Reviewer: Robert Silverstein/20th Century Guitar An Excerpt: Fans of guitar instrumental music will surely want to check out Chris Michie's CD Goyer Golf Suite. Commisioned by the Goyer Golf & Country Club in Holland, the 21 track, 70+ minute disc offers a cross-section of magnificent guitar-based instrumentals. According to Michie, "This CD is the culmination of years of careful and loving work that reflects the true nature of what I think instrumental guitar music should be like."
Rock fans may not be familiar with the name Chris Michie but they are familiar with his music for sure. Michie played guitar for artists like Boz Scaggs, The Pointer Sisters, Link Wray, Jerry Garcia, Stevie Wonder or Van Morrison with whom he toured during the seventies and eighties. Michie has been in the business since the mid-sixties and therefore shows tremendous experience on his recordings, with hundreds of self written songs in his archive. "Tough Love" starts with three blues tunes - Michie has shared the stage with B.B. King, Albert King, and Buddy Guy, too -, shows his great solo guitar on the instrumental "Evil Employer" (with support from Jef Labes and his "Doors"-like organ as well as some funky horns). The variety of Michie´s material consists also of some pop tunes, e.g. "Don´t Wanna Go" with superb saxophone and thrilling lyrics. This song reminds me of Sting as well as Steely Dan. "Burning Down The Wind" could - on the other hand - have also been written by Eric Clapton. "Seven Rivers" is based on the same variety, starting with a rocking harmonica-blues "You Got Me By The Heart". There are no horns on this album but Norton Buffalo´s harmonica is more than a mere replacement. "Seven Rivers" is more based in the roots than "Tough Love" but one can also find some pop - like the title song - and some singer/songwriter stuff ("Mean Old Woman", "Ireland"). With these two CDs Chris Michie shows in an excellent manner, that he could play in any situation. -Dietmar Hoscher-
Imagine that your uncle was a professional musician who had toured with many famous performers over his career. He never lost his love of music and still had the chops to prove it. One day he calls you up and asks you come over to his house. When you get there he has a bunch of his old playing buddies over for a jam session. They proceed to cook through some tasty blues and blues/rock numbers with a skill that only comes from years of experience. That is the feeling of ³Seven Rivers², the latest disc by Chris Michie.
Chris is a veteran player who has toured with greats such as B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Taj Mahal. He has also recorded with popular artists such as Boz Scaggs, The Pointer Sisters, and Van Morrison. That experience is evident on Seven Rivers. The music is not overly flashy, just tight and tasty.
The first two cuts (You Got Me By The Heart and Eleven Dollar Bills) are propelled by the ripping harmonica playing of Norton Buffalo over Chris¹ riffing guitar lines. The rest of the blues tracks feature great interaction between guitar and keyboards and a tight band. And while blues tracks make up the bulk of the CD, the track ³Your Father² mixes heavy percussion, 80¹s style chorused/delayed rhythm guitar, compressed lead guitar lines and some heavily processed near-rapping vocals. Definitely not your father¹s blues. Seven Rivers also features two beautiful ballads, the chimey ³Seven Rivers² and the infectious ³Ireland.²
Chris has given us another satisfying CD of great tunes and tasty playing. Chris' layed-back vocal style and polished playing are as comfortable as a favorite old pair of shoes. There isn't much shredding here, but if you're a fan of good songs and tasty blues guitar playing, you'll want to get this one.
[Chris' Guitar Notes: "I used a Peavey Special 212 Transtube amp on the blues and rock tunes, and either the Roland GP8 or the Digitech GSP 2101 on the production numbers like "Ireland", "Seven Rivers", "Your Father", and "Mean Old Woman". My guitars are an Ibanez 540R for the electric work, a 1968 Guild D-55 for steel string acoustic, and an Estrella classical guitar." - Chris ]
CHRIS MICHIE "Seven Rivers".
Excellent piece of work coming from this genuine blues singer and guitar player that gives us a bunch of stomps, shuffles and good music. A southern heavy rocky music well played and performed. The valuable collaboration of Norton Buffalo at diatonic and chromatic harmonica (pay attention to 'Arcadian Blue') must be calmy tasted. Along the 60 cd minutes Chris gives us a splendid work, refreshing, emotional and with authentic climax that will not leave you indifferent. An attractive genuine blues cd with a very special flavour. GOOD
WHEN MENDELBAUM RULED- Guitarist Chris Michie Chronicles Madison's '60s Music Scene
If the name Chris Michie rings your bell, you either lived in Madison in the late 1960s, or you've memorized the liner notes for albums by Van Morrison and the Pointer Sisters.
