The Time Between

Traffic

Traffic are probably my favorite group ever – and that’s saying something. They had the groovy hit singles (Hole In My Shoe, Paper Sun. Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (great one that), etc), they had the rockers (Dear Mr Fantasy), the quiet, getting away in the country stuff (John Barleycorn) and the soul/R&B influenced prog-rock (Low Spark). They had it all. They were a band you could grow with. Who could take you to new places without having to completely reinvent themselves. Obviously having Steve Winwood – who must have the best white soul voice on the planet. Actually forget the white. He has one of the best voices period. If you get the chance listen to a live show at the Fillmore – it’s on Wolfgangs Vault and it’s 1970 I think. It’s a three piece (Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood) doing a bunch of Barleycorn stuff. Unbelievable amount of noise coming from these guys. They were all terrific musicians. Or listen to Welcome to the Canteen – sure it sounds like it was recorded on a cassette player but the long workouts are significantly funky and the songs are just great. I never saw them around this time. I saw them around the Low Spark era. And what a band there too. Mussel Shoals came to Loughborough. Brilliant stuff. Not much more to say except if you haven’t heard them you need to (just think without Winwood there would be no Paul Weller today).


Poco
I was a huge Poco fan in my youth but they’re probably the only band from that time who I listen to now and go “what was I thinking?” Sure Pickin up the Pieces and Deliverin’ are fine albums but from there where did they go. Sure every album had at least one good song (Bad Weather from “From the Inside” for example) but for the most part they lacked soul, the productions were thin and the lyrics were pretty awful. And they were kind of faceless. I saw them once in the UK – opening for America (thank goodness things have progressed somewhat) and they never really had it. You can hear it in Buffalo Springfield. Richie Furay was always the lightweight – although who wouldn’t be in that crowd. Nice guy. Probably too nice. Great pedigree but there’s so many others to listen to.

Jerry Garcia
A few years ago I went to the Pedal Steel Convention in St Louis. 3 days of brilliant playing, nice people and a lot of hokey stuff – it got a little too Hee Haw-y sometimes. The house band – who started at 10AM and went until midnight - backed every PSG player you’ve ever heard of and tons you haven’t. Each performer would then play 3 songs and be gone. They’d do a fiddle tune, a weepy, and something clever (like a Bach fugue) to show off the other side of the instrument. I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Flanz there – who’d been working in a call center after leaving Gram Parsons. Such a shame. Really nice guy. And Bobby Black from Commander Cody – another nice guy. Anyway what I wanted to say was – all the younger guys there (under 55 say) started to play PSG because of one guy – Jerry. For me it was his work on Candyman on American Beauty and I’m sure we all have our faves. To be honest compared to say, Doug Jernigan, Jerry wasn’t such great a player but he had more reach than any other player. He could get to a generation of long haired guys who heard that lonesome moan and just wanted to get one of those damn things. Which is what I did a few years ago. A portable instrument it’s not. I hate breaking the damn thing down. But what a sound when you put it back together again. I still struggle with it, trying to get just that right tone but when you get something right there’s nothing like it. So from all of us who started because of you. Thanks Jerry.