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| 260 South California Avenue, the site of the Keystone Palo Alto, as it appeared in the 1990s. At the time it was a nightclub called Illusions. |
The Keystone Berkeley and The Keystone, Palo Alto
Freddie Herrera was a successful rock nightclub owner and operator for over 15 years, from 1968 until about 1985. He ran a number of different nightclubs in San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto and even Stockton, all using some variation on the Keystone name. It's hard enough to stay in the rock business for 15 years, much less to do it in multiple locations. Herrera's most high profile expansion was adding a Keystone in Palo Alto alongside of the Keystone Berkeley club. When it opened in 1977, the Keystone in Palo Alto was the only nightclub in the Peninsula or South Bay presenting original rock music every week, multiple nights of the week. There had been the Poppycock, in Palo Alto from 1967 through 1970, and a few successors (In Your Ear and Homer's Warehouse), but the South Bay just had beer joints and dance clubs. The Keystone in Palo Alto changed all that, and it thrived for many years.
The Keystone came to Palo Alto exactly as Silicon Valley was coming to prominence. Palo Alto, sleepy but attuned to culture, was now full of young people with money who wanted to go out, but who wanted to go out and see something interesting. Palo Alto had no nightlife, for various historical reasons. Thus the Keystone was primed both to provide that nightlife during a time when employment was booming. It seems like it was the perfect time to start a rock nightclub in the Peninsula.
And
yet--it was a near thing. With no real competition, it should have been
relatively easy to supply all the Keystone Berkeley acts with another
gig an hour away. Something went south, however--what exactly went wrong isn't exactly
certain--and the Palo Alto operation seems to have nearly failed. Around June 1977, just five months after the grand opening, almost every major club act in the Bay Area, and all the touring acts, apparently refused to play the Keystone in Palo Alto. Herrera was reduced to booking Top 40 cover bands, and reverting the club to the pickup/dance joint it had been a few years earlier. Yet
the Keystone survived, apparently due to Jerry Garcia's continual
willingness to play lucrative shows for Herrera. In a prior post, I discussed the history of the first seven months of The Keystone in Palo Alto in great detail.
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| Remember that Maria Muldaur was JGB-bassist John Kahn's girlfriend. Only Garcia and Maria were booked in Palo Alto in July '77, along with aging (if talented) bluesman Bobby Blue Bland. The other nights, uncredited here, would just have been Top 40. Garcia was coming through for Freddie Herrera at a critical time. |
Jerry Garcia was fairly unique in that his own band played nightclubs even though Garcia himself was a big rock star with the Grateful Dead. Typically, any nightclub ad with the Garcia Band, whether in Berkeley or Poughkeepsie, had no name more famous than Jerry's. Yet most rock clubs that could afford to book Garcia had other bands with albums, or who had played Woodstock, or had some other traction. Yet here was Garcia in July of 1977, booked at a club where almost every other night featured a Top 40 band.
Within the next few months, the Keystone Palo Alto would return to its emphasis on performers playing original rock music. The club had the occasional Top 40 band on a Tuesday night, but weekends had more substantial bands. Over time the Keystone Palo Alto leaned a little harder into a country sound than its Berkeley counterpart, riding on the unexpectedly hip KFAT connection. The club would survive and even thrive until 1985, when Herrera would step away from the nightclub business. Jerry Garcia had always been a key component for the success of the Keystone family. But if the Garcia Band had not stepped up for a couple of weekends in July, 1977, there's every reason to think the Keystone Palo Alto would not have continued much longer.
Thus the Keystone in
Palo Alto got through 1977, found an identity of its own, and thrived
until 1985. Rock nightclub years are like dog years--eight years was a
heroically long time. This post will look at the balance of 1977 Keystone bookings in Palo Alto, with a view to seeing how the Palo Alto club established a different musical identity than its sister club in Berkeley.
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| The August 7, 1977 SF Chronicle listings show "Keystone" (at 260 California) but "Keystone Berkeley" (at 2119 University). Calling the club "Keystone Palo Alto" was a concession that owner Freddie Herrera eventually accepted |
The Keystone, Palo Alto: A Note On The Name
The Keystone Palo Alto is recalled by two categories of people. One category is people who lived or worked in or around Palo Alto from 1977-85, and attended shows (or at least heard about them) at the club. The other category is Deadheads, specifically those who were fans of the Jerry Garcia Band. Jerry Garcia played for Freddie Herrera and his range of Keystone clubs over 400 times, a staggering number. The Keystone Palo Alto is thus widely known by Deadheads who never saw Garcia in Palo Alto, and may have been barely alive during that period.
In fact, "Keystone Palo Alto" was not actually the original name of the club. It was "The Keystone." Freddie Herrera had initially opened the Keystone Korner in 1968, at 750 Vallejo Street in San Francisco. In mid-1971, Herrera started booking shows at The New Monk in Berkeley (at 2119 University Avenue). Herrera took over the club altogether in March, 1972, calling it Keystone Berkeley to distinguish it from Keystone Korner. Herrera sold the Keystone Korner in August 1972 to proprietor Todd Barkan, who kept the name but turned it into a jazz club. Herrera briefly opened the Keystone Stockton in March, 1974, but it did not catch on. In late 1976, following his prior pattern, Herrera had taken over the booking of a Palo Alto rock nightclub called Sophie's, at 260 South California. In January, 1977, after a $70,000 renovation, Herrera opened the club as The Keystone.
All the ads for the club said
"The Keystone" with the words "Palo Alto" following a comma, or on the
next line. Since rock fans and djs were used to saying "Keystone
Berkeley," the name "Keystone Palo Alto" fell into common use. Herrera
did not discourage it, but that was not the original name of the club. By January 1978, the Sunday Datebook ad and even some Keystone flyers used the Keystone Palo Alto formulation, but it was more of a concession to usage than a name change. I think the marquee always said "Keystone" rather than "Keystone Palo Alto" (the marquee in Berkeley also just said "Keystone").
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| S. California Avenue in Palo Alto, as it appeared around 2019. Now long-gone Keystone Palo Alto, at 260 S. California would have been at the far end of the street, on the left |
Downtown Palo Alto Geography and Economics, 1955-85
Back in 1875, there was no Palo Alto, just a town called Mayfield. Lincoln Avenue, Mayfield's main drag, was famous for its rowdy saloons. Railroad magnate Leland Stanford wanted to build a University nearby, and offered to build it next to Mayfield. Since Stanford was a teetotaler, his only condition was that Mayfield close all its saloons. The town refused. So Stanford and his partner Timothy Hopkins bought up all the land just North of Mayfield and extended the Southern Pacific train one more stop. Palo Alto was founded in 1875, followed finally by Stanford University in 1893. There were no bars. All the Stanford undergraduates would go to Mayfield to have fun, but downtown Palo Alto was a thriving business district.
By the mid-1950s, Stanford University was struggling financially. The school was land-rich but cash-poor, and could not sell its land by condition of its charter. A forward looking Chancellor conceived of a mall, and the Stanford Shopping Center opened in 1955. It was hugely successful, but it decimated the downtown business district around University Avenue. At the same time, Stanford developed "industrial parks," college-like settings for high technology firms, and the seeds of Silicon Valley were born. Stanford University provided the brains, the likes of Fairchild-Hiller and Hewlett-Packard had the employment and Stanford Shopping Center was the desirable retail destination.
Downtown Palo Alto had nearly died, but its demise created cheap housing in the early 60s for bohemians like Jerry Garcia. There was a little folk scene in the sleepy downtown at a place called The Top Of The Tangent, and eventually the popular rock club The Poppycock. Interestingly, downtown Palo Alto still had no bars. Restaurants could serve beer and wine, but the local residents liked a quiet downtown with no bars. Mayfield, meanwhile, had to fold its tent back in Prohibition and merge with Palo Alto proper. Lincoln Avenue had become California Avenue (Palo Alto already had a Lincoln Avenue). The old Mayfield, however, was outside of downtown, so it had bars, a tiny link to the rowdy Mayfield of yore.
The Poppycock had closed in mid-1970, and its successor the sorta-jazz-club In Your Ear had closed after a fire on New Year's Eve 1972/73. Homer's Warehouse, near but not actually part of downtown, also had closed by the end of 1973. There weren't really any original rock clubs south of San Francisco. The club Sophie's had opened in 1975, at 260 South California in the old Mayfield area. Although initially just a sort of dance joint with live bands, by the end of 1976 Sophie's was booking a lot of original rock acts, the kind playing Keystone Berkeley. There was nowhere else for such bands to play on the Peninsula or San Jose area.
