THE PERFECT CONCERT IS STILL POSSIBLE by Steve Houk

At the ripe old age of 51 and with hundreds and hundreds of rock concerts under my belt, you’d think that me seeing another ‘perfect’ concert would be pretty unlikely at this point. I mean, there have been a bunch for sure: at the top of the list would have to be Bruce at his peak in 1980 (and many times after), Zep at MSG in 1977, Pink Floyd’s The Wall,  maybe Skynyrd three months before the crash at the height of their popularity, certainly U2 on a number of their tours, even Brian Wilson doing Smile after years of reclusion, plus another selected few….they were the perfect shows of my life, and it would seem that getting another at this stage that is close to those is pretty unattainable and rather unlikely.

Until last night. Add another one to the list. Last night at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Peter Gabriel put on, well, a perfect concert. Sound, lighting, song selection, band, voice, background singers, feel, tone and emotion, there was simply not a weak or slow moment, not a bad note, not a moment where you might have wondered when it might be over, or when you could hit the bathroom or get a beer. Flawless is a word that came to both my and dear friend Todd Jones’ mind as the concert progressed. Not a small feat given Todd’s very demanding, musically-educated standards, and well, my simple bulk of great shows I’ve seen over the last 35 years. But this concert, this performance, was as good a show as you will ever see, anywhere, anytime, and it was put on by a 62 year old man who has been putting them on for decades.

Mr. Gabriel promoted the show as the S0 Back to Front tour, where he would play his 1986 multi-platinum album So, by far his most successful album ever, from last song to first, after an opening set of some of his own favorite songs, which ranged from the obscure to the eerie & strange to the bit more well-known.  But on this night, Gabriel and his incredible band, featuring all of the musicians who played on So and other than maybe his bandmates in Genesis are the most accomplished and talented band he has ever had, played a concert so tight, so powerful, so deeply personal and so, well, goddamn good that anyone there had to walk out thinking like we did: that we had just seen perfection live.

An amazing surprise: superb vocalists Jennie Abrahamson and Linnea Olsson relax at their hotel after last night’s Gabriel gig in Fairfax.

It started right at the beginning, with the ‘opening act’, fabulously talented singer/songwriter Jennie Abrahamson and her longtime musical colleague Linnea Olsson, who played a gorgeous short set of beautiful original Abrahamson compositions and delighted a crowd most likely not expecting a warm up (we didn’t) but ending up very pleasantly surprised. Turns out the duo was given the opening slot after singer Ane Brun fell ill (both are singers in Brun’s band as well), plus the background vocal slots for Gabriel’s sets, and what serendipity it would turn out to be, as the duo blended in perfectly with Gabriel and his incredible band, featuring legendary bassist Tony Levin, percussionist Manu Katche, guitarist David Rhodes and jazz fusion (and even one time Springsteen session player) David Sancious. This ensemble was locked in sync from the first note of Come To Talk To Me, which came early in the “acoustic” part of the show, to Gabriel’s epic ode to human rights Biko which closed it some 80 or 90 minutes later to the fist-raised chants of “oh, oh ohhhhh” and reminded me of singing the chorus of U2′s 40 so  many times as we walked out into the night.

(L-R) Tony Levin, Peter Gabriel and David Rhodes dance and play in sync during a recent concert.

And in between those, well, you got it all and got it flawlessly. Before rolling So, he opened his set with an as-yet-unfinished song called OBUT, admitting there were “no lyrics to it yet”, and making random sounds over a churning music bed hammered out by his phenomenal band. He then navigated magnificently from signature mysterious and powerfully offbeat Gabriel tunes like The Family and The Fishing Net, Family Snapshot and No Self Control to more mainstream yet still Gabriel-edgy songs like Shock The Monkey, Digging In The Dirt, Solsbury Hill, Secret World and Washing Of The Water. 

And then….there was So. An album (yes I do have the vinyl as well as the CD) so reminiscent of my life in the mid 80′s that it would cause me numerous tear-stained flashbacks throughout. And the versions of these songs played on this night, however hard it is to imagine, were even better than the original album versions, as this band of seasoned pros at the top of their game shined stunningly on every song, even transforming the more overplayed songs from the record like Big Time, Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes into songs that felt, new, fresh, exhilarating and yet, so (ha) familiar.  Chills were everywhere during utterly gorgeous renditions of Don’t Give Up (with Abrahamson nailing Kate Bush’s vocals, even improving upon them if that’s possible), Mercy Street, which had our hero lying  curled up in a fetal position on the floor as a camera shot him from above, and That Voice Again, probably my favorite song of this So review. Two of the much lesser known So tunes, We Do What We’re Told and This is The Picture, were played with an intensity and synchronicity that elevated them above their album predecessors. After finishing So, the band returned to roll a brilliant and obscure Gabriel creation called The Tower That Ate People, before stirring our souls even more with Biko as the finishing touch. Whewwww.

Some of the mesmerizing lighting at last night’s Peter Gabriel show at GMU (Steve Houk photo)

Oh yes, you can also always count on stunning lighting and multimedia effects from a Gabriel show and this one did not dissapoint, and in some ways exceeded many of his previous shows if that’s possible. In addition to lush and gorgeous HD quality shots of the band (the best camera presentation I have ever seen at a show) mixed in with effected video images and symbols, five movable lighting structures reminiscent of the alien machines in War Of The Worlds stalked the musicians throughout, casting an eerie yet mesmerizing aura over everyone on stage. It was a perfect yet subtle addition to this perfect show.

And his voice? My buddy Todd, who is a Gabriel aficionado and professional musician in his own right, shook his head repeatedly throughout, in awe and wonder and Gabriel’s ability to hit the high notes you thought he wouldn’t try, as well as the deep and profoundly moving ones he is famous for. His voice alone took this show into another hemisphere, and kept us there throughout.There may be another ‘perfect’ concert or two in my future. Who knows. I mean, I’ll be in the same building in a month or so to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse with Patti Smith, and that could get close. But even if nothing reaches the level of last night’s Peter Gabriel concert, I can sock this one away as a treasure, a night to remember, one for the ages…and yep, perfection.

DAVID CASSIDY: COME ON, STAY HAPPY by Steve Houk

When one thinks back to the pantheon of ultra-hyped superstars in music history, names that  instantly come to mind as the pioneers of that uber-level of fame are of course Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and perhaps maybe Frank Sinatra – all artists we clearly remember as leading the way as far as the stratospheric hype at the height of their popularity.

One name that might not automatically come to mind, at least not as quickly as the legends above, but one who equaled and in some ways even surpassed the level of fame of those icons at the height of his own popularity, is none other than 70’s pop culture phenom David Cassidy. Yes, the blue-eyed heartthrob and star of “The Partridge Family” was also one of music’s most hugely hyped and globally marketed pop stars, with “Cassidymania” actually outnumbering those four Liverpuddlian mop tops and those two kids from Tupelo and Hoboken as far as actual fan club members, while also selling out 70,000-seat stadiums (a huge feat for an artist back then), headlining at iconic venues like Madison Square Garden (which he sold out in two minutes), and having his likeness on everything from lunchboxes and posters to dresses (yes, dresses) and more.

