Woodstock Heroes Put On a Show!!

         by Liz Betit

.. ..

         Sunday, August 9th, couldn't have been a better day to showcase the "Heroes of Woodstock", 40th Anniversary Show at The Barn Yard Racetrack in Livermore, Maine.

It was a hot, sunny, breezy, blue sky with thin clouds kind of day. But unlike the original Woodstock, there was plenty of food and drink to go around.

         The Barn Yard is an all terrain race track located on Rt. # 108.  The venue was large enough to accommodate several thousand people though estimates are that about 4,000 people showed up, far less than the estimated 500,000 who showed up for Woodstock '69.

         Fans started showing up at 11:30 a.m. to stake their claim to their place to watch the show.  In the interim, a second smaller stage hosted lesser known bands to entertain concert goers while waiting for the "heroes" to begin playing at 4:00 p.m..

         Tailgate parties dotted the field across the street that served as a parking lot for the event.

         Security in bright orange shirts danced around and through the venue to protect the perimeter from gate crashers as the stage & sound crews worked on through the afternoon to prepare the Woodstock stage.

 L.A. Harley, MaineRoot and the Farmington Comfort Inn sponsored the show along with local promoter, Mike Shea of Livermore. The L. A Harley Band opened up the show at 3:15, setting the tone by tossing out favors,(t-shirts and frisbees) into the crowd.  The band played cover tunes ranging from Black Crows, to Santana to The Marshall Tucker Band.  They rocked the crowd and coaxed them to their feet.  The crowd responded with roars and cheers!

         The median age in attendance was 50 and the tuned-in, turned on, peace, love generation was totally engaged in the L.A Harley Band performance as they danced and sang along with nostalgic rock & roll tunes the band played.

         At one point the lead guitarist played the "magic bag", a device that allows a guitarist' voice to sing through the guitar. Today, the magic bag is known as an "auto-tune". The bag was popular with some rock bands in the 1970's.

         Country Joe McDonald, a Vietnam vet and war-protester from the 60's and writer of the anti-war protest song, "I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die" rag., served as moderator between sets, playing not only his songs but others of the Woodstock era as well.   McDonald wrote the rag after his tour of duty in Vietnam.

         Like the original Woodstock, McDonald took a few=2 0moments to focus on war, reading a list of young soldiers from Sullivan County, New York (the county that the '69 show was held in), that had attended the Woodstock '69 show but were killed in "Nam and unable to attend the 40th Anniversary Tour."  They were all ages 19 and 20 when they were killed.

         He then went on to read the names of young people who have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, also from Sullivan County 40 years later" who also would not be joining us today."  He asked for a moment of silence and in that moment, you had to ask yourself, "Is any war worth sacrificing the youth of a society?"  The numbers of young American soldiers killed not only in Vietnam but in all preceding wars and those since are staggering!

         The crowd responded enthusiastically and on cue, when the now famous chant, "Give me an F......." blasted from the stage, followed by the "I'm Fixing To Die" rag which the mostly Woodstock era crowd sang, right along with County Joe.

         For a moment, one could feel the "vibe" that was the 60's and 70's.  There was a oneness in the air....

         Big Brother and the Holding Company, fronted by Sophie Ramos  from Bronx,  NY, opened up with "Down on Me" and went on to "Heartbreaker", Big Brother classics that Ramos slicked through like butter.  She had me on the first note.  This girl CAN sing and had a set of pipes on her that in many ways rivals those of Janis Joplin.

         When Sam Andrew started his infamous guitar lead into "Summertime", I was awestruck. Ramos let go and unleashed her raw bluesy side.  She was unbelievable!  The blues just emanated from her, you could feel the pain coming at you as she sang, in true Janis style.  At one point, as she lay crumpled at the base of the mic, she looked out into the crowd and said, " This shit is painful!"  Andrews, along with newcomer, Ben Nieves of Ohio, played harmonizing background wails on their guitars and at one point, Nieves did a beautifully piercing solo.

