Category Archives: Music et al

Anniversary, Festivals, Music et al

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

4 Comments

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

May 23 – 25, 1969

1969 Festival #7

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

 This blog entry is on the second of the three 1969 rock festivals held on Memorial Day weekend. The first piece was on the Aquarian Family Festival in Santa Clara, California.

This entry is on its rival a half-mile away: the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival. The Aquarian was a two-day free event. The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was a three-day ticketed event.

1968 debacle

The first Northern California Folk-Rock Festival had happened in 1968 and had issues. Some of the bands advertised weren’t actually booked and PCP sent hundreds of attendees to the local emergency room. “Never again” was the immediate reaction by local law enforcement, but a year later the second (and last) NCFRF came off.

How? According to the Rock Prosopography site: After the drug-addled debacle of the previous year, it was surprising that there was an encore. Supposedly the promoters managed to rent the Fairgrounds on false pretenses, and then started advertising Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, even though they had neither under contract. The festival ended up occurring, and was well attended, but the city and county made sure there wasn’t any further events.

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

1969 happens

Northern California Folk-Rock Festiva
Newspaper announcement that festival would be allowed.

The Northern California Folk Rock Festival, organized by Bob Blodgett, was held  at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. It had a stellar line-up. I’ve highlighted those who would perform at Woodstock in August.

Jimi Hendrix, now a super-star was the main attraction. It is a portion of his “Red House” performance that is heard at the top of this entry and the full 11-minutes in the YouTube selection below.

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

         A great lineup by any measure

  • Jimi Hendrix Experience
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • The Chambers Brothers
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Eric Burdon
  • Spirit
  • Canned Heat
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie
  • The Youngbloods
  • Steve Miller
  • Chuck Berry
  • Muddy Waters
  • Taj Mahal
  • Lee Michaels
  • Blues Image
  • Santana
  • Aum
  • Elvin Bishop
  • Poco
  • People!
  • Lynn County
  • Loading Zone
  • Sweet Linda Divine
  • Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
  • Doc Watson & New Lost City Ramblers

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

No recording/no film

Unlike Woodstock, but exactly like the more than two dozen other major festivals in 1969, the Northern California Folk-Rock Festival was not filmed nor recorded. The overpiece song at the top of this entry is Sweet Linda Divine from her solo album. Sadly most of us have not heard of Linda Tillery, but from the powerful performance we hear a piece of, we should have. And I’m sure the same can be said of many of  the other performers from this sadly “unknown” festival.

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

The Concierge Photo dot com site has several photos of the event. Check them out.

Northern California Folk-Rock Festival

Next 1969 festival: Big Rock Pow Wow

Anniversary, Festivals, Grateful Dead, Music et al, Music of the 60s

Big Rock Pow Wow

9 Comments

Big Rock Pow Wow

Seminole Indian Village, West Hollywood, FL

23 – 25 May 1969

1969’s 8th Rock Festival

Aum…”Mississippi Mud”

Big Rock Pow Wow

Big Rock Pow Wow

1969 Festival #8

The third of the 1969 Memorial Day weekend festivals is perhaps the most interesting. It wasn’t filmed so pictures of the event are hard to come by. It wasn’t recorded either. Well, mostly.

Fortunately for us, the Grateful Dead played the Big Rock Pow Wow that weekend (twice) and, as they typically did, recorded themselves. Today that recording (and an excellent one it is!) is available as Road Trips Vol 4 #1. Both shows are available to listen to via the Internet Archive: Friday 23 May 1969 & Saturday 24 May 1969.  The legendary Owsley “Bear” Stanley recorded them.

Big Rock Pow Wow

Big Rock Pow Wow

Johnny Winter

The festival attracted only a few thousand people, but the line-up was a solid one. One of the performers I want to point out is Johnny Winter. The reason I want to do that is because as we move through the calendar and I blog about the many other 1969 festivals, one should note how many times you see his name. He is all over the place. Actually at the end of April, Woodstock Ventures had already signed him ($7,500) to play at their upcoming middle-of-nowhere festival in Wallkill, NY.