But David Cassidy gets the fleeting nature of being a pop superstar and is grateful he could have an impact on people during the height of his career, a career that still gets him adoration from fans in the present day.

“You’re only a fresh face once. And everybody, every huge star, including Elvis, including The Beatles and even Sinatra, those were the individuals who I was compared to, because I had the largest fan club in history. Once you understand that, and the impact, it’s an incredible thing for me now because I hear it and I get it from people almost every day, I get it back in spades. It’s a really wonderful thing to know that you’ve impacted people’s lives in a positive way. You brought light, you brought joy, you brought happiness, and a certain imagination.”

Forty-plus years apart from his time at the top, David Cassidy still retains some of that intense pop singer popularity, if not at the level it was back then, but to the surprise of many also continues to have a modestly successful career into his 60’s, including singing, acting, and even giving time to a cause near and dear to his heart:  Alzheimer’s disease awareness. These days, Cassidy is a very busy man, always on the go and with a rigorous tour schedule that includes a stop this Saturday at one of his personal favorite venues, Alexandria’s own Birchmere, as he takes his audience on a musical journey of his life, replete with those classic Partridge Family hits.

So whatever happened to the early career of the then-world-famous “Keith Partridge-esque” version of David Cassidy? Cassidy’s fame would turn out to be a double edged sword — as he became a huge star on The Partridge Family, his career as a pop star would also rise to almost unheard-of levels, and during our very candid interview on the phone from New York City, Cassidy spoke honestly about why he simply left that part of his life behind, right at the height of his incredible popularity.

“I walked away. What most people don’t realize or didn’t understand at the time, the last world tour when I was playing stadiums, I lived in this eye of the hurricane for five years. I worked 16 to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. I was mentally and physically exhausted, literally every lunchtime I was doing interviews and photo sessions, I never had a free moment for me. So I announced that I was gonna leave it at the top, at the time I was playing to 50-60-70 thousand people. I’m the guy that walked away. I knew there was no way for me, ya know, ‘can you top this, can you top that’, physically and mentally I just couldn’t sustain it. I was really the first globally marketed individual, and I got robbed of my own identity by the marketing and the visual of watching me on that television show, and comic books, everything you could possibly imagine. [The Partridge Family] was the biggest selling and most financially successful television show of all time at that moment. Much of it had to do with the many millions and millions of albums and singles, I mean, my first three or four albums were triple platinum. It’s nutty! So when you’re thinking in terms of…it was global. Everywhere in the world I went, it was impossible for me to separate…have the public perceive me as me, so I walked away from it.”

A part of having that huge level of fame was having famous friends, and none was as famous as John Lennon. Cassidy recalls with much affection and fondness his burgeoning and eventually lasting friendship with the famous Beatle.

David Cassidy and friend Yoko Ono watch John Lennon record (photo courtesy fotomundo.net)

“John and Yoko had a friend who was a very close friend of mine, and he brought John over to my house. He just walked in, and it was New Year’s Eve, and I remember I was in the kitchen and Susan Dey [who played Cassidy’s sister Laurie Partridge on the TV show] tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘David, there’s a Beatle in the house!’ Later, we would go into my music room, we start playing, and I of course instantly go back to the early Beatles songs that I first learned, and since then he had written another 500 songs and hadn’t played with the Beatles in however long, so I retaught him a couple of the early Beatles songs! Please Please Me, some others. John was musically my hero, but what I also loved about him was he had a remarkable sense of humor, a great passion for life. He’s probably the most unique person I’ve ever met. To get to meet him, to get to know him, to get to play with him. And I remember one of the most amazing compliments I ever heard, they were asking John about the early days of The Beatles, and he said, ‘Oh don’t ask me, I don’t remember, ask David Cassidy, he was bigger than we were.’  I read that and I went, ‘Oh my God, how did that happen?’ It was such a great experience for me to get to know him.”

After walking away from his immensely popular pop star persona, Cassidy didn’t work for close to three and a half years. Least not in the pop star mode, that is.

“I wrote and I produced music, but I didn’t try and compete with my fame. I tried to go back to what originally had made me successful, (my acting), and I went back and worked in class and in theater, and I began carving out a completely different career. I knew I could never compete with that time.“

Cassidy was clearly one of the better actors on The Partridge Family along with stepmom Shirley Jones, but that’s no surprise considering his early acting resume, which included appearances on iconic 70’s TV shows like Ironside, Marcus Welby MD, Bonanza and Adam-12, all before his turn as dreamy Keith Partridge.He would even be nominated for an Emmy in 1978 for an appearance on NBC’s Police Story. Clearly, the acting bug cultivated by his father, accomplished actor/singer Jack Cassidy, was a talent he inherently possessed, and as his father would remind him, talent was what it was all about.

(Photo courtesy Heinrich Klaffs)

“My father gave me some advice the day I was playing Madison Square Garden. He’d been in the business at the time about thirty years, I’d been in it only about three or four years. His words to me were, “Talent is the only commodity that survives. Talent will survive. Someday this is all gonna go away, and it’s gonna get very difficult for you. So do not ever, ever, give up on that.’ ”

And give up he hasn’t. In recent years, Cassidy has overcome personal challenges including substance abuse, remaining consistently active in his musical and acting careers throughout the years, and showing no real signs of slowing down.  His pursuit of a lawsuit against Sony regarding the rights to his likeness continues (“It’s just a matter of, in my opinion, extraordinary greed”), and he has also become a passionate and involved advocate of the Alzheimer’s Association, not surprising given that his mother Evelyn has the disease.

“My mother (who’s 89), she’ll utter a word now and then, you have to ask her five times. What’s so sad about it, is that years ago before we were really understanding the disease, it used to be like, ‘Oh there’s crazy Uncle Eddie”, they called it senility. Well, it’s in fact a disease. And we’re about to face an epidemic. We’re nearly there because the eldest baby boomers reached 65 years old in 2001. The truth of the matter is we should have been doing this thirty years ago, now we’re trying to play catch-up when we’re about to face a tidal wave.  Knowledge is power, we need to just, like, open the doors, and go, ‘Hey, it’s OK.’ We understand. This is a disease, you can’t help it, it’s not your fault.’ It doesn’t choose individuals with higher intellect, or by color or creed or anything else. It’s just a horrible, horrible disease. We gotta act. We gotta act now.”

Links:

David’s website is at  http://www.davidcassidy.com/blog/

Visit the Alzheimer’s Association:  http://www.alz.org/

AL GREEN: STILL BRINGIN’ LOVE AND HAPPINESS by Steve Houk

Simply mention his name…and man, you can just feel the love.

