Sons in Santa Cruz Monterey County Herald :: By Beth Peerless It doesn't normally take any sort of "hook" to draw an audience to a Los Lobos concert. For most fans, it's about sharing the vibe and getting a fix from their favorite musicians. Recently, it seems the guys in Los Lobos are looking to make the experience more interesting, not only for their fans, but for themselves as well. Take their recent "Kiko" song-for-song performance at The Fillmore and last Saturday's "Classic Set from 1985" at The Catalyst for example. The latter program was filled with lots of roots rock tunes, classic jams connected to the Grateful Dead's repertoire staples "Not Fade Away" and "Bertha," plus some of the traditional Mexican culture-based Los Lobos originals. The place was packed and grooving. A fan's request for something other than what was on the set list was answered by David Hidalgo with, "Hey, we're in a time warp here." The audience ate up the extremely danceable roots rock material. I for one look forward to other conceptual programs such as these to keep it fresh between new album releases. And that takes me to the main reason why bands go out on tour -- to support a new recording. This Saturday at The Catalyst, fans of the Sons of Champlin will get a chance to hear their heroes unfurl music from "Hip Lil' Dreams," not only the grooving, funky chops they've always had as a calling card, but also to hear some new songs from the group best known for its days in the San Francisco hippie band scene of the’60s. While their counterparts were scratching their psychedelic itch and creating seismic waves with long space jams, The Sons were getting down and funky with R&B vocals, tight horn arrangements and jazzy improvisations sprinkled into concise song forms inspired by James Brown and Lou Rawls. They were on the marquee often with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane at legendary San Francisco venues such as The Fillmore, Avalon and Winterland. They lived the life, walked the talk and ultimately remained the best-unknown band from that scene. When the band ran out of steam in 1977, leader and band namesake Bill Champlin (lead vocals, guitar and keyboards) moved to Los Angeles and worked the commercial angle, making a living for his growing family in the studios as multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He earned himself a couple Grammy awards for co-writing hits for George Benson and Earth Wind and Fire. In 1981, he was invited to join the mega hit-making horn band Chicago. He's continued to do quite well with Chicago, as well as releasing several of his own albums and working with an array of well-known music stars. Other band members stayed in the business as well, although they never found the same level of success as Champlin. They regrouped in the late’90s, loved it and didn't want to leave it behind. So they've vowed to continue making music that moves the body and the heart. They released a couple live recordings, and today we find our heroes in the hear-and-now, working receptive markets such as Santa Cruz and points not too far north and south. Champlin has recently moved to Nashville where he's setting up shop with a new state-of-the art recording studio. "It's breaking me," he quipped. "It's a high tech studio, so I can actually call in my parts...from the poor house," he said with ironic verve in his voice. Champlin's songwriting talents are well represented on "Hip Lil' Dreams" and, although there are a few of the old Sons songs on it, they are reworked to fit the talents of the band today. "It's a mish-mash of stuff," he said. "I'm writing all the time. Even when I was doing my solo stuff, I was looking at it like,’Whoa, this song is perfect for the Sons, or this song isn't.' My body of work that is considered solo, half of it is really Sonsy stuff." The band has co-founding members Geoff Palmer (keyboards, Hammond B-3 and vibraphones), David Schallock (Fender bass, vocals) and James Preston (drums, vocals), with Mic Gillette from Tower of Power (multiple brass), Carmen Grillo (guitar) and perhaps Skip Mesquite (saxophone), a co-founding member of the early Tower of Power. The 21+ show starts at 9 p.m. with The Primadons, tickets are $22 adv/$25 door. More info at www.catalystclub.com or 423-1338. |