         "Bobbie McGee" really got the crowd going and they sang a long as Big Brother played.  At one point, Ramos stopped singing and the crowd and the band carried the song a long.  Guitar solos rang over the countryside as the crowd sang and danced.

         I felt privileged to be sitting there and listening to them play.  These were tunes that I and the majority of people in attendance grew up on and here they were in some field in Central Maine playing for us.  Along wit h co-founder and bassist Peter Albin and drummer Dave Getz, they gave us an incredible show!

         "Canned Heat"  with most of the original members and with their guitar army, served up classic "Canned Heat" style boogie under the threat of showers.  "Little Red Rooster" and "Going Up Country"

were nostalgia bringers causing one's mind to sift back through to those youthful days!   The flute and harmonica playing were phenomenal!  This is the 3rd time that I have seen "Canned Heat" and they presented a show energy charged and rocking.

          But "Live Boogie" was the show stopper for me in their set. It was  "alive" and had an amazing drum solo embedded into it by drummer, Fito De La Parra.

          The British Band, "Ten Years After", despite the absence of former lead guitar player, Alvin Lee, got this crowd up and dancing. Their current lead, Joe Gooch, did a good job of following Alvin's act.  Though not as strong a singer, his guitar playing was superb!

          The personality on stage was really Leo Lyons, original bass player for the band, his pounding bass on "Good Morning Little School Girl" was frenzied despite his 60 plus years. And the Ten Years After classic, "Coming Home" drove this crowd wild.

          The Jefferson Starship playi

ng The Jefferson Airplane music

was the final act with a small side show featuring Gary Dunkin of "Quick Silver Messenger Service", guitarist, Jeff Pevar, singer Linda Imperial and piano player, Tom Constanten, formerly of The Grateful Dead, as surprise guests and the olio provided a 'musical intermission'

in the middle of the Jefferson Starship show.

          Paul Kantner, lead guitarist for both 'Airplane' and 'Starship" played  with a clean and polished professional style.   On lead vocals, Cathy Richardson, did a respectable job of singing classic Airplane tunes.  The vocal harmonies as a whole were powerful.

          Starship may be graying around the edges but they brought plenty of energy on the stage as they entertained us with "Other Side of This Life", "Don't You Want Somebody To Love" and of course, "White Rabbit".

           Tom Constanten, former pianist with The Grateful Dead, played a stirring classical intro that led into an early Grateful Dead classic, "St Stephen".  With Jeff Pevar and Gary Dunkin of "Quick Silver Messenger Service and 'Starship" members jammin' together, it was an awesome rendition.  Dave Frieberg provided strong vocal support.

  Linda Imperial, (wife of Frieberg),

entertained the crowd with a couple of tunes as well.

           The 7 hour show was jammed packed with clas sic rock and roll, and high energy charged.  I am really glad that I got a chance to see this show and to see some of the "heroes" of rock and roll perform their memorable music and step back in time to a different day, in a different time.

.. ..

An interview with Sam Andrew of Big Brother and the Holding Company

.. ..

Andrew Olson

Reader Weekly

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This past year around Mother’s Day Big Brother and the Holding Company played two sold out shows in ....Saint Cloud.... and one in Zumbrota.   After talking to many promoters and venues around town I haven’t found anyone yet who can help to bring them up to ..Duluth.., but they do play again in ....Saint Cloud.... this October 14th and 15th.     

.. ..

Those are much smaller venues than the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, where Janis Joplin was unveiled to the world, or being the house band of the Avalon Ballroom in the mid-sixties.

.. ..

There are very few people who don’t know who Janis Joplin was, but do you know Sam Andrew?  He was and still is the lead guitarist for the band ....Joplin.... was in called Big Brother and the Holding Company.  He also continued to play with her when she left the band and still carries on a great legacy of what they created together. 

.. ..

“Suffice it to say,” Sam Andrew said.  “That we still play, some years more than ever, all over the world and I have about ten singers and five to ten guitar players… And all of them are better than we ever were.”

.. ..