And when you hear the familiar strains of his velvety voice, blanketed in that sweet timeless soul music, it’s easy to harken back to a moment, or many moments if you’re lucky, when you had Al Green playing, the lights down low, maybe a candle or two burning, and bigtime love was in the air. That’s what Al Green feels like to people, palpable love and happiness. But he’ll be the first to tell you: if it’s not him, it’s the music that has always set the mood.

“If they ain’t swoonin’ for me, they’re swoonin’ for what I made ‘em do. What those songs made ‘em do. Like ‘Call Me, Come Back Home.’ Well…(sighs) ahhhhhhh. You know what happens man, when you get back home.”

Al Green, or even better Reverend Al Green, is one of a handful of beloved American soul music pioneers who is still vital, still out there, still making ‘em swoon. His voice and the songs he has blessed us with have been adored worldwide for nearly 50 years, songs like ‘I’m Still in Love With You”, “Love and Happiness”, his classic “Take Me To The River”, and one of pop music’s most revered love songs, “Let’s Stay Together.” They’re a smattering of the reason why in crafting his 1995 induction, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called him “one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music.” And over 20 million records sold tells you, well, people think he’s da bomb.

Al Green’s life is a storybook tale of humble beginnings followed by stratospheric superstardom briefly interrupted and then rejuvenated from on high. Born in Arkansas as the sixth of ten sharecropper’s kids, Green began singing at ten and never really looked back. Legend has it his father kicked him out of the house in his teens after he caught him singing songs by R & B legend Jackie Wilson (“That’s how I got the opportunity to sing pop music, getting kicked out of the house.”). That gave Green the impetus to strike out on his own, and strike out he did, recording his first record in 1967 at age 21 under the name Al Greene and the Soul Mates (he would later drop the “e” when he went solo).  He began his rise over the next few years and in 1970, he cut his first of seven consecutive gold singles, “Tired of Being Alone” and in 1972, gave the world the nearly perfect “Let’s Stay Together.” Yep, Green’s career blasted off and has stayed aloft ever since.

“Yeah, it went firing off like a rocket with the things that came,” the engaging Green told me when we talked this month. “I didn’t have time to look around and say, ‘Now which one of the cells of the rocket boosters did the most good, or didn’t do the most good’, I don’t know, I can’t answer that. But it was nice, man, it was, it is great.”

In 1974, things took an unexpected turn when, after the suicide of a lover in his home, Green took that as a wake-up call to change up something in his life, or there could be trouble. And change he did, becoming a fully ordained pastor in 1976 at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis, just down the street from Graceland, where he delivers services to this day. And against the odds, through the years of recording, touring and building up his legend, Green has been able to delicately balance the calling of his church with the potentially wicked pull of being a hugely popular musician. How? Because he realizes the calling he has as both a musician and a pastor is equally important, even related.

“It’s all lavenderrrr,” Green growls amidst a characteristically hearty laugh.“With singing, you gotta bring the love to people’s hearts that God said we should have. And then again when you’re preachin’, you’re talking about not just that physical love that you have with your wife, your kids and all that, but you should also have an eternal love too, that makes life worth livin’.”

As Green’s popularity has grown as one of America’s soul music legends, so has his presence as a positive force in his Memphis church. It is crystal clear that his flock cares deeply for him — even as he battled a recent illness that was evident during a sermon, they are supportive and caring, and it gives the Reverend’s already warm heart even more of a glow.

“Everybody’s calling me and sayin’ ‘Pastor, what’s the matter?’ They say, ‘Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, you just get well, we can handle this thing down here’. The organ player Brandon call me the other day and say, ‘Pastor, you alright?’ I said, ‘Ohh yeahh!’ Makes you real humble. I just appreciate that type of gratitude.”

In 1999, I had the great pleasure to be hugged very tightly by Al Green, and on the White House grounds no less. I was working for VH1 at their huge White House Concert of the Century, an event replete with musical royalty like Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Sheryl Crow, Garth Brooks, B.B. King and Gloria Estefan to name just a few; heck, I even met President Clinton and partied with N’Sync (don’t laugh). But everybody on hand, even the President and First Lady, sat mesmerized, staring in awe, when Al Green blew everyone away with an unforgettable version (I heard it, it WAS) of Sam Cooke’s immortal signature song, “Change Is Gonna Come.” When he finished, he hustled back amidst backslaps to an adjoining tent where I happen to be standing, and for some reason, opened his arms and looked at me and I fell right in for the big Reverend Al Green bear hug, my arms surrounding his gold lame suit as we both laughed and I congratulated him on his triumph. When I reminded Green of that song, that special evening, and the awe he created among some of his musical idols, he sounded typically humbled and thankful.

“That was Sam Cooke’s last song. Man. And even at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [Green performed the song at his induction], it was like it well, mesmerized the crowd or something, until they said, ‘Oh, oh, yeah, OK, I know this one! (laughs). And yes, man, that’s a great honor, very humbling, to even be mentioned in the same name as those people, especially my old friend B.B. “

Al Green recognizes he clearly has two different callings in life. And by all accounts, at 66, he is magnificently flourishing at both. He can preach lightning and wail from the pulpit like no other pastor alive, and then turn around and sing simmeringly sensual love songs also like no one else. It’s a testimony to recognizing that a religious calling can have the same big picture message as a musical one, without creating unmanageable inner conflict.

“It’s the same thing with singing (as with preachin’). It’s about happiness. It’s what kinda makes people look at each other and grin, and start holding hands together.“

Click here to watch Al’s amazing version of Change Is Gonna Come

GREG LAKE: STILL ONE LUCKY MAN

As Neil Young once sang, “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.”

And ol’ Neil was dead on, the life and career of a rock and roll star always seems to take one of two paths.

One is arguably the more common road:  the rock star gets famous, then as they get older, and as they desperately cling to the lingering remnants of glory days past, the bygone aura they try to reproduce never measures up to what it once was. They can even slowly lose their chops and things begin to disintegrate, no one really cares, and they sadly fade away into oblivion. Sad, but all too true.

Or something special happens. The rock star stays dynamic and active into their later years, their chops remain intact and even improve, they find ways to positively collaborate with their equally legendary peers, they accept their place in rock history and embrace their legacy and actually capitalize on it, and their fans, well, they show that they really do care about the music. It’s rare, but it does happen.

That kind of rock star in scenario two is Greg Lake. To borrow from the most famous song he ever wrote as a member of prog rock gods Emerson, Lake and Palmer, oh what a lucky man Lake is, even forty-plus years after he began his illustrious career. During a recent long chat from London, the amicable and engaging  64-year-old Lake sounded vital, vibrant, excited and ready to go full speed ahead on his soon-to-begin “Songs Of A Lifetime” tour, which hits The Birchmere on April 24^th and will joyously celebrate music from his King Crimson and ELP days while he also shares stories and anecdotes from his storied past.