Now living and producing music in the San Francisco Bay area, Michie was a fixture on the Madison scene from 1965 to '69 as lead guitarist for the Grapes Of Wrath and the Mendelbaum Blues Band.
His memoirs of those years -and of the years since- are now available through his Web site at www.cmichie.com in the form of a publication called NAME DROPPINGS or IT'S ALL ABOUT ME, ISN'T IT?.
With e-mail contributions from former bandmates Willie Collins,Greg Loeb, and Keith Knudsen, Michie offers a unique perspective on those turbulent years.
There are anecdotes about playing the area's VFW halls, Langdon Street fraternities (where beer "Was served in tall cans that had the top cut out"), the Memorial Union's Great Hall, the Factory and the Dane County Fairgrounds, where the Grapes opened for the Beau Brummels.
The Grapes disintegrated in 1968 amid the frustrations of trying to be original at a time when their audience wanted covers of what was playing on the radio. "By the time the Grapes broke up, all my relationships were in a shambles." Michie writes.
He found salvation in the Mendelbaum Blues Band. "Within a few months we were the hottest group in the area, if not all of Wisconsin and the surrounding states." Michie writes. "Wisconsin was an 18-year-old drinking state, so all the college kids from Minnesota, Iowa, Upper Michigan and Illinois swarmed into Wisconsin nightly to hear music and get drunk. We worked every night of the week, sometimes doing two or three shows a day, and we made good money."
The band would arrive home at dawn after an out-of-town gig and "have breakfast at Vi's Grill, just around the corner from where we all shared a big house on West Main Street. Vi's generally catered to the early morning workers, truckers, and hotel help from across the street, but we were her favorites."
Their abode on West Main was home to as many as fourteen people at a time, not counting such overnight guests as Big Joe Williams, one of the Chicago blues acts for whom Mendelbaum opened under the auspices of the University Folk Arts Society.
"A stipulation of Joe's contract was a place to stay and a bottle of Jack Daniels," Michie writes. "Joe was accompanied by Otis Rush, who was in town for another show the following night, and after the show we all convened to the Mendelbaum house. We all sat in the living room until four in the morning, listening to Joe tell stories as Otis translated for us. The combination of the liquor and Joe's thick accent made it impossible for us to understand him. Eventually we rolled out the sofa bed for Joe, said goodnight and thank you to Otis, and headed off to bed. By then, Joe was already asleep in our living room."
Mendelbaum produced its own shows at the Broom Street Theater and the UW Music Hall, but after a series of outdoor gigs-cum-anti-war rallies turned increasingly violent and confrontational, Michie and company headed for northern California.
They quickly broke into the Bay area music scene, jamming with Buddy Miles, Carlos Santana, and members of the Velvet Underground, opening for Albert King and B.B. King before disbanding in 1971.
Michie has gone on to the kind of below-the-radar music career you don't often read about. He's opened for the Eagles and Procol Harum, played with Boz Scaggs and other Bay area heavies, toured the world, and recorded with Van Morrison and the Pointers. He now has his own production company and record label and says he's found a happy balance between recording his own albums and composing music for radio and TV.
The title is apt. Michie drops dozens of names, and has an anecdote to associate with each, including Mama Cass Eliot, Muhammad Ali (whom Michie met while in Zaire with the Pointers as part of the "Rumble In The Jungle"), and Stevie Wonder (whom Michie observed sucking on Anita Pointer's fingers during a studio session).
Memory is a filter, of course. Sometime Michie's recollections are screened through cheesecloth. Other times they're poured freely through a sieve. But NAME DROPPINGS is an entertaining read, and its chapters evoke a music scene nearly two generations gone.
