US folk blues legend and Dylan influence!
“With my newly learned repertoire, I then went further up the street and dropped into the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a Beat coffeehouse. I was looking for players with kindred spirits. The first guy I met in Minneapolis like me was sitting around in there. It was John Koerner and he also had an acoustic guitar with him. Koerner was tall and thin with a look of perpetual amusement on his face. We hit it off right away. When he spoke he was soft spoken, but when he sang he became a field holler shouter. Koerner was an exciting singer, and we began playing a lot together. I learned a lot of songs off Koerner …” Bob Dylan, in Chronicles Vol 1, 2004
“The word inimitable could have been coined for Spider John Koerner. A staggeringly singular guitarist and singer of blues and American traditional songs, he has influenced many musicians from Bob Dylan on down, but no one has come close to his unbelievably funky guitar style.” (Martin Simpson, 2009)
“The country-blues singer, songwriter, and barrelhouse guitarist Spider John Koerner –one-third of the legendary sixties folk trio Koerner, Ray, & Glover – has been performing in the bars and folk clubs of the Twin Cities ever since Bob Dylan was enrolled at the University of Minnesota (he was one of the first to turn Dylan on to folk music). Bonnie Raitt covered one of Koerner’s songs on her début album, and his fans have included John Lennon and David Bowie. His influence on twentieth-century music aside, watching Koerner perform might be the closest you can get to understanding how, more than eighty years ago, Charley Patton alone on guitar kept a roomful of people dancing and partying until the sun came up." The New Yorker, 2008
“Koerner was probably the most original of the ’60s white blues guys, a brilliantly entertaining live performer who toured the UK regularly back then. It’s thrilling to hear my first personal performing hero still on such good form. He’s around 70 now, and a true American national treasure: it’s long past time that he got more recognised as such.” Ian Anderson, fRoots, 2009
“Alone among the young blues revivalists, Koerner had a sound that was completely idiosyncratic and personal. From the first guitar riff, there was never any doubt about who was playing. Today the material has changed but the sound is intact… spare and funky, with lots of open spaces between oddly placed notes, all of it held together with his impeccable timing.” Blueswire
‘Spider’ John Koerner, traditional American folk and country blues musician, rhythmic guitarist, song-crafter, singer and living legend, shapes his musical style from a solid foundation of study of the old blues masters, respect for the traditional song, and a firm command of his source material.
Now aged 71, Spider John first hit US national fame in the early 1960s as a member of folk blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover. They made a great series of Blues, Rags & Hollers albums for Elektra which even the Beatles admitted to being fans of, and stormed events like Newport Folk Festival. With his trademark 9 and 7-string guitars, harmonica on a rack and long legs that seemed to go on forever, Koerner himself became a massively popular solo performer, ending up the ’60s with solo albums that included songs later to be recorded by the likes of Bonnie Raitt.
Somewhere in the early 1970s he briefly quit music to live in Denmark, returning later to dedicate himself to a lower-key career performing classic American traditional folk blues songs in a funky, entertaining bar-room style. He last toured the UK in 1981 when he appeared at Cambridge Folk Festival.
He continued to record sporadically, solo or in the company of other US folk legends like Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. In the mid 1990s Koerner, Ray & Glover re-formed following the re-issue of their early albums, recorded afresh, appeared at major North American festivals.and were subject of a film documentary. Since the passing of Dave Ray in 2002. Koerner and Tony Glover still occasionally appear as a duo and just released a new album together more than 45 years after their Elektra debut!
Chip Taylor Smith
My first musical memories were sitting at the console of the big pipe organ my dad played in church where I grew up in Massachusetts. I was mesmerized as he swayed back and forth with arms extended, reaching for different keyboards, stops and pages of music while his feet danced over octaves of pedals. Off in the distance I could hear my mothers voice as the melodies that were rehearsed in the piano room at home all week resonated beautifully through the rafters of the church and wafted out over Main St..
A few years later I would find myself in the basement of a church down the street where they held a weekly night of folk music at The Cellar coffeehouse. It was there that I became acquainted with the music by the likes of Mississippi John Hurt, Spider John Koerner and The Holy Modal Rounders. Through high school I was able to keep musically active by playing trombone in the school band, electric guitar and organ in a blues/rock band and acoustic guitar and fiddle in a jug band.
Going to music school seemed like the thing to do but after one semester I decided that it wasn't for me as I preferred my music less formal. I soon found that I could hitchhike with my fiddle and small dog in search of new musical experiences. These travels allowed me to join a bluegrass/jam band on Martha's Vineyard called the Condor Brothers. It was on the Vineyard that I met Chad Crumm. I wanted so badly to fiddle with Chad but I just couldn't get up to his level so I backed him up on guitar. We both moved to Cambridge that fall and soon The Chicken Chokers were formed.
Now, so many years later, my musical experiences reflect those of my high school days. To augment the Choker experience I play electric guitar and keyboards in a blues band (The Black Cats ), electric guitar and fiddle in a zydeco band (Dirty Rice) and after getting to meet musical hero Koerner, have been playing fiddle with him for 30 years.