“Part of the reason that I’m doing this,” Lake told me in his perfectly prototypical English rock star accent, “is that I’m just coming to the end of writing my autobiography, and I don’t want to be too high-minded about it but it’s the story of my life, and it’s been quite a remarkable life in a lot of ways.  When I was writing all of this, as I was going through, I noticed certain songs would come up, and they were pivotal to my life and my career.  And it occurred to me that all of these together would make an interesting concert.  And it’s not just my songs, but songs that other people had written and recorded as well.  And each song has a story attached to it. So that was the idea for the tour we’re calling ‘Songs Of A Lifetime.’”

Lake will also seek out involvement from his crowds on the tour because he clearly realizes that his  career has only been possible thanks to the fans that he has gathered over, lo, these many years. It’s an adept  realization that only the most self-aware musicians truly understand.

“I’ll give the audience a chance to participate because this is a journey that I was only able to take because they made it possible. It’s a journey we’ve shared. People often come up to me and say things like, ‘Oh Greg, Brain Salad Surgery (ELP’s classic gold record from 1973) got me through college.’ So this particular show is something I wanted to do, partly to coincide with the book, but partly because I wanted a chance to share, in the most personal way, the journey we went on together. “

Lake’s illustrious career remains one of rock’s most stratospheric and successfully long lasting even amidst some typical bumps in the road most rock and roll paths often contain. He met keyboardist Keith Emerson first in the early 70’s while in the groundbreaking prog rock ensemble King Crimson, and then shortly afterward, the pair was introduced to drummer Carl Palmer by legendary music impresario Robert Stigwood.  Shortly after, in a simple London flat, ELP was born.

“[Stigwood] said, ‘Just give [Palmer] a try, I’m sure you’ll like him.’ So a day or two later, we rented a little room in SoHo in London, it was almost like the front room of someone’s house. We put the gear in there and we played, and instantly, we knew that the chemistry was right. The room just lit up, and the music was electrifying. It was obvious to all three of us that this was the band.“

So why did bands like King Crimson and ELP take their sound in a new and largely uncharted progressive rock direction, rather than the more hard rock genre that many bands of the day had become successful at? Simple, really…to be different and get noticed.

“At that time, the currency in the music business was originality. You needed to be original and different to stand out. In those days if you were to play an album by any of the great artists of the time – Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, you name it – in three seconds of playing the record,  you would know who you were listening to. They all had an identity and a personality. And King Crimson realized that we needed to be different. And we also realized that most bands looked to America and to American musical roots for their inspiration: the blues, country-western, gospel. We decided that we’d be better off to look in a different place, and that place was in European classical music, basically. Our roots were more European than they were American. And that was the real difference in how progressive rock music developed. It wasn’t using those same 12 bar formats, we were using the influence of classical music, which was many different things and had elements that were not at all related.  So you had music which had no form, effectively.  And people called it progressive because it really didn’t have a bag you could put it into.  It wasn’t one of the normal forms of rock music. And despite what some may think, it did have a huge influence on rock music in the latter part of the 20^th century. People still write to me, people like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they’re huge fans. “

From the beginning, the expectations for ELP were huge given the talent assembled. And the band lived up to those expectations from the start and kept their “Fanfare For The Common Man” going for a highly successful yet relatively short period of time.

“ELP was a different matter than King Crimson because when ELP first started, the moment we started, we were labeled with this title of supergroup, because Keith and I had come from well-known bands. It felt as though we were the sort of ‘sons of famous fathers’, born with the silver spoon in our mouths, but that was far from the truth. Both Keith and I spent years and years on the road – the term used is ‘paying your dues.’ And we certainly paid ours. But when it came to ELP, it was almost as if the band were a success before it played a note, which really wasn’t the truth. The people decide whether you’re going to be popular or not, and they liked us and that was the end of it.”

The place where ELP really broke into the stratosphere was the legendary Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, where a who’s who of the day gathered a year after Woodstock in one of rock and roll’s first true large festival settings. And ELP blew the massive crowd away and were on their way to superstardom.

ELP in their rock god hey day (L-R: Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer)

“Anybody who was anybody was playing at that festival  – The Who, Jimi, everybody.  And we got up on the stage and it just went very, very well. There were three hundred thousand people who all  stood up and it was undeniable. We realized that we cracked it when we walked off the stage. The next day, we were the front page of every newspaper you could imagine, we were world famous. It wasn’t that we’d come from nowhere all of a sudden, of course it wasn’t an overnight thing. We’d worked hard for years building up our careers with King Crimson and [Emerson’s band] The Nice, and  eventually we ended up with ELP. And once we had exploded, it was only a couple of years until we were playing 60,000 seat stadiums.”

A short anecdote of those rare formative days that might pop up on Lake’s upcoming tour talks about some of those aforementioned soon-to-be-legendary British bands of the day meeting up at a classic English roadside hangout at all hours…well, let him tell about it. You can just imagine what that must have been like.

“There was a motorway restaurant, a truck stop, called The Blue Boar on the M1, and that’s where all the bands used to stop on their way going north or south on tour at the time. You could stop in there at three o’clock in the morning, and you would always see The Who, The Stones, The Small Faces, us, other famous bands, everyone would be there, it was incredible. They’d all be coming back from Liverpool, Manchester, and that’s where we all used to eat.”

After a string of gold records and worldwide fame for ELP led to more huge crowds, including almost 200,000 at the big California Jam concert in 1974, tensions in the band largely due to a disagreement on the direction they would take caused ELP to take a two year hiatus even though they were enjoying immense popularity and financial success.

“Just prior to us recording Works Volume I, I think Keith felt that he had blown every chord in his head. I think he felt that he done everything he could with synthesizers, within the confines of a three-piece band. We had escalated the show, each time we came back to play a tour it would be bigger, it would be more dramatic, we ended up at one point with eleven tractor trailers on the road. 140 people. The show was massive, it was enormous. Today you see shows like that with bands like U2, but back then, that was a really pioneering thing to do. And we reached a point where we just didn’t know what to do next, I think was the truth of it. And Keith had the feeling that the way to go was symphonic, he was hell-bent on doing a piano concerto. So we decided to go down the orchestral route, and I think in a way it was the beginning of the end of the [original] period of ELP. The early albums had something special about them in a sort of fantasy way that was not there on any subsequent album.”

After recording the classic double LP Works Volume I and then embarking on what turned out to be an ill-fated and financially disastrous heavily orchestral tour, ELP broke up for the first time after their next album Love Beach was released. Lake grows a bit wistful when he talks about his wish back then that the band could have held it together amidst the growing discord.

“Personally, I really would have liked to have continued and tried to face the challenge of finding a way to make another record in the same way as we had made Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery, Tarkus. These albums were really fantasy records, and I personally never tire of making that sort of music.”

In subsequent years, Lake did a brief stint in the British supergroup Asia, recorded some well-received solo material and collaborated in the studio with some of his peers, and even reunited with Emerson for an album and tour as Emerson-Lake. Palmer joined his two former bandmates and the original lineup briefly regrouped in the early 90’s for two albums and a tour, but soon after, old issues arose and ELP dissolved again, returning one last time in 2010 with another final ELP appearance at a British festival and an unplugged Emerson-Lake tour following that as their swan song, at least for now.

