The Merry Minstrel Musical Circus: A Holiday Gathering & Goodwill Jamathon (8:30 PM)

“Gentle Spirit” is not simply the name of the debut solo album by songwriter/musician/producer, Jonathan Wilson, it represents the ethos of the artist himself. Warm, supple melodies etched in layers of stringed instruments and willowy organ motifs accompany his earnest, North Carolinian drawl as he tells tales of humane values lost and found.

Wilson’s music is steeped equally in the woodsy contours of his Blue Ridge experiences and the atmospheric guitar reveries of Neil Young and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In fact, “Gentle Spirit,” an expansive double vinyl set, is remarkably evocative of that golden late ‘60s, early ‘70s period when rural and urban sensibilities colluded in producing some of rock’s most imperishable recordings.

Wilson, a native of Forest City, North Carolina, has been quietly earning a reputation as a musical jack-of-all-trades. He is adept behind the recording console, possesses a luthier’s knowledge of all things strummed, and maintains the innate ability to conceptualize an instrument essential to providing the right color to a track in need of a defining detail. Whether working with promising new recording artists like the band Dawes, contemporary artists, such as Erykah Badu and Elvis Costello, or Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Jackson Browne, and Robbie Robertson, Wilson, a tall, slim, long-haired presence, provides direction and support as tasty and soulful as anyone in the business today.

It should then come as no surprise that Wilson, so resolutely committed to “old school” musical values, began recording “Gentle Spirit” in Los Angeles’s fabled Laurel Canyon. As a longtime student of “Canyon culture,” his ideas echo many of an earlier generation as the album embraces a unique blend of folk, country, rock and roll and pop elements, which enduringly create a sense of time and place.

While writing and recording “Gentle Spirit”, “I was consciously trying to hit, ‘dreary day in the canyon,’ that was the original concept,” admits Wilson. “That was what it was supposed to be. I feel like I achieved that. But, you have to remember the album took a long time, the tracking was done a while ago, and there’s a distance there that I guess was supposed to happen. And it’s not hot off the tape machine. Things transpired. That, to me, is a good thing because there is a perspective on display. I can be detached; and whether this characteristic does this or that, it doesn’t affect me to the greater good of the album.”

“I loved living and recording in Laurel Canyon,” he reflects. “I wasn’t trying to find a sound of yore or duplicate any guitar sounds ala Buffalo Springfield or Crazy Horse. But what ends up happening is that the vocal harmony on the album does have a certain type of a tonality and that indeed is the sound of the canyon.”

Wilson was crafting the album between tours, album producer jobs and the never-ending jam sessions that constituted canyon life. “I was never in conflict or had a self-imposed time table around this album,” offers Jonathan. “Maybe just in the last bit, and only because of scheduling considerations. Time went by and things were cool and I never felt anything was on a back burner because it was all sort of my process.

“For me, I didn’t find I was best served to go into the studio with a batch of songs I’d just done in the last 30 or 60 days and put them down over 6 days. I was better served by having the material unfold over time,” Wilson reinforces.

“The only theme on the album has to do with some of the words of the title track, about the desensitizing that we are exposed to on a daily basis, of all the explosions and car bombs and people in despair,” he underscores. “And these things that come at you so fast that you don’t have time to really concentrate on them and give them the reverence and respect they deserve. The album talks about taking some time to, you know, give humanity some kind of reverence-laden soundtrack.

“I play a lot of different instruments on my own recordings. For “Gentle Spirit,” I used a Hofner bass. I played a 1969 Gibson ES 345 a lot, especially when I wanted the guitar tone to cut. It’s the same guitar used by Freddie King. It has a very aggressive kind of bite.“

“I drafted in some friends throughout the recording that allowed me to concentrate on the guitar and vocals. I assembled a band with guys like Otto Hauser for basic tracking that created a certain energy that I couldn’t have produced on my own. I also brought in specific people for certain songs,” Wilson explains. “Gary Louris, the singer from The Jayhawks, singer Andy Cabic and drummer Otto Hauser, of the band Vetiver, and pedal steel player Josh Grange all played on the record. Adam McDougal, a good friend of mine who plays Hammond organ with the Black Crowes, drummer Brian Geltner, legendary bassist Gerald Johnson, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and Gary Mallaber, former drummer with the Steve Miller Band and Van Morrison, were all involved, too.”

