[ IT’S THE ’60S, MAN! ]
Peter Albin, left, Sam Andrew and David Getz from Big Brother & the Holding Company.
Joplin’s ‘brother’
You wouldn't expect to have anything in common with a King of Classic Rock, but it turns out that Sam Houston Andrew and I both spent not only our formative years on the same long-shuttered Air Force base in rural Tennessee, but used to explore, wide-eyed, the same ghostly, abandoned antebellum mansion hidden deep and dark in a nearby forest.
That's cool. Andrew turned his ghost house experience into a song called "Old Man Mose." "It was a real privilege growing up in the south, a real Tom Sawyer boyhood," recalled Andrew, who can also rhapsodize at length on subjects ranging from the Civil War to the current state of the presidency.
But we're here for music. Andrew and two other original members are playing with Big Brother & the Holding Company this weekend in the islands in the "Kings of Classic Rock" tour, blowing into Oahu's Blaisdell clam Sunday night. Also along are Canned Heat (one original member) and Vanilla Fudge (two original members).
Kings of Classic Rock
Featuring Canned Heat, Vanilla Fudge and Big Brother & the Holding CompanyWhere: Blaisdell Arena
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $35 advance, $40 day of show
Call: 591-2211
Also: 7 p.m. today at the Kona Brewing Co. Brewhouse Oasis on the Big Island (call 334-2739) and 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Kapalua, Maui (call 244-9145)
In case you don't remember Andrew -- you have to be of a certain age -- he was one of the lanky quartet in Big Brother who was playing alongside Janis Joplin when she exploded nationwide. Already well known in the Bay area, thanks to legendary jams and free-form improvisation, Big Brother's manager thought they should get a "chick singer" to better compete with Jefferson Airplane. Joplin returned from Texas and was hired after sitting in on only a couple of songs.
Joplin's performances were so electrifying that Big Brother wasn't given the credit they deserved. To accommodate a singer, they had to pursue a more structured approach, and when Joplin was talked into striking out on her own, she took Andrew with her.
None of it was fair but it happened. Although Big Brother & the Holding Company reformed a couple of times, they didn't get serious about it until the late '80s, and since then they've toured with a variety of additional members, including singers Kathi McDonald, Lisa Battle and Kaycee Clanton.
The 1998 release of the "Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company Live at Winterland" CD created a belated sensation -- the band's explosive, jazzy style was the perfect framing for Joplin's tortured, grasping vocals, and Andrew's classicist riffs played like cool rain against James Gurley's fiery naturalism. It's a wonderful album, one that succeeds in transporting a listener back in time.
Fito De La Parra, second from left, is an original member of Canned Heat. The rest of the band includes John Paulus, left, Dallas Hodge, Stanley Behrens and Greg Kage.
So, Sam Andrew, after 40 years, how often does the band rehearse?
"Never!" laughed Andrew. "I can't remember the last time we rehearsed. That would ruin our trademark reputation as the world's most ramshackle, rebellious band. Takes years to build a rep like that -- our 'lack of academic technique,' as the critics say. Besides, if you rehearse a song, then you have expectations of what it's supposed to sound like. I'd rather be surprised. That's what makes the playing fun."
And keeps you on your toes?
"Exactly. Otherwise, you're working in a factory."
In the years between Big Brother gigs, Andrew played tenor saxophone in the jazzy Sam Andrew Band. It was actually his first instrument, picked up while his father was stationed in Okinawa. "As a military brat, you get used to a fractured childhood, and you never stop traveling," mused Andrew. "And as a grown-up rock musician, I have a fractured adulthood and never stop traveling. So it's easier on me than the other folks in the band, I think. I've got it down to an art, like Chuck Berry. Guitar in one hand, suitcase in the other, travelin' light."
It helps, says Andrew, that's he's "not a gear guy. I like my Paul Reed Smith guitar or an SG, and let me plug into a tube amp and we're ready to rock. It's not like we have tonal expectations! Every night is a delightful surprise."
Big Brother & the Holding Company
www.bbhc.com
Click for online
calendars and events.