Big Rock Pow Wow

Three days w repeats

Sweetwater would also appear at that august event.

Here is advertised lineup by day:

Big Rock Pow Wow

Arts included

According to the Grateful Dead site: “There was Seminole dancing and chants onstage and off—and the adjacent restored Seminole village was bustling with native crafts-makers (and sellers), as well as various hippie merchants peddling their wares. Because the festival took place on Seminole land, there were no police or conventional security. Timothy Leary’s “people” were somehow involved in putting on the event and Dr. Tim wandered the grounds and occasionally spoke from the stage. “Orange sunshine” acid was everywhere.” 

Big Rock Pow Wow

Aum

The band Aum [members were Wayne Ceballos (guitar, piano), Kenneth Newell (bass), and Larry Martin (drums).] from San Francisco played also.

Aum is another of those good bands that came and went but had the eye of people like Bill Graham who put Aum on his record label for their second (and last) album. It is their “Mississippi Mud” you hear a piece of at the top of today’s entry.

Big Rock Pow Wow

Next 1969 festival: First Annual Detroit Rock & Roll Revival

Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Drummer Bruce Rowland

Leave a comment

Drummer Bruce Rowland

 May 22, 1941 — June 29, 2015

Drummer Bruce Rowland
photo from http://www.udiscovermusic.com/
Drummer Bruce Rowland

500,000 Stories

If there were 500,000 people surrounding the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that 1969 weekend, then there are 500,000 stories after their Bethel experience.

The same is true for the more than 160  performers. It is easier to track some of their trails away from that momentous event because fame can leave a scorched path. And it is easy to assume that anyone who played there forever feasted on its fame.

Of course that’s a false assumption.

Drummer Bruce Rowland

Grease Band

Bruce Rowland played drums with Joe Cocker’s Grease Band and later with the Fairport Convention.

Rowland was born in the UK and early on taught drumming. It is rumored that he taught Phil Collins how to play.

Drummer Bruce Rowland

Woodstock Music and Art Fair

For those who were there that Sunday for  Joe Cocker’s performance we likely remember watching Cocker and being amazed at his vocal and physical styles. That was me, but with a bit of hindsight, I now realize that Rowland’s drumming was integral to that power. I use a picture I took of Joe (through binoculars) as my computer’s desktop and it wasn’t until I wrote this blog entry that I realized that right behind Joe is a nice shot of Bruce Rowland (click on the picture for an enlarged view).

Drummer Bruce Rowland
Sunday 17 August 1969. Joe Cocker and the Grease Band. (photo by J Shelley)
Drummer Bruce Rowland

Queen’s Golden Jubilee

And you can see Bruce a few times thanks to the split-screen used in the movie Woodstock (in June 2002 when Joe Cocker sang “With a Little Help From My Friends” at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Phil Collins stuck close to Rowland’s pounding fills and parts)

Drummer Bruce Rowland

Life after Grease

After the Grease band dissolved (shortly after Joe Cocker left the band), Rowland worked on various projects including the Jesus Christ Superstar album.

Initially he drummed intermittently with Fairport Convention before becoming their only drummer.  He left that band in 1979 and moved to Denmark.

Bruce Riowland
UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 01: Photo of FAIRPORT CONVENTION; posed, group shot – L-R: Dave Pegg, Dave Swarbrick, Simon Nicol, Bruce Rowland (Photo by Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns)
Drummer Bruce Rowland

Fairport Convention

From the Ultimate Classic Rock site: Fairport multi-instrumentalist Dave Pegg commemorated Rowland’s passing with a post at the band’s official site, calling him a “lovely man and a great drummer” whose “playing and ‘feel’ for music was superb.” Recalling their last conversation, Pegg added, “I spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago when I heard that he was terminally ill and I was scared to make the call. Bruce said – ‘No tears Peggy. I’ve had a great life and have wonderful memories. This hospice is the best hotel I have ever stayed in and the staff are wonderful. No tears.’ We will miss you, Bruce.” [Telegraph obit]

Drummer Bruce Rowland