Pete Sears
Encyclopedia
Peter 'Pete' Sears is an English
rock
musician
. In a career spanning more than four decades he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic
improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk
, country music
, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues. He usually plays bass
, keyboards
, or both in bands.
Sears played on the classic Rod Stewart
albums Gasoline Alley
, Every Picture Tells A Story
which was listed high in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 best albums of all time, Never a Dull Moment, and Smiler
. He also played on the hit singles Maggie May
, and Reason To Believe
. During this period, Sears toured the US
with Long John Baldry
blues band, and played with John Cipollina
in Copperhead.
Sears was with Jefferson Starship
from 1974 to 1987, and went on to play in the Jorma Kaukonen
Trio with Kaukonen and Michael Falzarano
. He also played with Kaukonen and Falzarano along with Jack Casady
and Harvey Sorgen in Hot Tuna
.
Sears has played with many other musicians through the years, including Leigh Stephens
and Micky Waller
in Silver Metre; Long John Baldry
, Copperhead with John Cipollina
, Jerry Garcia
, Steve Kimock
, Bob Weir
, Phil Lesh
, Leftover Salmon
, and Los Lobos
. Currently, he divides his time between the David Nelson Band and his main band Moonalice
.
Sears has also written and recorded the original score for many documentary films, including the award winning "The Fight in the Fields" - Cesar Chávez
and the Farmworkers Struggle directed by Emmy Award winning Ray Telles and Rick Tehada Flores. His most recent film, also directed by Ray Telles and co-produced by Ken Rabin is called "The Storm That Swept Mexico" about the Mexican Revolution
which will air on National PBS in May 2011.
with the band Sons of Fred. As well as playing classic British T.V. shows such as Ready Steady Go
and Thank Your Lucky Stars
, Sons of Fred also recorded at EMI
's Abbey Road Studios
in London. The records they released are now sought after by collectors.
He went on to play and record with many musical artists, including the “Fleur De Lys” in 1966, and the psychedelic underground band Sam Gopal Dream which featured guitarist Mick Hutchinson, Sears on bass and Hammond organ
, and the Indian tabla
player Sam Gopal
. Jimi Hendrix
once sat in with the band at the Speakeasy Club in London. Jimi Hendrix
drummer Mitch Mitchell
later asked Sears to play bass in a band he was forming while still playing with Hendrix in 1969.
Sears was a session musician during the late sixties, including recording piano with the blues band Steamhammer
. Steamhammer would back up the legendary Freddy King when he toured the UK. In early 1969, Sears along with Terry Cox
of Pentangle, Jeff Beck’s drummer Micky Waller
, Jimmy Litherland of Coloseum, John Wetton
of King Crimson
, and Pete York
of the Spencer Davis Group
, recorded a folk rock album with Marian Segal and Jade. The album, Fly on Strange Wings is considered one of the seminal British folk rock albums of the 1960s and is highly valued by collectors. Around this time Sears teamed up with original Fairport Convention singer, Judy Dyble
, and Van Morrison’s Them guitarist, Jackie McAuley, to form the band Trader Horne.
In the summer of 1969, he left Trader Horne just before they began recording and flew to the U.S. for the first time. While in California, he formed Silver Metre with Blue Cheer guitarist Leigh Stephens
, drummer Micky Waller
, and singer Jack Reynolds. The band released one album on the National General label, produced by FM rock radio pioneer Tom Donahue
. After Silver Metre broke up, Sears joined the original Stoneground
band in England, later returning to the U.S. with them to release their first album, also produced by Tom Donahue.
From 1970 through 1974, Sears returned to session work, including playing on Rod Stewart
's early British solo albums, Gasoline Alley
, Every Picture Tells a Story
including the hit singles "Maggie May" and "Reason To Believe", Never a Dull Moment, and Smiler
. He also played bass with the Long John Baldry
Blues Band on their first tour of the U.S., and played bass and keyboards with John Cipollina
in the band Copperhead.
Sears left Copperhead just before recording their first album to work on Rod Stewart’s Never a Dull Moment album in London, but mainly to join a new band Nicky Hopkins
was putting together. Hopkins, who was on tour with the Rolling Stones had rented Sears a house in Mill Valley, California until he finished with the Stones tour. However, Hopkins was ultimately unable to form the band due to ill health and a dislike of the road. Sears went on to co-produce, arrange the music and play on, Kathi McDonald’s Insane Asylum album, using guest artists like Sly Stone
, The Pointer Sisters, Nils Lofgren
, Neal Schon
, Aynsley Dunbar
, and the Tower of Power
horns. He also co-founded a band called Sears, Schon, Errico with Neal Schon
and Greg Errico
, playing the Diamond Head Crater Festival in Hawaii, as well as several California shows.
