We got Duke and the Drivers.
You'd be surprised how many people in the music business got their start with the concert committee at their college. They tell tales of student apathy, as in they had no problem getting on the board, and then they booked and promoted concerts, made contacts, got a toehold in the industry.
Not at Middlebury College.
I looked forward to Winter Carnival. Well, I'm going to tell you, just like après ski, if you think the Carnival is going to bring its own fun, you're wrong. These events are just for those already partying to get down harder. Well, at Winter Carnival it's even worse. Really, it's just an excuse to have a few events, like a concert.
But Middlebury College didn't have enough money to pay the people I wanted to see.
But having said that, we did have a few big shows. We got Mahavishnu Orchestra, can you believe that? Not long after "The Inner Mounting Flame." But when bands played my out of the way college, they were punching the clock, they weren't truly into it. Want to see a great show? Go to a gig in L.A. or New York, or London or Paris or Berlin. You've got to go where the press is. That's when the act turns it up and delivers. Most acts save L.A. for last, others start in L.A., which I think is a big mistake. You see the band usually isn't ready at the beginning, and the reviews are less than stellar. But, you say, you need those reviews to sell tickets! I get that, but if you end the tour with raves people are primed to come next time around.
We got Poco after Jimmy Messina had left, right after the live album "Deliverin'," when it was clear the act was never going to break through. And, of course, the band ultimately jumped from Epic to ABC and did have hits. I love "Heart of the Night." There's that one great line...
"Shining down on the Ponchartrain"
That album also contained "Crazy Love."
But the track I love most from the ABC era was not a hit, it was the opening cut from "Head Over Heels," the first album on the label, Timothy B. Schmit's "Keep on Tryin'." I had to buy that album just to be able to hear the song at will.
Wow, "Head Over Heels" is not on Spotify, what's up with that? I just wrote about it and I needed to hear it.
But it is on Qoboz, and in hi-res!
But it's not on Amazon. Meanwhile, while I'm at it, the Free stuff is in hi-res on Amazon, sounds amazing.
But "Keep on Tryin'"?
"I've been thinkin' 'bout
All the times you told me
You're so full of doubt
You just can't let it be
But I know
If you keep comin' back for more
Then I'll keep on tryin'
Keep on tryin'"
Check it out on YouTube: tinyurl.com/5cd482yp
The word that comes to mind is EXQUISITE! Believe me, back in the day when we all saved our pennies for big rig stereos, to hear this emanating from the JBL L100's was utterly delicious, a transcendent experience, an acoustic guitar with Timothy B. like an angel on top, WHEW!
Did I ever tell you I saw Illinois Speed Press at the Fillmore, before Paul Cotton decamped for Poco? Only a few will know that band, and now Cotton is dead and no one seems to care, just like no one seems to care about posting "Head Over Heels" on all the streaming services.
This was Timothy B.'s last hurrah. Enough already. He decamped for the Eagles, and now he's known for "I Can't Tell You Why," but there's so much more. Listen to the Poco compilation "The Forgotten Trail," that's on all the streaming services, the best of the Epic years, like with Free's "Molten Gold: The Anthology" you'll realize how good Poco actually was, both in the Furay days and thereafter. But having said that, I loved the first Souther, Hillman, Furay Band album. "Border Town"? EXCELLENT!
Oh, we did get Brewer & Shipley. I mean who cares. This was long after "One Toke Over the Line." However, on that first album, the almost seven minute closer "Fifty States of Freedom" is great, check it out, that's on Spotify: tinyurl.com/z6h3y74n
Now it may sound like we actually had a decent number of acts at Middlebury. Oh yeah, we also had "It's A Beautiful Day," long after "White Bird," however I must say "Don & Dewey" from the second album is a killer. What the hell, I'll post that too... Well, it turns out that "Don & Dewey" is not on Spotify, probably a Matthew Katz thing, but here it is on YouTube, and you really should give it a listen. I doubt most people know it, but it's a tear, hang in there for thirty seconds until it starts to explode: tinyurl.com/mwjazakv (There is a live take of the song on Spotify, you don't have to e-mail me about it, it's nowhere near as good.)
So I was at Middlebury College for four years. I did not take a semester abroad, I could not sacrifice any ski time, I'm just that into it. And if you look at the above shows that's a piss-poor track record when you compare it to what other colleges presented. I remember driving to Colgate to see Bonnie Raitt and Randy Newman on one bill!