Lake on tour with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band

In addition to the brief ELP & EL reunions, Lake’s life in the 21^st century has been charmed, with highlights like playing in Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band (“he’s such a great guy and that band was lovely”), recording with The Who (“that was a strange experience”) and jamming onstage with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Jethro Tull among others. He has also headlined benefits with Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

And yes, sure, it’s a stock question, but what would be Lake’s favorite ELP song, especially to play live? I think you know his answer, but maybe not everything about it’s history.

“Well, I love playing Lucky Man, just because it was such an unforeseen hit. But it was a throwaway. I’d written this sort of medieval minstrel song when I was just a young kid, I was 12 years old when I wrote it. And I wrote it about this sort of medieval knight or very wealthy person, you know, what a lucky man he was. But then, the irony was that he got in a fight, and he died.  And so, how lucky was he, really? And the strange thing was the song started to take on all kinds of interpretations, people would even  put parallels on it to the war in Vietnam. But it was written in a very naïve way. “

Deep down, Greg Lake mostly appreciates just being on the planet, let alone being able to play his classic music for those who love it. And that kind of appreciation of life and music is something that comes through strikingly when talking to him, and is sure to come through on his upcoming “Songs Of A Lifetime” tour.

“I’m grateful to be alive. I value each day, highly. The older you get, the more you do. And now, it’s coming to the end of that career really, hopefully not too soon, but I know I won’t be able to play forever. I’m grateful for a fantastic career.  But in the end, music is a spiritual thing. It comes from the soul of one person, it passes through the air, into the soul of another person. And that’s what’s great about music, I think it’s all about intent. If you’re sincere about what you’re doing and you play it with passion and feeling, it’s received with passion and feeling. That’s really the essence of it. And if I lost that, I’d stop playing.“

PAT McGEE: LOCAL ROCK AND ROLL DISCIPLE MAKES GOOD

Northern Virginia’s own Pat McGee keeps his rock and roll dream alive with tireless touring, great songwriting and staying true to what got him to where he is today.

By Steve Houk

To say that Northern Virginia-born rock stalwart Pat McGee is a disciple of rock and roll is, to say the least, an understatement.

Not only did he grow up bleeding classic rock, living and breathing artists like Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, James Taylor and others, but Pat McGee tailored his evolution as a serious musician after the familiar sounds of these rock and roll legends. He began what is now a highly successful musical career as, yes, a classic rock and roll devotee.

“When I got a guitar, I would learn how to play a song that I actually had a recording of; I could play a Led Zeppelin tune, and wow, I kinda sounded like it. That’s when to me, it clicked, I wanted to do this with every song that I love, I want to learn how to play Eric Clapton, James Taylor, all these tunes, so I just kinda chased that whole thing, and before I knew it there were two or three hundred songs that I had amassed, and then I went out and played bars, and it was a blast. I never thought it would be a career, it was just like, I’ll just keep playin’ bars, playin’ this music, this is fun.”

Decades after he cut his rock and roll teeth at home in Northern Virginia, rocking out in high school bands and then in college bars playing the music of his heroes, Pat McGee has established a truly successful career of his own as a rock musician, with a rabid loyal following across the country, an ongoing busy touring schedule, more than ten solo and Pat McGee Band releases to his credit containing his own original excellently-crafted music, and sharing the stage with some of those legends he grew up listening to. It’s been a solid and lasting career to be sure and shows no signs of slowing down, even with his life now as a family man.

First, the NOVA roots review: McGee was born in Alexandria, moved to Annandale when he was six, and went to Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington. Can’t get much more local than that. 

“My brother had played guitar, and he and I had a little band going when I was in high school. Then I got a guitar when I was 16 so it wasn’t like I was on it early, but I played piano earlier in my childhood, played a little bit of clarinet, kinda goofed around, I wasn’t totally into the band thing at school, so I didn’t really read music, I enjoyed playing by ear and I found out I had a small talent for figuring out how to play, you know, whatever song it was.”

When McGee got to college and started playing his favorite rock songs at various local haunts, he quickly realized his intended path as an occupational therapist might be taking another road. And it was Dave Matthews, a local musician back then who has since gone on to worldwide fame, who unknowingly gave him the confidence to pursue his own yet-untapped songwriting talents.

“I guess it all started when I got to college and was playing bars, back then I was just playing cover songs, I was that guy that played back in the corner of the bar, there was only one bar in town so they were forced to listen to me. It didn’t occur to me to write my own music, that felt like something that classic rock bands that I worship were only able to do, making your own CD in 1993, not a lot of people did that. So I ended up playing in Richmond and seeing the Dave Matthews Band across the street playing to what seemed like a packed house, I had no idea what their music was like, I was just a classic rock junkie. If it didn’t have screaming electric guitar or didn’t sound like James Taylor I wasn’t interested. But I was like ‘Wow, these guys actually write their own music, that’s kinda cool.’ I mean, to me they were a local band, and I was like, ‘Here’s a local band that writes their own music.’ And then quickly they became enormous. It definitely opened my mind to saying, you know what, you should write your own music, because you don’t want to be playing ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ for the rest of your life in a bar. The DMB was certainly not a musical influence on me, but they were an influence in the sense that you could write your own music and people just might be into it. So that’s what I did for two years or so, and then eventually once the first record came out I hit the bars and the college scene really heavy. I moved to Richmond, and played every college that would have me.”

Clearly, McGee took his well-honed classic rock musicianship and began to tailor it into his own sound, writing his own music that borrowed from his heroes, but that was a sound all his own. And he didn’t hesitate to get that music out to the fans, taking it to the streets himself.

“I was like, well, I love classic rock so much, why don’t I just channel that into my own. So I booked a studio in ’94 on my Christmas break from college, and then wrote the songs after I already booked the studio, which was backwards, kinda ridiculous. And I put the record out right before I left college, and was hoping that, you know, the people who saw me on Wednesday nights for two dollars would drop ten bucks and check out my record. So instead of going to my exams, I decided to spend three days selling CDs door to door, and I sold a thousand records in three days. It was more money that I’d ever seen in my life, and nowadays that wouldn’t happen because of the digital world, but back then it was like, you can’t even copy a record, you’d have to put your cassette deck in and tape it, so it was a really big deal for me to move that many records that quickly.”

McGee’s first professional music experiences truly fit what he was all about: touring a lot and releasing independent records as you weave in and out of gigs, gaining popularity from your live shows and pulling people in with your music that way. But he found once he started playing with the big boys, the major record labels, that his way of doing things clashed with theirs and he had to reassess how he would go forward.

