| Jul28.04J
Boy, I'm glad I don't have anything to keep me busy. Last Saturday
morning I traveled to Dennis Beck's house in Cuthbert, GA. We
had a great time. Dennis's son Jordan joined in as we jammed and
recorded the day and evening away.
Dennis and his wife Beth are both Elementary School teachers in
the local school district. Their hospitality was warm and it was
a very enjoyable time. Sunday morning we left at 11 am and went
into Columbus where we met Brian Fowler and Doctor David Wisdo.
We worked on the set that we'll play at the Spacerock Concert
with Nik Turner and Spaceseed on Sept 24th in Cullman, Alabama.
By early evening, I was worn out and my back was killing me, not
to mention my sore fingers. It took three hours to get back to
Calhoun.
I realized I still had to write a script for the radio show to
be aired on WUTC in Chatanooga, plus go into the studio and produce
the show. By Monday night I had a rough draft of the script. On
Tuesday I went into the studio with engineer Glen Falkenstein.
I wasn't happy with the result and went back to working on the
script.
This morning, Wednesday, I went back into the studio and it came
out much better. I called Mark Colbert, station manager of WUTC.
I told him I'd be ready for show time on this coming Saturday.
Mark ask if we could put off the show for a week so we could do
a promo and run it all next week. I'll go to WUTC on Friday morning
and we'll cut a promo for the show, plus listen to the show itself
and let Mark critique it. He has promised to help me try and get
a Bluegrass show going, where I travel to bluegrass festivals,
record interviews with
bands, plus record live performances. Then he will try to get
it on the air at WUTC plus help me in an effort to get other stations
to do the same.
The following script is the final version that I recorded in the
studio today. If Mark has changes he wants, I'll have time next
week to go back into the studio.
My cousin Lee Morin is coming to visit on this coming Sunday.
We'll play and sing together and just have a good time. I need
to get my autoharp tuned up before she comes at noon on Sunday.
The radio Show of my music will air at 8PM Friday night August
13th. It can also be heard on the Net at www.wutc.org
at the same time (8PM eastern standard time on Friday night.
The following
is the final draft of the radio show script.
Welcome to
WUTC's "DJ For an Hour". My name is Bob Harvey - I want
to introduce you to just a taste of the music that I've been involved
with over the years, which includes the time I spent as a founding
member of Jefferson Airplane plus four good years in a Bluegrass
group called the Slippery Rock String Band, as well as other projects
that all led up to the album Idiot's Vision in 2000
I recorded my first song in 1956 while I was in the Navy. It was
a song I wrote with a shipmate named Les Overstreet. It was for
tiny Gibson Records in Manila, PI, in 1956. And now from that
48 year old 78rpm recording - it's the duo of Bob Harvey &
Les Overstreet singing a very big hit in a very small pond - it's"Be
My Doll".
I left the
Navy in 1960 and settled in San Francsico where I became involved
in folk music. I formed a bluegrass group called the Slippery
Rock string Band. It was Chuck McCabe on banjo, Lee Cheney on
guitar, Mike Mindel on fiddle and myself on upright bass. While
appearing at the drinking Gourd in SF, I met Marty Balin who was
forming a folk rock band. I quit the Slippery Rock and joined
Jefferson Airplane. In August of 1965 Jefferson Airplane flew
to LA to cut a demo for Columbia. Here is one of the first songs
Jefferson Airplane ever recorded. Jorma Kaukonen on lead guitar;
Paul Kantner on rhythm guitar; Skip
Spence on Drums; Signe Toly Anderson on lead, with Marty Balin
singing harmony vocals; and myself on bass - From the demo recording
that got Jefferson Airplane it's first contract - it's "The
Other Side of this Life".
I had fun
being the bass player in Jefferson Airplane and I wouldn't trade
that time for anything, but the real value and benefit is that
it set my soul on fire - wanting to be a writer. That was the
real gift I received for my time in the band. In October of 1965
I left Jefferson Airplane and reformed the Slippery Rock String
Band.
