Gavin B.

Welcome To 1-1-11!


A poster for an April 1966 San Francisco Blues Project gig at the Avalon Ballroom. The advertised opening act was Great Society, a band that Grace Slick sang in prior to joining the Jefferson Airplane.

My first song selection of the new year is a beautiful baroque pop song from New York City's legendary Blues Project. Steve's Song appeared on the Blues Project's only studio album Projections. The ambitious neo-classical song arrangement required the sort of technical skills and precision playing that most rock bands lacked in the mid-Sixties.



A Thumbnail History of the Blues Project

The Blues Project was formed in 1965 by Al Kooper, a young Columbia Records session player who gained a measure of notoriety for devising that bluesy organ fill heard on Bob Dylan's first folk rock single, Like A Rolling Stone. Many say that the Blues Project was the first authentic American "underground" band of the Sixties. The talented band lineup featured Danny Kalb a gifted blues guitarist, and bassist Andy Kulberg who doubled on flute. The versatile band offered an electric brew of rock, blues, folk, pop, and even some jazz, classical, and psychedelia during their brief heyday.

The Blues Project broke up in 1967 when Danny Kalb disappeared for months after a bad acid trip. Kooper who had been feuding with Kalb over Kooper's proposal to add horns to the Blues Project, vacated with band while Kalb was absent without leave. Kooper took along Blues Project second guitarist Steve Katz and formed the first (and best) edition of the highly successful pop band Blood Sweat & Tears which included a section of horn players that he originally wanted to play in the Blues Project.

In 1973 the original Blues Project lineup reunited for a highly contentious free concert in Central Park, Guitarist Danny Kalb instructed keyboardist Al Kooper to refrain from making eye contact with him on stage. Apparently Kalb hadn't fully recovered from that bad acid trip in 1967.

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt