Article by David Gardiner
Photo by Stan Johnson
As far as I know, Jefferson Starship is still going strong.
They went to Tokyo in November 2012 for a San Francisco Sound Special Retrospective of the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger and the Grateful Dead. In Kawasaki, Paul Kantner’s Blows Against The Empire was presented by Montreux Jazz Festival Japan. They returned to States to play a few shows at the Rrazz Room in San Francisco in January and are planning tour dates throughout 2013. Earlier in 2012, Gonzo Multimedia released Tales From The Mothership, comprising for the most part a performance from the Roswell UFO Festival in New Mexico on July 3, 2009.
Tales From The Mothership covers four discs; the first and fourth CD contain what I would consider “bonus” material of rehearsal and sound check songs. Is that a good thing? Sure why not. I found it entertaining to hear great songs being worked out with musicians who don’t necessarily play with the most recent lineup of the band.
For the past few years, Jefferson Starship has been sole original member Paul Kantner, who leads this science fiction extravaganza on guitars and vocal with his good friend David Freiberg from Quicksilver Messenger Service and serving up incomparable vocals, percussion and acoustic guitar.
Slick Aguilar plays the electric lead guitar and sings while Donny Baldwin, who used to swing with Elvin Bishop, in on drums. Keyboards are competently handled by Chris Smith, who also plays bass on the keys. For the show in New Mexico, bass guitar duties were performed by Pete Sears, a member with Jefferson Starship in the 70s. Cathy Richardson has been singing and playing acoustic guitar with the band since 2008.
Guests at the Roswell UFO Festival included Barry Sless on pedal steel guitar. Sless is a good “friend” of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, and has played in the David Nelson Band as well as The Rowen Brothers and Kingfish. Singer Darby Gould is also on hand. She joined Jefferson Starship “The Next Generation” in the 90s. Her vocal style is unique to all of the singers since Grace Slick from the Airplane days.
The meat and potatoes of this show are on the second and third discs, from the July 3 concert. Produced, recorded and mastered by Mission Control, the second disc starts out with a short set on electric piano by special guest (Dark Star) Tom Constanten, a short-term member of the Grateful Dead in the late 60s.
Known as “TC,” he plays keyboards and sings I’m Your Urban Spaceman,” a fitting track for the Roswell venue. “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago” comes next, and then the Dead’s “Mountains Of The Moon.” TC adds the pieces of the puzzle for the Deadheads, but is also part folk musician and beautifully plays “This Land Is Your Land” with steel guitar and some vocal chorus thrown in for good measure. Jack Traylor, formerly of Steelwind from the early 70s, is next and he does two songs on acoustic: “Me And My Uncle” and a song especially for the New Mexico crowd called “Billy The Kid.”
When Jefferson Starship comes out, Freiberg takes the vocal on the Airplane classic “Crown Of Creation.” Here, the show shifts to a promotion of their latest studio efforts from 2008, including Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty, a fantastic folk album (the bonus track from 1970, “Surprise Surprise,” is worth checking out). The Weavers’ “Wasn’t That A Time” is the first song from the album, and the live version on this set is fresh and spirited. Dino Valenti’s “Get Together,” a hit with a number of artists including the Youngbloods who took it to #5 on the Billboard 100 in 1969, is done nicely, as is Bob Dylan’s “Chimes Of Freedom.”
Freiberg sings “Cowboy On The Run,” another one from Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty with some tasty steel work by Sless, who also played on the studio version. Cathy Richardson steps up to the microphone with “I Can’t Forgive You,” followed by Darby Gould who sings an old Fairport Convention song written by Richard Thompson entitled “Genesis Hall.”
We return to the past with the next two rarities: “Earth Mother,” from the obscure 1971 Sunfighter LP by Kantner and Grace Slick, and “Flowers Of The Night” from the Kantner, Freiberg and Slick 1973 album, Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun. Hearing both songs was exciting for me because I’ve never heard either of them live before.
Gould takes the vocal on “Lawman,” a Grace Slick song from the Airplane album Bark that has been in the band’s repertoire for years. The first set ends with the ever endearing “Wooden Ships,” the classic track Kantner wrote with David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
The second set sends us way into space with “Sunrise” from Blows Against The Empire which introduces “Have You Seen the Saucers,” an old favorite from the heyday of the Airplane and made unique with steel guitar goes into “Have You Seen The Stars Tonight” with Slick Aguilar playing lead on the Garcia parts.
Returning with the song “Starship” to tether us back from the universe, we go back to Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty with “Follow The Drinking Gourd.” TC is back for the Dead’s “Dark Star” and back to the sky we go with Barry Sless strapping on the electric to play along with Aguilar. Then comes “Space Oddity” by David Bowie. The rehearsals capture this song in development and they pull it off…kind of. Actually, the concert performance nearly falls apart at one point but Freiberg’s strong vocal and drifty steel and lead guitar bring it around with a solid bass and drum foundation.
“All Fly Away” and the epic “Hyperdrive,” both from 1974’s Dragon Fly, are next, followed by “Paul Kantner’s Science Fiction Movie,” which is something of a reprise of “Dark Star” with some trippy spoken word by Kantnerl going into “Your Mind Has Left Your Body” from Baron Von Tollbooth and drifting into Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” with a nice vocal effort by Darby. This really showcases Chris Smith’s talents as he brings us back to “Your Mind (reprise).”
The show has a typical Jefferson Airplane ending with a little trip back to the 60s. “Somebody To Love” is the song I first heard as a young teen that cemented me to their sound and this version is great. Tthe fascinating tale of the “White Rabbit,” the classic Grace Slick song, is here as well. These tunes always endure because this group truly loves playing these songs. Absent from the show but not in spirit is Marty Balin. His rock anthem “Volunteers” closes the show.
This set of CDs is an interesting document of the 2009 era. I wondered had I seen them then? Of course, I had a seat at the Egg in Albany in New York in April 2009. Before they took off on the Heroes of Woodstock tours, I saw them in 2010 at Indian Ranch in Webster, Massachusetts, where they played many of these same songs for an appreciative crowd. This venue was on a nice small lake, which really made the show special.
So now…where in the universe will I find Jefferson Starship next? As an avid fan, I intend to find out…