“In the early stages, the independent record thing was just a freight train; we were doing great numbers, we were selling a lot of tickets at venues, we were selling over a hundred thousand of our own records. The jump to getting signed was the natural thing that everyone sorta did, it was exciting at the time and I don’t regret it because we made a couple great records with Warner, but the experience of them slowing down that freight train – I mean, we’re a touring band, I grew up loving the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers and bands that just were always on the road. You saw ‘em a couple times a year. That was our mentality: don’t go off the road ever, and just keep putting out records. And when you get to the major labels, back then they wanted us to just chill out for second, you’d finish a record and it might not come out for nearly a year, and we were used to when the record was in the can, in four weeks, it was in the hands of a fan. It was all about, just keep going, and keep giving out more music, and keep giving them a live show that really shows our sound. “

As McGee’s fanbase expanded, the touring schedule increased and he was releasing new recordings on a pretty regular basis through the early 2000’s The Pat McGee Band became one of rock music’s most rigorously touring bands. As well as growing his own popularity, this also enabled McGee to share bills with some of those classic rock heroes he grew up listening to, and even playing for a President, all experiences which he still has trouble believing really happened.

“Looking back, the major highs were touring with people I worshipped. We did a couple James Taylor shows, and I did two summers with the Allman Brothers which was just ridiculous. It was around 2000, 2001, and it was a dream for me, a dream come true. Then we got to play with The Who on the West Coast, and that to me also was just otherworldly. They offered us four shows opening up for The Who, so we did The Gorge outside of Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and it was crazy. It was not even real. I remember hanging out with (Who bassist) John Entwistle at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip in LA, and it’s still not even real, I can’t even believe I talked to the man.  We definitely had a lot of amazing things fall into our lap because we were that band that did 98 shows in 103 days one time, and that was only in a van. Once we got a bus and were bus touring it got even crazier. We even got asked to play for President Clinton, it was a 9:30 Club show for him, a private show, that was pretty crazy to stand up there and the secret service came up to me and said, ‘You have to go announce the President’ and I’m like, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.’ Never in my life did I think I’d be saying those words.”

McGee is very thoughtful when he talks about how music has changed since he was a teenager spinning vinyl, waiting breathlessly for that new album to come out and then immersing himself in it, like many children of the 70’s and early 80’s did. He doesn’t begrudge newer generations who have endless catalogs of music at their fingertips online for only a few dollars, but he certainly longs for the days when growing with a band meant giving their album a bunch of tries on the turntable.

“It’s just different today than it was when we used to buy an album and treasure it. It dawned on me that people just are treating music like, ‘Oh yeah I kinda need it, but I’m not that interested.’ The value of it is not as important as it used to be. These sites like Spotify where you can pay five bucks and listen to every record on the planet. I mean I get it…back in the day, when I walked into a record store when I was 12 to buy the new Van Halen album and if someone told me then that I could get every record in the store for five bucks, I mean, are you kidding me? But I saved my $17.99 to buy the Scorpions new live double album, and would take it home and ingest it into my body, it’s such an experience, like, ‘I’m so into this band,’ as opposed to now, people just don’t have or make time in their day anymore to say, ‘I’m gonna check out this record over and over and over’ and ‘I’m gonna drop ten bucks just on the pure fact that I love this artist and I’ll probably come around to loving this record.’ I just feel there’s a lack of investment goin’ on, and we’re fortunate in the band to get in there and get fans that are not just fans because they saw me on some TV show, or they heard one song in a movie, or they liked the way the band looked. It’s that they like the SONGS. And so if I go play a show, I can choose any fifteen songs in my 80 or 90 song catalog and they’re gonna be pleased with it because they took the time to get to know the music. It’ll remind them of a time in college when they listened to that record a hundred times. But I remember buying Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA the day it came out and I didn’t even have a record player, my sister did, so she cleared out of her room so I could experience it. That just doesn’t happen today.”

McGee cares so much about the music fan’s overall band experience that he has founded ‘Down The Hatch’, an entity that provides intimate up-close-and-personal concert experiences with McGee and other musicians revolving around different concert dates, a refreshing concept in an era where many musicians have become even more detached from the average fan, and the concert experience to many is a real drag, with expensive seats, overpriced beer and exhausting post-concert traffic.

“Fifteen, twenty years of touring has taken me around the country so many times, and I’m the guy who always gets out of the tour bus or the van and runs around a city and checks out what it’s got to offer, where to eat, what to drink, rather than just getting on stage and saying, ‘Where the hell am I?’ You can lose track of where you are, so I just felt that with all the money people lay out for tickets, and then so much for beers and traffic, they don’t want to deal with all that. And people don’t get to know the band much or what the songs mean. So with ‘Down The Hatch, I’ll pick a city that I think is really great and hold this overall event there, like, it’s not only the concerts, but I’m gonna take you to the restaurants that I love, I’m gonna be hangin’ out with you, it’s a couple hundred people, they all sign up for these things. I’m gonna be givin’ guitar lessons, songwriter workshops, totally hands-on, they can access me at all times. There’s no, ‘Hey I’m the rock star and I’ll be in my suite and I’ll come play the concert and disappear.’ It’s a very intense, intimate experience for three days. It encompasses the food element, the drink element, , the music, you’re just ingesting all this stuff, sometimes I’ll bring in 3 or 4 artists and even other bands in my genre. I know people are leaving there totally invested in these artists.”

Having released his latest album last year, the stellar country-tinged No Wrong Way To Make It Right, these days Pat McGee still lives and breathes his music, but with children to look after and a family life to lead, his priorities have shifted some. But he still deeply loves what he does, is tremendously good at it, and undoubtedly, some of his best music is still to come.

“First and foremost I am the father of three daughters, a fourth grader, a third grader and a kindergartener, three beautiful girls that monopolize my life in a fantastic way. There’s always going to be them, but I also want to make the music work with this. My life is in a different place. It doesn’t mean that if presented with an opportunity to kick it back to a level that it was at ten years ago that I wouldn’t entertain that, but it would have to be an extremely attractive offer to do that. I’m really more focused on making this life work for the next twenty years, and as far as the music, making the songwriting being the main thing. I feel like my last two records are the best songs I’ve written. And I’ll keep in that direction, keep putting out records that are even truer and truer.”

Visit Pat McGee’s website here.

NIKOLAI BASKOV: A TENOR ON HIS WAY TO THE TOP

Of all the singer categories in the world, one category seems to kind of spiritually rise above the other, somehow standing head and shoulders above as the grandest of them all: The “tenor.”

Names like Caruso, Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras and other legendary tenors have always exuded a certain special kind of, well, mojo. They seem to possess an innate gift, a rare ability to transcend even the more revered mainstream rockstar vibe with their stirring and emotionally charged operatic arias, and in modern times even via popular music melodies, with sweeping notes that are sustained for what seems like hours, even days. If you’ve ever been in the room when a tenor’s on a roll, it’s pretty damn spectacular.

These days, one very talented tenor is taking his craft by storm, especially in his homeland of Russia, but it definitely isn’t stopping there. His name? Nikolai Baskov, the so-called “Golden Voice of Russia”, and next year he will be bringing his stunning vox and sexy demeanor to America as he embarks on his first US tour ever. His 2011 PBS special (and accompanying DVD/CD package) “Nikolai Baskov: Romantic Journey” is Russia’s most expensive and elaborate performance ever recorded for international television. The special has been a sure road-paver, as 24 (yes, two dozen) HD cameras capture the spectacle and majesty of a glorious Baskov performance. The exciting and daunting prospect of an American tour isn’t spooking this Russian treasure one bit; in fact, he’s chomping at that bit.