Freddie Herrera must have
noticed the perfect location of Sophie's. It was just outside of
downtown Palo Alto, so it could have a full bar, and it wasn't subject
to the sniffiness of old-time Palo Altans who didn't like a fuss
downtown. 260 South California was near the County Courthouse, so there
was plenty of unused nighttime parking. There were very few residents around
California Avenue, so there was no one to complain about noise and
bother. In the era before Google Maps, it was easy to get to. One of the
biggest intersections in the Peninsula (El Camino Real and Oregon
Expressway) was a few blocks away, and there was simple freeway access
from CA-101 (Bayshore) and I-280 (Junipero Serra Freeway). No
competition for miles, easy to get to and plenty of parking--was there anything else?
Oh yes--throughout
the whole South Bay, Palo Alto was perceived as "safe" at night, code
for "not too many African Americans." 260 South
California was the perfect location for a rock club, and Sophie's was
already there and regularly booking acts. Herrera took over the booking,
and eventually the club, following the pattern he had established with
the New Monk and the Keystone Berkeley in 1971 and '72.
The actual address of the Keystone was 260 South California Avenue. Yet all the ads for the club say "260 California." Palo Alto actually has a North California Avenue, but it is across the train tracks, and only long-time residents are aware of it. For anyone who didn't live in Palo Alto, "California Avenue" was the commercial district bordered by El Camino Real, Oregon Expressway and the Railway Station, and saying "South California" was just local snobbery. Whenever you see someone asserting that the Keystone was at 260 South California, that's just a Palo Alto local signaling to other Palo Altans in a secret code. So, yeah, the Keystone was at 260 South California.
August 2-4, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Brothers Owens (Tuesday-Thursday)In early 1977, Freddie Herrera had invested $70,000 in upgrading Sophie's to the Keystone Palo Alto, converting it from a local dance joint that usually featured cover bands to a destination nightclub featuring rock bands playing original music. Something went wrong, however--exactly what remains unclear--and the leading local bands, the kind with albums to their name, stopped playing the Keystone Palo Alto. Touring acts stopped being booked there. Jerry Garcia played some gigs there in July, marking the club as still a competitive enterprise, but the August bookings were largely Top 40 or Disco. This was not at all what Herrera had spent $70K for.
A newspaper listing indicated that the Brothers Owens would be playing "Top 40 disco" for no cover from Tuesday through Thursday. In Palo Alto language, that meant "you can dance to it, but the music won't be excessively funky." Thus the Keystone Palo Alto was just a pickup bar, basically. Now, granted, there were no dance clubs in Palo Alto this near to downtown, and the Keystone was probably less stuffy than any of the hotel bars with discos further South on El Camino Real. But that wasn't the goal.
August 5, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Sons Of Champlin/Brothers Owens (Friday)
The Sons of Champlin headlined over the Brothers Owens on Friday night. The Sons had 7 albums to their name, and were a "real band." Their most recent was Loving Is Why, on the Ariola America label. Still, they played dance music as well. The Sons were coming to the end of their 12-year run as a band, and this would be their next-to-last show before breaking up (of course, they would reform several times after this, but that's another tale).
August 6, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Stoneground/Brothers Owens (Saturday)
Stoneground was another Bay Area band with a pedigree, but long in the tooth. They had been formed in 1970 as part of KSAN head Tom Donahue's ill-fated Medicine Ball Caravan movie, and they had been signed to Warner Brothers. They had put out three albums by 1972, then broken up, and then they had reformed in late 1974. They had self-released their own album in 1976 (Flat Out), and it had done well enough to get them signed to Warner Brothers. Original members Tim Barnes (lead guitar) and Annie Sampson (vocals) were still in the band, along with singer Jo Baker (ex-Elvin Bishop) to give them a big vocal front line. Stoneground was actually a pretty good live band, but they had been around for long enough that there wasn't a lot of buzz around them.
August 7, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Skycreek (Sunday)
Skycreek was some kind of country rock band. They had played the club regularly when it was Sophie's. I don't know if they played any original music.
August 8, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: East Bay Hotline (Monday)
East Bay Hotline was an R&B band led by guitarist Frank Biner. Biner was friendly with Tower Of Power, wrote some songs on their albums, and sometimes played with some of the members. For many years, Biner and his band Nightshift had been regulars at the Keystone Berkeley, and Herrera was giving him a chance to expand his footprint. I think the East Bay Hotline played a lot danceable cover music mixed in with Biner originals. They probably sounded broadly like Tower Of Power or Cold Blood.
August 9-13, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: North Bay with Bishop Mayfield (Tuesday-Saturday)
I don't know anything about North Bay or Bishop Mayfield. It seems like another week-long Top 40 booking.
August 15, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: East Bay Hotline (Monday)
August 16-18, 20, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Bad Water Bridge (Tuesday-Thursday, Saturday)
August 19, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Flash Cadillac/Bad Water Bridge (Friday)
Once again, it appears there was a Top 40 dance band booked all week, with a sort of "name" headliner on Friday night. Flash Cadillac, previously known as Flash Cadillac and The Continental Kids, had formed in Colorado in 1969. They played 50s-type rock and roll, somewhat like Sha Na Na. They had moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s, and they appeared in the 1973 movie American Graffiti. In concert, I believe they played a mixture of oldies and original material written in a retro style. They had released three albums by this time, the most recent of which was 1975's Sons Of The Beaches, on Private Stock Records.
Bad Water Bridge is unknown to me.
August 21, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Streamliner (Sunday)
Streamliner was a South Bay band. I think they played a mixture of Top 40 and originals. They were managed by Rollie Grogan, who had run the rock nightclub Homer's Warehouse in Palo Alto a few years earlier, as well as promoting shows at the Stanford Music Hall dowtown (now the Stanford Theater).
August 22, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Dance Contest (Monday)
There were no discos in South Palo Alto, that I was aware of at the time. Well, ok, one, but it was for teenagers (the My-Oh-My on Emerson and Hamilton, downtown). Keep in mind that Saturday Night Fever was not released until December 14, 1977, so a "Dance Contest" was new territory for Palo Alto. This wasn't repeated, that I'm aware of, so it must not have been a fruitful endeavor for the club.
August 24-27, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, CA: Brothers Owens (Wednesday-Saturday)
August 29, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Arm and Hammer (Monday)
Arm and Hammer are unknown to me.
August 30-September 3, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Brothers Owens (Tuesday-Saturday)
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| Sep 4 1977 San Francisco Chronicle, Joel Selvin column |
Freddie Herrera began to right the Keystone ship in September. Many of the nights in September featured bands playing original rock music, and at least some of them were established artists with albums to their credit. There were still a few Top 40 bookings, but while the Keystone in Palo Alto had bottomed out in August, it was starting to climb out from the hole.
Joel Selvin's Sunday Chronicle column (September 4, 1977) had some telling details. Speaking about the Palo Alto band Pablo Cruise, who were riding high on a new hit single, Selvin mentioned "Pablo will perform Friday at Freddy Herrera's beleagured Keystone, Palo Alto remembering the many jobs Pablo worked at Herrera's clubs before 'Whatcha Gonna Do.'" Selvin's casual reference to the club as "beleagured" was one of the few public indicators that there were real problems, even though it is impossible to tell who, exactly, in the local rock industry was having issues with the Keystone Palo Alto.
In fact, Selvin got the date wrong and Pablo Cruise was playing on Wednesday night. Pablo Cruise had released their first album on A&M Records back in August 1975. and their second album, Lifeline, had come out in April 1976. It was the third Pablo Cruise album, A Place In The Sun, released in February 1977, that would really make the band. The single "Whatcha Gonna Do" had been released in April, and would reach #6 on Billboard.
In fact, one member of Pablo Cruise was actually from Palo Alto. Pianist Cory Lerios had gone to Palo Alto High School. Lerios had been in a band that had played the free concerts at Lytton Plaza back in '68 and '69, and then both Lerios and drummer Steve Price had ended up in Stoneground. They had both left Stoneground in 1973 to form Pablo Cruise with guitarist David Jenkins and bassist Bud Cockrell (ex-It's A Beautiful Day).