Long-time San Francisco area back-up guitarist Chris Michie is out front on his third disc called Tough Love on CatchARabbit Records. His label should've been called CatchARecord Records, since Tough Love is well worth a listen. Chris has shared the stage with such blues luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Big Mama Thornton, Buddy Guy, and Elvin Bishop. In addition to playing with a who's who in the blues, Chris has played some of the Bay Area's trendsetting venues like The Fillmore, The Matrix, Winterland and The Family Dog. Michie's lead guitar sparkles on "Shaky House," an uptempo blues about life in an earthquake zone. He's got a full band with a capable horn section that ushers in the wistful "Don' Wanna Go," a song that gives voice to Viet Nam veterans who had second thoughts about returning stateside. My favorites include the straightahead jammin' instrumental of "The Terminal Dog," 'cause I can hear him bending notes just like Buddy Guy and a lot of other great blues players. Tough Love is a fun rhythm and blues record, particularly for fans of 70's style guitar solos. In Chris Michie's hands, these guitar parts soar.
Chris Michie is a veteran guitarist who has played live with such blues greats as B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Taj Mahal. He has also recorded and toured with popular artists such as Boz Scaggs, The Pointer Sisters, and Van Morrison. So it comes as no surprise that his latest effort would be a polished collection of blues numbers featuring R&B and rock influences. Tough Love starts out with two horn-driven numbers that feature some precise guitar playing and Chris' distinctive voice, but may leave guitarists wishing for a little less "polish". Never fear, by the third cut, Chris is ready to rip it up and does just that on "A Bone To Pick" where he cuts loose with some extended blues jamming. It is here you notice that Chris' tone is not your typical bluesman tone. In fact, his tone on many ofthe cuts is more "shredder" than blues. This is mainly due to his choice of an Ibanez 540R guitar and a Peavey Classic 50 amp. Instrumental guitar fans will find two great cuts on the CD. "Evil Employer", a catchy instrumental with smooth overdubbed guitars and a snarly lead, is a great showcase for Chris' chops. Chris then turns it up another notch on the flat out, uptempo blues instrumental "The Terminal Dog". Other guitar highlights include the cool, horn-like opening riffs of "Sweet Disposition", the intensity building solo of "Burning Down The Wind", and the echoed, clean toned solo of the moody "Don' Wanna Go". The CD wraps up with "Anita Shodda", a blues/rock cut that would be at home on any ZZ Top CD. The track is unique tone-wise, thanks to the use of a Roland GP-8 guitar processor for the rhythm guitar and a Peavey Blazer practice amp for the lead. The Blazer amp churns out an early 70's fuzzy tone that perfectly compliments Chris' strong fretwork on this track. Overall, Tough Love is a varied collection of solid playing that should appeal to many fans of blues and blues/rock guitar.
"Michie demonstrates that he is a guitarist of considerable talent, especially with his fluid tough leads on the instrumental "Evil Employer", and the fast paced shuffle , "The Terminal Dog". Of the vocal cuts, the best are the riff-laden "Burning Down The Wind" and the infectious rock of "Use Me".
"Chris Michie's otherworldly guitar brings to mind the electronically enhanced experiments of Robert Fripp and thus meshes perfectly with Mark Isham and his Eno-esque synthesizer colorations. Van plays off ... Michie's more luminous colorings."
Of "Live at the Belfast Opera House" he says: "Fueled by the stunning talents of Chris Michie, et al, this band breathed incredible depth to Van's early Eighties' material-- laying out layers of jazz and rhythm and blues seldom reached by other bands in Van's career. The version of "Rave on John Donne" alone makes this record/cd well-worth owning.
Chris Michie is a strong, solid player with a knack for writing a clean song. No fluff or fill. This is 100% blues/rock played straight and sweet.
Lance Monthly (LM): How did you first get interested in music?
Chris Michie (CM): I took piano lessons, and played a few band instruments in school like everyone else did, but I particularly loved the sound of the guitar, whether it was Duane Eddy's twangy guitar, the mysterious sound of Jorgen Ingeman's Apache, the finger-picked acoustic sound of Peter, Paul, and Mary, or the raunchy rock sound of Link Wray. I remember getting my first guitar from a catalog. I would sit in my room for hours playing it. Sometimes I would rest my left ear against the wood of the body as I played. I think that sound first attracted me to the idea of amplified guitar.
LM: Was the Grapes of Wrath your first band?
CM: The Grapes of Wrath was the first professional group I played in. We joined the Musicians' Union and filed contracts when we did gigs. Before that, though, I had a four-piece band with Tracy Wolters playing an Indian tom-tom drum that someone in his family had bought at some tourist attraction in Wisconsin. I think he also played a banjo body, shaped like a tambourine. We took off the strings and the neck, and he drummed on the skin of the body. The rest of us, Jon Standridge, Mark Loder, and I all played acoustic guitars. We rehearsed a lot, but I only remember doing one gig for five bucks. I think it was at a party for some girl with whom we all went to school. We were twelve years old, except Tracy, who was eleven. We didn't even have a name for the band. We did Ventures tunes, mostly. I think we also did Runaway by Del Shannon, but that may have been later.
