling on our face just like anybody struggling to get up there. Then I got this play, Your Arms Too Short To Box With God, written by Vinnette Carroll, it was a black musical. I auditioned for the play and we went into the rehearsal studio and the guy asked ‘can you read music’ and I said ‘yeah!’ knowing I couldn’t read a thing. We got into rehearsal and I would watch the piano player, this gospel piano player, and I’d watch his left hand and I picked up his bass line, so I fooled them for a month. They realized that I couldn’t read the music, but they kept me on because they said that they loved my spirit.”

Performing with Your Arms Too Short To Box With God, Stevens came to the attention of singer, songwriter, and producer Narada Michael Walden. “We did a matinee on a Saturday and we were right across the street from a percussion center,” remembers Stevens. “Walden was going in to buy some drums or something and I was introduced to him and we liked each other. The next thing I knew, I was giving up a nice salary, a constant salary, for a whole lot less money to go out on the road. But I did it, went out on the road opening for Billy Cobham, that was my first band.” The association with Walden would pay off in experience and in status, Stevens co-writing the Top Ten R&B hit “I Shoulda Loved Ya” with Walden in 1979. Stevens later played bass on the legendary 1981 self-titled album by Space Cadets alongside P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

Constant touring as a hired gun would lead to further session work for the talented bass player. “New York at the time was a fertile field for talent. There were so many sessions,” Stevens remembers. “We couldn’t keep up – I used to do four or five sessions a day. Somebody called me to try me on one session because I had co-written Narada’s hit and they loved it. From one I went to the next to the next to the next.” One of Stevens’ early sessions was playing with one of his idols, the legendary James Brown on sessions for Brown’s 1986 Gravity LP, which yielded the Top 10 hit single “Living In America.”

“The James Brown record was also my vocal debut,” remembers Stevens. “I did the bass, but I wanted to stay and see what Mr. Brown was going to do because he’s a hero! The background singers got caught in traffic and they needed the backgrounds done, so that he could get his parts on. Dan Hartman was producing, told me to stand up and sing. I said, ‘I’m not a singer,’ he said ‘you are now!’ So, I put some headphones on and sang ‘living in America’ and James said ‘that was great!’ I wasn’t thinking, I had no experience singing, and ended up singing background on the entire record along with playing bass. When the record came out and it was such a big hit, I started singing lead and I haven’t shut my mouth since!”

After better than ten years of sometimes-lucrative session work, Stevens began to think about pursuing his own artistic vision. Stevens’ solo debut, titled Boom, was released in 1985 in Japan and Germany, and made quite an impact. “My first album came out and it was so unusual. You have your guitar heroes, and bass is generally a more supportive instrument. If you stop to think about it, there aren’t that many bass players leading bands,” says Stevens. “You have Larry Graham, Doug Pinnick from King’s X, Phil Lynott, there’s not so many. So, I came up at a time when there was nobody, especially anybody playing funk, so I had my own little niche. That’s how it took off.”

The modest success of Boom led to subsequent tours of Japan and Europe and the release of Stevens’ 1996 album Sticky Wicked and a third album, Radioactive, in 1999. With 2001’s Shocka Zooloo, Stevens created a style that welded elements of P-Funk and Sly Stone with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones that he called “heavy metal funk.” Stevens recruited a top-flight crew of imaginative players to back his flights of musical fancy on the album, including guitarists Stevie Salas, Al Pitrelli (Megadeth), and Chris Caffery (Savatage); and drummer Will Calhoun (Living Colour). While the album – his first stateside release – didn’t make much of a commercial splash, it served a much deeper purpose for the artist. “I was able to make it naturally, so whatever success it has or doesn’t have, I’m fulfilled as an artist,” says Stevens. “I was able to put down on tape what I felt. If people are digging it, it’s like the cherry on top of the soda!”

Stevens recorded one album with Temple of Soul – 2008’s Brothers In Arms – with Clarence Clemons, Walden, and Vernon “Ice” Black, and he hooked up with guitarist Pat Travers and drummer Carmine Appice as a power trio, releasing the It Takes A Lot of Balls in 2004 and a live album documenting a House of Blues performance in 2005. Throughout much of the 1990s and ‘00s, Stevens paid the bills through his studio work, contributing his fluid and funky bass lines to albums by artists as diverse as Billy Joel (the chart-topping River of Dreams), 2Pac (the posthumous The Rose That Grew From Concrete), Taylor Dayne (Soul Dancing), Cissy Houston (He Leadeth Me), and fellow fat-string maestro Victor Wooton (Soul Circus). Stevens’ last recording credit was a 2008 live album with the Headhunters, Herbie Hancock’s backing band.