I have not yet been able to track down bookings for every night at the Keystone in Palo Alto during this period, particularly weeknights. I am assuming that cover bands played on nights where I have nothing listed during 1977, but I don't yet know that for a fact.
September 9-11, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: John Lee Hooker (Friday-Sunday)
John Lee Hooker (1912-2001) had been a regular performer at Keystone Berkeley since it had opened, and in any case had played for Herrera before that. Herrera himself loved the blues, so he had booked blues artists consistently. By 1977, white rock fans were who was listening to blues players anyway. Hooker, in fact, lived in the hills above Redwood City, so driving down for a night was an easy thing. He had a regular band to back him, even if it may have had shifting membership.
Hooker was from Mississippi, via Memphis and Detroit. He had been recording since 1948, and had gained notoriety in the 60s, when bands like The Animals and Canned Heat had made some of his songs famous, like "Boom Boom" or "Boogie Chillen." In '77, however, he was at a low ebb, as were most classic bluesmen at the time. He had not released an album since 1973, nor would he until 1979. In that respect, Herrera did a lot for Hooker and other bluesmen, giving them a consistent audience and paying gigs.
These shows were recorded, and formed the basis of a sort of comeback album for Hooker, a double album called The Cream. It was released by Tomato Records in 1978.
September 14-16, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Brothers Owens (Wednesday-Friday)
September 17, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: New Riders of The Purple Sage/Mistress (Saturday)
The New Riders of The Purple Sage were far from their peak, but they were genuine nightclub headliners by any standard. Even if there had been a Top 40 early in the week, Herrera was starting to mark his club as a place that booked original music, not just dance bands.
When the New Riders had released their debut album in 1971, with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, they had seemed to be in the forefront of country rock. Country and rock were going to merge, it was true, but it turned out to be experienced country singers like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings who had the biggest impact. The New Riders had put out four good studio albums, but by the end of 1973 bassist and singer Dave Torbert had left, and original songwriter John Dawson's newer songs were nowhere near as good as his initial efforts. The New Riders had also split (quite amicably) from the Grateful Dead umbrella. The New Riders were still a successful touring act on the East Coast, but in San Francisco they were a bit of an afterthought. It was no longer a foregone conclusion that any Dead fan was a New Riders fan.
Still, in mid-1977, the New Riders of The Purple Sage had found a little traction. New bassist Stephen Love provided a nice foil to Dawson, and lead guitarist David Nelson sang as well, so there were three front-line singers. Pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage and drummer Pat Shanahan were both first-class players, so the band was always good live. The band had just released their eighth studio album, Who Are Those Guys? on MCA Records, recorded in Nashville with veteran producer Bob Johnston. There were no songs by Dawson on the album, a first.
I saw the New Riders around this time and they were pretty good. The tapes bear me out. Still, they weren't shiny and new. Palo Alto, even more than most Bay Area towns, likes things that are new and different. They don't even necessarily have to be that good, just unique and special. That's why Palo Alto has always been well-disposed to startups. The New Riders of The Purple Sage were probably good this Saturday night, and sold some tickets, but to Palo Altans--even long-haired pot-smoking Deadhead Palo Altans--they would have been old news.
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| RSO Records released the Mistress album in 1979, even though it had been recorded sometime in 1977 and the band had already broken up |
Mistress, meanwhile, had been around the Bay Area off an on since around 1973. Guitarist Greg Douglass was the primary driver. Douglass had been in various Bay Area bands, mainly a Fillmore era group called Country Weather. When Country Weather faded away in early '73, Douglass had formed Mistress. It's not exactly clear who exactly was in the band at that time. Douglass also played with various other musicians, most notably with Hot Tuna. Douglass' slashing slide guitarist made for some great Tuna shows in the first half of 1975. Douglass had also worked a lot with the Steve Miller Band, playing on the famous album Book Of Dreams, recorded in 1976. Douglass co-wrote the song "Jungle Love," but the single would not be released until August 1977 (it would reach #23). Mistress had played the Keystone in Palo Alto a few times before, in both February and April of 1977.
Mistress played a kind of dual-guitar hard rock, rare for San Francisco bands, but very much in the vein of English bands like Mott The Hoople or Wishbone Ash. Of course, even English rock music had moved away from that sound, so I think Mistress' sound was a little bit retro in any case. As near as I can tell the lineup of the band at the time was Douglass on guitar, former Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac (Penguin album) lead singer Dave Walker, Skip Olson (ex-Copperhead) on bass and Chris Paulson on drums. Possibly Chris Kovacs had joined on keyboards, and possibly Dave Brown (ex-Boz Scaggs) had already replaced Olson on bass.
Mistress
was generally well-reviewed by local writers, even though very few Bay
Area rock fans had actually heard them. Shortly after this (by November 1977), Dave Walker
had accepted an offer to join Black Sabbath (although he never ended up performing with them), and Mistress had to
reconstitute itself. Yet another version of the band (with Charlie
Williams, ex-Carrie Nation, on lead vocals) would record an album, but
the band then broke up. Even more strangely, RSO Records would release the
recorded-in-'77 album in 1979, when Mistress was long gone.
September 21, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: John Handy/Bill Summers (Wednesday)
John Handy (b.1933) was a well known alto saxophonist. He had made his name playing with Charles Mingus in the 1950s. In the 60s he had led some well-known groups working out of the Bay Area. From the 1970s onwards, he was an educator as well as musician, teaching at Stanford, UC Berkeley, the San Francisco Conservatory and elsewhere. At this time, Handy lived in Palo Alto, so the Keystone would have been a convenient local gig. Handy's current album would have been Carnival, released in 1977 on ABC/Impulse. Handy's previous album, Hard Work, had reached #4 on the Billboard jazz chart. Hard Work had some R&B influences, like a lot of contemporary jazz, but Handy was fundamentally a jazz player.
In any case, Palo Alto didn't really have any jazz clubs, so the Keystone was a good place for him to play. Since the club had tables and chairs, it was a better site for jazz than the Keystone Berkeley. The premier jazz venue in the Bay Area was the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, as most of the North Beach jazz joints had closed. There was some jazz bookings in Palo Alto and the South Bay, but they were mostly at hotel lounges, and the music more or less fell into the "easy listening" category. Thus the Keystone in Palo Alto found a niche booking jazz or other musical acts that would otherwise play the Great American Music Hall. From a booking perspective, Palo Altans were largely not going to to go the city for a nightclub show, so the Keystone and Great American complemented each other. This was just one of the ways that the Keystone in Palo Alto distinguished itself from its harder rocking Berkeley sister.
Conguero Bill Summers had toured and recorded with Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters (both with and without Herbie). He had also played on numerous jazz and fusion records in the mid-70s. In 1977, Summers would release his first solo album on Prestige, Feel The Heat. Heavy hitters on the album included Headhunters bassist Paul Jackson, drummer Alphonse Mouzon (11th House) and Pete Escovedo (Azteca) on vocals. Based on the album credits, the record appeared to be a jazz/soul crossover with a Brazilian twist on the vocals.
I don't have any idea who was in Bill Summers' band, or how they sounded on stage. There's every reason to think that Summers (and maybe other players) sat in with Handy, however, because jazz musicians are gonna jazz.
September 22, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Skycreek (Thursday)
September 23, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Streamliner (Friday)
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| Makings Of A Dream, the second 1977 album on Warner Brothers by the San Mateo funk band Crackin' |
September 24, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Crackin'/Streamliner (Saturday)
Crackin' was an R&B band from San Mateo, somewhat in the style of the Sons Of Champlin but with a funkier edge. In 1975, they had released their debut album on Polydor (and also played my high school graduation dance). By 1977, Crackin' was on Warner Brothers, and they released two albums that year. Their second Warners album was Makings Of A Dream. By this time, it appears they had much more of a disco edge, for obvious reasons, but they were playing their own music.
The core of Crackin' was lead singer Leslie Smith (who sang for The New Sons in 1980, when Bill Champlin wasn't in the band), guitarist Bob Bordy, keyboardist George Clinton (no, a different one) and Rick Chudacoff on bass, supported by various other players and session musicians.
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| Acoustic music was never the same after the 1977 debut of the David Grisman Quintet |
September 25, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: David Grisman Quintet/Moro (Sunday)
The David Grisman Quintet epitomized the type of group that shined at the Great American Music Hall, and for so many reasons they were the perfect Palo Alto group as well. Since the Keystone had tables, a full bar and food, the DGQ could thrive in the Palo Alto Keystone in a way that the rowdy Berkeley club could never have managed.
