Once upon a time in the very late 1960s, I sang with a sweet and earnest folk/rock group. We strummed guitars and harmonized in local coffee houses and school parties. We lit candles by the stage and hoped the dim lighting hid the pimples.
Our big number was “Comin’ Back To Me,” from the Jefferson Airplane Surrealistic Pillow album. It was a beautiful song – so beautiful even we couldn’t really screw it up. We introduced it an Airplane song, but as I got older and learned more about music – I knew that my favorite Airplane songs were really Marty Balin songs.
Marty wrote most of the best songs for the Airplane, and then did the same for the next incarnation – the Jefferson Starship. He has a talent for writing hits that never seem dated.
Love brought Marty to the Tampa Bay area years ago and here he remains – still writing songs, painting, and playing with top musicians. He sat in briefly with the Rowan-Cunningham band in our Side Door last year.
I’d hoped to get Marty to the Palladium with his own band and it all came together a few months ago. He’s coming with his band for a very intimate evening in our Side Door Cabaret this Saturday, June 16. He’s helping kick off our Side Door Summer – a season of great rock, blues, jazz and acoustic acts.
When we talked by phone last week, Marty says Saturday’s audience will get a little bit of everything from his long and impressive career.
“I’ll do some Airplane stuff, Starship, some new stuff. I’m always creating new songs,” he said.
That’s not as easy as it sounds. Most of his contemporaries, if they are still playing at all, are just recycling their old hits.
For Marty, it isn’t so much about then and now – it’s a continuum; a musical and artistic life that is all about creating.
“I’ve got to keep moving with new things. I always did (the music) because I enjoyed it,” he said. “If you are meant to do that, you just do it until you collapse.”
That said, he considers himself very lucky to have been front and center during one of music’s most interesting eras – the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Marty in 1968
“I am grateful for all the cats I got to hang around with – Janis, Hendrix, Morrison, and Bill Graham and all those folks at the Fillmore. I got to see Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles, Otis Redding – I got to dig those cats when they were in their prime.”
I heard Marty and his band perform a few songs at the WMNF Peace Awards last year, and I can attest – Marty is still in his prime.
Don’t miss this musical legend in a very intimate setting. The Side Door holds only 170 folks, and this show is on the way to a sellout. Get your tickets early.
For tickets and info call 727 822-3590 or visit www.mypalladium.org.
Leave a Reply