Sears spent two weeks recording with Ike Turner
at Ike's studio, Bolic Sound in Los Angeles, California. Tina Turner came down one night and recorded vocals on some of the tracks they had recorded, including a version of George Harrison
's song Something In The Way She Moves on which Turner changed the "she" to "he".
, switching back and forth between bass and keyboards with his close friend, David Freiberg
. He also wrote two or three songs per album with Grace Slick
. Grace and Pete wrote the song Hyperdrive
for the Dragon Fly album. Dragon Fly, made in 1974, was the first official "Jefferson Starship" release as a band. During the 1970s and early eighties he would perform a ten minute bass solo regardless of the size of the venue, even when playing to a 100,000 people in New York City’s Central Park
in 1976. Singer Grace Slick
left the band after her non-appearance caused a riot in Germany in 1978; within months drummer John Barbata
was severely injured in a car crash and the band's other singer, Marty Balin
, also left. The band hired vocalist Mickey Thomas and, at Sears' suggestion, drummer Aynsley Dunbar
. The band's musical direction changed, adopting a hard rock
edge after Kantner hired rock producer Ron Nevison
. Slick left the band for one album, Freedom At Point Zero and Sears' wife Jeannette Sears became one of the principal lyricists alongside Kantner, and Chaquico. Pete and Jeannette wrote some of the band's best-known songs, such as "Stranger", "Save Your Love", and Winds of Change
. Grace had rejoined by this time, and Sears remained with the band after the departure of leader Paul Kantner
and the subsequent name change to "Starship", but he became increasingly at odds with the commercial direction the band was taking. Pete and Jeannette were working heavily on Central American human rights issues at this time, and wrote several songs on the subject that were considered by the band to be too controversial in nature. He played only bass on the double-platinum 1985 album Knee Deep in the Hoopla
and finally left the group in 1987. Starship went on to record several more albums with Austrian pop producer Peter Wolf and his wife Ina who had penned such AM radio hits as "Sara" and "No Way Out". After Sears left, the band became progressively more commercial, alienating a large portion of their old fan base.
From 1992 - 2001, Sears played keyboards with Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen
, and Jack Casady
, in Hot Tuna
.
The band also included Michael Falzarano
and Harvey Sorgen. They would sometimes tour as "The Jorma Kaukonen Trio" with Sears playing bass on the keyboards with his left hand. Sears sometimes teaches piano at Jorma Kaukonen's, Fur Peace Ranch guitar Camp in south eastern Ohio. In 2011, Hot Tuna flew Sears out to New York City to perform at Jorma Kaukonen's 70th birthday bash at the Beacon Theater. As well as his old Tuna band-mates, Sears played that night with Bob Weir
, Steve Earl, and Oteil Burbridge
.
, David Nelson
, Warren Haynes
, Leigh Stephens
, Nick Gravenites, Peter Rowan, Steve Cropper
, Roy Harper
, Nicky Hopkins
, Steve Kimock
, Zydeco Flames, Ron Wood
, Leftover Salmon
, Eric McFadden
, Betty Davis
, Bob Weir
, Mickey Hart
, and Phil Lesh
.
He has also worked live and in the studio and performed with John Lee Hooker, who wrote and recorded a song with Sears, called "Elizabeth". He has shared the stage with artists like Jimi Hendrix
, The Allman Brothers, Los Lobos
, Alvin Youngblood Hart
, Sam Bush
, Elvis Costello
, Paul Butterfield
, Michael Bloomfield
, Levon Helm
, the Grateful Dead
, David Crosby
, and Carlos Santana
among others.
Sears' solo CDs include Watchfire with guests Jerry Garcia
, Babatunde Olatunji
, David Grisman
, Mickey Hart
, Mimi Farina
, and Holly Near
. Along with Jeannette, who wrote the majority of the album's lyrics, Sears became involved with human rights issues in Central America during the 1980s, and led a highly successful radio drive to raise food and clothing for refugees from the civil wars of Guatemala
and El Salvador
sheltering in the bay area. They formed a non-profit video production company called “Watchfire Productions”, with Mark Adler, Mary McCue Obrian, and Emmy award winning documentary film director Ray Telles, producing a music video about human rights abuses on the Mayas of Guatemala. The project was funded by Jerry Garcia and the Rex Foundation
, the Tides Foundation, and Earth Island Institute
. Hundreds of free copies of the video were distributed free of charge to human rights organizations around the world working to help stop the genocide in Central America. It was also aired extensively on the Canadian Much Music TV channel. During the mid-to late 1980s, Sears and singer songwriter, activist Mimi Farina, played at many benefits and protests in the San Francisco Bay Area in support of various Central American human rights, and environmental related causes. He once joined bluesman Nick Gravenites
on the back of a flat bed truck, to drive down Market Street in San Francisco, playing the blues in support of nuclear disarmament, and protesting the US backed injustices in Central America. They were joined by a hundred thousand other peace marchers.