The David Grisman Quintet had arisen out of a group called The Great American String Band--sometimes billed as The Great American Music Band--who initially were formed only to play at the Great American Music Hall. The idea was to play acoustic American music across all genres--bluegrass, old-time, jazz, swing and anything else. Many of the players had been in Old And In The Way with Jerry Garcia, and indeed Garcia was a periodic member of the group. Garcia was not a member of the GASB's debut (March 9, 1974) but he showed up to play banjo for the next night (March 10). Grisman and fiddler Richard Greene had been the original instigators, but Garcia's occasional presence gave the group a profile beyond local bluegrass circles. Other rock stars, like Taj Mahal and Maria Muldaur, also made appearances. Thanks to obsessive taping by Deadheads, we have ample taped evidence of the Great American String Band.
Grisman figured out that there was a gaping hole in American acoustic music. There were a lot of points of contact between bluegrass, jazz and other idioms, but they had been siloed by various musical genres. Grisman decided to merge them all, but with acoustic instruments. Part of the reasoning, incidentally, was that it would be simpler and cheaper to tour with a five-piece band if they didn't have to drag a truck full of amplifiers with them. Grisman put together an All-Star team of brilliant acoustic players who could play effectively in any genre. The band's very first rehearsal was scheduled at Grisman's Stinson Beach (Marin County) house in the Summer of 1975. Grisman knew that if he was going to have successful band, he couldn't be tied to Jerry Garcia's occasional appearances weighed against his numerous other obligations, so Garcia wasn't part of the new lineup.
In a cinematic vignette that's hard to believe, Grisman assembled his players, but the initial rehearsal was delayed since guitarist Tony Rice had not yet arrived at SFO airport. In anticipation of some pre-rehearsal jamming, Grisman went to the only convenience store in Stinson Beach (Ed's Superette) for beer and cigarettes, and ran into neighbor Jerry Garcia. Grisman invited Garcia up to jam, and so Jerry Garcia jammed on guitar with the soon-to-be David Grisman Quintet until Tony Rice showed up from the airport, which pretty much sums up the history of American acoustic music in the 70s.
The David Grisman Quintet was groundbreaking. In the Bay Area of the time, Grisman had just enough of a name because he had played with Garcia in Old And In The Way (and GASB), so rock fans gave him a listen. They liked what they heard, and the David Grisman Quintet's astonishing melange of acoustic music became a genre unto itself. If you've ever gone to a pizza parlor and seen an acoustic trio in the corner playing "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "So What" and "Friend Of The Devil," that's Grisman's legacy. It's all music, and you don't have to plug in.
The 1977 David Grisman Quintet was
Tony Rice-guitar
David Grisman-mandolin
Todd Phillips-mandolin
Darol Anger-violin
Bill Amatneek-bass [who had replaced Joe Carroll from the initial lineup]
It was all-acoustic and all-instrumental, with no vocals and no banjo. American acoustic music was never the same. The DGQ released their self-titled debut album on Kaleidoscope Records in 1977.
The David Grisman Quintet was perfect act for the Keystone in Palo Alto. The venue had tables, so you could really sit and listen. Grisman had a pedigree, though, since he had played with Garcia, so it wasn't "old person's music." Most importantly, however, the DGQ was interesting and inventive, something you could tell your friends that they were missing out on, and Palo Alto loves that. If it's cool but not yet popular, Palo Alto will be all over it. David Grisman Quintet played the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, but in the South Bay they played the Keystone in Palo Alto.
Opening act Moro is unknown to me, although he was billed as a solo guitarist.
Keyboard player and singer Lacy Bianca (b. Bianca Thornton, 1953) was from Kansas City, and had attended the San Francisco Conservatory on 1970. By 1976, she had played with Sly And The Family Stone (she was on the album Heard You Missed Me Well I'm Back), and even toured with Frank Zappa for a month in November '76 (she appears on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 6 under the name Bianca Odin, since she was married to bassist Henry Odin at the time). By 1977, she had embarked on a solo career, but while she has been a successful musician over the decades (playing with Van Morrison and many others), her own career never really took off.
Natural Impulse is unknown to me.
September 29, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Clarence Gatemouth Brown/Queen Ida and her Bontemps Zydeco Band (Thursday)
Freddie Herrera had always booked blues, which was fortunate, since there were fewer and fewer opportunities for those players. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown had been an influential and important R&B guitarist in the early 60s, and he was making a comeback of sorts in the later 70s. He was also a fine singer and fiddle player. Queen Ida, meanwhile, was a leading proponent of Louisiana Zydeco music. In the Bay Area, the fan base for both of these performers was probably mostly white. In any case, knowing at all about either of these performers required a certain amount of musical knowledge, and that too had a sort of inverse snob appeal in Palo Alto. Palo Alto was the sort of place where high school students had heard of Gatemouth Brown because Frank Zappa had mentioned him as influential in an interview (I'm not guessing about this--I was the high school student in question, and I wasn't even the biggest Zappa fan in my high school).
The family of Queen Ida (Ida Louis Guillory b.1929) had moved from Lake Charles, LA to Beaumont, TX to the San Francisco Bay Area. She had lived in the Bay Area since the late 1940, and mostly worked as a bus driver. She had learned accordian from her brother, Zydeco star Al Rapone. In 1975, she had started performing, and was soon signed to GNP/Crescendo. Her music was a mixture of Zydeco and Tex-Mex. In 1977 she had released her second album, Zydeco A La Mode, produced by her brother.
September 30, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Menage A Trois (Friday)
Menage A Trois was a local Top 40 band. I think they usually played The Bodega in Campbell, but they played out on occasion. Keystone house manager Ken Rominger, who had owned and managed the club when it was Sophie's the year before, also owned and managed The Bodega, so some crossover makes sense.
October 1, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Greg Kihn/Rubinoos (Saturday)
Regular acts act Keystone Berkeley also played the Palo Alto club, but the appeal wasn't identical. One of Berkeley's most rocking bands was Earth Quake, who ruled the Long Branch and regularly headlined at the Keystone Berkeley. Earth Quake was a quintet who played in a British Invasion style, mixing originals in with exotic cover versions (like the Easybeats "Friday On My Mind"). Earth Quake, thanks to their manager Matthew Kaufman, had been the anchor for Beserkley Records, an independent label who carved out success for some local acts in the shadow of major labels, including Johnathan Richman and Greg Kihn. In a perfect apposition, however, Greg Kihn was more popular in Palo Alto than Earth Quake. Earth Quake was noisy and retro, which was not quite Palo Alto's style. Kihn could rock a little bit, but he was more mainstream and focused on his own material, which was right down Palo Alto's street.
Originally from Baltimore, Greg Kihn had moved to Berkeley in 1974. He worked in a cool record store (Rather Ripped, on Northside) and originally played in some local folk clubs. He had recorded some tracks with Earth Quake. In 1975, Earth Quake's manager had released an album on his own label. Beserkeley Chartbusters featured songs by Earth Quake, Kihn and Johnathan Richman, among others. Kihn wrote sensitive pop songs, but they had a poppy, 60s sheen to them like The Kinks instead of the fingerpicking folkie sound of Southern California songwriters.
By 1976, Kihn had recorded his debut album, (Greg Kihn), also released on Beserkeley. In 1977, the Greg Kihn band was playing around the Bay Area. Kihn was joined by lead guitarist Dave Carpender, bassist Stevie Wright and drummer Larry Lynch, all veterans of various Berkeley ensembles. The group rocked pretty hard, but they kept the solos short and had nice harmonies to go with their catchy hooks. The Greg Kihn Band would go on to have great success over the next decade. In 1977, they would release Greg Kihn Again, this time recorded with the band.
The Rubinoos were the junior partners in the Beserkely stable. Singer Jon Rubin and guitarist Tommy Dunbar fronted the band (Dunbar's older brother Robbie was the founding member and lead guitarist for Earth Quake). The Rubinoos played "power pop," with short, catchy songs. Initially sort of defiantly retro, the Rubinoos sound was not such an outlier when punk and new wave had come along in the mid-70s. The Rubinoos had one track on Chartbusters back in '75, a single in '76 (a cover of Tommy James' "I Think We're Alone Now") and had finally released their debut album on Beserkely in 1977.
