Tribute: Aashid Himons a/k/a Little Archie

Afrikan Dreamland: Aashid Himons, Darrell Rose & Mustafa Abdul-Aleen

 

With his groundbreaking band Afrikan Dreamland, Aashid Himons was an early pioneer of Nashville’s growing late ‘70s rock scene. His death in 2011 robbed the city of an enormous and prolific talent whose presence on the scene helped it achieve greater heights. The Reverend wrote the following obituary, which was published on the About.com Blues website…

Archie “Aashid” Himons, an integral part of Nashville’s non-country music scene for better than three decades, passed away on Saturday, March 19th, 2011 after a brief illness. Himons was 68 years old at the time of his death.

A musical innovator that fused traditional country blues with reggae and world music during the late 1970s, Aashid, as he is known to his many fans, is best known for his popular “blu-reggae” band Afrikan Dreamland, which put Himons’ myriad of musical influences into play in creating an energetic and unique sound. With bandmates Darrell Rose and Mustafa Abdul Aleem, the trio recorded six albums and became the first reggae-oriented band to receive airplay on MTV. Himons’ roots ran deep, though, and included a formative background in blues and soul music.

Himons was born in rural West Virginia in 1942, learning the piano by age three and the drums by five years old. Like many blues artists of the era, Himons sang in the church, and the talented youngster subsequently appeared on several radio and television shows, including The Today Show with Dave Garroway. Himons left home as a teen, hitchhiking to New York City, and later joining the army.

After serving his stint with the military, Himons settled into the Washington, D.C. music scene, forming the R&B group Little Archie & the Majestics. During the 1960s, Himons recorded a number of sides for various labels and with different bands, but it was a 1966 deal with Dial Records that would result in a pair of singles – “All I Have To Do” and “You Can’t Tie Me Down” – that became known as classics of “northern soul” music and highly collectible, especially by British aficionados of the genre.

During the late 1960s, Himons worked throughout the country as a blues musician, performing coffeehouses and street corners as “West Virginia Slim.” He landed in Toronto in 1969, forming the short-lived duo God & I with musician and actor Jim Byrnes. Himons’ restless spirit led him to Mexico City, where he performed with a local blues band, but it was during a trip to the Honduras in 1972, where Himons experienced a performance by Count Ossie & the Mystical Revelation of Rastafari, that he had a musical and spiritual epiphany that led to his conversion to Rastafarianism and the creation of his “blu-reggae” style.

A hybrid of country blues, R&B, and reggae that was influenced by Count Ossie’s mesmerizing nyabinghi rhythms and the Jamaican style popularized by Bob Marley, blu-reggae would later influence contemporary blues artists like Corey Harris. Himons landed in Nashville during the late 1970s; now known as “Aashid,” he formed Afrikan Dreamland with Rose and Aleem. The trio quickly became one of the Music City’s most popular bands, Afrikan Dreamland helping kickstart an original local music scene that had little to do with the city’s country music tradition.

Mostly written by Himons, Afrikan Dreamland’s positive lyrics preached a philosophy of peace and love, and triumph over adversity, whether caused by economic or social injustice…a thread that would carry through Aashid’s entire career. Aside from their popular recordings and seemingly ubiquitous performances, Aashid and Afrikan Dreamland used their drawing power to help young bands, and many of Nashville’s early rock ‘n’ roll talents got their start opening for Afrikan Dreamland.

Aashid Himons & The New Dream

After the break-up of Afrikan Dreamland in 1987, Aashid embarked on a lengthy and varied musical journey that saw the gifted artist applying his talents to blues, gospel, country, reggae, dub, ambient, and space music. Recording both as a solo artist and with a number of bands like the Pyramid Underground, the Blu-Reggae Underground, Akasha, and Aashid & the New Dream, Himons collaborated with a number of Nashville’s most adventurous musicians, talents like Tony Gerber, Giles Reaves, Ross Smith, Gary Serkin, and Kirby Shelstad, among many others. Prolific to a fault, Himons became one of the most popular artists on mp3.com during the 1990s as his musical collaborations resulted in dozens of albums that captured a worldwide audience for Aashid’s unique musical vision.