The group signed with a manager and we went on the road playing
folk clubs, military bases and hotel lounges. The band recorded
a single in 1967. The song, entitled Tule Fog got a lot of air
play in San Francisco. Here's the Slippery Rock String Band -
Chuck McCabe on Banjo, Lee Cheney on guitar, Mike Mindel on fiddle
with me singing lead and playing bass on, It's a "goodtime
tune called "There's an old Tule Fog hangin' around the Golden
Gate Bridge of my heart".
The Slippery
Rock String Band recorded several live shows that same year, From
the CD, "live at the House of the Rising Sun", here
is the band doing a song that was a favorite with the audience
there - a bluegrass standard - Chuck McCabe shifts his five string
banjo into high gear; Lee Cheney makes his Martin Guitar smoke;
Mike Mindel shows what Bluegrass fiddle is all about and I do
my best to light a fire under my bass. Here's "Bugle Call
Rag".
Here's a song
with the tight three part harmony that was the Slippery Rock String
Band's trademark. Once again I'm singing lead on "Blue Moon
of Kentucky".
I thoroughly
enjoyed all the songs like Blue Boon, that had that tight harmony,
but the real kick was singing lead on a song that took me clear
to the top of my vocal range - like "Red Rockin' Chair".
The Slippery
Rock String Band broke up in early 1968. I formed a new band called
"Catfish Wakely". It was Tom Lane on lead guitar, Ron
Funk on rhythm guitar and myself on bass.
Here is "Catfish Wakely" doing a song I wrote after
reading a Science Fiction story with a description of a Starship
Crashing and exploding during a landing. It gave me the idea for
the song "Greenworld".
Tom Lane's
lead guitar playing shows his focus on East Indian music. His
style of playing gave my music a very unique eastern flavor. Here
is another taste of Tom Lane's lead guitar on a song I wrote,
when my love life turned sour. Here's "Blowin' My Mind".
In Early 1969
I was hired to write music for a movie called "Bitter Cherry".
I used Chuck McCabe from the Slippery Rock String Band on lead
guitar, Homer Blake on drums, and Tye Porter of the Doobie Brothers
on bass. I played rhythm guitar and sang all the vocal parts.
Here's "Bitter Cherry"
In 1971 I
produced the music for a Biker Movie. I wrote the title song and
recorded it with Don Preston and other members of Frank Zappa's
"Mother's of Invention". Here's "Hard Ride to the
Movies".
On my 40th
birthday, I decided to quite music and go back to school. I got
a BA in journalism and for the next 20 years I only played music
for my own enjoyment. In 1990 I went to Saudi Arabia as a 58-yr-old
journalist covering Desert Storm. It was there I met Brian Fowler,
an amazing mandolin player attached to Seabee battalion 24. Brian
rekindled my musical drive. When we got back to the states, we
recorded an album, called "Idiot's Vision". We called
the band San Francisco Blue. We didn't complete the album until
2000 and released it in 2001. Here is my favorite song from Idiot's
Vision. I wrote the lyrics
in 1969. Brian Fowler wrote the music in 2000. Here is "High
on a Mountain"
Since Idiot's
Vision, Brian and I have each gone our own way until this year,
when we decided to do another San Francisco Blue album. At this
point we have recorded two songs. The lyrics to the first song
were written my myself and Thom Cooley, music by Brian Fowler.
Here's "Children of the Wind".
The second
song for the new album has lyrics that I wrote with Skip Spence
when we were in Jefferson Airplane together. After 40 years I
had forgotton most of the music. Brian Fowler and I put new music
to the song which will be on the latest tribute album to Skip
Spence and his last band, Moby Grape. Here is "Hurting for
People".
Brian and
I will be appearing with his current band "Jones Avenue"
at the Spacerock concert coming up in Cullman Alabama, starring
Nick Turner and "Spaceseed". On Sept 24th when I'll
be performing "Hurting for People" We hope to finish
the new San Francisco Blue album by the first of the year.
Thanks for
your attention. I hope to have San Francisco blue playing on this
and other NPR stations in the near future.
PS
the show will be aired at 8PM, Friday the 13th. Over WUTC, 88.1
in Chatanooga. It will simultaneously be on the net at www.wutc.org
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