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| SF Chronicle October 2, 1977 |
October 2, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Queen Ida Bon Ton Zydeco Band/Roots of Creation (Sunday)
Queen Ida returned. Roots Of Creation are unknown to me.
October 7, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, CA: Asleep At The Wheel/Larry Hosford (Friday)
Asleep At The Wheel had been based in Oakland in 1972, and they had played the Keystone Berkeley many times, as well as having had a regular 1973 weeknight gig at Homer's Warehouse in Palo Alto. The band had left for Austin, TX in 1974, but toured regularly. They had headlined at the Keystone in Palo Alto back in February.
Asleep At The Wheel had been founded by guitarist and singer Ray Benson in the Washington, DC area around 1970. He put together a fairly large ensemble that played Western Swing music with a long-haired hippie sensibility. By 1971, they were based in Paw Paw, WV. In 1972 they opened for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, perhaps the only other band remotely similar to them, and the Airmen encouraged them to move to Oakland, which they did. Asleep at The Wheel played almost every night in the Bay Area from 1972-74, at the Keystone Berkeley, Homer's Warehouse, the Long Branch and numerous other joints. Since 1974, Benson and Asleep At The Wheel have thrived in Austin, TX, and they are still touring to this very day. Their current album would have been The Wheel, released on Capitol Records in 1977. It was been the band's third album on Capitol, but their fifth overall (with one on UA and another on Epic). The Wheel typically toured with three fiddles and a horn section, so they could really light up a club.
Larry Hosford (1943-2016) was from Salinas, and in many ways Hosford epitomized the niche of Keystone Palo Alto. Hosford had learned to play guitar as a boy so that his father, an old-time fiddler, would always have an accompanist. In 1965, however, he had joined a popular Monterey County band, the E-Types, who played Beatles-style music (their main "rivals" were the Korvettes from Santa Cruz and The Jaguars from San Jose). In 1974, Hosford had been signed to Leon Russell's Shelter Records. Hosford had released two fine albums on Shelter, his 1975 debut AKA Lorenzo and 1976's Cross Words. The albums featured many fine local Santa Cruz-area players, along with Russell, and on one track (on Cross Words), George Harrison. The albums didn't sell well, but they attracted good notices and fit in with the music produced by the likes of Willie Nelson.
In 1977, Shelter Records fell apart, as Leon Russell had a falling-out with his partner Denny Cordell. Hosford went with Russell when he founded Paradise Records, distributed by Warner Brothers. Warners released Hosford's best-known song, "Salinas," about his home town, as a single in 1977, but no album followed. The popular radio station in Monterey County was the remarkable KFAT, out of Gilroy. Salinas, near Ft. Ord, was the heart of KFAT's listening area, so the song was played constantly. The chorus to "Salinas" was well-known to every KFAT listener ("I'm from Salinas/That's where I'm from/Guess I'm an Okie/I was raised among 'em"). Hosford had a good following in KFAT's listening area, from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz and Monterey, but not really anywhere else.
Nothing makes a Palo Altan happier than to be able to Alto-splain to someone that Hosford had only released one single on Leon Russell's label, but that it was his best song.
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| SF Chronicle October 9, 1977 |
October 9, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Gatemouth Brown (Sunday)
I assume a Top 40 band was booked for Saturday night. Clarence Gatemouth Brown returned on Sunday evening. While Top 40 bands were still regulars at the Keystone, the Palo Alto club was starting to establish a broader booking policy than the hippie-rock prevalent at Keystone Berkeley.
Crackin' also returned for Thursday and Friday. Different Top 40 bands opened each night, Black Sheep on Wednesday and Star Track on Thursday.
On Thursday, October 13, the Elvin Bishop Group played the Old Waldorf in San Francisco. The Old Waldorf was the principal competitor to the Keystones, located at Embarcadero Center in the San Francisco Financial District. The Old Waldorf had convenient parking, a full bar, dinner, intimidatingly pretty waitresses and was closely associated with Bill Graham Presents. Bishop playing for the Old Waldorf was unprecedented, as Elvin Bishop had probably played every month at the Keystone Berkeley from 1972 through the beginning of 1977. Bishop would not play a Keystone family club for some years, a clear sign of a relationship gone bad.
October 14, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Moonlighters/Cayenne (Saturday) broadcast live on KFAT
When Freddie Herrera had opened the Keystone in Palo Alto in the Spring of 1977, he had initially followed the Keystone Berkeley model, with established--some would say over-the-hill--hippie bands as regular headliners. The Palo Alto club had tables, food and mixed drinks, and it was not the same as the beer-only Berkeley venue. Palo Alto also liked to think of itself as ahead of the curve, and guys who had been in old Fillmore bands didn't seem fresh and new.
The Keystone in Palo Alto needed to find a slot that benefited from the Berkeley Keystone, but was separate enough that it made the Palo Alto club have its own identity. One of those separators was booking jazz, since there were no serious jazz clubs in the South Bay. Another, more critical distinction was the emphasis on hip, underground country music. "Urban Country" was a rising fashion at the time, but nothing turns Palo Alto off like anything fashionable elsewhere. Pot-smoking Silicon Valley pioneers certainly had long hair and liked Willie Nelson, but nobody in Palo Alto is an "Outlaw." Palo Alto needed another view of country music, and that view was embodied by KFAT-fm, located 49 miles South on CA-101 in Gilroy. Gilroy, just south of San Jose, was a sleepy farm town at the time, known for its garlic.
KFAT (94.5-fm) had only started broadcasting in 1975. Nothing in prior radio history seemed to anticpate KFAT. KFAT's transmitter was on Mt. Loma Prieta in Santa Cruz County. It had a weak signal, and was only heard well in the San Jose, Santa Cruz and Monterey areas. KFAT was fairly audible in Palo Alto, a little weaker on the Peninsula and pretty much inaudible in San Francisco. As I recall, only South Berkeley could receive KFAT, and not well, and it was inaudible on Northside.
Country music had always been big in the San Jose area, as historically there had been a lot of agriculture. Also, Ft. Ord in Monterey had a lot of soldiers who liked country music. KFAT was a country music station, yes, but a country station that had never been seen before. First of all, unlike "Nashville" country, the station had the same hippie ethic as the rock stations: long hair, weed, VW buses and generally relaxed. Second of all, KFAT defined country rather differently. You could hear Emmylou Harris, an old Bill Monroe record, the Allman Brothers and Pete Seeger, all in a row.
KFAT was hilariously irreverent, too. They specialized in playing "only-on-KFAT" songs like U. Utah Phillips "Moose Turd Pie" (and it's epic punchline "it's good, though!"), or Elmo and Patsy's "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer." KFAT was a cult--hippies liked it, truckers liked it, soldiers liked it, you couldn't hear it in San Francisco. Nothing makes Palo Alto happier to have it's own private thing, and KFAT fit perfectly.
KFAT began a long series of broadcasts from the Keystone. The initial broadcast had been back on April 1, with Norton Buffalo. It must have gone well enough, since the Moonlighters were broadcasting on this Saturday night in October. My guess is that the first set was broadcast live, partially as an inducement for locals to come over to the Keystone for the late show.
Later, in November, KFAT would establish
the Monday Night "Fat Fry." Every Monday KFAT would broadcast both acts
playing an early set from the Keystone. Lots of bands got heard all over
the South Bay (and lots of tapes got made). It made the Keystone in
Palo Alto a destination, too. KFAT and the Monday night "Fat Fry" gave the Keystone in Palo Alto a unique identity, even for locals who never actually attended or listened to the Fat Fry. Bands without records could open the Fat Fry and get heard on the broadcast, too, a real boon for a working band.
For all the good bookings of New Wave bands during the club's first few months, the Keystone never caught on as a New Wave club, probably because Palo Alto isn't edgy. But hip, underground country was perfect for Palo Alto, cool and kind of scholarly, but laid back as well. In the next few years, the Keystone would carefully mix its bookings of old hippie stalwarts with hippie country sounds. It didn't hurt that Jerry Garcia fit nicely in between those two slots.