“I’ve never toured in the U.S. before, so I’m very excited to be in front of a new audience,” Baskov, 34, said this week. “Outside of the Russian community, many people will be seeing me live for the first time. Americans are mostly familiar with me through my special on PBS, so it will be great to actually share the music in a live setting. I’m also just excited to spend time in the U.S. and with the people here. New York especially is one of my favorite cities in the world – I love the dining, the parks, and most of all…the shopping!”

It seems like Baskov has had this moment on his radar since his childhood.  He’s one of those gifted and accomplished singers who, for as long as he can remember, wanted to be exactly where he is right now, doing what he’s seemed destined for. And there’s nothing like a supportive “mat” (“mother” in Russian) to help foster your dreams.

“I started singing as a child. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to sing. Even as a little boy when I would visit other people’s homes with my parents, I was always the entertainment. My mother was the first one to support my interest in music.  She said from an early age that I was destined to be an artist. I went to the Children’s Musical School and started studying music when I was five, and then started studying vocals when I was sixteen.”

As a result of his obvious and fast-developing talents, Baskov’s accolades were many on his ascent to his current status as one of the world’s top tenors. He studied at the Gnessin Music Academy in Moscow and the Moscow State Petr Chaykovsky Conservatory. In 1998, he won first prize in the All-Russian Young Singers Competition and took second prize in the Grande Voce competition in 1999 in Spain. The same year, Baskov was invited to join the esteemed Bolshoi theatre troupe and it was there that his talent seemed to truly take flight, performing major arias in such operas as Yevgeni Onegin, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Traviata and others. In 2000, he recorded his debut solo album “Posveshenie” (Dedication), and a video called “In Memory of Caruso” was aired on Russian TV, increasing his popularity. In 2001, Baskov left the Bolshoi to set out on his own burgeoning solo career. It was clear that the young singer was on the road to superstardom, and everything that happened since has fallen along that path.

Nikolai Baskov ponders his promising past and bright future

So who does a tremendous talent like Nikolai Baskov regard as his influences? They are many and varied, from past operatic and popular music legends to, yes, even a current pop diva.

“I love all types of music, both opera and pop music, and some of my influences include [Italian singer/songwriter] Lucio Dalla, Barbra Streisand, Pavarotti, and more contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga,” said Baskov.  “My favorite singer is Mario Lanza. His performances are beautiful and passionate. He can express all the emotions that I try to express onstage – his voice can make you cry and it can make you laugh. On a personal level, the incredible soprano Montserrat Caballe took me under her wing and became my vocal teacher about seven years ago. She has taught me so much, from performing tips to ways to take care of my voice day to day. She is my vocal mama!”

Baskov’s next big step is what all musicians dream about: a tour in the United States. And all the hard work and accolades have come down to this. As far as what he will deliver at the pivotal point in his career, this is a man who has roots in the classics, but loves the mainstream side as well.

“I like to sing both. My tour will be both classical works and more contemporary work, including a few pieces from Broadway. To me, performing an aria isn’t just to perform a piece of music. It is to communicate my emotions and connect with the audience. I have a very warm heart and like to make people happy, and I try to communicate that with my performances.”

THE HUMBLE GENIUS OF GEORGE WINSTON

With one hand on the wheel while driving across America in a rental car to his next gig, an American musical treasure talks about how Jim Morrison is his right hand, playing live is what it’s all about, and how composing is like giving birth.

By Steve Houk

You’d think such a tremendously gifted, world-renowned talent like pianist George Winston would be jet setting from San Francisco to his next gig in Minnesota on a sleek private jet, a limo awaiting on the tarmac to whisk him away to a four star hotel, where his PR peeps would be there to escort him to a spacious suite and fans would be camping out in the hotel lobby hoping he’d deign to sign their weathered album covers of his new age classics like “Autumn” or “December.”

Yes, you may think that’s the way it would be. But therein lies the inherent humility and wonderful charm of the enigma that is George Winston.

When we talked last week, Winston was cruising along in his rented Toyota on a highway somewhere in Nevada, soon to cross into Utah, only a mere 22 hours to go until he reached the Minnesota city of Rochester for his Saturday night performance at the Mayo Civic Center’s Presentation Hall. But he’d be stopping for the night in the first hotel he found, “when I get tired.”

Yep, just another musical genius tooling across America, playing his harmonica when he’s not on the phone with people like me, looking out at the vast landscapes passing by, waiting for the next brainstorm of miraculous Winstonesque music to waft through his mind. And what did he care most about? That his cell signal kept dropping out.

“Sorry the call keeps dropping,” he told me several times. “I know you’re busy. It’ll be better when I get into Utah, probably.” 

“I could go on all day if this is how I get to talk to George Winston,” I replied.

“You might just be goin’ on all day!  No problem with me — I’m just drivin’ for 20 hours or so.”

George Winston comes off as a tremendously humble and even ordinary man, in both attitude and appearance. But his piercingly evocative and utterly special music, and the successful career he has created with his incredible talent, are far from ordinary. In fact, they are extraordinary.  If you’ve heard of George Winston, you no doubt own several of his works and his music is somehow ingrained deeply somewhere in your psyche. If you haven’t, well, you’re missing something incredibly special. Over the last thirty-plus years, Winston and his treasured Steinway have bridged the gap between startlingly gorgeous and emotional New Age compositions and beautifully familiar traditional melodies to form one of music’s most unique and lasting legacies.

Since his debut Ballads and Blues in 1972, Grammy-winner Winston has released over a dozen albums of largely his own self proclaimed “rural folk piano ” music that have sold in droves worldwide – including albums supporting  those affected by 9/11 (Remembrance – A Memorial Benefit) and Hurricane Katrina (Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions – A Hurricane Relief Benefit), as well as tribute albums to The Doors (Night Divides The Day – The Music of The Doors) and two dedicated to one of his many idols Vince Guaraldi (Linus and Lucy & Love Will Come). He also plays over 100 mesmerizing solo shows a year (including this December 10^th at George Mason University), even dabbling in acoustic guitar and blues harmonica sometimes in concert as an extra added treat. But every time you call up one of his compositions, say on You Tube, there are dozens of comments that illustrate the deep emotional impact he has on those who have come to love his music. People feel his music, it becomes part of their heart and soul. Believe me, I speak of what I know, my wife and I both had tears running down our cheeks the last time we saw him live. But tell him that he has this kind of deeply personal effect on people, and he will humbly explain it away as being just a matter of one’s own personal tastes.

