Howard Wyeth
Encyclopedia
Howard Pyle Wyeth also known as Howie Wyeth, was an American
drummer
and pianist
. Wyeth is remembered for work with the saxophonist James Moody
, the rockabilly singer Robert Gordon
, the electric guitarist Link Wray
, the rhythm and blues singer Don Covay
, and the folk singer Christine Lavin
. Most well known as a drummer for Bob Dylan
, he was a member of the Wyeth
family of American artists.
Wyeth was born in Jersey City, New Jersey
. His mother Caroline Pyle was interested in the Wyeth family, flirted with some of them, and married Nathaniel C. Wyeth
.
He had four brothers, John, David, N. Convers, and Andrew, and one sister, Caroline who died very young. A fifth brother, Newell died with his grandfather when their car stalled on a railroad crossing near their home and they were struck by a milk train.
Wyeth married once, to Rona Morrow, and later divorced. Catherine Wheeler was his partner for seventeen years, from his mid-thirties on.
The Wyeths are a family of visual artists and, earlier, illustrators who lived and worked together in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
. Including the Hurds and the McCoys, at least eleven artists are among the family and in-laws. Wyeth was the namesake of his great-uncle Howard Pyle
(1853–1911), the artist and illustrator for Harper's Weekly
and the author of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and four volumes of children's stories about King Arthur
. His grandfather N. C. Wyeth was a student of Howard Pyle and a prominent illustrator of children's books for Charles Scribner's Sons
. His grandmother Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle
was an illustrator of children for The Saturday Evening Post
who married Walter Pyle, Howard's younger brother. He was the nephew of the painters Andrew Wyeth
, Henriette Wyeth
and Carolyn Wyeth.
. He learned drums by age 4 and soon on a piano could repeat songs he had heard. He attended the Wilmington Friends School
where his music teacher helped him decide to be a musician. Fats Waller
was Wyeth's greatest influence, leading him to learn stride piano
and music theory
. He studied percussion with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra
, and received a bachelor's in music at Syracuse University
in 1966.
Wyeth played at various times in the bands the Dogs and the Worms after moving to New York City
in 1969. In 1972 on a solo album by John Herald
co-produced by Bob Neuwirth
for Paramount, Wyeth played with Amos Garret, Steven Soles
, Ned Albright and Rob Stoner
.
Stoner brought Wyeth to drum on Desire in July 1975, a decision that satisfied Dylan who said, ""Your drummer sounds great, it sounds great." The songs were co-written with Jacques Levy
, and the personnel were Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano), Vinnie Bell (bouzouki), Scarlet Rivera
(violin), Dom Cortese (accordion), Stoner (bass, background vocals), Wyeth (drums), Luther Rix (congas), and Emmylou Harris
, Ronee Blakley
and Soles (background vocals). In September 1975, a few months before the album release in January, Dylan, with Rivera on violin, Stoner on bass and Wyeth on drums, performed Hurricane
, Oh, Sister and Simple Twist of Fate for the PBS
tribute to John Hammond
recorded at the WTTW
television studios in Chicago.
The group found themselves with a Billboard #1
pop
album, the last Dylan effort to reach that mark for thirty years until 2006 when he released Modern Times
. Robert Christgau
who distrusted the project thought the song Joey was "deceitful bathos," and Dave Marsh
called Joey "elitist sophistry" and "contemptible," but Rolling Stone counted Desire the 174th greatest album of all time. Desire eventually reached RIAA multi-platinum
, selling over two million copies before its re-release in 2003.