Anyway, at the aforementioned Winter Carnival the last year I was in Vermont...yes, we'd get name talent for Winter Carnival and Spring Weekend if we were lucky, rumor had it that we were going to get a band from Boston. J. Geils? They'd put out "Give it to Me," but the legend was built on the live album, "Full House." And then the rumor was we were going to get James Montgomery, fronting one of the hottest bands in Boston. But like I said above, we got Duke and the Drivers. And almost nobody went, I know, because I was there. It was kinda like that moment in Spinal Tap with the miniature Stonehenge. It's all about perspective. This was a loser show. Driving 'cross country the following fall I saw Ry Cooder in Teton Village, at the base of Jackson Hole ski area, and Little Feat at the Troubadour in L.A... In the real world, there was a plethora of talent available, but in the wilds of Vermont...
Montgomery had an album on Capricorn, his career was burgeoning, but when I left the east coast I never heard of him again. To tell you the truth, I thought he'd given up, or was dead.
And then I saw him on Tom Rush's Patreon channel.
Tom's been hosting some of these legends recently. Like Tom Paxton, and Jim Kweskin. These guys are still around, they've got amazing stories. And they tell them on Tom's channel, and I thought I was the only one watching, but unsolicited Jack Tempchin testified how great these videos were, and then on Sunday...
James Montgomery. And the man looks good! He's not ragged and wasted, like so many of these guys. And I looked him up on Wikipedia and saw that he'd graduated from Boston University. This is so rare, if they started, they dropped out. But not James...
And he's still doing it.
So they're talking about James doing gigs with his Capricorn labelmates the Allman Brothers. And this guy is totally lucid, telling a good tale, and I'm into it, and then ten minutes into it, Tom talks about playing a song. They're going to do "Statesboro Blues."
James says he's not sure he remembers all the lyrics, but he'll give it a whack. And then Tom starts strumming his guitar, and then James comes in on his harp... JAMES COME IN ON HIS HARP!
Man, this is the sound that launched a million careers. The blues of yore. We heard it, locked into the groove, and were influenced by it. We played the blues, we listened to the blues, but the blues are nowhere in today's modern music world. Oh, you can hear influences. But the pure element? That's gone. But Tom and James are locked right into it.
And then James starts to sing and...
Man, this is good!
So I go back to Wikipedia, to find out more details, I mean where's this guy been? Performing! But in the Boston area. He's still doing it, like a bluesman of yore. And he's got it.
And just like pornography, you know it when you hear it, and I'm hearing it. I'm woken right up. James is positively wailing on that harp, like a pro, not an amateur, it's everything it used to be, BUT IT'S NOW!
Now every boomer of my vintage knows "Statesboro Blues," BECAUSE IT OPENED UP "AT FILLMORE EAST"!
You've got to know, it took another two years for the Allman Brothers to become ubiquitous, with "Ramblin' Man" and "Brothers & Sisters." But if you were in the know, if you were a fan of the music, if you believed, you were aware that Bill Graham hired the Allman Brothers to close Fillmore East. They simulcast it on the radio, no way could you get a ticket.
And a couple of months later, "Fillmore East" was released. I knew "Idlewild South" by heart, it was a dorm room staple. But "At Fillmore East"? It blew the roof off the joint.
And that's how I learned "Statesboro Blues." I'd heard of Blind Wille McTell, its composer, but I hadn't heard his performance. And yes, Taj Mahal cut the song on his first album, Jesse Ed Davis and Ry Cooder accompanied him, but I didn't buy that album and no one I knew did either. This was the old days, when you had to buy it to hear it, and you couldn't buy everything. Now the third album, with the cover of "Take a Giant Step," that I knew, people owned that. But when you dropped the needle on "At Fillmore East" at the end of the summer of '71, wow, Duane's slide immediately slid, the notes were jumping, the drums were pounding, Gregg ended up singing, WHAT WAS THAT??
"Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low"
But these were the lines that truly resonated:
"I woke up this morning, I had them Statesboro blues
I woke up this morning, I had them Statesboro blues"
And the deal was sealed a few lines later with...
"But if you can't make it baby, your sister Lucille said she wanna go"
LUCILLE!
This is the sound that got people to travel to gigs. Before Springsteen. Sure, the Dead were on the road, but the Allmans were together, never sloppy, it was streamlined, it was a powerhouse, just to be in proximity was a peak experience of your life.
Now James Montgomery/Tom Rush's take on "Statesboro Blues" is closer to Blind Willie McTell's than the Allmans', it's rootsy, it's got its own magic. And I was blown away and I told Tom to post the performance to YouTube. And here it is.
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