LM: So when did the Grapes of Wrath come about?
CM: The Grapes of Wrath's first official gig was February 27, 1965 at The Center Loft, a Teen Club in Madison, Wisconsin. The band was formed by Chris Michie, Greg Loeb, Tracy Wolters, and Joe Wilson. In 1966, Joe quit the band to go to college on the West Coast, and we hired Will Collins on guitar and vocals.
LM: Where did you typically practice?
CM: We practiced in Tracy Wolters' parent¹s basement.
LM: And what types of gigs were you landing at this time?
CM: The Grapes of Wrath played teen clubs, schools, businessmen¹s association halls, VFW Halls, private parties, fraternity parties, proms, hotels, battle of the bands shows, bars, college parties, and every imaginable type of venue in the Midwest. We opened for The Beau Brummels once at the State Fair, and we were supposed to open for Moby Grape at another show. They never showed up, but it turns out it wasn't the real Moby Grape anyway, just one of several groups that had been put together to capitalize on the name.
LM: Did the Grapes of Wrath have a manager?
CM: Bassist Greg Loeb was our manager. We had a couple of booking agents, George Dufre and Tom Holter, who booked some of our gigs, but mostly it was Greg. He actually got pretty close to getting us a record deal with Mercury Records. It fell through at the last minute when Lou Reizner went to work in the London office.
LM: How popular locally did the Grapes of Wrath become?
CM: We were pretty popular, actually. We had a fan club with members writing fan letters to us and showing up at all our gigs. I think we were considered among the top groups in the area.
LM: What other area groups do you recall?
CM: I remember The Gentlemen, The Cannons, The Crucible, and The What Four.
LM: I'm only aware of one Grapes of Wrath song. Flower Lady appeared on the BADGER A-GO-GO LP. What was the flip side?
CM: We recorded a flip side called Write Another Song written by Will Collins and me. Phil Ochs wrote Flower Lady. We won a battle of the bands competition and got to record two songs at Cuca Records. I don't remember much about the session, other than it went pretty quick, and it turned out pretty well. We lost the acetate, however, so we didn't even have a copy of it until it showed up on a Cuca compilation years later. Only Flower Lady was included. I don't know why we didn't print up a bunch of copies on our own. We weren't thinking that way, apparently. We were only nineteen at the time. Twelve years ago I called the owner of Cuca Records, and he said he'd send a copy of Flower Lady and Write Another Song, but it never showed up.
LM: I have a couple of fairly complete Wisconsin discographies from the '60's, yet cannot find any info on the Grapes of Wrath¹s single. How limited of a pressing was it?
CM: It was never released. I'm not sure who dropped the ball on that one. Maybe it wasn't part of the deal in winning the battle of the bands.
LM: Did the Grapes participate in many battles?
CM: We played a couple of battle of the bands. I wrote a memoir a few years ago, and in the process of emailing old cohorts, I got an email from one of the guys in The White Trash Blues Band. He related an article that some guy had written about a particular Battle of the Bands that we had done together. In it was The Grapes of Wrath (we won second place), The White Trash, Private Property, The Affluents, The Marbles, The Chains, and The Checkmates. I think we probably played one or two originals, and then a couple of hits like You're Gonna Lose That Girl, or Bus Stop.
LM: So the Grapes of Wrath never released any singles?
CM: We didn't have any releases back then. Again, I think it was a question of "Oh, was I supposed to take care of that? I thought you were suppose to take care of that." We were just kids, really. Shadoks Music is releasing a retrospective of Grapes¹ studio and live tracks recorded between 1965 and 1967. We had recorded about ten tunes at WHA Radio, Music Hall on the University of Wisconsin Campus. My father worked there, and he got us some session time with Bob Bodine as engineer. They were demos for Mercury Records. They kept saying, "We like it, but we want to hear more." We got kind of burned out and that's when Will and I wrote Write Another Song, according to Greg Loeb. Shortly after that Lou Reizner moved to London, and no one else at Mercury was interested in us, I guess. The live tracks on the Shadoks release are from our final show in May of 1968.