In 1995, Aashid reunited with his former bandmates Rose and Aleem, as well as a number of his more recent collaborators, under the Afrikan Dreamland name to release the two-CD set The Leaders, which further explored the blu-reggae sound. In the late 1990s, Aashid formed the Mountain Soul Band to experiment with country blues and Appalachian-inspired hillbilly music. Working again with friends like Reaves, Gerber, and Shelstad, the Mountain Soul Band also included the talents of brothers Victor and Reggie Wooten, and multi-instrumentalists Jody Lentz and Tramp, then of the Nashville trio Bonepony. This collaboration resulted in a pair of critically-acclaimed albums, 1998’s studio release Mountain Soul and the live West Virginia Hills, released a year later.

Himons continued to make music during the 2000s, albeit slowed down by recurring problems with his health. The definition of the DIY artist, Himons utilized cutting-edge technology to record and edit complex, textured, and thought-provoking music on his trusty iMac computer. While not well-known outside of the Southeast, Himons nevertheless has thousands of fans worldwide that have been touched by his positive message, exciting music, and indomitable spirit.

Tribute: Max Vague

Nashville rocker Max Vague passed away in August 2005 but left behind an enormous musical legacy. The following tribute was originally published by the Reverend’s Alt.Culture.Guide zine…

It is with great sadness that we report the death by suicide of an old friend and one of our favorite musicians, Max Vague. A multi-talented musician and producer as well as an enormously skilled graphic artist, Max was a leading figure in the Nashville rock music scene for over a decade. Although relatively unknown to the music world outside of the southeastern U.S., Max nevertheless recorded and released six albums without any label resources and, with various bands, toured the region relentlessly.

Max’s musical career began back in the early ‘80s in Monterey, California. He taught himself to play keyboards and, known by his birth name – William Hearn – played with a number of popular local bands, including Bill Hearn and the Freeze. In 1984 he packed his bags and headed to Los Angeles where he supported himself as a freelance graphic artist and musician, writing the scores for several documentary films, including a special on the GM Sunraycer. While in LA he changed his name to “Max Vague” and began an incredibly prolific period of songwriting and recording. In 1992, Max recorded his first album, Love In A Thousand Faces, moving later that year to Nashville with his debut disc tucked beneath his arm.

Max made an immediate splash in the Music City. This critic, writing about Love In A Thousand Faces in Nashville’s Metro music magazine, said “the songs presented here – hard-edged pop/rock replete with melodic experimentation – evoke a variety of influences: the Beatles, Peter Gabriel, many electric British folkies, but are freshly original and completely uncategorizable.” Shortly after arriving in Nashville, Vague recorded his sophomore effort, S.O.S. The Party’s Over.

Produced in his home studio, Max contributed nearly all of the instrumentation for this solid collection of songs. “Imaginative, colorful and intriguing, the songs on S.O.S. are like a puzzle box whose solution awaits discovery,” I wrote in December ‘93 in R.A.D! Review And Discussion of Rock & Roll. Support for Max came from unlikely places, such as from NASA Space Shuttle Captain Michael Baker, who carried Max’s CDs with him on two trips into space, subsequently mentioning Vague when interviewed by MTV’s Tabitha Soren for the cable network’s ‘Week In Rock’ show.

Over the course of the next twelve years, Vague recorded and released four more critically acclaimed albums, each more musically complex and rewarding than the previous. With The Field CD, released in 1995, Max began recording with a full band that included guitarist Steve Green, bassist Ross Smith, and drummer Robert Kamm. Two years later Vague recorded the Timing LP with Smith and drummer Buddy Gibbons. It was with the addition of Music City rock veteran Kenny Wright to his band, however, that Max would hit his creative peak, the trio of Vague, Smith and Wright recording the powerful Kill The Giant album in 1998. Together, these three toured the southeast and drove home Vague’s immense talents to appreciative audiences. Max’s work received airplay on local and regional radio stations and accolades poured in from publications like the industry trade paper Cash Box, Bone Music Magazine, and the Nashville Scene alternative newsweekly.

