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For about three years in the mid-1960s, John Sebastian and his band the Lovin’ Spoonful were on a musical high, turning out pop hits at a rate rivaling that of the Beatles.
There were 12 Top 20 hits in all, including “Do You Believe in Magic?,” “Summer in the City,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?,” “Younger Girl,” “Nashville Cats” and “Darlin’ Be Home Soon.” All were perfectly crafted tunes that captured the joy of that moment when popular music collided with the power of youthful possibility.
And you could hum the melodies.
Sebastian – or anyone else, for that matter – wouldn’t be embarrassed singing any of those hits today, accompanied only by a good voice and an acoustic guitar. Stripped of their pop-rock embellishments, the songs shine as timeless Americana music.
And that isn’t surprising, considering Sebastian’s roots in the jug band sound of the early ’60s, a part of the folk revival movement of the era.
Sebastian and mandolin phenom David Grisman – both alums of the Even Dozen Jug Band that predated the Spoonful – will bring that jug band sound, and maybe a few of those old ’60s hits, to the stage of the Flye Point Music & Arts Festival in Brooklin on Saturday, June 24, along with a full plate of other performers (see list).
In a telephone interview from his home in Woodstock, N.Y., where he has lived since 1976, Sebastian, 62, remembered the brief but wild ride that was the Spoonful.
“We thought it might last two months, and then we’d take a shower and go back to our lives,” he said. Instead, the mostly acoustic sound they developed in Greenwich Village coffeehouses was souped up into rock ‘n’ roll, and… well the lyrics tell it best:
Do you believe in magic in a young girl’s heart?
How the music can free her, whenever it starts
And it’s magic, if the music is groovy
It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie
I’ll tell you about the magic, and it’ll free your soul
But it’s like trying to tell a stranger ’bout rock and roll
Sebastian quit the band in 1968 and pursued a solo acoustic career, just as musical tastes veered toward the psychedelic and experimental.
He remained in the public eye in 1969 and 1970 with his unscheduled appearance at the Woodstock festival. The stories, he said, are true – he had expected to be a fan, not a performer, but was pressed into service when other musicians didn’t make it in time. Before the call, though, he had taken something that might have enhanced his listening experience, but not the performance.
“The quality of my performance was certainly compromised,” he said, laughing, but he wasn’t incapacitated. “I’m a cautious guy. I took a half and said, ‘I’m flying just fine.’ ”
In the Woodstock film, his performance of “Younger Generation,” a thoughtful song about what the children of the ’60s would face when their own children took drugs, is a touching moment among the rampant hedonism.
These days, Sebastian is more interested in talking about his jug band work with the J-Band, and his collaboration with Grisman.
“Part of the fun of playing with David is we have this ancient history of being this jug band,” back in 1964, he said.
The Even Dozen Jug Band was not commercially successful, but its members included several who would find success, Sebastian said, including Maria Muldaur and Steve Katz, who would help found Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Despite his success in the rock ‘n’ roll world, Sebastian explored country, folk and blues sounds in his solo records through the 1970s.
He was thrilled when the Spoonful was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, he said, but the New York City event was not what he expected. The organizers told the band what songs to play.
“I wish we’d just played jug band music, and not acceded to their request to play the hits,” he said.
John Mellencamp inducted the band graciously, Sebastian said, but he wishes it had been an older musician.
“Performers who are inducted should not be forced to be inducted by guys younger than them, who were influenced by them, but by their peers. I wanted to be handed my statue by Fats Domino,” he said, because Fats represented the “roll” side of rock ‘n roll, a sound the Spoonful aimed to emphasize.
Sebastian has performed in Maine before, and attended summer camp in Union in 1958, he remembered. The setting of Flye Point in Brooklin will be ideal, he said.
“It’s a wonderful setting to do one of my favorite things, which is to play with someone like David. Slowly, David is schooling me on the instrumental skills,” Sebastian said. “I’m not really a soloist,” and that’s where Grisman – who launched the jazz and bluegrass hybrid sound of the late 1970s – shines when the two perform.
“We end up with a surprisingly full sound,” even with just mandolin and acoustic guitar, he said.
Flye Point performers
In addition to John Sebastian and David Grisman, the Flye Point festival lineup includes:
. Gospel and folk music legend Odetta.
. Tom Rush, who came of age in the late 1960s, performing songs by then-unknowns such as Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Jackson Browne.
. Blue Hill’s own Noel Paul Stookey, of the famed Peter, Paul and Mary.
. The Mammals, a folk group that rocks and was a big hit at the previous two Flye Point festivals.
. Maine’s own David Mallett, a nationally acclaimed folk singer.
. British singer-songwriter Al Stewart, whose hits include “The Year of the Cat” (1976) and “Song on the Radio,” (1978).
. Singer-songwriter Kevin Roth, who has been recording since the mid-1970s.
Tickets are $45; $15 for children 12 and under, and can be purchased by calling 359-2127 until 8 p.m. or at the following locations: all Grasshopper Shops; Ben’s Store, Ellsworth; Mainescape, Blue Hill; Tradewinds, Blue Hill; Borders Books, Bangor; and Brooklin General Store.
No tickets will be sold at the gate.
The festival is open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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