The project is remembered for its "loose and swirling" sound and the songs Isis
, Sara, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay and Oh, Sister. Sony
credited Wyeth as an accompanist
with an "uncannily sympathetic ear." Larry Sloman called his drumming ethereal. Billboard said Stoner and Wyeth were one of the strongest rhythm sections in music.
in New York in 1975. The revue toured the United States during the end of 1975 and first half of 1976, and at two of those shows recorded the live album Hard Rain released in 1976. They are the musical performers in the Hard Rain documentary by TVTV
shown on NBC
in 1976, and in the film Renaldo and Clara
released in 1978. About one hundred people traveled including supporting personnel. The recording artists were Dylan and Joan Baez
(vocal & guitar), Blakley (vocal), Gary Burke (drums), T-Bone Burnett
(guitar), David Mansfield
(steel-guitar, mandolin, violin, dobro), Roger McGuinn
(guitar, vocal), Neuwirth (guitar, vocal), Rivera (violin), Rix (drums, percussion, congas), Mick Ronson
(guitar), Soles (guitar, vocal), Stoner (bass) and Wyeth (piano, drums).
Joni Mitchell
, who flew in to sing for one show, nearly left, but when she told Wyeth goodbye, he was hurt, "And I suddenly realized, more than anybody Wyeth's reaction was so heartfelt, his expression of it was so open. Like it's just his soul is so beautiful. And I stayed."
Isaac Hayes
, Richie Havens
, Carlos Santana
, Ringo Starr
, Stephen Stills
and Stevie Wonder
joined the band, who named themselves Guam, for a show in Houston. With bad acoustics and the Astrodome
only half full it was a "monumental flop." According to Wyeth the newcomers brought their own bands, "They weren't doing it the way we'd been doing it. We lost the whole togetherness thing."
In pouring rain, the Hard Rain recordings for television and most of the live album were made outdoors at Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium
in 1976 at Fort Collins, Colorado. The show was "triumphant" and well received, one reviewer calling "Idiot Wind
" the "most passionate and emotional live performance" Dylan had ever made. Stoner said, "...everybody is playing and singing for their lives, and that is the spirit that you hear on that record." Due to low ticket sales, the Rolling Thunder Revue ended two days later in Salt Lake, Wyeth's final concert with Dylan and this band.
who was a guest artist in the revue. Sony continues to release Dylan's music so the Rolling Thunder Revue artists are credited long after they disbanded. Their work is in Masterpieces (1978), The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
(1991), Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3
(1994), Best of Bob Dylan (1997), Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5)
(2002), and Desire (remastered 2003).
Wyeth recorded four albums with Gordon, as well as albums with Don McLean
, Leslie West
and Moody. He is the drummer on Lavin's Attainable Love released by Philo in 1990 and the pianist on "Warmer Days", a song written by John Popper
on the 1990 A&M album Blues Traveler
. Later he led his own groups on piano, playing ragtime, blues and early jazz.
Chadds Ford Getaway was Wyeth's one solo recording of ragtime and stride piano. It was remastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound and released as a two-CD set in 2003 by Stand Clear Music. Among the fifteen medleys are lesser-known works alongside "Ain't Misbehavin'
", made famous by Fats Waller
, and Scott Joplin
's "Maple Leaf Rag
".
Mansfield and Wyeth played on Chris Harford
's Elektra album Be Headed in 1992 with a host of others. After Wyeth's death, Harford released a piano instrumental Ode to Howie Wyeth.
Also that year, Wyeth played drums on Fishermen's Stew's 45-single release of "Small Life, Hollow Roads, and Fairy Tales" b/w "Fine" on Berlin's Twang! Records.
at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on March 27, 1996. He was 51.
}}
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. Wyeth is remembered for work with the saxophonist James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
, the rockabilly singer Robert Gordon
Robert Gordon (musician)
Robert Gordon is an American rockabilly musician. Gordon rose to fame performing in several genres including alternative rock, punk rock, and rock and roll.- Early days:...
, the electric guitarist Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
, the rhythm and blues singer Don Covay
Don Covay
Don Covay is an American R&B/rock and roll/soul music singer and songwriter most active in the 1950s and 1960s, who received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994...
, and the folk singer Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin is a New York City-based singer-songwriter and promoter of contemporary folk music. She has recorded numerous solo albums, and has also recorded with other female folk artists under the name Four Bitchin' Babes...
