Steven Fromholz

Received a comment to a previous FreeFormRadio Blog posting from Steven Fromholz's sister. As comments tend to get buried, I wanted to pass along a lot of the relevant info and some more that we have traded via email:

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(Steven with the late B.W. Stevenson, image courtesy of www.stevenfromholz.com)

"... came across the comments left last year on Steven. Thought I'd let everybody know that he's back entertaining, writing music and accepting gigs again! He's spent the last 3 years recovering from the stroke he had in April, 2003 -- but tough as always he's right back at it again -- including guiding rafting trips and trail riding gigs -- and a most happy man! I've just finished a new website for him at http://www.stevenfromholz.com if anybody wants to check it out and you can email him directly on the first page of the site. I know he'd love to hear from you guys -- thanks so much for your interest and caring!"

"I'm making an attempt to get his name back out there so he can go forward again. The music business is tough, as you are aware and although Steven says "It's not so
much of a coming back as a going on" -- the truth of the matter is it's a
coming back! It's the folks like you and the "posters" on your site that
have kept him/his name going during the recovery period. Thank you, thank
you, thank you..."


(Steven Fromholz with dinner, image courtesy of www.stevenfromholz.com)

Steven Fromholz appearances (see website for more):

October 7, 2006 - Tommy Alverson's Family Gathering at Tres Rios, Glen Rose, Texas

Nov. 10-12 - Gourmet River Trip, Terlingua, TX


(Steven with Kinky Friedman, image courtesy of www.stevenfromholz.com)

FBI vs. John Lennon

Historian Jon Wiener was a consultant on the new documentary "The U.S. vs. John Lennon." Wiener spent 14 years fighting to gain access to the FBI's secret files on the former Beatle.

NPR : Probing the FBI's Files on John Lennon

Mike Heron, 1971

... this nearly forgotten LP of London rock circa 1971 should have been huge. Among the A-list friends gathered to support Mike Heron -- the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the Incredible String Band -- on his solo outing are Richard Thompson, Steve Winwood, John Cale of The Velvet Underground (then in the middle of making the Nico record), Ronnie Lane, Elton John and members of The Who...

NPR has drawn a bead on this "Shadow Classic"... their coverage includes three full song excerpts that are great to listen to!


NPR : An All-Star Rock Jam That Transcends Egos

Laurel Canyon, Late 1960's

NPR has a fine review of Michael Walker's book "Laurel Canyon..."

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"In the late 1960s, just as San Francisco was having its own Summer of Love, a rustic canyon at the heart of Los Angeles was also in bloom with songs that defined the moment, written and performed by the bands that defined a generation.

"High above the city, the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Eagles, Jim Morrison and a host of other talents found a wild refuge just a short hitchhike from the noise and neon of the Sunset Strip.

"Laurel Canyon was home to entire bands, and the hangout of choice for every rock 'n' roll legend, or wannabe, who passed through Los Angeles. Michael Walker's nonfiction book Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood charts the highs and lows of a celebrated part of music history..."

PF Sloan's Back'

Some 30 years later, one of the best song writers of the 1960's is back in action, writing and performing.

PF Sloan notably wrote "Eve of Destruction," "Secret Agent Man," "You Baby" and "Where Were You When I Needed You."

NPR has an audio interview with him, with some samples off his new CD "Sailover." I listened to "Eve of Destruction" thinking about how much I wished he would have rewritten the song to fit today's issues, keeping some of the original, but not all. Oh well, it's a good idea. Maybe someone will take it on and it will become a hit again...

NPR : PF Sloan's Long Road Back from 'Destruction'

Wolfgang's Vault

Wolfgang's Vault owns the master recordings to more than 5,000 live Audio and Video performances from concerts that Bill Graham Presents promoted from the '60s through the '90s. Also, they have era T-shirts, posters and other memorabilia.



My mind has been blown just by listening to a half hour of the collection. To hear King Crimson do "Epitaph" at the Fillmore West in December 1969 was near a religious experience... They're streaming live at:


Vintage T-Shirts, Rock Posters, Concert T-Shirts, Concert Posters, Rock T-Shirts, Concert Shirt, Music Memorabilia, Concert Tees

KFML 1972-0408 Audio

A rare KFML audio discovery has been made by Fred Fell who recently got in touch with me. Here's what Fred wrote:

"I actually found tape of a show from April 8, 1972 (which I deducted from the promo's from upcoming events) which is hosted by "Bill Bard". It is about 45 minutes of a great set and includes the original commercials as well. There is one slight flaw in the tape, but other than that it is in really good shape and still sounds great.