Whether he was playing rock, funk, jazz, R&B, pop, heavy metal, or even gospel music, Stevens imbued every performance with a deft hand, his vast musical knowledge, and no little passion. That Stevens never achieved mainstream stardom with his innovative and entertaining solo albums is less the bassist’s fault than a judgement on the music industry’s lack of vision. Nevertheless, T.M. Stevens enjoyed a career that spanned four decades, lending his immense talents to some of the biggest records of the era.

All quotes above are from my 2002 interview with Stevens for Alt.Culture.Guide™ music zine 

Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul with T.M. Stevens, photo courtesy of Little Steven

 

The View On Pop Culture: Remembering The Man In Black (2003)

The Man In Black: Johnny Cash

In the early morning of September 12, 2003, the world of music lost a larger-than-life icon in Johnny Cash. Known the world over as the “Man In Black,” Cash, along with Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan, was one of the four most important figures in American music during the last fifty years. Cash had been sick for a long time with various ailments, but he faced his illness with humor and determination and had continued to sing and work in the studio almost until the day that he died. The death of his beloved wife June Carter Cash back in May, however, was a blow that he could not recover from and it could be said that Cash died as much from a broken heart as he did his physical infirmities.

The first live concert that I ever saw was Johnny Cash. It was back in 1969 at the Gannon College auditorium in Erie, Pennsylvania with the Statler Brothers and Carl Perkins opening the show. It was an eye-opening evening and was responsible for a lifelong infatuation with music. This was at the beginning of Cash’s mainstream fame. Sure, he had enjoyed dozens of successful records throughout the late ‘50s and early-to-mid-‘60s but it was his television show, running for two seasons from 1969 through 1971 that made Cash a household name.

Cash was born in rural Arkansas in the throes of the Great Depression. Inspired by the country songs he heard on the radio, Cash began singing and writing songs at the age of 12, but it wasn’t until he served in the Air Force during the Korean War that he taught himself to play guitar. After being discharged from the service, Cash married a woman from Texas and moved to Memphis, where he took a radio broadcast course on the GI Bill. At night Cash fronted a trio with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, playing country songs.

A 1955 audition with Sun Records brought the young Cash to the attention of Sam Phillips, famed producer and the man who discovered Elvis. Cash auditioned as a gospel singer and was rebuffed by Phillips, who told him to come back with something more commercial. Cash soon came back with “Hey Porter,” which, coupled with “Cry Cry Cry,” became Cash’s first country hit. For the next three years, Cash knocked down a number of hits for the Memphis label, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line” and “Give My Love To Rose.” Cash made his first appearance on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry in 1957, dressed entirely in stark black at a time when rhinestones were the style in country music.

With another of his characteristic misjudgments, Phillips refused to allow Cash to record a gospel album and was unwilling to increase his royalty rates (keep in mind that Elvis was long gone from Sun by this time). Cash subsequently jumped to Columbia Records, where he enjoyed a long association and a string of hits that would stretch from the late-50s through the mid-70s, songs like “Ring of Fire” and “Five Feet High and Rising.” However, the rigors of 300 nights a year on the road and Cash’s use of amphetamines eventually led to legal problems, health issues and erratic behavior that saw Cash get booted off the Opry stage and eventually led to his divorce from wife Vivian.   

It was June Carter, scion of country royalty the Carter Family, who came to Cash’s rescue. Introduced originally by Elvis Presley (Carter was also managed by Colonel Parker), June was married at the time to singer Carl Smith. Cash and Carter became good friends and when he moved to Nashville and Carter was divorced from Smith, she helped Cash kick his drug problem and introduced him to her Christian faith. The two were married in 1968 after Cash proposed on stage and the two were virtually inseparable ever since.

Also in 1968, Cash released what was to become his most popular album at the time, Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, the album selling better than 500,000 copies (a lot in those days) and crossing over to the pop charts. A year later, Cash followed up with Johnny Cash At San Quentin, which yielded the hit single “A Boy Named Sue.” Cash sat in on Bob Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline and invited the singer/songwriter to appear on the first episode of his television show in 1969. During the next few years, Cash dabbled in movies, published an autobiography, and continued to score hits such as “One Piece At A Time” and “(Ghost) Riders In the Sky.” In 1980 Cash became the youngest member of the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

During the ‘80s, however, Cash’s star began to dim, his style of traditional country eclipsed by younger stars and gradually ignored by radio. A musical collaboration with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson titled The Highwaymen found mild success in 1985, though the album has since become considered a country classic. In 1986, Rick Blackburn of Columbia Records won the scorn of Cash fans across the planet when the label unceremoniously dumped the aging star from its roster. A brief association with Mercury Records produced little of value and in 1992, after almost 40 years of success, Cash found himself unable to get a record deal in Nashville.