In 1988, a group of citizens from the Soviet Union
marched across the USA as a show of support for peace and the end of the Cold War
between the two countries. On July 16, 1988 a concert was held in the Band Shell in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, organised by Ron Frazier and Bill McCarthy, who had hosted a previous event for the marchers in Los Angeles. Sears was asked to provide and organize the music for the event, so he invited local musician friends including Jerry Garcia
, whose band the Grateful Dead were performing later that night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. Several Soviet rock bands, folk singers, and poets from the march also performed as well as two Tibeten drummers. Speeches were also held. http://www.phutube.com/jerry-garcia-band/jerry-garcia-with-zero-golden-gate-park-1988-think/
Sears performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
tribute to John Lee Hooker
at Stanford University as one of Hooker's guests. He also wrote a song with Hooker, "Elizabeth", which they performed live together in the studio on Sears' solo album The Long Haul. The track, “Elizabeth” was the last “live in the studio” band performance with no overdubs that John Lee Hooker was to record before his death in July 2001. "The Long Haul" includes guests Davey Pattison, Charlie Musselwhite
, Levon Helm
, Jorma Kaukonen
, Jack Casady
, Steve Kimock
, Francis Clay, Maria Muldaur
, Wavy Gravy
, Shanna Morrison, Rich Kirch and John Lee Hooker
.
Pete Sears is now a full time member of Moonalice
and also plays with David Nelson Band and Harvey Mandel
.
.
They became active with numerous Central American relief organizations through the '80s, working on benefits and immediate relief to refugees. In the late 1980s they spearheaded a radio drive in the San Francisco Bay area to raise food and clothing for refugees fleeing the ravages of civil war in Guatemala
and El Salvador
. In 1988, the California Institute of Integral Studies
gave them an award for humanitarian work in the Bay area. Her passion for social justice shows up in her first novel, A Light Rain Of Grace.
Solo albums
with Sons of Fred
with Les Fleur de Lys
with Sam Gopal Dream 1967
with Steamhammer
with Jade (UK band)
with Silver Metre
with Stoneground
with Rod Stewart
with original Jefferson Starship
with Starship
with Hot Tuna
with Jorma Kaukonen
Guest Appearances
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. In a career spanning more than four decades he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues. He usually plays bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, or both in bands.
Sears played on the classic Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
albums Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley (album)
Gasoline Alley was the second solo album by Rod Stewart. It was released in 1970. It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die...
, Every Picture Tells A Story
Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It went to number one on both the UK and U.S. charts and finished third in the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for best album of 1971...
which was listed high in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 best albums of all time, Never a Dull Moment, and Smiler
Smiler (album)
Smiler is Rod Stewart's fifth album, and final album for Mercury Records, released in 1974 . It became the first album by Rod Stewart as a solo artist to become critically panned. Although it reached number 1 in the UK album chart, it stalled at number 13 in the US...
. He also played on the hit singles Maggie May
Maggie May
"Maggie May" is a song written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton and recorded by Stewart in 1971 for his album Every Picture Tells a Story....
, and Reason To Believe
Reason to Believe
"Reason to Believe" is a song written and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965, which has since been recorded by a number of other artists, the most known of which is by Rod Stewart in 1971 and 1993...
. During this period, Sears toured the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with Long John Baldry
Long John Baldry
John William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...
blues band, and played with John Cipollina
John Cipollina
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service...
in Copperhead.
Sears was with Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
from 1974 to 1987, and went on to play in the Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
Trio with Kaukonen and Michael Falzarano
Michael Falzarano
Michael Falzarano is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has been working as a professional musician since the 1970s, most notably in Hot Tuna, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Memphis Pilgrims, a Memphis-style rock and roll/blues band that he founded in 1986.Having signed...
. He also played with Kaukonen and Falzarano along with Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
and Harvey Sorgen in Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
.
Sears has played with many other musicians through the years, including Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens is an American guitarist and songwriter.Stephens became famous as the former lead guitarist of the San Francisco psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer. He was ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He has claimed to have been the...
and Micky Waller
Micky Waller
Micky Waller was an English drummer, who played with many of the biggest names on the UK rock and blues scene, after he became a professional musician in 1960...
in Silver Metre; Long John Baldry
Long John Baldry
John William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...
, Copperhead with John Cipollina
John Cipollina
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service...
, Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
, Leftover Salmon
Leftover Salmon
Leftover Salmon is a jam band from Boulder, Colorado, formed in 1989. Their unique blend of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco, which the band calls "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass", has found favor with the jam band scene...
