Veteran blues band headlines Mount Baker R&B Festival
It was time for the gig, and drummer Adolfo “Fito’’ de la Parra didn’t want to get out of bed. The members of his band, Canned Heat, were fighting, and only a few days earlier, guitarist Henry Vestine had departed. De la Parra finally relented, and only realized the enormity of the show as the helicopter carrying Canned Heat flew over the half million concert goers gathered at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969. “I’m glad I got out of bed and went there,’’ he said in a telephone interview from his home outside Santa Barbara, Calif.
The unofficial theme song from the Woodstock was Canned Heat’s “Going Up The Country,’’ the blues/boogie band’s best-known song along with “On the Road Again’’ — another reworking of a 1920s blues song — and “Let’s Work Together.’’ De la Parra is the sole remaining member of the classic lineup of Canned Heat, which performs at the 13th annual Mount Baker Rhythm and Blues Festival Aug. 1-3 at the Deming Log Show Grounds, near Nugent’s Corner. The lineup also features The Electric Flag, Zen Blues Quartet, Eric Sardinas and the Big Motor, Kal David and the Real Deal, The Fat Tones, The Chris Egers Band and others. Tickets for all three days are $80 in advance or $100 at the gate; single-day ticket prices vary. They are available at Avalon Music, 1330 Railroad Ave., Bellingham, and at the Web site http://www.bakerblues.com. Camping sites and RV hookups are available.
De la Parra said fans can expect “very tight and powerful’’ music from Canned Heat, which he calls “an institution.’’ “I kept going with the band because I was in something good, something loyal, something worth it.’’
Born and raised in Mexico, de la Parra started drumming at age 13 on a kit given to him by his grandmother. His father, a business man, took him to see the music movies “The Benny Goodman Story’’ and “The Gene Krupa Story,’’ and de la Parra caught pioneer rockers Bill Haley and the Comets live in Mexico. He played with a string of Mexican bands such as Los Sparks and Los Hooligans, and recalls making more money as a teen than his father. He came to the United States in 1965 to play in Los Angeles clubs, married an American woman and became the drummer of the house band at the Tom Cat Club in Torrance, Calif., where he backed The Coasters, T-Bone Walker, Ben E. King, Etta James and The Platters. De la Parra was drumming with the band Bluesberry Jam, which was sharing the bill with Canned Heat in late 1967. Canned Heat — formed by blues historians and record collectors Alan “Blind Owl’’ Wilson (harmonica, guitar) and Bob “The Bear’’ Hite (vocals) — had already recorded an album and appeared at the legendary 1967 Monterey Music Festival, but they were just days removed from a marijuana arrest and jail in Denver, and they were looking for a new drummer. “That one night, my band was better than Canned Heat,’’ de la Parra recalled. He was asked to join Canned Heat that night, and was on board for the group’s second album, which spawned the hit “On the Road Again.’’ Then came Woodstock. “It was a great gig. It was a fabulous experience. Of course, we didn’t know it was going to be so influential, such a cultural event.’’
But the core of the band began to come apart began the next year, when Wilson committed suicide. Hite died of a heart attack while on stage in 1981, and Vestine — who had returned to the band — died in 1997 at the end of a European tour.
Canned Heat has remained popular in Europe, where it usually tours three times a year. Canned Heat was playing in Europe long before other American bands, starting in 1968, and fans there are more loyal to groups, de la Parra said. The band also remains extremely popular at biker festivals. “We have outlaw status,’’ the drummer said. “Henry Vestine, our guitarist, used to hang around with bikers. We knew some Hell’s Angels.’’ The music is primitive, blues-oriented. “It’s music that comes from the gut—that’s what bikers like. You’re not going to bring a cute disco band to bikers.’’ The band’s most recent studio album is 2003’s “Friends in the Can,’’ and the current lineup features Robert Lucas on guitar and vocals, Barry Levenson on guitar and Greg Kage on bass.
De la Parra said he doesn’t hear many young bands embracing the blues. “The blues will never be big, but it will never disappear. It’s very entrenched in American culture.’’