Big Brother and the Holding Company or BBHC wrote one of the greatest rock songs ever in “Combination of the Two”. Most people remember it for the scene in Fear & Loathing when they are speeding through the desert early in the film.  I asked Sam, the song’s writer, about his inspiration in writing it and if the guitar parts in the song played into his and fellow BBHC guitarist James Gurley’s strengths.

.. ..

“There is a book somewhere of Beatles’ songs and they explain how they came to write them,” Sam said. “Sometimes I think, “How did they ever get there by starting there.” When I tell you that the primary inspiration for “Combination of the Two” was “Ain’t That Peculiar” by Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell, you might have the same impression. Most works of art start with a tiny germ, spark, idea, what have you, and then they are worked out, and become original. Those chord changes are truly loopy, but they work, and the A part (James’ solo) I originally heard as a kind of flamenco riff. I still play a very “Arab, Hebrew, Greek, ..Mediterranean..” scale over those changes. A  Bb  C  C#  D  E  F  G  A.

.. ..

On the album Cheap Thrills there is a pause during the intro of "Ball and Chain".  It reminded me of Otis Redding stopping the music and letting the crowd’s enthusiasm build in his song, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”.

.. ..

“(The pause) was because the guitar player at first did not have the courage to jump into the song,” Sam said.  “Then, later, as a kind of joke, James would hold back and make the audience wonder what was going to happen. Talk about a pregnant pause. I still try to get our guitar players to do this, and most of them are afraid to prolong the suspense for more than a few seconds. They don’t understand how powerful that is. At our last show in ....St. Cloud...., a guitar player did not realize that he was supposed to start the song, and so that pause was extended to THREE MINUTES. The suspense was at first unbearable, then it was hilarious. What a great piece of theatre. Do you think I could get him to do that same thing the next night? No way. As soon as he knew that he was supposed to play the next note, it was all I could do to restrain him from playing it immediately. And people wonder why I withhold information sometimes!”

.. ..

Everyone knows BBHC’s mega hit song "Piece of my Heart".  I asked Sam about how the song entered into the band’s repertoire.

.. ..

“Classic Hollywood story of Jack Cassidy coming to the band and saying, “Hey, you have to do this song by Erma Franklin. It’s perfect for Janis’ voice and you can really do something with this.”  Scenes like this are all too rare in real life, but this one really happened,” Sam said.

.. ..

One DVD that has been released about BBHC with lots of live footage is titled Nine Hundred Nights. In the video Sam talked about his relationship with Janis when she left Big Brother as being associated with drugs.  I asked Sam how he got through that difficult point in his life.

.. ..

“Jimmy Page recommended a book to me: Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley,” Sam said.  “Wonderful book… You could tell when he described his ascent into narcotic paradise that he had really been there, so when he went on to describe his descent into the infernal maelstrom of addiction and then recovery, I was with him all the way. The book saved my life, and people wonder why I love books so much.”

.. ..

There was a big change when the 1970s came around for popular music and the whole hippie culture.  For someone who saw the times through the eyes of a famous guitar player in a popular band Sam described the change in detail.  

.. ..

“Every thing was running out of gas,” Sam said.  “Cutting our hair. Needing a new paradigm and not finding one. Disco. Contracts. Specialization. Professionalism.  The need to return to the academic womb. Small concert venues in “groovy” places changed to stadium shows in concrete and steel. Lawyers take over the world.”

.. ..

So how does Sam carry on Janis’ legacy after she passed away in 1970?

.. ..

“By being sincere about music,” Sam said.  “Trying to do her (our) songs with feeling and increasing competence.”

.. ..

Most people are familiar with the mythic figure that Janis Joplin is known as today.  I asked Sam his opinion of how ....Joplin.... is seen today as opposed what he knew.

.. ..

“Janis was the most talented person to come out of that ....San Francisco.... scene. Big Brother had a wild, experimental, eclectic streak that was very prominent before Janis came to the band, and continued after she left. We made two, I think, very good albums without Janis. Now Janis has become a cultural icon… Far more famous now than when she was alive.”