In 2002, Vague returned to the studio to record the self-titled maxvague CD, his darkest and most personal effort yet. A solitary figure in the studio, Max carefully crafted the songs, playing nearly all the instruments while engineering and producing the album himself. Of maxvague the album, this critic wrote, “there’s no denying the power of his music, Vague’s gift of artistic expression and his instrumental prowess making him the most consistently interesting and intriguing artist working in the American underground today.” A masterful collection of songs, the album nevertheless went largely unnoticed by the mainstream and alternative press alike.

After the release of this self-titled album, Max retreated from music somewhat, supporting himself as a graphic artist. He never stopped writing songs, however, and before his death had nearly completed work on what would have been his seventh album, titled Drive. Max and Kenny contributed a track, “Oh Well, Okay” to the memorial CD A Tribute To Elliot Smith, released earlier this year by Double D Records. Max had found new love, was beginning a new company, and was seemingly looking towards the future when he came to the decision that he had accomplished everything that he had set out to do.

Sometime in the early morning of August 13th, Max took his own life at the too-young age of 44, leaving behind his fiance Danni, his mother Gay Cameron, his sister Lynda Cameron, and brother Jim “Spyder” Hearn. At a memorial service held at The Basement club in Nashville on Sunday night, August 28th, a packed room of family, friends and fans heard Max’s siblings Lynda and Jim share their memories of their brother. Former bandmates Ross Smith, Kenny Wright and Steve Green also spoke as did Ben Mabry, one of Max’s oldest friends and biggest fan and the Rev. Keith A. Gordon, who presided over the memorial service. Mike “Grimey” Grimes, co-owner of Grimey’s Music and booker for The Basement graciously provided the club for Max’s memorial.

An intelligent, complex, multi-faceted and extremely talented artist and musician, Max Vague’s work will live on long after his tragic death. As a friend and champion of his music, I’ll miss Max and look forward to meeting again on the other side.

Somewhere In The Night: Billy Chinnock Remembered (2007)

While thumbing through the current issue of Rolling Stone, a small but disturbing story caught my eye. Alongside the tragic tale of Boston vocalist Brad Delp’s suicide was a (much) shorter piece about the death of Billy Chinnock. A rock ‘n’ roll lifer whose career spanned Asbury Park, New Jersey; Nashville, Tennessee; and Portland, Maine, Chinnock sadly took his own life on March 7th, 2007 after a long bout with Lyme Disease.

Chinnock launched his career on the Asbury Park boardwalk during the late ‘60s. Chinnock’s Downtown Tangiers Rockin Rhythm & Blues Band included musicians like future E Street Band members Gary Tallent and Danny Federici, Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, and David Sancious. Although Chinnock was plagued throughout his career with unfair Springsteen comparisons (much like Pittsburgh’s Joe Grushecky), the fact is that both artists were products of the same era and place, subjected to many of the same cultural and geographic influences and listening to a lot of the same music. Whereas Springsteen leaned more towards early garage-rock and the one-hit-wonders of ‘60s AM radio, Chinnock’s music was influenced more by roots-rock and blues.

When A&R legend John Hammond recommended that Chinnock work on his songwriting, the artist broke away from his heavy touring on the Jersey shore rock scene and moved to Maine in 1974, where he honed his craft while continuing to perform and record. Chinnock later migrated to Nashville during the early ‘80s at the prompting of musician and producer Harold Bradley. Bradley had received a cassette of his material and got in touch with Chinnock, and the two subsequently became friends. Chinnock was interested in the renewal of country influence on rock music and was impressed by the energy of the Nashville music scene, so he decided to come down and check it out for himself.

Chinnock integrated himself in the local music scene by jumping in headfirst, playing frequently at local clubs and WKDF-sponsored riverboat shows, as well as outdoor shows at Hermitage Landing. I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Billy for The Metro magazine in 1985, and witnessed firsthand his dynamic performance at that year’s “Rock For The Animals” show, which included Afrikan Dreamland, Walk The West, The Paper Dolls, Raging Fire, Hard Knox, Roxx and Bill Lloyd and the December Boys – a veritable “who’s who” of the mid-‘80s Nashville rock underground.

