Jefferson Airplane started with a cheap American folk instrument.
During the crewcut heyday of roots groups like The Highwaymen and the New Lost City Ramblers, young Paul Kantner heard a few songs put out by The Weavers. The youngster was so intrigued, he took $35 his father had given him for new tires and bought a banjo. More than 50 years later, Kantner and his bandmates are enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their music serves as a soundtrack for those long, hot tie-dyed summers of the late 1960s.
So how does one go from folk ballads to psychedelic rock?
“LSD probably had something to do with it,” Kantner said with a laugh. “But I got that banjo and I have never looked back.”
Still going strong, Kantner brings Jefferson Starship, the name taken after their ”70s reshuffling, to Hoberg”s Resort & Spa in Cobb on Saturday as part of the venue”s Heroes of Woodstock event. Starship is slated to play the Airplane set from the famous festival. Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe McDonald and other names from Yasgur”s farm will also take their turn on stage.
As a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, Kantner helped create a discography that ranged from the 1966 hit “Somebody to Love” and the haunting “White Rabbit” to 1978”s top 40 favorite “Count on Me.” It is, however, the Fillmore, Haight Ashbury, Woodstock and the milieu of music and drugs the come to mind when people think of the band.
“We did, more than once,” Kantner admitted when asked if it were possible to perform on LSD. “I don”t know how we did it.”
Yet for Kantner, at least, that scene was never the inspiration for his music. Instead, he describes a search for something universal and elusive.
On stage, he explained, this fundamental aspect motivates band members, year after year. Whether playing alongside Grace Slick or Signe Anderson, whether on standing in front of a baby boom audience in its heyday or headlining a modern day nostalgia events, that sensation is present. For fans, there is something indefinable that attracts them to an arrangement or set of lyrics.
Kantner still finds the connection of band, sound and audience fascinating after half a century of performances.
“There”s almost a metaphysical aspect of music that I haven”t figured out yet,” he said. “That alone is thrilling.”
This search has kept Kantner going through several iterations of Airplane and Starship. The lineup has included Signe Anderson, Grace Slick, Darby Gould, Spencer Dryden, Joey Covington, Marty Balin and dozens of others. With each new face, Kantner said he learns something new. Change,in other words, forced him to explore ideas out of his normal comfort zone.
So after a constant evolution, after fame and a transition into legend, Kantner sees no reason to give up the attraction to music and the search for its font.
“I haven”t found a better thing to do,” he explained. “I”m still thrilled by it. And when you get down to it, what we do is what we do.”
Contact Dave Faries at 900-2016