“I think everyone just likes what they like, and I really respect everyone’s tastes,” Winston told me from the highway. “One person could like it and another person doesn’t hear anything in it, and sometimes, you hear something and you might like it later, too.  Everybody has their favorites, ya know, me included. Nobody’s universally liked, but I do appreciate it, because it gives me the chance to play live. I’m very grateful for the chance to play live, that’s my main thing. I’m glad some people like it, because if there’s hardly anyone there, you couldn’t play live (laughs). Live music is playing the songs…and somebody listens.”

Opening The Doors

Among George Winston’s biggest musical influences are New Orleans piano legends Professor Longhair, Henry Butler and James Booker, and the great stride pianist Fats Waller. But before hearing those great N’Awlins piano men, it was the music of one of rock music’s most innovative bands, and particularly their own piano man, that pretty much kicked things off.

“I didn’t listen to music until I was 12, except something out of a car radio, a Christmas carol or something like that. But when I was 12, that was 1961, and that was the year of a lot of instrumental hits, so the instrumentals were what I loved, particularly the organ. So after listening for six years, I saw a record by a band called The Doors, and I thought it was the greatest thing I ever heard. I thought, ‘I got to get an organ and play in a band’, so then I played organ in a band for about four years, but something wasn’t quite right, and I just thought well, I just haven’t played very long. Then in one 30-second time period, I got a Fats Waller piano recording from between 1929 and 1936 from the library, and I heard that first 30 seconds, and I said, ‘Solo piano, not organ in a band’, OK now, I can get started.  It was just like hearing The Doors, it’s those moments in our life when thirty seconds changes everything. There was no decision and there was no thought, it was just, this is what it is.”

Speaking of The Doors, Winston is currently working on his second tribute album to the influential sixties foursome, and clearly feels the band has been a special inspiration to him as he has evolved as a musician. But not just the organ sound, their lead singer has something to do with it as well.

“I got the (Doors) album because of the organist, that’s what got me to buy it. But it was the whole thing. I always thought the singer and the organist were the same person, because it was so like…well, like Ray Charles played piano and sang, one thing, you know. But I thought the organist was the singer, I didn’t know anything about the band or anything, and I discovered it later. I didn’t really realize until about two years ago that Jim Morrison was the essence of my right hand – not the notes but the expression. The notes come from James Booker, Professor Longhair, Henry Butler and New Orleans, but the desire you express, and the expression itself…well, I could say James Booker’s my left hand, and Jim Morrison’s my right hand. As far as Ray (Doors keyboardist Manzarek), we played a show a while back and we correspond now and then, but I love (Doors members) Robbie, John and Jim just as much. It was all four, it was like, god, these guys are like one person.”

Yes, Winston had a number of important influences in those early days, including groundbreaking pianist Vince Guaraldi, and his mind became almost a bubbling brew of piano sounds that began to formulate and cast the dye for what is now his unique and influential sound.

“I heard Cast Your Fate To The Wind (from Guaraldi’s Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus record) in 1962 when that was a hit for him and I loved it, and then I heard of course the Peanuts special in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and I just loved his piano in there. And I went to my local record store and there was the record. It was the first record I heard that seemed to me like one song all the way through with 11 parts. And that happened to me with the Doors record later, oh about 13 months after that, and that really struck me, another album with one song with multi-parts.  The whole thing is a song. And that kinda ruled what I did from ‘Autumn’ on, one song connected together, up until then I didn’t really use a thematic concept. And that was the next step to say, ‘My favorite, favorite albums are really one song with multi parts.’ So that’s how I started doing them. I kinda floundered around into the late 1970’s, and then I heard Professor Longhair’s solo piano 1949-1953 recording, and I said ‘I got to try to play that’, and soon afterwards, I did ‘Autumn.’ And as far as that Professor Longhair tune? Ha, I’m still working on it. I’m still working on Break On Through by The Doors too, that’s gone on for, oh, 44 years.”

Some of Winston’s most profoundly beautiful works – Autumn, Winter Into Spring, December, Summer - are based on the stunning magic of the changing seasons, which isn’t a surprise at all considering where Winston grew up, and the profound effect the changing times of the year had on him as a child.

“My biggest inspiration is the seasons, because the seasons are color, and they’re different every place; for example if it’s winter, it’s a different kind of winter in one place than the other. I think growing up in Eastern Montana, there was one radio station, no television, so the seasons were the entertainment; you rake the leaves and jump in a pile, or go out and sled, or go swimming in the summer, the seasons were the movies and the TV and all of the entertainment, the seasons were it. That just stayed with me, that’s the main thing, I’m always thinking of it, I might be in a big city, or in the country, but it’s still you know, the same date everywhere. I like urban settings as much as rural, it’s like wherever I am, it’s good. If there’s oxygen, then I feel that’s a good place.”

George Winston and his Steinway (photo by Joe del Tufo)

Giving Birth

Another unexpected facet of Winston’s fascinating musical palette, of which you find are many as you speak to him, is his creative process. He doesn’t seem to agonize over searching for those elusive chords and notes that become a composition, the music, well, just seems to come to him, and his analogy of giving birth to a song is something that is particularly striking and memorable as part of that process.

“Sometimes when you have a project inside you, it must be kind of like being pregnant or something.  You have an idea, I mean, it’s growing, without you doing anything. And then something maybe fertilizes the idea, like an event or a scene, but then it grows and it grows, and then you want to put it on canvas, or on a record. Things come to me pretty naturally, I don’t really write it down, I don’t do too much repetition, I just sort of get it to where if it’s in my sleep, I wake up, if it’s the first thing when I wake up, I go, ‘Well, it’s the day to work on this song.’ I wake up thinking it, and it’s just in you. I never try to compose a song, something just kinda starts happening. It can happen in the absence of a chord, or wow, those chords are pretty nice, I’ll write those chords down, or I’ll just dream them up. But I generally don’t do anything, I don’t write it down, sometimes I don’t even go right to the piano,  I’ll just let it happen when I find myself playing that idea. Sometimes I’ll go, ‘I remember that thing I did six months ago. Oh OK…’ Each thing is totally different. I just don’t think about it too much. It’s gotta come out somehow. I never do it consciously. I never want to compose a song, and I never try to compose a song, it’s just something that happens, occasionally.”

The thing you keep returning to after spending a little time with George Winston is his humility and also a feeling of underlying generosity and advocacy. It’s not surprising that he has done a recent work dedicated to the Occupy movement, and that merchandise sales from his shows often go to local food banks. But how does someone who seems to be able touch so many people so deeply not become enamored with himself and that feeling of profound influence? Well, for the ever humble Winston, he just keeps remembering who got him to where he is: the audience. It is not lost on him that without them, well, he wouldn’t be able to do what he so clearly and deeply loves doing.

“I guess I kind of think of it in reverse,” Winston concludes as he crosses into Utah in his rental car. “I’m there because of them. If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t be there. I would be someplace else.  It’s kinda like being an astronaut. You’re up there in space, but you know, it took a lot of people to get you up there.”

Damn, do I wish I was riding shotgun with him right now.

To go to George Winston’s website, click here.

For tickets to George’s 12/10 show at GMU, click here.