The Moonlighters had started out as a part-time ensemble featuring some members of Commander Cody's Lost Planet Airmen. They were led by guitarist Bill Kirchen (from the Airmen) and singer Tony Johnson, and at times included various other Airmen. Their sound was "Rhythm and Western," in line with the Airmen but not identical. By the end of 1976, the Airmen had broken up and the Moonlighters became a full-time band. The Moonlighters would release their debut album on Amherst Records sometime in 1977. Just to confuse matters, the Moonlighters then signed up to back Commander Cody on tour, a relationship which lasted many years.
Cayenne is unknown to me.
Clifton Chenier (1925-87), a Louisiana native, was known as the "King Of Zydeco." Chenier sang, wrote and played accordion. He had been making records since 1954, but he had expanded his audience when he had played the Berkeley Blues Festival in 1966. By 1976, he had appeared on the Austin City Limits TV show and had an album on the Berkeley "roots" label Arhoolie (Bogalusa Boogie). His audience had expanded greatly beyond the mostly Southern African-Americans who had been his original audience. Herrera was booked at both Keystones, Berkeley on Friday (October 14) and then Palo Alto the night after. Chenier's current album would have been Boogie And Zydeco, on the Maison De Soul label.
October 18, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Skycreek (Tuesday)
October 19, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Eddie Harris (Wednesday)
Tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris (b.1934) been recording since 1961, in a soul and jazz vein. Harris was best known by rock fans for his 1969 Swiss Movement album with pianist Les McCann, recorded at the Montreaux Festival. McCann's vocal take on "Compared To What" was played widely on FM rock stations, so the record was quite familiar even if the rest of the album was not. In 1977, Harris' current album was How Can You Live Like That, on Atlantic.
October 20, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Daddy O (Thursday)
Daddy-O is unknown to me. I assume they were a Top 40 band.
October 21, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: The Rubinoos/Little Roger and The Goosebumps (Friday)
The Rubinoos had opened for Greg Kihn a few weeks earlier (October 1) and were now back as co-headliners a few weeks later. Their new album had probably just been released, although I don't know the precise timing.
Little Roger and The Goosebumps had formed in late 1974, and they were led by guitarist Roger Clark and classically trained violinist Dick Bright. They played poppish rock music with a sardonic twist. In 1976, they had gone on hiatus, for several months, and had only recently returned to the stage with new material. Joel Selvin had reported on them in a recent Chronicle column, and mentioned that they had added a new song to their repertoire: the theme song to the old TV show "Gilligan's Island," but done to the tune of "Stairway To Heaven." I saw them perform "Stairway To Gilligan's Isle" at Winterland (opening for Thin Lizzy) and I assure you the crowd went absolutely batshit crazy. It was made into a 45, but immediately withdrawn for copyright reasons, which is why you can't find it on YouTube. But you gotta trust me--showstopper.
October 23, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Cal Tjader/Courtial with Errol Knowles (Sunday)
Vibraphonist Cal Tjader was from San Mateo, and regardless of his Swedish heritage was an essential name in West Coast Latin jazz. Tjader (1925-82) had played drums with Dave Brubeck in the late 40s, although he had moved on by the time Brubeck started to get big. Tjader recorded for Fantasy Records in the 50s, and was a key figure in merging Latin music with jazz, and not just reducing it to dance music. Tjader had moved to Verve in the mid-60s and continued having success. By the early 70s, he had returned to Fantasy. Cal Tjader's current album would have been Guarabe, featuring a small combo.
Courtial featured ex-Vince Guaraldi guitarist Bill Courtial (pronounced "Cor-tee-al"), along with ex-singer Erroll Knowles, both former members of Azteca. The Palo Alto Times had described them as a blend of jazz, blues and funk. They had released the album It's About Time on Pipeline Records.
October 25, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Nimbus/Pegasus (Tuesday)
Nimbus was hard rocking prog-type band from either Fremont or Hayward, that had been around since 1970. I saw them once (opening for Hawkwind). They weren't bad, but weren't memorable. Pegasus is unknown to me.
Companion is unknown to me.
October 27, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Skycreek (Thursday)
October 28, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Earth Quake (Friday)
Earth Quake, noisy and rocking, had been a popular band at Berkeley's Long Branch for many years, and were regulars at Keystone Berkeley, too. Earth Quake had formed in Berkeley High School in the 1960s as the Purple Earthquake, and ultimately signed (as a quartet) with A&M Records, for whom they released two albums in the early 70s. A&M had dropped them, but Earth Quake kept going, by this time a quintet. Manager Matthew "King" Kaufman had started his own label, a prescient move as punk and new wave came to the forefront. By 1977, Earth Quake had released their second album on Beserkeley, Leveled.
Earth Quake wasn't slick, but they didn't jam out songs like the other long-haired Berkeley bands. They also had a wide variety of cover versions of exotic British Invasion songs. Earth Quake was popular in Berkeley, and probably did all right at the Keystone in Palo Alto, but as far as Beserkely Records acts went, Palo Alto was always more friendly to the melodic Greg Kihn or the quirky Johnathan Richman than the hard-rocking Quake.
 Larry Hosford, from Salinas (that's where he's from), had released his debut album AKA Lorenzo on Shelter Records in 1975. |
October 29, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Larry Hosford (Saturday)
It's not surprising that Larry Hosford began the month as an opening act and was a Saturday night headliner by Halloween. Hosford, mixing the Beatles and country music with some wry irony, was right in the center of Palo Alto's cultural sweet spot.
October 30, Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: David Grisman Quintet/Slow Motion Ocean (Sunday)
The David Grisman Quintet once again played the last Sunday of the month. Slow Motion Ocean is unknown to me.
Hush was a newly-formed quartet from the San Jose area, sounding roughly like Journey. Hush was led by singer and guitarist Robert Berry. They would release their debut album in 1978 on ASI Records.
Savannah is unknown to me. Per the October 30 Chronicle, the band won a "new band" contest on KSAN sponsored by Don Wehr's Music City, a major equipment store in San Francisco.
November 4, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Greg Kihn (Friday)November 5, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Stoneground (Saturday)
The weekend featured established headliners who had both played the Keystone before.
November 6, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, CA: Mile Hi/Pegasus (Sunday)
Mile Hi was a popular local band. I actually saw them shortly after this, opening for Elvis Costello. They played in a sort of hard rock style, leaning a little toward the likes of Mott The Hoople.
Pegasus is unknown to me.
November 10, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Skycreek (Thursday)
Summer is unknown to me.
November 12, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Streamliner (Saturday)
November 13, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: D'Thumbs/Sopwith Camel (Sunday)
D'Thumbs are unknown to me.
Sopwith Camel was one of the first hippie San Francisco bands, scoring a hit way back in early 1967 with "Hello, Hello." They had broken up by 1968 and reformed again in 1971, finally releasing an album in 1973. I presume this was another reunion, but I don't know anything about it.
November 16, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alt, CA: Franklin Dowes/Glide (Wednesday)
Franklin Dowes is unknown to me. Glide is unknown to me.
November 17, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Logos (Thursday)
Logos are unknown to me.
November 18, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: George Thorogood and The Destroyers (Friday)
Delaware guitarist George Thorogood (b.1951) was a throwback, grinding out high energy blues and boogie in the style of John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and other classic bluesmen. The debut record of George Thorogood and The Destroyers, released in October 1977, was on the folk label Rounder Records, as blues was now seen as somewhat antiquated. Thorogood played slide guitar and led The Destroyers through classic numbers like Hooker's "One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer."
November 19, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Cruisin' (Saturday)
Cruisin' is unknown to me.
November 20, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Star Track/Smoke Inc (Sunday)
Smoke Inc is unknown to me.
November 23, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Streamliner (Wednesday)
This was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
November 25, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Earth Quake/Thumbs (Friday)
November 26, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Snail/The Pets (Saturday)
Snail was a four-piece, twin guitar band from Santa Cruz, with Bob O'Neill and Ken Kraft leading the way on guitars and vocals. The band had formed as a trio (with O'Neill) back in 1968, so they were well-established in Santa Cruz. Snail had been regulars at the club throughout 1976 when it was still Sophie's. Dowtown Santa Cruz was less than an hour from California Avenue, so this was a local gig for the band. Snail would go on to release two pretty good albums, the first one released in 1978 on Cream Records.
The Pets are unknown to me.