, and Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
. Currently, he divides his time between the David Nelson Band and his main band Moonalice
Moonalice
Moonalice is the band that formed from previous members of the Flying Other Brothers. The band has been touring since May, 2007, and has come to the attention of music critics. The band is made up of five musicians, and led by businessman Roger McNamee. Their eponymous debut album recorded and...
.
Sears has also written and recorded the original score for many documentary films, including the award winning "The Fight in the Fields" - Cesar Chávez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
and the Farmworkers Struggle directed by Emmy Award winning Ray Telles and Rick Tehada Flores. His most recent film, also directed by Ray Telles and co-produced by Ken Rabin is called "The Storm That Swept Mexico" about the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
which will air on National PBS in May 2011.
Career
Sears' career as a professional musician began in 1964, touring the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
with the band Sons of Fred. As well as playing classic British T.V. shows such as Ready Steady Go
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
and Thank Your Lucky Stars
Thank Your Lucky Stars (TV series)
Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Television, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. Many of the top bands performed on it, and for millions of British teenagers it was essential viewing...
, Sons of Fred also recorded at EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
in London. The records they released are now sought after by collectors.
He went on to play and record with many musical artists, including the “Fleur De Lys” in 1966, and the psychedelic underground band Sam Gopal Dream which featured guitarist Mick Hutchinson, Sears on bass and Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, and the Indian tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
player Sam Gopal
Sam Gopal
Sam Gopal is an underground British Psychedelic rock band.The band is named after its founder, Sam Gopal, born in Malaysia...
. Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
once sat in with the band at the Speakeasy Club in London. Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
drummer Mitch Mitchell
Mitch Mitchell
John Ronald "Mitch" Mitchell was an English drummer, best known for his work in The Jimi Hendrix Experience.-Early life and the Jimi Hendrix Experience:...
later asked Sears to play bass in a band he was forming while still playing with Hendrix in 1969.
Sears was a session musician during the late sixties, including recording piano with the blues band Steamhammer
Steamhammer (band)
Steamhammer was a blues-rock band from Worthing, England. The band was founded in 1968 by Martin Quittenton and Kieran White...
. Steamhammer would back up the legendary Freddy King when he toured the UK. In early 1969, Sears along with Terry Cox
Terry Cox
Terence William Harvey 'Terry' Cox played drums in the British folk rock bands The Pentangle, Duffy's Nucleus and Humblebums....
of Pentangle, Jeff Beck’s drummer Micky Waller
Micky Waller
Micky Waller was an English drummer, who played with many of the biggest names on the UK rock and blues scene, after he became a professional musician in 1960...
, Jimmy Litherland of Coloseum, John Wetton
John Wetton
John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s...
of King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, and Pete York
Pete York
Pete York is a rock drummer who has been performing since the 1960s.-Early life:...
of the Spencer Davis Group
Spencer Davis Group
The Spencer Davis Group was a mid-1960s British beat group from Birmingham, England, formed by Spencer Davis with Steve Winwood and his brother Muff Winwood...
, recorded a folk rock album with Marian Segal and Jade. The album, Fly on Strange Wings is considered one of the seminal British folk rock albums of the 1960s and is highly valued by collectors. Around this time Sears teamed up with original Fairport Convention singer, Judy Dyble
Judy Dyble
Judith Aileen Dyble, better known as Judy Dyble , is an award winning British singer/songwriter most notable for being one of the vocalists with, and founder members of, Fairport Convention and Trader Horne; in between these she was very briefly with Giles, Giles and Fripp, which evolved into...
, and Van Morrison’s Them guitarist, Jackie McAuley, to form the band Trader Horne.
In the summer of 1969, he left Trader Horne just before they began recording and flew to the U.S. for the first time. While in California, he formed Silver Metre with Blue Cheer guitarist Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens is an American guitarist and songwriter.Stephens became famous as the former lead guitarist of the San Francisco psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer. He was ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He has claimed to have been the...
, drummer Micky Waller
Micky Waller
Micky Waller was an English drummer, who played with many of the biggest names on the UK rock and blues scene, after he became a professional musician in 1960...
, and singer Jack Reynolds. The band released one album on the National General label, produced by FM rock radio pioneer Tom Donahue
Tom Donahue
Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue , was a pioneering rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter....
. After Silver Metre broke up, Sears joined the original Stoneground
Stoneground
Stoneground was a rock band formed in 1970 in Concord, California. Originally a trio, Stoneground expanded to a 10-piece band by the time of their eponymous 1971 debut album. The group appeared in two films, Medicine Ball Caravan and Dracula A.D. 1972 , and released three albums before singer Sal...
band in England, later returning to the U.S. with them to release their first album, also produced by Tom Donahue.
From 1970 through 1974, Sears returned to session work, including playing on Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
's early British solo albums, Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley is a comic strip created by Frank King and currently distributed by Tribune Media Services. First published November 24, 1918, it is the second longest running comic strip in the US and has received critical accolades for its influential innovations...
, Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It went to number one on both the UK and U.S. charts and finished third in the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for best album of 1971...
including the hit singles "Maggie May" and "Reason To Believe", Never a Dull Moment, and Smiler
Smiler (album)
Smiler is Rod Stewart's fifth album, and final album for Mercury Records, released in 1974 . It became the first album by Rod Stewart as a solo artist to become critically panned. Although it reached number 1 in the UK album chart, it stalled at number 13 in the US...
. He also played bass with the Long John Baldry
Long John Baldry
John William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...
Blues Band on their first tour of the U.S., and played bass and keyboards with John Cipollina
John Cipollina
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service...
in the band Copperhead.
Sears left Copperhead just before recording their first album to work on Rod Stewart’s Never a Dull Moment album in London, but mainly to join a new band Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
was putting together. Hopkins, who was on tour with the Rolling Stones had rented Sears a house in Mill Valley, California until he finished with the Stones tour. However, Hopkins was ultimately unable to form the band due to ill health and a dislike of the road. Sears went on to co-produce, arrange the music and play on, Kathi McDonald’s Insane Asylum album, using guest artists like Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
, The Pointer Sisters, Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
, Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar is an English drummer. He has worked with some of the top names in rock, including Eric Burdon, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Whitesnake, Sammy Hagar, UFO, and Journey...
, and the Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
horns. He also co-founded a band called Sears, Schon, Errico with Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
and Greg Errico
Greg Errico
Greg Errico, sometimes missspelled as Gregg Errico, is an Italian American musician/record producer, best known for being the drummer for the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band, Sly & the Family Stone...
, playing the Diamond Head Crater Festival in Hawaii, as well as several California shows.
Sears spent two weeks recording with Ike Turner
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
at Ike's studio, Bolic Sound in Los Angeles, California. Tina Turner came down one night and recorded vocals on some of the tracks they had recorded, including a version of George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
's song Something In The Way She Moves on which Turner changed the "she" to "he".
With Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna
In 1974, Sears was a founding member of the original Jefferson StarshipJefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
, switching back and forth between bass and keyboards with his close friend, David Freiberg
David Freiberg
David Freiberg is an American musician. He was vocalist and/or bass guitar player with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.-Career:...
. He also wrote two or three songs per album with Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
. Grace and Pete wrote the song Hyperdrive
Hyperdrive
Hyperdrive is a name given to certain methods of traveling faster-than-light in science fiction. Related concepts are jump drive and warp drive....
for the Dragon Fly album. Dragon Fly, made in 1974, was the first official "Jefferson Starship" release as a band. During the 1970s and early eighties he would perform a ten minute bass solo regardless of the size of the venue, even when playing to a 100,000 people in New York City’s Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in 1976. Singer Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
left the band after her non-appearance caused a riot in Germany in 1978; within months drummer John Barbata
John Barbata
John Barbata is an American drummer, born in Passaic, New Jersey, active especially in pop and pop/rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s, both as a band member and as a session drummer.-Biography:...
was severely injured in a car crash and the band's other singer, Marty Balin
Marty Balin
Marty Balin is an American musician. He is best known as the founder and one of the lead singers of the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane.-Early life:Martyn Buchwald was born in Cincinnati, Ohio...
, also left. The band hired vocalist Mickey Thomas and, at Sears' suggestion, drummer Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Dunbar
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar is an English drummer. He has worked with some of the top names in rock, including Eric Burdon, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Whitesnake, Sammy Hagar, UFO, and Journey...
. The band's musical direction changed, adopting a hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
edge after Kantner hired rock producer Ron Nevison
Ron Nevison
Multi-platinum record producer Ron Nevison, throughout his career, has operated much like a surgeon, brought in during a critical point in a band's career to bring them back to the top from the commercial brink...
. Slick left the band for one album, Freedom At Point Zero and Sears' wife Jeannette Sears became one of the principal lyricists alongside Kantner, and Chaquico. Pete and Jeannette wrote some of the band's best-known songs, such as "Stranger", "Save Your Love", and Winds of Change
Winds of Change
Winds of Change is a fantasy novel by Mercedes Lackey. It is the second book in the Mage Winds Trilogy, in order between Winds of Fate and Winds of Fury. The book was first released in August 1994.- Synopsis :...
. Grace had rejoined by this time, and Sears remained with the band after the departure of leader Paul Kantner
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
and the subsequent name change to "Starship", but he became increasingly at odds with the commercial direction the band was taking. Pete and Jeannette were working heavily on Central American human rights issues at this time, and wrote several songs on the subject that were considered by the band to be too controversial in nature. He played only bass on the double-platinum 1985 album Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Knee Deep in the Hoopla
-Personnel:*Donny Baldwin – drums, electronic drums, vocals*Grace Slick – vocals*Mickey Thomas – vocals*Craig Chaquico – guitars*Pete Sears – bass, synth bass-Additional Personnel:*Peter Wolf – keyboards, electronics...
and finally left the group in 1987. Starship went on to record several more albums with Austrian pop producer Peter Wolf and his wife Ina who had penned such AM radio hits as "Sara" and "No Way Out". After Sears left, the band became progressively more commercial, alienating a large portion of their old fan base.
