Monday, April 25, 2011

Johnny Rivers concert memorable for audience, performers

Johnny Rivers came to town April 9 and performed for a near sell-out crowd at the Performing Arts Center. Twice the large audience was brought to its feet for standing ovations as Rivers performed many of his 1960s classic hit songs, as well as a number of his newer compositions. For those patient enough to wait after the show, Rivers came out to the lobby to sign autographs and converse with all who stayed. It was truly a night to remember. It was also a night that almost didn't happen. Johnny Rivers and two of the band members were scheduled to fly into the Central Wisconsin Airport from New York by way of Chicago on April 8. A fourth member of the band was flying in from Nashville to join them in Chicago where they would fly together to CWA. At mid-day on Friday a call was received that both flights into Chicago were canceled because of fog, and the flights were being re-booked. Given the limited number of flights into CWA, the options were limite.

Rivers and two of the band members ended up flying from New York to Los Angeles on Friday night only to turn around early Saturday morning to catch a flight from L.A. to Chicago and on to central Wisconsin. The lone band member coming from Nashville was uncertain how he was going to get to Wisconsin Rapids in time for the concert and took the only option open to him. On Friday night he flew on an alternate flight from Nashville to Milwaukee and then on to Green Bay where two volunteers from the Arts Council were waiting to pick him up at 10:45 p.m. to whisk him to Wisconsin Rapids by 1 a.m.

The following day, as storm warnings were being posted in central Wisconsin, Rivers and the rest of the band were able to make their flight connections, landing at CWA at 2:40 p.m. They were picked up by another Arts Council volunteer and taken directly to the Performing Arts Center for an extensive sound check before the concert. After that the band only had a short time to go to the hotel, get cleaned up from a long day of travel, grab a quick bite to eat, and hit the stage for a 7:30 p.m. show. It was truly a memorable concert. No one could guess all the "drama" that had happened behind the scenes.

The next day, with thunderstorms rolling through the area and tornados touching down both to the north and south of Wood County, the performers were able to catch their flight out of CWA and on to Los Angeles. It is fair to say that this concert was as memorable for the performers as it was for the audience.

While the events of the weekend were pretty unusual, there are always a lot of things happening behind the scenes when a show or concert takes place at the Performing Arts Center. Thank you to all the volunteers and workers who put in extra effort to make the concert happen. Also thanks to all of the corporate sponsors of Arts Council events. Without their generous support, our shows would not be possible.

Ted Moskonas is board president
for the Arts Council.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Johnny Rivers - LP LIBERTY Folk Song Deluxe - JAPAN 1967


Johnny Rivers - South African Press LP

JOHNNY RIVERS - RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA - Made in Japan

Will Johnny Rivers Ever Flow Into The Rock Hall Of Fame?

Nobody rocked harder or better than Johnny Rivers
(No. 28 in a continuing series on artists who should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but are not)

By Phill Marder

It was a most surreal scene.