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| Billy C Farlow, his band, and some friends, ca 1976 |
The Monday after Thanksgiving was the inaugural Fat Fry, a seminal event in the history of Keystone Palo Alto and also of KFAT. As discussed above (see October 14), KFAT was a pioneering hippie country station in tiny Gilroy, with a transmitter in the Santa Cruz mountains. The signal reached Monterey, Ft. Ord, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Palo Alto and some parts of the Peninsula and the East Bay. It did not reach San Francisco, however. So KFAT was a hip, inside thing for Silicon Valley. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was a huge fan of KFAT, for example, not least because it made him different.
For the balance of the 70s, there would be a Monday night live broadcast on KFAT from the Keystone in Palo Alto. The first sets of both the headliner and the opening act were broadcast, giving crucial exposure to bands who might never be heard on the radio otherwise. Many record companies have a cautious history with live broadcasts, but many local bands were well aware of both the history of country music on the radio and the way that the many Grateful Dead broadcasts did not seem to harm local ticket sales. In turn, the radio made the Keystone seemed like a fun place to hang out and hear some non-redneck country music. The Monday Fat Fry gave the Keystone in Palo Alto an identity distinct from every other nightclub in the Bay Area.
Singer Billy C. Farlow, from Alabama by way of Michigan, had been the lead vocalist for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen until that band had broken up in 1976. He had formed his own band, playing music broadly in the same style as the Airmen, a high-energy mix of rockabilly and Western Swing, with hip covers and Farlow originals. The exact configuration of Billy C.'s band is uncertain, but in general his lead guitarist during this period was Merced guitarist James Parber, who had already played with Lawrence Hammond and The Whiplash Band for a few years.
The picture above is from Billy C.'s website, and features members of his band, and some friends, at The Long Branch in Berkeley around 1976. That may be Parber on the far left, with the beard and glasses. Does he look familiar? Sadly, Parber died of cancer in 1991. Several years later, it turned out that his father (USAF Colonel Jack Parber) was Bob Weir's birth father, so Parber was Weir's half-brother.
Kate Wolf (1942-1986) was a Bay Area singer and songwriter. By 1977, she had released her second album with The Wildwood Flower band, Lines On The Paper, featuring guitarist Nina Gerber. The Wildwood Flower Band would fall apart soon after this, but Wolf would continue to have a successful career as a songwriter and performer until her untimely death from leukemia at age 44.
Back In The Saddle was an acoustic band playing "Western Music," old-time California country without as much twang. I know this because over the years I heard them on the Fat Fry.
December 2, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Rubinoos (Friday)
December 3, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Bros Owens (Saturday)
December 4, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, CA: Ball, Taylor & Hatschek/Boarding House Reach (Sunday)
Ball, Taylor and Hatschek are unknown to me, but they had played Keystone Palo Alto a number of times. Boarding House Reach is unknown to me.
December 5, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Robert Hunter & Comfort/Rogers & Burgin (Monday) KFAT Fat Fry
The second Fat Fry broadcast was a particularly remarkable one. In 1976, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter had surfaced from anonymity with the band Roadhog (with whom he had been performing under the name "Lefty Banks"). Roadhog had ground to a halt at the end of 1976, but Hunter had joined another ensemble, Comfort. Comfort was a songwriting collective, of sorts, and Hunter had contributed lots of material. In particular, Hunter had written the lyrics for a nearly 20-minute song cycle called "Alligator Moon." Hunter had also financed a studio recording of "Alligator Moon" and a few other songs, with an eye toward a formal release.
As a part of the Grateful Dead family, Hunter would have immediately understood the advantages to having a local broadcast of a live concert, to give fans a chance to hear what Comfort sounded like. Otherwise, with no record, the band would just be a rumor. So Hunter and Comfort broadcast live on KFAT on this Monday, and they brought along ace Grateful Dead engineers Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor-Jackson to ensure that the live tape would be A-list. It's the Dead, of course--so the tape is preserved. Comfort's lineup was
Robert Hunter-vocals, guitarThe setlist was:
Kevin Morgenstern-lead guitar
Rodney Albin-violin, mandolin
Richard McNeese-keyboards
Larry Klein-bass
Pat Lorenzano-drums
Marlene Molle-vocals
Kathleen Klein-vocals
Jesse James, Hookers' Ball, We Can Work It Out, Rum Runners, It Must Have Been The Roses, It's All The Same To Me, Alligator Moon Suite, Promontory Rider, Boys In The Barroom
During the show, Hunter chatted with the live audience and acknowledged the broadcast, inviting the listeners to come to the Keystone for the late set. Hunter had gone to Junior High School in Palo Alto (at Wilbur) and part of High School (Cubberley, until 11th grade), and was an extraordinaly genial host, in contrast to his infamous reputation as a curmudgeon.
In the end, Hunter decided he was unhappy with the studio recording of Alligator Moon, and never authorized its release (save for a couple of shorter tracks). The live Fat Fry, with Bob & Betty managing the recording, stands as the definitive "Alligator Moon," and perhaps one day it will get released.
Slide guitarist Roy Rogers and harmonica player David Burgin
were an acoustic blues duo. Burgin had been a singer in the East Bay
band Lucky Strike, but he had teamed up with Rogers around 1975. They
would release an album in 1978 (A Foot In The Door, on Waterhouse Records) and even contributed a track for the One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest film soundtrack. They, too, would have been broadcast on the Fat Fry, but I'm not aware of the tape having been preserved.
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| In 1972, Robben Ford (guitar), Mark Ford (harmonica) and Pat Ford (drums) had formed a blues band named after their father. They had released an album on Arhoolie in 1972 |
December 8, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Robben Ford with The Mark Ford Band (Thursday)
Guitarist Robben Ford had been a teenage sensation out of Ukiah, CA, in Northern California. Around 1970, he had joined Charlie Musselwhite in his blues band, later joined by his drumming brother Pat Ford (and backing Musselwhite on the 1971 Arhoolie album Takin' My Time). The Ford brothers had teamed up with their harmonica playing brother Mark to form the Charles Ford Band (named after their father). The Charles Ford Band had released a 1972 album on Arhoolie.
Robben Ford, with amazing technical ability to go along with his bluesy tone, had made a name for himself in Los Angeles. Robben played guitar with the Tom Scott and the LA Express, and as a result went on tour with both George Harrison and Joni Mitchell. In 1976, Robben Ford released his own solo album, Schizophonic, on LA International Records.
In the meantime, Mark Ford led his own blues band around the Bay Area. It looks like Robben was sitting in with his brother for this show. I doubt they needed to rehearse very much.
December 9, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Bad Boys/Glide (Friday)
The Bad Boys are unknown to me.
December 10, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Talking Heads/Liars (Saturday)
The Chronicle display ad for the Keystones notes the Talking Heads--mistakenly called "Talkin' Head"--in Palo Alto on Saturday night. This was the original 4-piece band, with David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. They were unique and powerful. Keystone staff couldn't get the name right in the ad, and no one from Palo Alto seems to have known who they were.
 |
| This flyer for the Talking Heads at the Keystones in December 1977 was probably made by one of the bands (possibly the Heads), not the Keystones. Note the usage of "Keystone Palo Alto." |
People from Palo Alto and Berkeley will always brag about seeing a band like Talking Heads before anyone else. Everyone from Berkeley at this time, starting with me, brags about the time they saw them play for free in Sproul Plaza. So the fact that no Palo Altans mentioned seeing them at the Keystone back then means no one realized that it happened. It must have sold poorly. New Wave/Punk type bookings largely cease at the Palo Alto after this.
Liars are unknown to me.
December 11, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Larry Raspberry and The High Steppers (Sunday)
Larry Raspberry was from Memphis, where he had some notoriety in the early 70s as a member of The Gentrys. By the mid-70s, he had formed Larry Raspberry and The High Steppers, and they had released the album In The Pink in 1975. Raspberry seems to be a high energy performer in the style of Memphis rock and blues--he's still around--but I don't know many details about him.
December 13, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Mary McCaslin & Jim Ringer/Biff Rose (Tuesday)
Mary McCaslin (b. 1946) was a songwriter and folk singer who mostly released her albums on Philo Records, effectively a DIY label, long before that was fashionable. McCaslin was known for unique guitar tunings, and merging folk songs with contemporary pop sounds. In 1977, she had released the album Old Friends, produced by her husband Jim Ringer. In 1978, the pair would release their best-known album as a duo, The Bramble And The Rose (also on Philo). Ringer, from the Fresno area, had also been recording on Philo since 1973. McCaslin and Ringer mostly played clubs like the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley or the Great American Music Hall, but there were no similar clubs in the South Bay.
