In light of the recent passing of Sam Andrew I thought it would be a good thing to work out some Big Brother and the Holding Company. We of course know the history of the band and the focus on Janis, Big Brother has never really been given it's due as a talented group , It was all about Janis.. Sam Andrew had always kept his band going (short of his blunder of going with Janis when she left BB. Essentially killing the career of BB at the time.. Sam returned a couple of years later and put a new twist on the music of BB. Janis was it but she was replaceable for what music they would play after getting back together. Kathi McDonald was a perfect fir for the band with her blusey background, She participated in the "How Hard It Is" LP and contributed to the recordings of "Can't Go Home Again" recording in a very prominent role. Sadly Kathi passed away a couple of years back but if you pull her up on YouTube you will find some very powerful performances, Her version of the Etta James classic " I'd Rather Go Blind" is as good as if not better than the original.. An interesting tidbit about Kathi (who has a very strong resume of vocals with a lot of people) is she was actually to audition for the BB vocalist job bur Janis beat her to the punch, What could have been the BBHC story had Kathi been the original female lead ?. Maybe just maybe they might have developed into a great blues band with the respect these musicians deserved.
In rehearsal for the Stomp
Tracks 1-5 are taken from the How Hard It Is Lp
Tracks 7-13 are from the Big Brother performance at the 1978 Tribal Stomp
Tracks 6,14- 20 are from the Can't Go Home again LP
THE MISSING TRACK # 6 HAS BEEN CORRECTED
1 comments:
Thanks for sharing this, and all of the background info. Many of you probably know that Sam Andrew also played many shows as a member of Moby Grape in the late '90s. All of the Wetlands shows, Gathering On The Mt, acoustic Fillmore, New Year's Eve Santa Rosa, etc. Does anyone have the Wetlands Nov. 98 show? Larry
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