Salvation came in the unlikely form of producer Rick Rubin. The founder of American Recordings, Rubin was best known for his work with rap and hard rock bands. However, he eagerly signed Cash to a deal in 1993, launching a career revival that has yet to end. Pairing Cash’s faltering baritone with a mix of contemporary songs and traditional favorites, often delivered with bleak acoustic instrumentation, the series of Rubin-produced albums earned Cash a young audience made up of rebellious punks, metalheads, and Goth kids who appreciated the singer’s passion and powerful delivery. The fourth collaboration between Rubin and Cash, titled American IV: The Man Comes Around, was released in 2002 to widespread critical acclaim. Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” propelled the album to nearly a million copies sold and several MTV Video Award nominations.     

A lot has been written about Cash in the days since his death, mostly focusing upon his success in country music or his relationship with June Carter. Most of those telling the stories, however, missed some of the subtleties about the man and artist. Cash was a great songwriter, his work championing the working man, the downtrodden and the needy. But he also recognized great songwriting, which led him to buck the Music Row establishment and record songs by rockers like Bob Dylan or struggling songwriters like Kris Kristofferson. Cash was a great live performer, a charismatic and powerful presence who took total control of the stage. However, he wasn’t afraid to share his stardom to give a little rub to friends like Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Marty Robbins, or the Statler Brothers. Cash is the only artist honored by inclusion in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

On the day of his death, the phone lines at Nashville’s talk radio stations lit up with people remembering the “Man In Black.” It seemed as if everybody in the Music City had a story to tell about Cash, every one without exception telling of the man’s great humor and kindness and humanity. Johnny Cash was a giant among men and even in death his legacy continues to inspire and comfort both those who knew him and those who knew his music… (View From The Hill, 2003)

Outlaw Country Legend Mojo Nixon, R.I.P.

I first met Kim Buie, the underrated Island Records A&R genius who guided both Drivin’ N Cryin’ and Tom Waits to some of the best work of their careers, while she was working for the legendary Enigma Records label. Mojo Nixon was one of the better-selling artists among the label’s impressive roster of punk, metal, and fringe performers, falling somewhere in between John Trubee and Zoogz Rift as one of the most original and unique musicians to make a record in America.

Kim turned me onto the first Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper album, 1985’s Free, Drunk and Horny, before she ended up moving from L.A. to Nashville for a job with Jack Emerson’s Praxis organization. I spoke with Mojo several times, usually while drinking beer at some Nashville bar. I came up with the Ed Anger/Mojo Nixon myth, a story that subsequently spread across the country, fueled partially by Mojo himself. This is the only interview that survived our many conversations, originally appearing in the November 1990 issue of Nashville’s The Metro music magazine.

Sadly, Mojo (nee Neill Kirby McMillan Jr.) passed away on Wednesday, February 7th from a “cardiac event” while on the Outlaw Country Cruise, where he had performed the night before. Nixon was 66 years old and enjoyed a full life as a beloved cult-rocker, occasional actor, radio DJ, and Americana iconoclast. Mojo will long be remembered for his contagious humor, quick wit, and rowdy, charismatic demeanor. R.I.P.

His origins are shrouded in mystery. From whence he comes, no one really knows…except for Mojo, and he’s not talkin’. Rumor has it that he comes from Pigfoot, Louisiana, while others say he grew up on the East Coast. Still others have said that he’s the long-lost twin brother of the Beat Farmers’ Country Dick. Yes, rumors abound, but one thing is for certain…Mojo Nixon and Weekly World News columnist Ed Anger have never been photographed together…but more about that later.

Mojo’s on his way to Nashville, you know, set to headline a massive all-ages show along with the Dead Milkmen and the Cavedogs. The enigmatic Mr. Nixon is overcome with joy at his impending return to the Music City. “I just wrote a song that I was thinking of pitching to Nashville,” says Mojo. It’s called ‘I’m Addicted To ESPN, The Total Sports Network Is My Friend.’” Does Mojo harbor aspirations towards becoming a Music Row songwriter and country performer?

“That’ll be when I start my stock car racing career,” says Mojo. “Eventually there’ll be some sign from above or below that the rock ‘n’ roll thing has run its course. Then I’ll move back to North Carolina, where I grew up, and begin racing stock cars and I’ll make my Nashville debut. But I don’t think that Jimmy Bowen will be involved,” he adds, “Jack Clement, possibly, but not Jimmy Bowen…”

Nixon will be returning to Nashville as part of a tour in support of his latest vinyl triumph, Otis, a “big, large, stupid slab of vibrating thingamajig,” says Mojo. “We recorded it in Memphis with Jim Dickinson,” he continues, “who produced our last album. I got…somebody described it as ‘The All-Gator Band’…I describe it as the first post-cowpunk supergroup, with John Doe (X), and Country Dick of the Beat Farmers, Bill (Davis) from Dash Rip Rock, and Eric (Ambel) from the Del-Lords. We just got down there and drank a few beers and just started rocking and rolling. We had a lot of fun!”