. Most well known as a drummer for Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, he was a member of the Wyeth
Wyeth (disambiguation)
Wyeth may refer to:* Wyeth, Oregon, United States* Wyeth Heights, AntarcticaWyeth as a surname may refer to:*N. C. Wyeth , American artist, or one of his family:*daughter Ann Wyeth McCoy , wife of John W. McCoy...
family of American artists.
Family
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. His mother Caroline Pyle was interested in the Wyeth family, flirted with some of them, and married Nathaniel C. Wyeth
Nathaniel Wyeth (inventor)
Nathaniel C. Wyeth was an American mechanical engineer and inventor. He is best known for creating a polyethylene terephthalate beverage container that could withstand the pressure of carbonated liquids...
.
He had four brothers, John, David, N. Convers, and Andrew, and one sister, Caroline who died very young. A fifth brother, Newell died with his grandfather when their car stalled on a railroad crossing near their home and they were struck by a milk train.
Wyeth married once, to Rona Morrow, and later divorced. Catherine Wheeler was his partner for seventeen years, from his mid-thirties on.
The Wyeths are a family of visual artists and, earlier, illustrators who lived and worked together in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania
Chadds Ford Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Prior to 1996, Chadds Ford Township was known as Birmingham Township, Delaware County, and the name was changed to allow the township to correspond to both its...
. Including the Hurds and the McCoys, at least eleven artists are among the family and in-laws. Wyeth was the namesake of his great-uncle Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
(1853–1911), the artist and illustrator for Harper's Weekly
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
and the author of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and four volumes of children's stories about King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
. His grandfather N. C. Wyeth was a student of Howard Pyle and a prominent illustrator of children's books for Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
. His grandmother Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle
Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle
Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle was an American illustrator best known for the 40 covers she created for The Saturday Evening Post in the 1920s and 1930s under the guidance of Post editor-in-chief, George Horace Lorimer....
was an illustrator of children for The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
who married Walter Pyle, Howard's younger brother. He was the nephew of the painters Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....
, Henriette Wyeth
Henriette Wyeth
Henriette Wyeth Hurd was an American artist noted for portraits and still life paintings. She was the wife of artist Peter Hurd, daughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth and sister of artist Andrew Wyeth. She was also the mother of artist Michael Hurd...
and Carolyn Wyeth.
Early years
Wyeth was the son of music lovers—his father enjoyed playing ragtimeRagtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
. He learned drums by age 4 and soon on a piano could repeat songs he had heard. He attended the Wilmington Friends School
Wilmington Friends School
Wilmington Friends School, the oldest existing school in Delaware, is a preschool through 12th grade Quaker school in Wilmington, Delaware. The school was founded in 1748 by members of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting of Friends ....
where his music teacher helped him decide to be a musician. Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
was Wyeth's greatest influence, leading him to learn stride piano
Stride piano
Harlem Stride Piano, Stride Piano, or just Stride, is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly in the New York, during 1920s and 1930s. The left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and...
and music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
. He studied percussion with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
, and received a bachelor's in music at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
in 1966.
Wyeth played at various times in the bands the Dogs and the Worms after moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1969. In 1972 on a solo album by John Herald
John Herald
John Herald was an American folk and bluegrass songwriter, solo and studio musician, and one-time member of The Greenbriar Boys trio.-Biography:...
co-produced by Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...
for Paramount, Wyeth played with Amos Garret, Steven Soles
Steven Soles
Steven Soles is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and guitarist.Known also as J. Steven Soles, he was asked by Bob Dylan to join the band for his 1975-1976 "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour, and he also played with Dylan on Street Legal and the following tour, including the live album Bob...
, Ned Albright and Rob Stoner
Rob Stoner
Robert David Rothstein , better known as Rob Stoner, is an American multi-instrumental musician....
.
Desire
Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy was an American songwriter, theatre director, and clinical psychologist.Levy was born in New York City in 1935, and attended its City College. He received a doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University. Levy was a trained psychoanalyst, certified by the Menninger Institute...
