Herbie Herbert, aka Sy Klopps
Herbert's Bay Area "psychedelic swing" band, the Sy Klopps Blues Band, performs tomorrow at World Cafe after a week of gigging about the Big Island.
Producer Tom Moffatt remembers Herbert from the late '60s, when the pre-Klopps was working as a roadie for Santana. "Real nice guy, I recall," said Moffatt. "But I primarily remember him from that time because he was dating a gal at my office! They eventually got married, too."
Eventually, Herbert got tired of lifting amplifiers and put together a band to manage.
"I felt so sorry for him," said Moffatt. "He asked me to come up to Andrews Amphitheatre to hear this new band, and NO one was there. I mean, no one."
And the band was ... ?
"Journey!" Moffatt laughed. "Of course, he was extremely successful from then on."
Herbert was known as the manager who charted Journey's evolution a decade in advance, a hands-on guy who traveled with the group and, because of his roadie chops, knew and appreciated the minor players as well.
"I loved the music," said Herbert, calling from Kona. "I'd be there on the edge of the stage, singing along. But I could never get the lyrics straight. I could never follow a lyric in my life. My friend Pat Morrow, New York State Spelling Bee champ, would punch me on the arm and say, 'Get it right!' "
Today, Herbert has to remember the lyrics beginning to end, and Morrow is HIS manager. That's frontier justice in the music world.
The name Sy Klopps was a joke Morrow would use to warm up audiences, and then other managers and promoters like Bill Graham began to drop newspaper items about "sold-out" Sy Klopps Blues Band concerts, always in obscure areas, never witnessed except by someone's friend's cousin's ex-girlfriend. Before the term had been invented, Sy Klopps was an urban legend.
Then, retired after the break-up of Journey and Miller's self-exile, Herbert picked up a guitar and learned a few chords. Played 16 bars, and we don't mean places to drink. He began to sing. He began to perform. Friends began to sit in. The legend came to life.
"It was so much fun," marvels Herbert. "If I'd known how much fun performing was, I'd have never gone into the business end of rock 'n' roll. Every time I get on stage, I swear I'm never going to leave."
His first two CDs, "Walter Ego" and "Old Blue Eye is Back" were constructed with "studio magic," said Herbert. "I was reading the lyrics right off sheets of paper. I didn't know those songs!"
Indeed, the liner notes for "Born Under a Bad Sign" note it's the "First song Sy ever recorded. First time he ever sang a song all the way through. First time he sang the right words. First take performance."
And it helps that such studly instrumentalists as Norton Buffalo, David Denny, Prairie Prince, Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon sat in. Pretty weighty garage band.
But Herbert's takes on the tunes are meaty and authoritative. He has a growly high timbre like Steve Miller's, and he phrases the lyrics with reverence and moxie. In other words, he sounds like a blues singer who's been doing it a long time.
"I love the music, that's all there is to it," said Herbert. "I particularly like to take people through the Way-Back Machine and do songs that are pretty obscure but great tunes."
The current line-up features Ralph Woodson on guitar, who made it on a dare. "I like to challenge the audience. 'So, you think you're better? Come on up and show us!' And Ralph jumped on stage one night and I said, 'Whoa, he's got a gig from now on.' "
The hardest part, according to Herbert, was stitching together a horn section. "Hard to find, and harder to put together. What, do horn players suffer from oxygen deprivation or something? But we've got a really cookin' horn section now, the Horns of Dilemma."
Sunday, the Sy Klopps Blues Band is double-gigging with the Doobie Brothers in California. This kind of touring would be wearing on anyone. How about a retired roadie?
"Honest to God, I never thought it would be this much fun," said Herbert. "Who knew? There's probably been four stages -- so far! -- to the life of Herbie Herbert, and Tom Moffatt has known them all."
In concert: 9:30 p.m. tomorrow