.. ..

Listening to BBHC’s music one thing that stands out are the different styles of guitar that Sam plays as opposed to James Gurley.   

.. ..

“James was Dionysius, and I was Apollo,” Sam said.  “He was madness, and I was reason.  He was intuitive.  I was learned.  He was Romantic.  I was Classic. But, hey, there was a lot of overlap. Sometimes I can’t tell who is playing. We were both crazy, that’s for sure.  James was more into pure sound, sound without context, just pure sound, than anyone else in the scene except serious classical atonal composers. Jimi Hendrix had done his homework. He knew his scales, chords, songs, structures and had put in a loooong time learning them.  I loved Jimi.  I can’t say enough about him. Jimi was the culmination of a long tradition, where James was a complete individual, alone, on his own path. It’s amazing he was ever in a band, really. He's like one of those hermit nature boys from the 1950s.”

.. ..

During my years attending ....St. Cloud.. ..State.. ..University.... one band that really stood out was a Led Zeppelin coverband called Blimp.  The lead singer, Stacy Bauer, had dread locks and was more like Robert Plant than even he was.  When BBHC come to town she is now their singer. 

.. ..

“I love Stacy,” Sam said.  “She has the special kindness of ....Minnesota...., the humor, the courage, the warmth. I love lead singers in general. They are all funny, loud and full of life.”

.. ..

The era I find most fascinating is from 1965 to 1967 in ....San Francisco.....  I asked Sam what made it that way and why the ballroom scene was so successful at that time.

.. ..

“Well, I could write a novel, a play, a song, or even a couple of inadequate sentences,” Sam said.  “It was messy. We were stumbling in the dark, unsure where things were supposed to go. Unsure what was right and what was wrong. What was essential and what was trivial. There was a big feeling of promise and possibility.  With the ballroom scene it came because people had been listening to jazz at its cerebral stage. It was time to stand up and move around. Everyone danced. A lot of people making very silly movements will make you laugh and have a very good time.”

.. ..

One thing that made the ballroom shows at the Fillmore West and Avalon so uniquely spectacular were their liquid light shows.  So how did those shows compare to the giant electronic backdrops of modern bands?

.. ..

“Computers. Digital. Beautiful stuff now,” Sam said.  “The original light shows were slow, analog, brand new, with a lot of character and individuality. If you get a chance to see any of Bill Ham’s shows from then, and I don’t even know if they are on film, you can compare the speed with now. Bill moved very slowly. It was like a kaleidoscope slowly shifting, revealing, and morphing.”

.. ..

One thing you may have read if you follow my columns is that I collect and love Fillmore and Avalon concert posters from the 60s.  I have a large collection that includes the concert poster from Janis Joplin’s first show with BBHC in 1966.  I asked what Sam thought about the art work and the posters of that era.

”Which one,” Sam asked? “They were extremely diverse. There was no school, no trend. Anything you can say in general about the poster art then will be foolish, because immediately ten exceptions to what you just adumbrated will appear. Complete freedom. The entire canon of world art was ransacked to create these amazing works. They will be important long after the music has become quaint. Think of Toulouse-Lautrec. Have you listened to the music that he was listening to when he did his amazing work?  It's great music, but what is more alive and vital today, the music or the art?”

.. ..

The Avalon Ballroom was run by a friend of ....Joplin....’s and fellow Texan named Chet Helms.  He led a group of hippies known as The Family Dog and Sam remembers him fondly.

“I have written voluminously on this subject,” Sam said.  “I loved Chet. He was the Big Brother in Big Brother. He brought us James, he brought us Janis, he brought us our first gigs, he named us, and he was our manager. He and I were roommates through a lot of this period. We talked about God and the Universe a lot.”

.. ..

So who still tours with Big Brother and the Holding Company?

.. ..

“One member is dead. Another member lives in the desert. Peter Albin, bass, Dave Getz, drums, and I, voice, guitar, composer are still trundling along having a good time, and trying to make everyone else have a good time.”