From 1992 - 2001, Sears played keyboards with Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
, and Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
, in Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
.
The band also included Michael Falzarano
Michael Falzarano
Michael Falzarano is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has been working as a professional musician since the 1970s, most notably in Hot Tuna, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Memphis Pilgrims, a Memphis-style rock and roll/blues band that he founded in 1986.Having signed...
and Harvey Sorgen. They would sometimes tour as "The Jorma Kaukonen Trio" with Sears playing bass on the keyboards with his left hand. Sears sometimes teaches piano at Jorma Kaukonen's, Fur Peace Ranch guitar Camp in south eastern Ohio. In 2011, Hot Tuna flew Sears out to New York City to perform at Jorma Kaukonen's 70th birthday bash at the Beacon Theater. As well as his old Tuna band-mates, Sears played that night with Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Steve Earl, and Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge, in Washington, D.C.), is a Grammy Award-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the current resurgence of the Allman Brothers Band...
.
Other collaborations
Through the years, he has recorded or performed with many other people, including Jerry GarciaJerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, David Nelson
David Nelson (musician)
David Nelson is an American guitarist and musician.Although he started his musical career playing folk and bluegrass music Nelson is probably best known as one of the original members of psychedelic country rock band the New Riders of the Purple Sage...
, Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
, Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens
Leigh Stephens is an American guitarist and songwriter.Stephens became famous as the former lead guitarist of the San Francisco psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer. He was ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He has claimed to have been the...
, Nick Gravenites, Peter Rowan, Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...
, Roy Harper
Roy Harper
Roy Harper is an English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s...
, Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
, Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
, Zydeco Flames, Ron Wood
Ron Wood
Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood is an English rock guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of The Jeff Beck Group, Faces, and current member of The Rolling Stones. He also plays lap and pedal steel guitar....
, Leftover Salmon
Leftover Salmon
Leftover Salmon is a jam band from Boulder, Colorado, formed in 1989. Their unique blend of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco, which the band calls "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass", has found favor with the jam band scene...
, Eric McFadden
Eric McFadden
Eric Byron McFadden is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from San Francisco Bay Area, California, at times described as "an authentic old-west troubadour and an absolutely wicked 6-string maestro."...
, Betty Davis
Betty Davis
Betty Davis is an American funk, rock and soul singer. She was also Miles Davis's second wife.- Background :She worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads in Seventeen, Ebony and Glamour...
, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
, and Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh
Phillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
.
He has also worked live and in the studio and performed with John Lee Hooker, who wrote and recorded a song with Sears, called "Elizabeth". He has shared the stage with artists like Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, The Allman Brothers, Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
, Alvin Youngblood Hart
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Alvin Youngblood Hart is a Grammy Award-winning American musician.-Career:Born in Oakland California, Hart had family connections with Carroll County, Mississippi, and spent time there in his childhood, hearing his relatives stories of Charlie Patton, "being around these people who were there when...
, Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
, Michael Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70...
, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, and 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...
among others.
Sears' solo CDs include Watchfire with guests Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, Babatunde Olatunji
Babatunde Olatunji
Babatunde Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist.- Biography :Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, a small town near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nigeria. A member of the Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music at...
, David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
, Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
, Mimi Farina
Mimi Fariña
Mimi Baez Fariña was a singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters to a Scottish mother and Mexican-American physicist Albert Baez .- Early years:Fariña's father, a physicist affiliated with Stanford University and MIT, moved his family...
, and Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...
. Along with Jeannette, who wrote the majority of the album's lyrics, Sears became involved with human rights issues in Central America during the 1980s, and led a highly successful radio drive to raise food and clothing for refugees from the civil wars of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
sheltering in the bay area. They formed a non-profit video production company called “Watchfire Productions”, with Mark Adler, Mary McCue Obrian, and Emmy award winning documentary film director Ray Telles, producing a music video about human rights abuses on the Mayas of Guatemala. The project was funded by Jerry Garcia and the Rex Foundation
Rex Foundation
The Rex Foundation was created by "members of the Grateful Dead and Friends" in 1983 as a charitable non-profit organization to "proactively provide extensive community support to creative endeavors in the arts, sciences, and education." The organization is named after Rex Jackson, a Grateful Dead...
, the Tides Foundation, and Earth Island Institute
Earth Island Institute
The Earth Island Institute was founded in 1982 by environmentalist David Brower. It organizes and encourages activism around environmental issues and provides public education. Funding comes from individual members and supporting organizations...