Outdoor concert venue in the ‘80s. Warm summer night. Not quite dark yet. Crowd still filing in to see a show consisting of several outstanding acts (please don’t ask me to remember who else was on the bill). Lone figure walks across the stage, plugs in his guitar and starts playing blues numbers. No introduction. No backup. No problem.
Thirty minutes later, the guitar is unplugged and the solitary man leaves the stage.
Solitary man? – Neil Diamond?
Nope.
Secret Agent Man?
Yup.
And if he hadn’t included a hit or two in his set, he may have remained a secret to many in attendance. To this date, he has remained a secret to The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a snub hopefully to be rectified in the very near future. For Johnny Rivers is truly one of the greatest to rock us since Bill Haley set this whole thing in motion.
Bruce Eder, on allmusicguide.com, described him best, writing, “Rivers was very much a kindred spirit to figures like Buddy Holly and Ronnie Hawkins, with all of the verve and spirit of members of that first wave of rock & rollers.
The magnitude of Rivers’ accomplishment shouldn’t be underestimated – since early 1964, the American charts had been dominated almost exclusively by British rock acts, with American artists picking up the scraps that were leftover, and then along came this new white kid from Baton Rouge, playing ’50s-style rock & roll and R&B like he means it (and he did).”
Everything about Rivers said Rock & Roll. Born Johnny Ramistella, he became Johnny Rivers after none other than Alan Freed suggested a name change, Rivers’ home on the Mississippi River his inspiration. Once he became Rivers, the hits started flowing (sorry).
The beginning was rather auspicious, though, as Rivers and drummer Eddie Rubin filled a sudden vacancy at a Los Angeles nightclub, later to be joined by famed bassist Joe Osborn. The trio proved so popular they became a mainstay until given a one-year deal to open the new Whisky A Go Go. The rest, as they say, is history, the Whisky soon becoming the place to go…go (sorry).
With his ripping guitar, occasional harp and pleasing Southern drawl, and the exceptional backing of Rubin and Osborn, Rivers breathed new life into a series of Rock classics that eventually found their way onto his first two LPs, “Johnny Rivers At The Whisky A Go Go” and “Here We A Go Go Again!” It was just basic, stripped-down, three-piece Rock. And it was great. Actually, it still is.
Both albums became hits, propelled by hot versions of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” and “Maybelline,” which shot to No. 2 and No. 12, respectively. Ironically, it was not the British, but two American groups that held “Memphis” in the runner-up position in the Summer of ’64, the first being The Beach Boys with “I Get Around,” then The Four Seasons with “Rag Doll.”
For the third LP, Rivers went into the studio and came out with “Johnny Rivers In Action!,” which yielded his second top 10 hit, a cover of Harold Dorman’s “Mountain Of Love.” Meanwhile, his version of the traditional blues chestnut “Midnight Special,” pulled from the second album, became a smash, later becoming the theme of the popular television concert show.
In the summer of 1965, Rivers returned to live recording with “Meanwhile Back At The Whisky a Go Go,” which gave him another Top 10 single, a sizzling remake of Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son.”
Having had hits with two straight renditions of blues classics, Rivers began to branch out. His next album jumped onto the folk-rock craze started a couple months earlier by Bob Dylan and The Byrds, and his version of Pete Seeger‘s “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” gave him his seventh straight hit single. A remake of Buck Owens’ “Under Your Spell Again” made it eight as Rivers expanded into Country Rock.
But 1966 brought him back to live recording and returned him to the Top 10 as “Secret Agent Man,” used as the theme for the TV show “Secret Agent,” soared to No. 3. Another live single, “(I Washed My Hands In) Muddy Water,” a remake of Stonewall Jackson’s No. 8 Country hit, climbed into the Top 20 and punctuated his “Johnny Rivers’ Golden Hits” long-player.

While a Greatest Hits set often denotes the end of a hit-making career – sort of a career summary in many cases – for Rivers it signaled only a direction switch. He went into the studio with a string section, vocal backing from Darlene Love’s Blossoms and a tune he had penned along with Lou Adler. The result was his only No. 1 single, the classic “Poor Side Of Town.” It was included on the aptly named album “Changes,” which also featured a hidden gem penned by a then-unknown songwriter, Jimmy Webb. The song, “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” remained an album cut while “Poor Side Of Town” ruled the airwaves. Glen Campbell heard it, copied it almost note-for-note, and finally got his solo career into the superstar stratosphere when his recording became a hit, eventually winning two Grammys and reaching classic status.
But Webb had already prospered thanks to Rivers’ knack for recognizing a great song. Rivers started his own record label – Soul City – signed a new group – The 5th Dimension – and provided them with five Webb originals for their initial offering, which he produced along with Marc Gordon. Several months prior to Campbell’s breakthrough, The “Up, Up & Away” LP and the single of the same name leaped into the top 10, the single winning a slew of Grammys, including “Record of the Year” and “Song Of The Year.”
Firmly established as a successful record company owner and producer, Rivers could have rested on his laurels. But in 1967, he played a major role in organizing the Monterey Pop Festival, in which he also was one of the featured performers, and issued what I believe to be his best album and one of the best of the ‘60s, “Rewind.” Including eight originals from arranger Webb and backing from “The Wrecking Crew’s” Hal Blaine, Osborn and Larry Knechtel, the LP produced two hit singles, Motown covers “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” and “Tracks Of My Tears,” each reaching the top 10, and a terrific reworking of Paul Simon’s “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her.”
“Rewind” reached No. 14, his best showing on the album charts since his debut, but the follow-up, 1968‘s “Realization,” did even better, climbing to No. 5. Though I don’t feel it lived up to “Rewind,” it did have its moments, especially the big hit “Summer Rain.”
Rivers’ pace slowed during the ’70s, but he remained a force, charting five more albums and several hit singles that included the 1972 remake of Huey Smith & The Clowns’ “Rockin’ Pneumonia & the Boogie Woogie Flu,” which soared to No. 6, a terrific version of the Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda,” which reached No. 22 with Brian Wilson himself contributing backing vocals, and 1977’s “Swayin’ To The Music (Slow Dancin’),” which became his last Top 10 single.
Still releasing recordings and making appearances, Rivers remains viable, but largely underrated. As Eder wrote, “Johnny Rivers is a unique figure in the history of rock music. On the most obvious level, he was a rock star of the 1960s and a true rarity as a white American singer/guitarist who made a name for himself as a straight-ahead rock & roller during the middle of that decade. Just as important behind the scenes, his recordings and their success led to the launching, directly and indirectly, of at least three record labels and a dozen other careers whose influence extended into the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond.”
Simply put, Johnny Rivers belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.