“The title track ‘Gentle Spirit’ is the first tune on the album. I was searching for some sort of positive theme somewhere out there in the abyss and for it to enter the ears and maybe the heart of someone listening. And it’s just a positive energy to start out the album, a sonic welcome.

Wilson also included one of his oldest compositions, “Valley of the Silver Moon.” “It’s a tune about the modern music world not understanding what I have to offer as an artist and the struggle this created.”

The influence of North Carolina resonates throughout the album. “Can We Really Party Today?” is a song that talks about the Carolinas and the South. And on “The Ballad of the Pines,” on which I did some harmonies with Chris Robinson, who is a Georgia boy, I was talking about the majestic pines of the South. As this song, and the others too, unfolded, I found comfort in being able to hear the South despite being out here in California, ‘cause when you’re there, you’re so immersed you don’t realize the effect.”

“Gentle Spirit” features all original Wilson compositions with the exception of his “psyched out” rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Way I Feel.” “It spoke to me,” relates Wilson. “He’s talking about a kind of weightlessness, and the need for patience which is what I’m all about and ‘Gentle Spirit’ is all about.”

After leaving Laurel Canyon, Wilson relocated to the Echo Park section of L.A., home to a lively mix of Latin Americans, Bohemians and expressive youth. It is in his new recording studio, Five Star Studio, where Wilson finished tracking and mixing “Gentle Spirit.

“Gentle Spirit” was produced by Wilson. “I recorded everything to analog tape which I’ve always done; it’s not something I’m trying to do as a boutique kind of hip thing. Analog simply captures things better and it takes the edges off. It creates a beauty much like film. I have a console that was built in 1972 and used to belong to Shelter Records. That’s a big part of the sound for the album.”

Given the popular culture’s preoccupation with all things digital, “Gentle Spirit” draws a line in the proverbial sand; the album was conceived for vinyl. “I would say vinyl is the only real tangible format that contains meaningful value and the only one you can sell to me that retains any value. And to me, that’s on both sides of the table, the consumer and the artist. Even as a record collector I’ve always been vinyl driven. With vinyl, this is when the record sounds the best and when it comes alive. To me, this project and the album represent many things tangible and even more things intangible, those that can only be felt.”

Campbell was born in Panama City, Florida. He grew up there and in Jacksonville, Florida, where he graduated from Jean Ribault High School in 1968. At 16, he bought his first guitar, a cheap Harmony model, from a pawnshop. His first electric guitar was a $60 Goyatone. Like Tom Petty, Campbell drew his strongest influences from The Byrds and Bob Dylan, with additional inspiration coming from guitarists such as Scotty Moore, Luther Perkins, George Harrison, Carl Wilson, Jerry Garcia, Roger McGuinn, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Jimmy Page, Mick Taylor, and Neil Young. The first song he learned to play was "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," a song which appeared on Dylan's eponymous debut album.

He formed a band named Dead or Alive which quickly disbanded. He first met Petty through Mudcrutch drummer Randall Marsh when they were auditioning him and he suggested his friend Mike to play rhythm guitar.
Campbell's autograph on a 1975 "Mudcrutch" 45.

Mudcrutch moved to L.A. and signed a record deal with Shelter Records, recording an album in 1974 that ended up being shelved. Campbell then joined Petty to found the original Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1975 along with Benmont Tench (keyboards), Ron Blair (bass guitar) and Stan Lynch (drums).
The Heartbreakers

Like the other players in the Heartbreakers, Campbell avoids the virtuoso approach to playing, preferring to have his work serve the needs of each song. Guitar World magazine noted "there are only a handful of guitarists who can claim to have never wasted a note. Mike Campbell is certainly one of them". He is a highly melodic player, often using two or three-strings-at-a-time leads instead of the more conventional one-at-a-time approach. "People have told me that my playing sounds like bagpipes," he muses. "I'm not exactly sure what that means." His estimation of his own style is typically modest: "I don't think people can really top Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton as far as lead guitar goes. I like my playing to bring out the songs." Like Tench, he is heavily involved in constructing the arrangements for the Heartbreakers' tunes. And also like Tench, he prefers rawness to polish in the studio and onstage.