LM: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
CM: Our best asset was our three and four part vocal harmonies. We also put a lot of work into arrangements for the guitar parts. We liked what Buffalo Springfield, The Youngbloods, and Moby Grape were doing along those lines, so we emulated them. We were definitely a British Invasion copy band. Though we wrote several originals, they all were designed to pretty much sound like the stuff we were listening to on the radio. As American music began to adapt, so did we. We covered tunes by The Beatles, The Zombies, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, The Byrds, The Youngbloods, The Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, The Turtles, The Buffalo Springfield, and The Beau Brummels. Sometimes, we would stretch out and do some more R&B type material, like James Brown, The McCoys (not their hits, mostly B-Sides) and the occasional blues. I had a fairly good soul sounding voice when I sang high. We had a high school buddy named Steve Kerst who sat in on blues harp.
LM: Did the band make any local TV appearances, or is there any surviving film footage of the band?
CM: No, unfortunately there are no video records of The Grapes of Wrath.
LM: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
CM: I don't remember ever leaving Wisconsin, but we covered pretty much every square mile of it.
LM: Why did the Grapes of Wrath break up?
CM: Will Collins left the group to spend more time with his girlfriend. He also was getting tired of being persecuted for being a "long-hair". It just wasn't the same as when we started. The political climate had changed so much that we were frequently getting hassled by red-necks, and he was tired of it. We might have found a replacement for him if I hadn't gotten a gig as the lead guitarist for The Mendelbaum Blues Band literally the day after our last Grapes¹ gig. That pretty much cinched it. I was getting tired of the style of music The Grapes were doing, anyway. I really wanted to be playing a lot more loud lead stuff and Mendelbaum was the perfect vehicle for that.
LM: What groups did you play with after Mendelbaum?
CM: Lamb (San Francisco), Boz Scaggs, Pointer Sisters, Fat Max & the Casuals (San Francisco), Maria Muldaur, David Soul, Van Morrison, and currently The Chris Michie Band.
LM: What can you tell me about the Chris Michie Band? How often, and where, do you primarily perform?
CM: Fortunately, I made enough money over the years so that I don't have to take every gig that comes along. I play about twenty times a year as The Chris Michie Band, mostly at corporate parties, private parties, and festivals. I run a production company called Chris Michie Music & Sound that does music and sound design for media, like TV and radio commercials, film, CD-ROM, etc. If Van Morrison called tomorrow and said "Wanna do another album and go out on the road?" I'd probably do it, though.
LM: Until that happens, what else will keep you busy?
CM: I enjoy writing music and short stories. I'll attach my story about being an extra on a Michael Jackson Video. I record a CD every year or so, and I sell them along with my book, "Name Droppings," through my website. I'll continue doing that as long as I can. I'm very happy with the way things have worked out, so why not just sit back and enjoy it?
LM: The upcoming Shadoks release sounds very cool . . .
CM: They did such a good job on the Mendelbaum release, that I'm sure the Grapes release will be great, too. The Shadoks release should be out sometime late this fall. It includes a lot of the studio stuff we did and most of the final show. Greg Loeb tells me he has some tapes of us rehearsing and jamming, and maybe a live gig we did at The Blue Star Roller Rink. Maybe some of that stuff will end up on the Shadoks release. I'm still talking to the label about what to include. I just finished doing a Shadoks release for the group I joined the day after The Grapes' final gig, so it will take a while before we finalize the Grapes release.
To check out Chris¹ website, or to order his book and/or CDs, visit www.cmichie.com - For more information on the Shadoks Music release, visit www.psychedelic-music.com
LP: 2 LP´s, 180 gram. pressing, extra heavy gatefold, 450 numbered copies, sealed Best recordings we've ever worked on, from Masters. Real West Coast Rock with extra heavy Psych guitar played by Chris Michie. Man, this guitar is amazing. Michie later joined Van Morrison. Also with Keith Knudsen on drums, who became (and still is) the drummer of The Doobie Brothers. 21 tracks, 20 of them are original compositions, wellcrafted songs. First disk was a demo for Warner Brothers and the second is live, recorded at The Fillmore West by Bill Graham & friends, and at The Matrix, San Francisco. Real cookin' San Francisco sound.. For more information about MENDELBAUM have a look here: http://home.earthlink.net/~fatmacx/