"I had slapped on a tape hoping to get some good music to take along on an outing to Gross Resevoir above Boulder that evening. I did have a chance to listen to it before we left, but once we got there and set up (it was a quasi band practice with lots of refreshments) we turned it on and just were amazed at the flow of the set. There were three 45 sets in total on the tape but the quality of the last two were sadly beyond salvaging. The 45 minutes I have are in order:

God is alive, Magic is afoot - Buffy St. Marie

Commercial Break
Budget Tape and Records - Melody on Budda Records
Shane Diamonds
Promotion for Leslie West, Corky Lane & Jack Bruce and Free, Sunday, April 9, 1972
Public Service announcement - Ride to Washington D.C. for David Harris

Water Song - Hot Tuna
Box of Rain - Grateful Dead
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You - Dylan
Colorado - The Flying Burrito Brothers

Commercial Break
Promotion - Continental Divide Raceways - Drag Racing (man we really caught a rush off this bit if memory serves me)
Up Your Alley
Pierce Volkswagen

Many A Mile to Freedom - Traffic
You're Only as Pretty as You Feel - Jefferson Starship with Papa John Creech

"And sadly that's where it ends....but it is just so great to listen to it and catch the wonderful eclectic spirit of such a great station that made such a big impact in my life.

"If you're interested in it get back with me. I have moved it to wave format and cleaned up a lot of the noise but that's about it. As I said there is one tape flaw that occurs during one of the commercial breaks.

"Thanks for the great website and the pictures and sound bites!"

Fred

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"... I went ahead and converted this to 160kbs mp3 just to give you a chance to see if it is worthwhile or if anyone has any interest in the original tape. As near as I can remember this was originally recorded in my home studio on a TEAC tape transport at 15ips (I think...maybe we only had 7.5ips then I don't recall). I know we had a lot of strange filters and wah-wah and reverb boxes and other various do-dads around that may or may not have been involved in this but from listening to it and playing with it a bit I think the original recording is pretty true to what came over the air. I think the receiver was a Kenwood and was run through a pre-amp before it was sent to outputs (I am showing my age here cause I am struggling to remember just how it was set up that day). I dropped the tape to a 120 minute cassette which is what we took up to the mountains that evening... Maybe someday that cassette will turn up and it may yeild even more of this session. As near as I can rememeber the recording started early on a Saturday morning and finished before noon, cause then I transposed it onto cassette and went out the door around 3pm that evening. I do remember that the West, Lang and Bruce concert was the following Sunday night, cause we even mentioned that perhaps we should come down from Gross Resevoir and catch that show (we didn't); Bill Bard also notes "this Sunday night" so I deduced that the tape had a high probability of coming from April 8, 1972.

"I had to keep this under 100mb to be able to send it via yousendit, if you like what you hear we can work out another arrangement for the wave file.

"Let me know what you think of it."

Fred

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Message from Malcolm to everyone:

I've put this up on the server I use for the KFML files. You can download it by either clicking on the following URL or right clicking and designating download:

http://www.legendarysurfers.com/ffr/kfml/SOUNDS/kfml-1972.04.08.mp3

Can anyone fill some info about what they hear? Was this during the strike? I don't hear any of the vets on this recording... Add your comments under "comments," below...

ARTHUR LEE, R.I.P.

Arthur Lee has passed on. LOVE was and still is one of my most favorite groups. I never lost an opportunity to play them when I spun records in freedom (freeform).

Ed Ward did a good audio bio of Arthur Lee, broadcast over NPR. Follow the link at the bottom of the page to listen.


Arthur Lee/LOVE Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lee_(musician)
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/11086397/arthur_lee_19452006
http://www.lovewitharthurlee.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/love.shtml


Recommended Listening:







NPR : Honoring Rock's Arthur Lee

Lee Abrams

(CNN) -- Lee Abrams, Congress and capitalism played major roles in shaping today's AM and FM dials.

As a consultant in the '70s and '80s, Abrams (with his business partner, Kent Burkhart) devised the "Superstars" album-oriented rock format that many FM stations, once bastions of free-form radio, followed.

The stations became incredibly successful, pushing once-powerful AM music stations to news, talk and sports. (Those AM stations, looking for programming, in turn made stars of syndicated talk-radio hosts.) But they were also slammed by many critics and listeners for marketing a rather homogenized sound.

From there, money and Congress took over. The 1996 Telecommunications Act relaxed limits on radio station ownership and radio companies sometimes bought several stations in the same market. Criticism of corporate radio deepened in the '90s, especially after companies tightened playlists and automated or simulcast functions.

Well before that time, Abrams had moved on. He defends his early work -- "If anything, we saved [FM radio]," he says, noting that free-form stations were too "out there" for many listeners -- but says that terrestrial radio now has "way too much discipline."


CNN.com - How terrestrial radio got here - Jul 20, 2006

kfmlnooze.com

Legendary KFML newsman Ed Chatham is working on another KFML-related website called "KFMLNOOZE."



Here's what Ed wrote about KFMLNOOZE:

"The object of this site is to continue to act as the guy next door and let you know of stuff I think may be of interest to you as I did back in 1971 at KFML in Denver. As a newsman I will be featuring video and audio glimpses of some of my favorite individuals out here in the San Francisco Bay area as well as folks I have videotaped over the last 20 years from here to Louisiana and beyond. So kick back, smoke em' if ya got em' and join me as I mosey on down memory lane..."

Please visit:

kfmlnooze.com