, and the personnel were Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano), Vinnie Bell (bouzouki), Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera
Scarlet Rivera is an American violinist. She is best known for her work with Bob Dylan, in particular on his album Desire and as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue.-Early career:...
(violin), Dom Cortese (accordion), Stoner (bass, background vocals), Wyeth (drums), Luther Rix (congas), and Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Ronee Blakley
Ronee Blakley
Ronee Blakley is an American entertainer. Though an accomplished singer, songwriter, composer, producer and director, she is perhaps best known as an actress...
and Soles (background vocals). In September 1975, a few months before the album release in January, Dylan, with Rivera on violin, Stoner on bass and Wyeth on drums, performed Hurricane
Hurricane (song)
"Hurricane" is a protest song by Bob Dylan co-written with Jacques Levy, about the imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. It compiles alleged acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which Dylan describes as leading to a false trial and conviction....
, Oh, Sister and Simple Twist of Fate for the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
tribute to John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
recorded at the WTTW
WTTW
WTTW channel 11 is one of three Public Broadcasting Service member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC and WYIN. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit...
television studios in Chicago.
The group found themselves with a Billboard #1
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
album, the last Dylan effort to reach that mark for thirty years until 2006 when he released Modern Times
Modern Times (Bob Dylan album)
Modern Times is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 2006. The album was Dylan's third straight to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics...
. Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
who distrusted the project thought the song Joey was "deceitful bathos," and Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
called Joey "elitist sophistry" and "contemptible," but Rolling Stone counted Desire the 174th greatest album of all time. Desire eventually reached RIAA multi-platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
, selling over two million copies before its re-release in 2003.
The project is remembered for its "loose and swirling" sound and the songs Isis
Isis (song)
"Isis" is the second track on the Bob Dylan album Desire. It was written by Bob Dylan in collaboration with Jacques Levy.This song is in a moderately fast 3/4 time, in the key of B-flat major. The arrangement is based on rhythm chords played on acoustic piano, accompanied by bass, drums, and violin...
, Sara, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay and Oh, Sister. Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
credited Wyeth as an accompanist
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
with an "uncannily sympathetic ear." Larry Sloman called his drumming ethereal. Billboard said Stoner and Wyeth were one of the strongest rhythm sections in music.
Rolling Thunder Revue
Dylan, Levy and Neuwirth conceived the Rolling Thunder RevueRolling Thunder Revue
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American shaman Rolling Thunder. Others maintained that tour...
in New York in 1975. The revue toured the United States during the end of 1975 and first half of 1976, and at two of those shows recorded the live album Hard Rain released in 1976. They are the musical performers in the Hard Rain documentary by TVTV
TVTV
TVTV was a San Francisco-based pioneering video collective founded in 1972 by Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Tom Weinberg, Hudson Marquez and Megan Williams. Shamberg was author of the 1971 "do-it-yourself" video production manual Guerrilla Television. Over the years, more than thirty "guerrilla...
shown on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in 1976, and in the film Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara
Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978...
released in 1978. About one hundred people traveled including supporting personnel. The recording artists were Dylan and Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
(vocal & guitar), Blakley (vocal), Gary Burke (drums), T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
(guitar), David Mansfield
David Mansfield
David Mansfield is an American violinist, mandolin player, guitarist, pedal steel guitar player, and composer....
(steel-guitar, mandolin, violin, dobro), Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
(guitar, vocal), Neuwirth (guitar, vocal), Rivera (violin), Rix (drums, percussion, congas), Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...
(guitar), Soles (guitar, vocal), Stoner (bass) and Wyeth (piano, drums).
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, who flew in to sing for one show, nearly left, but when she told Wyeth goodbye, he was hurt, "And I suddenly realized, more than anybody Wyeth's reaction was so heartfelt, his expression of it was so open. Like it's just his soul is so beautiful. And I stayed."
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
joined the band, who named themselves Guam, for a show in Houston. With bad acoustics and the Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex...
only half full it was a "monumental flop." According to Wyeth the newcomers brought their own bands, "They weren't doing it the way we'd been doing it. We lost the whole togetherness thing."