Otis is the first record Nixon has recorded without partner Skid Roper; a mature, fully-realized exercise in musical mayhem and lyrical madness as only Mojo can deliver. “I wanted to make a much more rock ‘n’ roll album than I had before,” says Mojo. “I made five albums with Skid and each one of those is much more advanced than the last. The first one was just totally primitive; we did it on a four-track cassette. We didn’t even know that we were doing an album…they were supposed to be demos in case we ever did an album.”

To be sure, that first Mojo and Skid disc, Free, Drunk and Horny, contained some Mojo classics, gems such as “Jesus At McDonald’s” and “Rockin’ Religion.” “Yeah, it’s got some ‘stream-of-consciousness’ on it,” says Mojo. “A lot of people say to me, ‘well, I like the first album’ or ‘I like the second album.’ I think that there’s a natural order to things. I had to do the first two albums to get to ‘Elvis Is Everywhere’ and I had to do the next two albums to get to ‘Don Henley Must Die.’ Sooner or later, this adding stuff will peter out and I’ll just go back to me and a guitar. It’s a process you have to go through and I don’t want to miss any of the steps. You know, sooner or later, I may have a hit in spite of my own stupid self!”

Mojo is known for tossing lyrical arrows at a wide range of targets. Otis pokes fun at or insults everyone from George Bush down to Don Henley. “There was some controversy even before the record came out on the Don Henley thing,” says Mojo of “Don Henley Must Die.” “My point is that rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be wild and crazy and free and fun and anarchy and sex and pandemonium and drive-in movie theaters with fake-I.D. beer! What the hell is Don Henley doing? Not that he’s not talented…but VH-1 is wide-open. Why not go there and stay?”

Most of the targets of Mojo’s musical missiles have been quite, shall we say…understanding. “They’re supposed to be funny, not hate-filled or anything,” says Mojo, “not even the most hate-filled ones. I don’t know Don Henley or Phil Collins or Sting…they might be good race car drivers for all I know, but it’s unlikely.” MTV’s Martha Quinn, an early recipient of a Mojo barb with the song “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin” actually brags about the encounter…

“Martha Quinn,” says Mojo, “I never talked to Martha but I just heard that she was on TV talking about the song just recently, says that she was the only VJ to have a song written about her.” Of others, Nixon says, “Debbie Gibson took it all in stride and Michael J. Fox…well, I’m not worried about him because he’s near dwarf-sized. What’s he going to do, hire somebody to beat me up? Get together with Prince and beat me up…a bunch of short guys whuppin’ up on me?!”

Mojo’s music is an eclectic blend of talking blues, old time R&B, and roots-rock. Says Mojo of influences, “the kind of John Lee Hooker, front-porch Delta blues thing is a big influence, as is Hunter Thompson’s ‘railing at the gods’ kind of thing, railing at the absurdities and injustices; and a lot of your basic rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues stuff that I derived out of Otis Redding, out of the gospel church…”

“I was thinking the other day,” says Mojo, “that rock ‘n’ roll seems to have forgotten somebody like Roger Miller. I think that he won something like six Grammys. He’s a funny guy and also a musical guy. There’s a long tradition in country and R&B of people who were funny but musical, whether it was Jerry Reed or the Coasters or the Big Bopper…you could name a whole slew of them. The concept that these were novelty acts or whatnot…well, the Coasters went to number one, as did Roger Miller. Somewhere along the way, rock ‘n’ roll forgot this.”

Rock ‘n’ roll as a corporate entity has pretty well led to a cultural decline for, says Mojo, “the same reasons that the hamburgers at McDonald’s taste like cardboard compared to a hamburger at some Joe Bob’s hamburger stand that they run themselves. It’s a big business, a big corporate thing and they’re going for the lowest common denominator to sell the most units they can. They don’t give a flying fuck about whether it’s good or not!”

In a climate such as this, Nixon continues to deliver sincere, heartfelt, if decidedly non-mainstream discs to his adoring fans. Says Mojo, “I’m pretty much determined to have success on my own terms. People in suits recognize quickly that I have some talent that can be exploited, but none of them seems to have any clue as to how to do that. Until one of them does, I’m just going to keep doing what I do.”