We have a few upcoming shows that we wanted to let you know about if you don't already know.  If you can make it out to any of these please be sure to come say hello after the show - we're always around to sign old albums and meet new friends.

.. ..

October 14 & 15 - St. Cloud, MN - Pioneer Place Of Fifth - www.ppfive.com  this is our third time back to this beautiful little theatre.  We'll have MN native Stacy Bauer on lead vocals and Mark Hazzy with be on guitar with Sam.  Two sets each night and one of the finest wine selections anywhere in the state of MN.

.. ..

October 22 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom - www.beachlandballroom.com - it's always great to play Cleveland with Mary Bridget Davies and Ben Nieves - two of Clevelands finest musicians!  Come have some great fun with us this night.

.. ..

October 23 - Whippany, NJ - Ukarian American Community Center - www.uaccnj.org  - this is our first time in Whippany and we're going to do our best to raise the roof!  Come out and say hello.

.. ..

In November we are off to Greece, Switzerland, Austria and France for about 3 weeks and it will be good to see all of our European friends again.  We even have some days off to play.  Looking forward to meeting Flower In The Sun (our German sister ) in Austria too!

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New Years Eve we are in NM in Alburqueque with the final show of the year with Heroes Of Woodstock. 

.. ..

Hope your summer was good and you are all doing well.  Be sure to say hello if you make it to any of the shows.

.. ..

All the best,

Sam, Peter & Dave

Big Brother & The Holding Co.

www.bbhc.com

This appeared in the World Newspaper this morning. ....

.. ..

Bigger, better Brother....

.. ..

By Jack Carrerow

Staff Writer

.. ..

As Robin Williams once said, “If you can remember the ’60s,
then you weren’t there.”

Sam Andrew was there, he remembers, and as one of the
founding members of Big Brother & the Holding Company — known for being
Janis Joplin’s first band — he’s one of the reasons other people remember the
’60s.

“It was fun, exciting and creative,” said Andrew, who will
be appearing with Big Brother at the Green Spot in Coos Bay next weekend. “The
whole band made, as I recall, $250 for a gig back then, but that $50 per member
was like $500 today, and then we didn’t have wives or mortgages to worry
about.”

In 1965, Peter Albin and Sam Andrew, two San Francisco
musicians, joined forces with guitarist James Gurley and drummer Chuck Jones to
form Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Jones was soon replaced by artist and painter Dave Getz.

The band was successful on the local San Francisco scene,
playing regularly at the Avalon Ballroom, a venue run by their manager, Chet
Helm.

It was not long after that Helm thought the band should add
a female singer and suggested a friend he had in Port Arthur, Texas — Joplin.

Andrew, who wrote the songs “Combination of the Two,” “Call
on Me” and “I Need a Man to Love” for the band, said he liked Joplin from the
start.

“Janis was intelligent, funny and quick,” Andrew said. “She
didn’t have a Texas drawl, because she talked too fast. Which is how everything
was with her — fast. She never thought of herself as a hippie; she was a
beatnik.”

After Joplin joined the group, they continued to play
several San Francisco venues.

“We played three to four times a week, like all the bands,”
Andrew said. “It was a very creative time, with a lot of very creative people.”

In June 1967, Big Brother performed at the Monterey Pop
Festival, an event that served as sort of a coming out party for themselves,
Jimi Hendrix and The Who.

“Monterey was one of my favorite gigs. We had really only
been known in the Bay Area before that time. Monterey really put us on the
map,” Andrew said.

It was a little over a year later that Joplin left the band
to pursue a solo career, taking Andrew with her.

“That was also a great experience … but in retrospect, I
think Big Brother was the best band for her,” Andrew said. “And it’s a shame,
because I think she had more music to give and she was capable of being a
better singer. She had notes nobody heard.”

Even though Joplin became bigger than the band in the eyes
of critics, Andrew said it didn’t really bother him.

“Janis was a phenomenon, like Billie Holiday,” he said.
“There hasn’t been anyone like her since.”