While living in Nashville, Chinnock recorded two landmark albums with producer Bradley – 1985’s independently released Rock & Roll Cowboy, and the 1987 CBS Records release Learning To Survive In the Modern Age, which yielded a minor hit single in the song “Somewhere In the Night.” Chinnock later won an Emmy for “Somewhere In the Night,” which had been used in a daytime soap opera. Chinnock later recorded a chart-topping duet with Roberta Flack which was used as the theme for The Guiding Light television show.

Like many non-country musicians in the “Music City,” Chinnock found a great deal of frustration in Nashville and the local scene. Already a veteran of 20 years of performing and recording, he was more polished and experienced than any of the rockers playing Nashville’s club scene. Although he had a loyal following – mostly blue-collar WKDF listeners – he was dismissed as too slick and mainstream by the local underground. Truth is, Chinnock’s roots-rock style was easily a decade (or two) ahead of its time, and was edgier and had less “commercial potential” at that time than most of Nashville’s more acclaimed “alternative” rock bands.

While I was managing a Nashville pizza delivery restaurant in the late ‘80s, I noticed an order going out to Chinnock’s Belmont Avenue area home. I hadn’t seen Billy in a couple of years and since I was getting off work, I paid for the pizza and drove over to make the delivery and say “hello.” Chinnock seemed happy to see me and we ended up talking for a couple of hours, off the cuff and mostly “off the record.” He expressed a lot of anger over the way that CBS had been messing with his career…Billy had a new album in the can and was ready to have it released and launch a supporting tour. Considering that Chinnock had just won an Emmy and had the highest profile of his career, I can see why he wanted the album released. However, CBS didn’t think the album “marketable” and, after a prolonged battle, dropped Chinnock from his contract.

The CBS debacle, inexcusable as it was, was not the first time that Chinnock’s work had been obstructed by small-minded label executives. Signed by Paramount Records, the label released his debut album Blues in 1974, but shelved his sophomore effort, Road Master, which was produced by Tom Dowd at the legendary Bell Sound Studios in Los Angeles. To the best of my knowledge, the album has never been released. In the wake of fellow Asbury Park rocker Bruce Springsteen’s success, Atlantic Records signed Chinnock to be their Springsteen and released his album Badlands in 1978. When Badlands went nowhere, the label decided to call it a day (after already recording most of a second album); Chinnock evidently got the rights to his masters back and released the 1980 album himself as Dime Store Heroes.

After spending the better part of the decade fighting the system, by 1990 Chinnock had left Nashville in his rearview mirror as he headed back to Maine, where he enjoyed almost 20 years of creativity and performing. 1990’s Thunder In the Valley, released under the name “Billy & the American Suns,” was Chinnock’s last major label album. He continued to record until the end of his life, releasing material on his own indie label, East Coast Records. Chinnock also dabbled in graphic arts and made a name for himself as a filmmaker and video producer, creating the award-winning film The Forgotten Maine.

Chinnock had suffered from Lyme Disease for eight years, the result of a nasty tick bite. The disease defied treatment, ravaging his immune system and leaving him in a great deal of pain. His mother, who lived with Chinnock and with whom he was very close, died ten days before Chinnock. Consumed with grief and suffering from chronic daily pain, Chinnock evidently saw no other way out than suicide. He was 59 years old, still young by today’s rock ‘n’ roll standards.

Chinnock’s sister, Caroline Payne, remembers that her brother was never envious of the success enjoyed by the artist many critics unfairly compared his work to. “I never saw him have any of that,” she told the Portland Press Herald. “I never saw any frustration in him, any jealousy like that. He thought Bruce Springsteen was phenomenal.” Although his vocals could often times sound like Springsteen’s, Chinnock’s music was always original, heartfelt, and genuine, and over the course of a mostly unheralded career that ran almost four decades, Chinnock released 13 albums and entertained a hell of a lot of people.

As usual, John Hammond was right on target when he called Billy Chinnock “the real essence of American music.”