As for the question of Mojo’s involvement with the pseudonymous Mr. Anger, well, let’s just check the facts, shall we. Ed Anger writes a column of patriotic, right-wing pap called “My America” in the Weekly World News tabloid, a column that many believe to be done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Nixon has been known to comb the very same scandal sheet for song ideas, even going so far as to lifting headlines for song titles.

So how about it Mojo, what’s the scoop on you and Ed? “Some people think that we may be the same person,” says Mojo, “I’ve never seen me and Ed in the same room together! I’ve been pig-biting mad myself, you know.” The answer to this mystery? “Possibly aliens are channeling my energies and turning them into Ed’s column,” says Mojo. ‘Nuff said… (1990)

MC5's Brother Wayne Kramer, R.I.P.

Wayne Kramer is a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll legend. As guitarist for Detroit’s MC5, Kramer was part of an anarchic, creative band that was a major inspiration for both the late ‘70s punk revolution and the early ‘90s alternative rock movement. Kramer’s four late ‘90s solo albums recorded for the independent Epitaph label with members of bands like Bad Religion, The Melvins, and Claw Hammer only added to his already considerable musical legacy.

The guitarist also recorded albums with Johnny Thunders (Gang War), British rock legend Mick Farren (Death Tongue), Brian James of the Damned (Mad About the Racket), and former MC5 manager John Sinclair (Full Circle), among others. Perhaps the most exciting album that Kramer recorded aside from the MC5 was the 1996 Dodge Main album, a sort of Motor City “homecoming” with Kramer, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, and Scott Morgan of the Rationals and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band.

Kramer passed away this week at the age of 75 after a brief fight with pancreatic cancer. This phone interview was published in 1997 in my R Squared music zine.

It has become somewhat of a cliché, but in practice, Wayne Kramer is usually referred to as a “legend.” It would be much more accurate, perhaps, to label him as a survivor. As guitarist for Detroit’s notorious and influential MC5 – musical mouthpiece for the revolutionary White Panther Party – Kramer made it through the tumultuous ‘60s alive, if not unscathed. He’s lived through poverty, drugs, and prison to emerge from the other end of despair. Picking up the guitar again during the ‘80s for a series of musical collaborations with folks like Johnny Thunders and Mick Farren, it wasn’t until Kramer’s mid-‘90s emergence as a significant solo artist that he’d begun to forge his own identity and earn the critical respect he’s always deserved.

“For me, I didn’t really have a choice,” Kramer says of his chosen career path, “this is what I have to do. I’ve been confused about a great many things in my life, but I’ve never been confused about my reason to exist. It’s always been to do this work, to play this music. In the end, to hopefully share something with other people like they have shared with me...the things that I’ve gotten from great music, from great art. That sense that maybe I’m not alone, maybe I can spread that idea to someone else, that maybe they’re not alone, hopefully to leave the place a little nicer than I found it.”

After stints in New York and Nashville, Kramer ended up in Los Angeles, writing the songs that would eventually become 1995’s The Hard Stuff, his first album of three so far for Epitaph Records and the one that many consider his comeback effort. With backing from the L.A. band Claw Hammer and guest performances from a literal “who’s who” of punk rock (including inspired liner notes by Henry Rollins), The Hard Stuff is an excellent album, brimming with energy and lyrically exciting songs. Kramer quickly followed up with Dangerous Minds in 1996. The powerful Citizen Wayne is this year’s model, a stripped-down, hard-rocking, saber-rattling menace of an album. Lyrically, Citizen Wayne covers everything from Kramer’s MC5 days, the ‘60s and prison, to the struggle for human dignity and economic justice. Musically, it features a potent brew of hard rock, metal, punk, and free-form jazz that few artists have the talent to even attempt, much less make it work like Kramer is able to.

As one of the few icons of the ‘60s still standing, what are Kramer’s memories of the era? “They were exciting and romantic, but they were dangerous. You never knew when something bad was going to happen. You never knew what direction it was going to come from. If it wasn’t the police, it was the right wing – the ‘America, love it or leave it,’ John Birch Society – you add to that mix the volatile passions of the day, the militant rhetoric, and the fact that most everybody was high on acid most of the time, it was a time that was unique. That’s one of the things that I tried to do with Citizen Wayne, to try and grab a snapshot of what it was like. Songs like “Down On the Ground” or “Back When Dogs Could Talk,” that sense of limitless possibilities, that we could change the world, that there could be a new kind of politics, a new kind of music.”