. Hundreds of free copies of the video were distributed free of charge to human rights organizations around the world working to help stop the genocide in Central America. It was also aired extensively on the Canadian Much Music TV channel. During the mid-to late 1980s, Sears and singer songwriter, activist Mimi Farina, played at many benefits and protests in the San Francisco Bay Area in support of various Central American human rights, and environmental related causes. He once joined bluesman Nick Gravenites
Nick Gravenites
Nicholas George Gravenites , with stage names like Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy, is a blues, rock and folk singer–songwriter, and is best known for his work with Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and names of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s...
on the back of a flat bed truck, to drive down Market Street in San Francisco, playing the blues in support of nuclear disarmament, and protesting the US backed injustices in Central America. They were joined by a hundred thousand other peace marchers.
In 1988, a group of citizens from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
marched across the USA as a show of support for peace and the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
between the two countries. On July 16, 1988 a concert was held in the Band Shell in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, organised by Ron Frazier and Bill McCarthy, who had hosted a previous event for the marchers in Los Angeles. Sears was asked to provide and organize the music for the event, so he invited local musician friends including Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, whose band the Grateful Dead were performing later that night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. Several Soviet rock bands, folk singers, and poets from the march also performed as well as two Tibeten drummers. Speeches were also held. http://www.phutube.com/jerry-garcia-band/jerry-garcia-with-zero-golden-gate-park-1988-think/
Sears performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
tribute to John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
at Stanford University as one of Hooker's guests. He also wrote a song with Hooker, "Elizabeth", which they performed live together in the studio on Sears' solo album The Long Haul. The track, “Elizabeth” was the last “live in the studio” band performance with no overdubs that John Lee Hooker was to record before his death in July 2001. "The Long Haul" includes guests Davey Pattison, Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
, Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
, Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
, Francis Clay, Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s...
, Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy is an American entertainer and activist for peace, best known for his hippie appearance, personality and beliefs. His moniker...
, Shanna Morrison, Rich Kirch and John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
.
Pete Sears is now a full time member of Moonalice
Moonalice
Moonalice is the band that formed from previous members of the Flying Other Brothers. The band has been touring since May, 2007, and has come to the attention of music critics. The band is made up of five musicians, and led by businessman Roger McNamee. Their eponymous debut album recorded and...
and also plays with David Nelson Band and Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel
Harvey Mandel is an American guitarist known for his innovative approach to electric guitar playing. A professional at twenty, he played with Charlie Musselwhite, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, and John Mayall before starting a solo career...
.
Jeannette Sears
Pete and his wife Jeannette met in 1971 and began their relationship as a songwriting team. They married in 1975 in Mill Valley, CaliforniaMill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay...
.
They became active with numerous Central American relief organizations through the '80s, working on benefits and immediate relief to refugees. In the late 1980s they spearheaded a radio drive in the San Francisco Bay area to raise food and clothing for refugees fleeing the ravages of civil war in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. In 1988, the California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies is a private institution of higher education founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California. It currently operates in three locations just south of the Civic Center district...
gave them an award for humanitarian work in the Bay area. Her passion for social justice shows up in her first novel, A Light Rain Of Grace.
Discography
Pete Sears appears on the following albums:Solo albums
- Watchfire (1988)
- Millennium (1997)
- The Long Haul (2001)
with Sons of Fred
- "Sweet Love" 1964
- "Baby What You Want Me To Do" 1965
- "I'll Be There" 1965
- "I Want Your Lovin" 1965
- "She Only Wants a Friend" 1965
with Les Fleur de Lys
Les Fleur de Lys
The Fleur de Lys were a British band originally formed in late 1964, in Southampton, Hampshire, England. They recorded singles beginning in 1965 in the transitional Beat to psychedelic music genre, later known as freakbeat. The band had varied line-ups; only drummer Keith Guster was a member...
- "Circles" 1966
with Sam Gopal Dream 1967
- 1967 recordings for Screen Gems, previously unreleased
with Steamhammer
Steamhammer (band)
Steamhammer was a blues-rock band from Worthing, England. The band was founded in 1968 by Martin Quittenton and Kieran White...
- SteamhammerSteamhammer (album)Steamhammer was the debut album issued in 1969 by the British blues-rock band Steamhammer. Steamhammer was chosen as legendary blues guitarist Freddy King's backing band whenever he toured England...
(1969)
with Jade (UK band)
Jade (UK band)
Jade were an English folk rock band founded in 1970 by Dave Waite & Marianne Segal who had been performing as a folk duo since the mid 1960s. In the United States the group was known as Marianne Segal and Silver Jade...