After going their separate ways, members of the band played
together only occasionally, reuniting in the ’90s with three original members,
but Gurley decided he had enough.

“James felt strongly that without Janis, there was no
point,” Andrew said.

Taking over for Gurley is Tom Finch, a guitarist Andrew said
is the best he’s ever heard.

“He’s better than any of us were in the ’60s,” Andrew said.
“You have to remember, these kids picked up where we left off and kept going.”

Today, Big Brother is still a viable presence and, according
to Andrew, better musicians.

“Back then we were just kids, and now with time and much
clearer heads, I feel we finally learned how to play,” he said.

Although the audiences for Big Brother for the most part
smells of patchouli, Andrew said the band has attracted a new generation of
fans.

“Parents have brought their kids and grandkids to concerts
and we’re getting a whole new crop,” he said. “We always felt the music was
good and good music has staying power.”

The band has also had a series of female singers over the
past few years charged with having to fill some very big shoes.

“There was only one Janis, but what we’ve been able to do
with a singer like Mary Bridget Davies, who’s singing with us now, is capture
the energy and excitement that was a big part of our shows back 40 years ago,”
Andrew said.

He doesn’t get tired of playing such old music: “Songs are
pieces of art that have to be played to be appreciated, and as long as people
still want to enjoy our art, we’ll continue to play.”

We wanted to let you all know about a great experience we had yesterday afternoon in a little studio in Sausalito .  

At the world famous Studio D, owned by Joel Jaffe, we were lucky enough to meet Japanese pop sensation "Superfly".  Now for those of you who don't know of her - let me tell you - one word - SOULFUL!    Superfly has already found huge success in Japan and in doing so has been able to try a lot of different projects.  She has performed with the Australian band JET with a great single called "I Spy, I Spy".  Check it out on YouTube.

Music On!, the Japanese version of VH1 & MTV was doing a documentary on Superfly and contacted us because Janis was a big influence on her music.  They wanted to know if Superfly could come to San Francisco and meet us as part of this documentary being filmed.  We agreed because "Hey we all like pretty girls".  No really we heard some of her new music and it was very good and we thought why not.  Sam started out meeting Superfly at a few old haunts that we all used to hang out at with Janis.  Sam took her around town to art galleries that feature Janis' works as well as the last home in Larkspur that Janis lived at.  We even got to go inside and film as the house is currently up for sale and vacant.  

After spending the whole morning showing our new friend around Marin county it was time to have some real fun.  Keep in mind that our Japanese is very limited and Superfly's English is also limited but with the help of some great go betweens we managed to convince her to go to the studio with us and play live for a few hours.  This little girl can sing!  You don't expect this big voice to come out of a tiny 24 year old girl - but boy did she bring it.  We played "Piece Of My Heart", "Summertime" and "Down On Me" with her and did multiple takes in different keys and arrangements just so we could keep playing with her.  She's a real trooper hanging in there until after 8:00 PM last night and singing her ass off!

While we can't say if anything will ever become of the tracks we recorded, at some point down the road we'd love to let you all hear them.  Perhaps after the television special airs in Japan we can release them here on MySpace so you can have a listen.  It was a very magical 5+ hours in the studio with Superfly and we hope she had as much fun as we did.  

We've invited her to come back over to the US next summer and sing with us live again at a future festival show.  We'd love to go to Japan and perform with her as well but we'll see what happens.  All in all it was just a great day with a bunch of great people.

Special thanks to Kaz and Natsuko for approaching us with the idea and to Endo, Kikuchi, Aki and Tabata and all the rest of the crew for helping to make a great day for us.  

And for sure a very special thank you to Superfly!  We had a great time and would welcome you back to our town any time to sing again.  Your a very special singer with a very soulful, powerful, energetic voice.  You have a great hippie vibe and your a beautiful person to be around.  We wish you nothing but great success in the future and we hope our roads will meet again one day.

Sam, Peter & Dave
Big Brother & The Holding Co.

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