The Motor City seems a strange place to grow musical legends like the MC5 or Iggy and the Stooges. What was it about Detroit that allowed for this kind of musical phenomena? “I think it was that there were jobs there,” says Kramer. “There was work, and there was kind of a boomtown atmosphere, a sense that we could do anything in Detroit. If you wanted it built, manufactured, fabricated, we could do it in Detroit. People worked hard for their money and they wanted their bands to work hard. We carried that work ethic to the band and in the kind of music that we liked. It was what we called ‘high energy’ music. It was a visceral music, it was not a pretty, delicate music; it was a hard music. It was the music of James Brown, the avant-garde free jazz movement, Chuck Berry, and the rhythm section at Motown. Later, it was the music of the Who and the Yardbirds, that was experimental and pushed things.”

In many of the songs on Citizen Wayne, as well as his previous solo work, Kramer treads on political ground that is anathema to rock artists these days. With a perspective every bit as radical today as it was in 1969, Kramer is not afraid to take an artistic stand. “The wage and wealth gap is the human rights issue of today,” he says. “We don’t have the war in Vietnam now; we don’t have the generation gap. What we have is the difference between wealthy people and all the rest of us. I don’t believe that any thinking person can be an optimist today. I do believe that we are prisoners of hope. One sign that I see as really hopeful is that the unions are coming back.”

After touring throughout 1997 to support Citizen Wayne, Kramer will begin work on writing the soundtrack album for a proposed movie version of Legs McNeil’s history of New York punk, Please Kill Me. Afterwards, Kramer’s future is wide open. “My plan is to do an album a year for the next ten years, do a tour every year,” he says. “Music is not the kind of thing that is tied to being young. It’s something that you can continue to do through your thirties, your forties, your fifties...and continue to do it with meaning and passion. For me, my plan is to ‘do the work.’ That’s what living is all about. Push this music and sound into a more pure sonic dimension and try to write some good songs, tell some of the stories of what it’s like to be alive in this time and this place.” Like the true survivor that he is, Kramer works to create something that will live on beyond his brief time here. “Ultimately,” he says, “maybe I can become a blip on the horizon of our day.”

Also on That Devil Music:

Wayne Kramer’s Citizen Wayne CD review

Wayne Kramer’s The Hard Stuff CD review

Blues Singer Michael Ledbetter, R.I.P.

We're saddened to report on the death of blues singer Michael Ledbetter, an incredible talent who was only 33 years old at the time of his passing.

Ledbetter came to prominence singing with Chicago blues veteran Nick Moss's band, first appearing on record the Nick Moss Band's critically-acclaimed 2014 album Time Ain't Free. Ledbetter toured with the NMB through the band's 2016 album From the Root to the Fruit, spending seven years with Moss before striking out on his own. Ledbetter would leter form the Welch Ledbetter Connection with guitarist 'Monster' Mike Welch, releasing the Right Place, Right Time album in 2017.

On his Facebook page, Moss wrote "my little brother shone brighter than the flames he left behind when he walked off the stage." The best way to remember Ledbetter's enormous talent is hear him sing. These videos provide a taste of what the blues world has lost. R.I.P.

For more on Michael Ledbetter, check out Marty Gunther's interview with the artist from the October 2018 issue of Blues Blast magazine...

American music legend Tony Joe White, R.I.P.

Tony Joe White 2018, photo courtesy Yep Roc Records

Singer, songwriter, and American music legend Tony Joe White has passed away at the age of 75 years according to his record label Yep Roc Records and confirmed by his family. A heart attack is said to be the cause of death.

White was a prolific songwriter and recording artist with sixteen studio albums, four live albums, and 29 singles to his name including “Polk Salad Annie,” the 1969 hit that would become his signature song. White’s career spanned 50+ years as he plumbed the depths of American music with an enduring blend of roots-rock, country, blues, and country music that would influence an entire generation of young singer/songwriters.

As a songwriter, White’s songs were recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, and Dusty Springfield, among many others. In addition to “Polk Salad Annie,” which has been covered by over a dozen artists, White wrote “Rainy Night In Georgie,” which became a #4 chart hit in 1970 for R&B star Brook Benton. The song has since been recorded by a number of country, blues, soul, and even reggae artists.

White never scored another big hit after “Polk Salad Annie” and his career struggled during the late 1970s and well into the ‘80s until he was asked to produce a single track for Tina Turner’s 1989 album Foreign Affair. White ended up contributing four songs to the album, including the title track and the hit single “Steamy Windows,” as well as playing guitar and harmonica on the tracks. The success of Foreign Affair (over six million copies sold worldwide) rejuvenated White’s career, and he continued to tour and record until his death.

Tony Joe White 1970, photo courtesy Monument Records

White’s original and pioneering style of Americana won him a new audience during the past decade, and he recorded three critically-acclaimed albums for Yep Roc Records, including Bad Mouthin’, which was released in September 2018. Bad Mouthin’ included six original songs by White as well as a cover of the Elvis Presley hit “Heartbreak Hotel” and several blues standards including songs by Charley Patton and John Lee Hooker. The album was produced by his son, Jody White.