In pouring rain, the Hard Rain recordings for television and most of the live album were made outdoors at Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium
Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the home field of the Colorado State Rams of the Mountain West Conference....
in 1976 at Fort Collins, Colorado. The show was "triumphant" and well received, one reviewer calling "Idiot Wind
Idiot Wind
"Idiot Wind" is a song by Bob Dylan. It appeared on his album Blood on the Tracks.The song was likely to have been written in the summer of 1974, after his comeback tour with The Band that year. Working on a suggestion from his brother, Dylan re-recorded half the songs on Blood on the Tracks,...
" the "most passionate and emotional live performance" Dylan had ever made. Stoner said, "...everybody is playing and singing for their lives, and that is the spirit that you hear on that record." Due to low ticket sales, the Rolling Thunder Revue ended two days later in Salt Lake, Wyeth's final concert with Dylan and this band.
Later years
McGuinn loved the tour and turned to the studio with Mansfield, Ronson, Stoner and Wyeth to record Cardiff Rose. Burke, Burnett, McGuinn, Ronson, Soles and Wyeth are among the cast of thirty five musicians who recorded Lasso from El Paso for Kinky FriedmanKinky Friedman
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
who was a guest artist in the revue. Sony continues to release Dylan's music so the Rolling Thunder Revue artists are credited long after they disbanded. Their work is in Masterpieces (1978), The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan, issued on Columbia Records, catalogue C3K 86572. It is the first installment in the Dylan bootleg series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989...
(1991), Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 is a compilation LP album by Bob Dylan, released on Columbia Records on compact disc in 1994, catalogue CK 66783. It peaked at #126 on the Billboard 200.-Content:...
(1994), Best of Bob Dylan (1997), Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5)
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue is a live album by Bob Dylan released by Columbia Records in 2002. It documents the Rolling Thunder Revue, led by Bob Dylan prior to the release of the album Desire...
(2002), and Desire (remastered 2003).
Wyeth recorded four albums with Gordon, as well as albums with Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
, Leslie West
Leslie West
Leslie West is an American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter.-Biography:Originally named Leslie Weinstein, West was born in New York City, grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills and Lawrence. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West...
and Moody. He is the drummer on Lavin's Attainable Love released by Philo in 1990 and the pianist on "Warmer Days", a song written by John Popper
John Popper
John Popper is an American musician and songwriter.He is most famous for his role as frontman of rock band Blues Traveler performing harmonica, guitar and vocals...
on the 1990 A&M album Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler (album)
Blues Traveler, the eponymous debut album from Blues Traveler, was released on A&M Records in 1990. It establishes the band's trademark jam band sound featuring John Popper's harmonica...
. Later he led his own groups on piano, playing ragtime, blues and early jazz.
Chadds Ford Getaway was Wyeth's one solo recording of ragtime and stride piano. It was remastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound and released as a two-CD set in 2003 by Stand Clear Music. Among the fifteen medleys are lesser-known works alongside "Ain't Misbehavin'
Ain't Misbehavin' (song)
"Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Thomas "Fats" Waller, Harry Brooks and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. It was used in the off-broadway musical Connie's Hot Chocolates...
", made famous by Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
, and Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
's "Maple Leaf Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
".
Mansfield and Wyeth played on Chris Harford
Chris Harford
Chris Harford is a self-taught American singer, songwriter, guitarist and painter. The New Yorker described him as "...A singer, guitarist, and songwriter who rose through the local club scene in the nineteen-eighties, Harford operates in the free zone outside rock's usual categories. He has a...
's Elektra album Be Headed in 1992 with a host of others. After Wyeth's death, Harford released a piano instrumental Ode to Howie Wyeth.
Also that year, Wyeth played drums on Fishermen's Stew's 45-single release of "Small Life, Hollow Roads, and Fairy Tales" b/w "Fine" on Berlin's Twang! Records.
Death
Wyeth died of cardiac arrestCardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on March 27, 1996. He was 51.
External links
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