Campbell co-produced the Heartbreakers albums Southern Accents, Pack Up the Plantation: Live!, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), Into the Great Wide Open, She's the One, Echo, The Last DJ, The Live Anthology and Mojo, as well as the Petty solo albums Full Moon Fever, Wildflowers, and Highway Companion.
Other projects

Outside the Heartbreakers, Campbell has co-written and performed on an array of songs including "The Boys of Summer" and "Heart of the Matter" (both with Don Henley). Other songwriting and performance credits include songs for The Blue Stingrays, Johnny Cash, Fleetwood Mac, Lone Justice, Roger McGuinn, Tracy Chapman, Warren Zevon, George Harrison, Stevie Nicks, John Prine, Restless Sleeper, Patti Scialfa, Brian Setzer, J.D. Souther, Jackson Browne, The Williams Brothers and Robin Zander. He also produced four songs on Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl album and played guitar on The Wallflowers' "Sixth Avenue Heartache."[1]
Campbell performing live in Columbus, OH, June 2006
Present

Mike Campbell now still tours and works on albums with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and is involved with a side band, The Dirty Knobs. "It's rougher-edged [than Petty's material]," Campbell says of the group. "It's slightly over-driven, less polished, lots of Sixties influence: The Kinks, Zeppelin, the Animals. It's something I probably should have done a long time ago, but I didn't 'cause I was wrapped up in the Heartbreakers." Some Dirty Knobs material has been recorded and they have more songs at the ready, but they're not shopping for a deal and are content to work occasional club gigs in Los Angeles.

A Mike Campbell solo album won't be released any time soon. He shrugs off the idea: "I wouldn't want to do an all-instrumental album because I like the songs and I like to hear singers. In the Heartbreakers I've got a great writer and a great singer to work with on my songs. Where else would I be able to find anyone who could match Tom Petty?"

"All of us in the band are very single minded about music. It's all we know how to do, and we're pretty much helpless in any other realm of life. If someone took all the bucks away, we'd just starve! (laughs) We'd be totally useless to civilization! Really, I'm a musician and that's what I do. I don't know what else I could or would do," Mike said in a 1999 interview with fans on tompetty.com.

Petty continues to be impressed by Mike's playing ability, and he will catch himself looking over at Mike while he's soloing, thinking, "God, how does he do this? When he does [a solo], it kind of races through my head, 'Boy I like that!'" (WXRT Chicago Sound Opinions radio interview, April 15, 2003)

Campbell has been married to Marcie Campbell since March 24, 1974. They have had two daughters, Brie and Kelsey (the latter of whom provided vocals to the Full Moon Fever track "Zombie Zoo") and one son, Darian.

With a touring history that has made him one of the most traveled road musicians of all time and a restless music personality that has kept him occupied for over 50 years, Weir knows a thing or two about staying fresh and living in the moment. Although best known as one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead, adding Dead staples such as "Truckin'," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Cassidy" to the band's catalog, Weir obtained a long and affluent music career that has allowed him to do what he loves and share it with others for nearly his entire life.
Born in 1947, Weir was adopted by a wealthy California engineer. As a teen, he secured his spot as one of the youngest members of the burgeoning folk scene that centered on a Palo Alto club called the Tangent—home to such future rock legends as Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and Janis Joplin. In 1964, at the age of 17, Weir spent the majority of his time at a Palo Alto music store where Garcia taught guitar lessons. It wasn't long before Weir and Garcia, along with Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, formed a blues and folk outfit. Originally called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the band was later renamed The Warlocks—adding Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzman to the lineup—and eventually came to be known as the Grateful Dead.
Weir's odd rhythm style developed as he played between the sweet articulated lead of Garcia and the avant-garde bass lines of Lesh. His songwriting developed as well, taking off particularly in the 1970s when he crossed paths with former pal John Perry Barlow. The two began producing songs in Weir's own distinctstyle, spurring a songwriting partnership that would last for years to come.
Even with the Dead playing close to 100 shows a year, Weir needed other musical outlets. 1972 brought the release of his first solo album, Ace, on which the rest of the Dead backed him. Throughout the rest of the 1970s Weir toured and recorded with a number of different groups, the first of which was Kingfish. After releasing an album with the band in 1976, Weir began a solo project with producer Keith Olsen called Heaven Help the Fool. A brief tour to support the album resulted in collaborations with various session players, including Brent Mydland (who would join the Dead in 1979), Bobby Cochran, Alphonso Johnson and Billy Cobham. Weir also briefly toured with a group as Bobby and the Midnites, producing two albums.
Throughout the late 1980s and during the first half of the 1990s, the Dead remained Weir's primary gig. Touring incessantly while all the while building up a community of "Deadheads," the band finally found commercial success with their 1987 album, In the Dark. When Garcia died in 1995, Weir had just recently formed RatDog with Rob Wasserman, a bassist he had been playing duo shows with since the late 1980s. After Garcia's death, former Primus drummer Jay Lane and ex-Kingfish harmonica/guitar player Matthew Kelly were added into the mix. With a revolving lineup, the group toured relentlessly, building a name for themselves while performing a mix of new Weir compositions and older, reworked Dead songs.
In 1998, Weir reunited with several former Dead bandmates to tour as The Other Ones, releasing a live album in 1999 and hitting the road again in 2000. The same year, RatDog released their first album, Evening Moods. In 2009, original Grateful Dead members Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart teamed up with guitarist Warren Haynes and RatDog keyboardist Chimenti to tour as the Dead. The results, however, were erratic, leaving Weir feeling like the road trip was more work than fun and Lesh saying the music didn't seem to be moving forward. Besides stirring up some commotion, the '09 Dead tour reminded Weir and Lesh of the chemistry the two had as bandmates. This led to the creation of Furthur—arguably one of the most successful Dead projects Weir has participated in to date.
Currently, Weir is married to the former Natascha Muenter, with whom he has two young daughters, Monet and Chloe. While not consumed by music, Weir spends a great deal of time as a social activist. He has done work as an environmental activist with several organizations, such as Greenpeace, and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Rainforest Action Network and for Seva Foundation. He works with both the Rex Foundation, an organization started by the Dead in 1984, and the Furthur Foundation. Most recently, Weir is on the Board of Directors for Headcount, a nonprofit that registers voters and inspires participation in democracy through the power of music.
A long, strange, very creative trip—and not remotely over.

Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He was honored with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2007.

Jackson's career began in the mid-60s in Los Angeles and Orange County folk clubs. Except for a brief period in NYC in the late 1960s, he has always lived in Southern California. His debut album came out on David Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972. Since then, he has released thirteen studio albums and three collections of live performances; his most recent, Love Is Strange, features David Lindley.

Beyond his music, Browne is known for his advocacy on behalf of the environment, human rights, and arts education. He's a co-founder of the groups Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), Nukefree.org, and the Success Through the Arts Foundation, which provides education opportunities for students in South Los Angeles.

In 2002, he was the fourth recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, given to artists whose works exemplify the environmental and social values that were essential to the great California-born author. He has received Duke University’s LEAF award for Lifetime Environmental Achievement in the Fine Arts, and both the Chapin-World Hunger Year and NARM Harry Chapin Humanitarian Awards. In 2004, Jackson was given an honorary Doctorate of Music by Occidental College in Los Angeles, for "a remarkable musical career that has successfully combined an intensely personal artistry with a broader vision of social justice."

Best known as the longtime pianist and keyboard player for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench is one of rock's most respected instrumentalists, as he's guested on countless recordings other artists. Born on September 7, 1953, in Gainesville, FL, Tench took up piano at an early age, playing recitals at the age of six. But shortly after discovering the Beatles, Tench turned his back on lessons and focused on '60s rock & roll. As a teenager, Tench met another up-and-coming rocker, Tom Petty, at a local music store. Several years later (while on break from college), Tench caught Petty's band, Mudcrutch (which also included future Hearbreaker Mike Campbell on guitar), in concert, and after sitting in with the band on several different occasions, went back to school. Petty asked Tench shortly thereafter to quit school and join Mudcrutch full-time, which after some deliberation, he agreed to.
After a demo tape featuring the new lineup was recorded, the quartet landed a recording contract with Shelter Records. But before they could record an album, the band split up. Tench contemplated launching his own band (which he would double in as lead vocalist), before Petty convinced Campbell and Tench to come back. Recruiting additional members Stan Lynch (drums) and Ron Blair (bass), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers was officially formed in 1976, resulting in a deal with MCA, and by the '80s (on the strength of such hit albums as Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises, Southern Accents, etc.), the Heartbreakers had become one of the top rock bands in the world. Beginning in the middle of decade, Tench became a much sought-after session player, lending his talents to recordings by such varied artists as Jackson Browne, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, the Cult, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Hall & Oates, Green Day, Don Henley, Indigo Girls, Ziggy Marley, Alanis Morissette, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Remy Zero, the Rolling Stones, U2, Robin Zander, Ryan Adams, Travis Tritt, and Ringo Starr, among many others. But despite it all, Tench has never let the session work get in the way with his main band, playing on 13 albums with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, plus countless tours.