In a state about White’s passing, Glenn Dicker, co-founder of Yep Roc Records said, “Tony Joe White was a true American original. In everything he did he did it with his own unique voice. There was a gentle ease and flow that vibrated from the man. Always a positive vibe. We have been very fortunate to have been able to work with Tony Joe over these past few albums and years. We’re grateful for all the wonderful music…and the hangs. We love you Tony Joe!”

Rolling Stone magazine’s Tony Joe White obituary

Chicago Blues Legend Otis Rush, R.I.P.

Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush

The Blues Foundation and Rolling Stone magazine are both reporting on the death of Chicago blues legend Otis Rush, who passed away on Saturday, September 29th, 2018 from complications arising from a stroke the guitarist suffered in 2003. Rush was 84 years old and had been unable to perform for several years.

Otis Rush is revered by hardcore fans, but is virtually unknown outside the blues world. This in spite of the fact that his unique guitar style and hearty, soulful voice influenced a generation of blues artists and would factor heavily in the sound of rockers like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Michael Bloomfield, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among many others. Indifferent or underfunded record labels and bad contracts, erratic behavior, mediocre live performances, and poor management have prevented Rush from taking his rightful place as one of the greats of the Chicago blues.

Born and raised in Mississippi, the left-handed Otis Rush learned the rudiments of blues harp and guitar, which he played upside down, while still a youth. Rush moved to Chicago in 1948 and, inspired by the electric Delta blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, was performing in South Side and West Side clubs by the age of 20. Rush’s expressive fretwork and powerful vocals brought him to the attention of Willie Dixon, who signed the guitarist to Cobra Records.

Rush hit it out of the ballpark with his first side for Cobra, “I Can’t Quit You Baby” quickly rising to #6 on the Billboard magazine R&B chart in 1956. Subsequent singles for the label performed nearly as well, songs like “Double Trouble,” “All Your Love,” and “My Love Will Never Die” becoming staples of Rush’s live show for decades and, along with fellow guitarists Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, Rush helped to define and popularize the West Side Chicago blues sound.

When Cobra Records went bankrupt in 1959, Rush followed his producer Dixon over to Chess Records. The label recorded eight songs on the guitarist between 1960 and ‘62, but only released one lone single, the classic “So Many Roads, So Many Trains.” Dismayed by the lack of support from Chess, Rush jumped to rival Duke Records, which also released just one single, the houserockin’ “Homework” (later covered by the J. Geils Band). Although his fortunes in the recording studio were waning, Rush’s live performances were in high demand, and he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival.

In 1965, Rush had the rare good luck to have five songs included on Vanguard’s seminal Chicago/The Blues/Today! compilation album, which brought the guitarist’s unique sound to an appreciative rock music audience. Guitarist Mike Bloomfield, of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, convinced his manager Albert Grossman to take Rush on as a client. With a deal from Atlantic Records’ Cotillion subsidiary in their pocket, Bloomfield and fellow blues-rock guitarist Nick Gravenites produced Rush’s Mourning For The Morning album in 1969. The pair failed to capture the guitarist’s incendiary performance style on tape and when the album suffered from lackluster sales, the label dropped Rush.

Undaunted, Grossman grabbed a deal for the guitarist with Capitol Records, and Gravenites went back into the studio with Rush in 1971 to record Right Place, Wrong Time, widely considered to be Rush’s best album. Not liking what they heard, the label refused to release the album, and it sat on a shelf until the independent Bullfrog Records bought the rights and released it in 1976. By this time, however, the allure of the blues for white rock audiences had fallen by the wayside, and the album sold few copies.

Rush recorded the unspectacular Cold Day In Hell for Delmark Records in 1975, but recording sessions became few and far between for the bluesman well into the 1980s, and he made a living through club performances and the odd festival appearance. Rush retired from music for a while in the early 1980s, but by mid-decade he was back in the saddle, using questionable pick-up bands for performances outside of Chicago.

Rush’s reputation took a hit during the 1980s as the guitarist displayed increasingly erratic behavior and delivered mediocre performances with substandard bands, many of which were later released on vinyl and compact disc by exploitative fly-by-night labels. By 1994, though, Rush had seemingly tightened up his game, and he recorded the inspired Ain’t Enough Comin’ In with noted producer John Porter, his first studio album in sixteen years.