Biff Rose was a Hollywood sketch comedy writer, but he had an intermittent recording career as well. One of his songs ("Fill Your Heart") was recorded by David Bowie on Hunky Dory. At this time, Rose had not released an album for several years, but he would release a new record in 1978, so perhaps this was a warmup.
It looks like there was no Fat Fry on Monday night (December 12), as it was not yet an institution.
Sass was a Top 40 band. They had actually been the first band to play the (newly-named) Keystone in Palo Alto, on January 20, 1977. The Island Band is unknown to me.
December 16, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Streamliner/Little Roger and The Goosebumps (Friday)
December 17-18, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Bros Owens (Saturday-Sunday)
The published ad in the SF Chronicle Datebook (above) has the Ramones and The Avengers on Sunday, December 18, but it looks like they canceled. Palo Alto just wasn't punk territory in 1977.
December 19, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Water Brothers (Monday)
The Water Brothers are unknown to me. I assume this was not a Fat Fry, as it wasn't advertised as such.
December 22-23, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort (Thursday-Friday)
Jerry Garcia was the anchor tenant of the Keystone Berkeley, as he had been regularly packing the house since Freddie Herrera had taken it over in March of 1972. On top of that Garcia often played weeknights, and his crowd came early and stayed late, so Garcia was regularly responsible for big paydays on nights that might otherwise be thin. When Herrera opened the Keystone in Palo Alto, the Jerry Garcia Band had played the very first weekend (January 23). When the club was in dire straits with the local rock industry, for reasons that remain uncertain, Garcia had played three dates in July (possibly four), not only providing crucial revenue but signalling that Herrera's most important client was still in his corner.
Garcia and the Grateful Dead had been extraordinarily busy since July, touring hard. The Jerry Garcia Band had completed a successful East Coast tour in early December, and they were playing great music. Garcia had finally got his legendary Doug Irwin "Wolf" guitar repaired, and he was playing better than ever. So he finally returned to the Keystone in Palo Alto. A number of things stand out about this booking.
For one thing, there was a custom flyer, a very rare artifact from the Keystone. I note that the flyer says "tickets available at all BASS outlets" (BASS was the local computerized ticket service, a competitor to Ticketron). If advance tickets were indeed available, it would have been the first time that Garcia tickets would have been available in advance for a Keystone show (whether Berkeley, Palo Alto or The Stone), and it was not an experiment that was repeated. I actually think it was a mistake, and that whoever was assigned to draw the flyer didn't realize that there were never advance tickets for Garcia shows at the Keystone.
One of the keys to the professional relationship between Herrera and Garcia was that while Garcia shows were booked in advance, they could often be added and subtracted at will as Garcia's busy schedule changed. Since no tickets were sold in advance, there was no need to refund any money. At the same time, since Garcia often played weeknights, he was generally not interfering with booking by touring acts.
This booking also stands out for having Robert Hunter and Comfort as the Garcia's Band opening act. General practice at this time was for Garcia to have some sort of solo or duo acoustic act opening, to encourage those arriving early to hoist a few drinks, but they were rarely advertised. In this case, to Deadheads, Hunter had a unique status. Hunter and Comfort had been playing around the Bay Area since May, and they had just played a Fat Fry a few weeks earlier (December 5), so they weren't unknown, but most Deadheads still had not heard them. Comfort was working on an album, and it appeared that the plan was for Hunter to piggyback on Garcia's popularity to get noticed, all in all a fine plan. At least some Comfort shows actually had a dance performance that went along with the "Alligator Moon" suite, but I don't know if this was one of them.
The Jerry Garcia Band at this time was
Jerry Garcia-guitar, vocals
Donna Godchaux-vocals
Maria Muldaur-vocals
Keith Godchaux-piano
John Kahn-bass
Buzz Buchanan-drums
Maria Muldaur was bassist John Kahn's girlfriend, and was a regular member of the band. She only shared harmonies with Donna Godchaux, however, and did not sing her own material. Garcia might have been amenable, in fact, but Maria enjoyed just being a member of the band. In the orthodoxy of the time, her name was not mentioned in any publicity because that would have created the expectation that she would sing "Midnight At The Oasis" and the like. Buzz Buchanan had replaced the great Ron Tutt, who had retired from both Elvis Presley's band and the Jerry Garcia Band at the same time, albeit for different reasons. Buchanan had been recommended by producer Michael Stewart, an old pal of Kahn's.
Finally, this booking was unique in that the first set of the Friday night concert was broadcast live on KZSU-fm, the Stanford University radio station. Garcia had a long history with KZSU, having first broadcast on the station back in 1962, and then many times from the Tangent, and then eventually with Old And In The Way (on July 24, 1973). Given that KFAT had just begun their Fat Fry program, it seems like broadcasting an early set on a different local radio station may have been part of a similar plan. KZSU did not repeat such a broadcast, however, with Garcia or anyone else, so we'll have to wonder. For locals like me, however, the FM broadcast provided a crispy Garcia tape at a time when such material was very rare.
December 24, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Stoneground (Saturday)
December 26, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Larry Hosford (Monday) KFAT Fat Fry
Larry Hosford was exactly the sort of artist who benefited greatly from a Fat Fry. I'm pretty sure that is where I first heard his music, as a matter of fact (although not this specific show). Hosford was local, so if you heard him on the radio, you got a good picture of what you were going to get to hear. Live broadcasts of bands without record company backing was unprecedented at the time. Hosford's first class songs, crack band and ironic hippie cowboy stance was perfect for a kind of laid-back South Bay type who wanted something accessible, but a little bit off the beaten path.
December 29, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Moby Grape/Dirty Leggs (Thursday)
Moby Grape had always been--and still is--the great Woulda Shoulda Coulda story of San Francisco rock. Five musicians who barely knew each other were assembled by ex-Jefferson Airplane manager Matthew Katz, and sold to Columbia Records. For all of their artificial beginning, the quintet was incredibly talented, and their 1967 debut album was fantastic. Columbia hyped it like crazy, however, so hippies doubted it, problems set in, and instead of becoming big stars Moby Grape became a sad, cautionary tale.
By 1977 Moby Grape was on their third reunion, and involved in litigation with Katz (this litigation is still ongoing, by the way, interfering with the band's ability to profit from their own name). At this time, it appeared that the band could reform under their own name, and the new lineup featured guitarists Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis from the original lineup. Another new member was organist Cornelius Bumpus, a Santa Cruz legend from Korny and The Korvettes. Skip Spence even showed up to a Moby Grape gig once in a while.
The band would release a live album recorded around this time, on their own label Escape Records. The album was called Live Grape, coyly avoiding using their actual name. It's actually a really good album, if a little more blues oriented than some earlier Moby Grape offerings. This lineup of Moby Grape was actually really good--we know it from the album--but would have seemed like tired hippie music to Palo Alto, and it probably didn't draw that well.
Dirty Leggs is unknown to me.
December 30, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Poker Face or John Lee Hooker (Friday)
The Sunday Chronicle and the Fremont Argus listed different bookings for Friday night. The Chronicle listed Poker Face, a local band. I actually saw them once, and if I recall correctly, they sounded sort of like Poco. The Argus, meanwhile had John Lee Hooker. Both were local, so it's hard to draw a conclusion, but I doubt they shared a bill.
December 31, 1977 Keystone, Palo Alto, CA: Moonlighters/Cayenne (Saturday)
The first year of the Keystone in Palo Alto was not at all smooth sailing. Freddie Herrera's initial goal of making it parallel to the sister club in Berkeley had gone awry. Some of that was due to unexplained problems with some local rock acts, but Palo Alto wasn't Berkeley. The loud blues hippie vibe of Keystone Berkeley was not Palo Alto at the dawn of Silicon Valley. Neither, surprisingly, was Punk of New Wave music, which was barely booked in Palo Alto and seems to have attracted little attention (and not surprisingly I should add).
After some mid-year struggles, however, the Palo Alto Keystone found a better mix, with some jazz and some hip country. The progressive country station KFAT, in Gilroy, had started broadcasting live from the club. A band like the Moonlighters, which would have gotten little radio play otherwise, was going to attract attention on KFAT. Since the Moonlighters were headlining a Saturday night New Year's Eve at the club, their efforts at earlier gigs in Palo Alto must have been well-recieved.