Rush released what might be the final studio album of his career in 1998, Any Place I’m Goin’ receiving widespread critical acclaim and earning Rush his first and only Grammy® Award for “Best Traditional Blues Album.” Rush toured steadily throughout the 1990s and into the ‘00s until suffering a stroke in 2003 that put the Chicago blues legend on the sidelines for good. Rush’s Live...And In Concert From San Francisco was released in 2006, the album capturing an above-average 1999 performance by the underrated Chicago blues legend.

Often overshadowed by contemporaries like Buddy Guy and Magic Sam, Otis Rush’s influence nevertheless can be heard in the music of current Chicago bluesmen like Dave Specter and Nick Moss. Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984, Rush made a rare public appearance in June 2016 at the Chicago Blues Festival when the city declared June 12th to be “Otis Rush Day.” Ranked a measly #53 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “100 Greatest Guitarists” list, Otis Rush’s music and incredible tone will endure and continue to inspire generations of guitarists to come.






Otis Rush biography courtesy of Chicago Blues (1940s-1960s): Gordon’s Blues Guide, Volume Two eBook

Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin, R.I.P.

Jefferson Airplane

Rolling Stone magazine and other music media are reporting on the death of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship vocalist Marty Balin. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Balin passed away of unknown causes on Thursday, September 27th, 2018 at the age of 76 years.

Jefferson Airplane’s founding member and initially the band’s lead vocalist and songwriter, Balin “launched” the Airplane in 1965 from The Matrix club in San Francisco, a former pizza parlor that he partially-owned and managed. The Airplane would become the club’s house band, their electrifying live performances bringing them to the attention of legendary local music critic and columnist Ralph J. Gleason, an early advocate for the group.

The Airplane would soon become known as the avatars of the “San Francisco sound,” with songs featuring vocals from three singers – Balin, Grace Slick, and guitarist Paul Kantner – as well as a solid rhythm section in bassist Jack Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden (who replaced original band drummer Skip Spence, who would later form Moby Grape). Talented lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen would round out the band’s pioneering psychedelic rock sound. This is the band line-up that would headline several major U.S. rock festivals of the ‘60s, including Monterey in 1967, and Woodstock and Altamont in 1969 as well as the first Isle of Wight Festival in 1968 in the U.K.

The band released five studio albums with Balin on the microphone, including bona fide classics like 1967’s Surrealistic Pillow and 1969’s Volunteers, and several Balin-penned songs like “Plastic Fantastic Lover,” “It’s No Secret,” and “Volunteers” would become staples of the band’s live set. By 1970, however, Kantner and Slick had become the dominant creative voices in the band, and Balin left to pursue other opportunities, managing and producing an album for the Bay area band Grootna before joining the hard rock band Bodacious DF as their lead vocalist. The Airplane released two albums without Balin before breaking up, splintering into two separate outfits – Jefferson Starship with Kantner and Slick and Hot Tuna with Kaukonen and Casady.

Jefferson Starship 1976

Asked by Kantner to write a song for the re-christened Jefferson Starship, Balin appeared as a guest vocalist on the band’s 1974 debut Dragon Fly. He would subsequently become a full-time member of the commercially-successful and more pop-oriented Starship, once again singing alongside Slick and Kantner on four studio albums including 1975’s double-Platinum™ Red Octopus, which yielded a monster hit with Balin’s song “Miracles,” and 1976’s Platinum™-selling Spitfire. Tensions among band members grew along with the band’s success, however, and Balin quit Starship after the release of their 1978 album Earth, following Grace Slick out the door.

Balin launched his career as a solo artist with the release of the 1981 album Balin, enjoying a Top Ten hit with the single “Hearts.” Balin reunited with Kantner and Casady to form the KBC Band, which released a single album in 1985. Jefferson Airplane reunited in 1989 for an album and tour, and Balin also toured with a reunited Starship in the 1990s and early ‘00s. The singer would also release a dozen solo records through the years, his last being 2016’s The Greatest Love. An accomplished and acclaimed painter, Balin painted portraits of many of his contemporary musicians and his permanent signature collection gallery is located in Saint Augustine, Florida.

An underrated rock ‘n’ roll vocalist in spite of his many accolades and honors, Marty Balin was far too often overshadowed by the larger-than-life personalities of bandmates Grace Slick and Paul Kantner. His incredibly warm voice and songwriting chops lent a certain gravitas that grounded the free-flying inclinations of his bandmates, however, and it’s safe to say that both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship would not have reached the heights they did without Balin.

For more on the life of Marty Balin, check out writer Jeff Tamarkin’s obituary on the Best Classic Bands website; Jeff literally wrote the book on the Airplane (2003’s Got a Revolution!) and has forgotten more about the band than many of us will ever know.  The Rock and Roll Globe website’s Ron Hart also penned a wonderful obit on the legendary singer.