- "Fly on Strangewings" 1970
with Silver Metre
- "Silver Metre" 1970
with Stoneground
Stoneground
Stoneground was a rock band formed in 1970 in Concord, California. Originally a trio, Stoneground expanded to a 10-piece band by the time of their eponymous 1971 debut album. The group appeared in two films, Medicine Ball Caravan and Dracula A.D. 1972 , and released three albums before singer Sal...
- StonegroundStoneground (album)Stoneground is the debut studio album by American rock band Stoneground, released in 1971 on Warner Bros. The album featured seven different lead vocalists, including Sal Valentino on four of the album's ten songs....
(1971) - Family AlbumFamily Album (Stoneground album)Family Album is the second album by American rock band Stoneground, a double album released in late 1971 on Warner Bros. It consists of both live and studio recordings and includes a mix of original songs and covers.- Composition and recording :...
(1971)
with Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
- Gasoline AlleyGasoline Alley (album)Gasoline Alley was the second solo album by Rod Stewart. It was released in 1970. It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die...
(1971) - Every Picture Tells a StoryEvery Picture Tells a StoryEvery Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It went to number one on both the UK and U.S. charts and finished third in the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for best album of 1971...
(1971) - Never a Dull Moment (1972)
- SmilerSmiler (album)Smiler is Rod Stewart's fifth album, and final album for Mercury Records, released in 1974 . It became the first album by Rod Stewart as a solo artist to become critically panned. Although it reached number 1 in the UK album chart, it stalled at number 13 in the US...
(1974)
with original Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
- Dragon Fly (1974)
- Red OctopusRed OctopusRed Octopus is a 1975 album by Jefferson Starship. It was the best-selling album by any incarnation of Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off groups, and the single "Miracles" hit #3 on the Billboard charts, being the biggest hit single the band had until that point...
(1975) - SpitfireSpitfire (Jefferson Starship album)Spitfire is Jefferson Starship's 1976 follow-up to the chart-topping Red Octopus . This album quickly scaled the charts, spending six consecutive weeks at number three in Billboard and going platinum.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
(1976) - EarthEarth (Jefferson Starship album)-Personnel:*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "Show Yourself"*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Marty Balin – vocals*Pete Sears – bass on "Skateboard", "Runaway", and "All Nite Long", electric piano on "Love Too Good", organ on "Love Too Good", "Count on Me", "Take Your Time", "Crazy Feelin",...
(1978) - Freedom at Point ZeroFreedom at Point Zero-Personnel:*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards on "Things to Come"*Pete Sears – bass on "Things to Come", "Awakening", "Girl with the Hungry Eyes", "Rock Music", and "Freedom at Point Zero", keyboards on "Jane", "Lightning Rose", "Awakening", and "Just the Same", organ on "Fading Lady...
(1979) - Modern TimesModern Times (Jefferson Starship album)- Personnel :* Craig Chaquico – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, synthesizer on "Find Your Way Back", "Mary", and "Free", steel drums on "Mary"* Aynsley Dunbar – drums, percussion, marimba on "Mary", synthesizer on "Free"...
(1981) - Winds of ChangeWinds of Change (Jefferson Starship album)Winds of Change is a 1982 album by Jefferson Starship. It was the first studio album produced after Grace Slick rejoined the band as a full member. Aynsley Dunbar plays drums on the album, but was replaced by Donny Baldwin for the supporting tour...
(1982) - Nuclear FurnitureNuclear Furniture-Personnel:*Donny Baldwin – drums, percussion, vocals*Craig Chaquico – lead guitar, rhythm guitar*David Freiberg – vocals, keyboards*Paul Kantner – vocals, electric rhythm guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, banjo*Pete Sears – bass, keyboards*Grace Slick – vocals...
(1984)
with Starship
- Knee Deep in the HooplaKnee Deep in the Hoopla-Personnel:*Donny Baldwin – drums, electronic drums, vocals*Grace Slick – vocals*Mickey Thomas – vocals*Craig Chaquico – guitars*Pete Sears – bass, synth bass-Additional Personnel:*Peter Wolf – keyboards, electronics...
(1985)
with Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
- Live at SweetwaterLive at SweetwaterLive at Sweetwater is a live Hot Tuna album recorded in 1992 at Mill Valley, CA. It was their first new recording made for Relix Records, although they had previously released older performances with Relix...
(1992) - Live at Sweetwater TwoLive at Sweetwater TwoLive at Sweetwater Two is a live Hot Tuna album recorded at the same time as the album, Live at Sweetwater, but contains no tracks from the previous release. The live performances feature Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, blues-singer Maria Muldaur, and keyboardist Pete Sears. Also included is the...
(1993) - Live in JapanLive in Japan (Hot Tuna album)Live in Japan is a live acoustic album by Hot Tuna recorded in 1997 in Yokohama, Japan. Originally the band planned to play an electric set as part of their Japanese tour, but the venue in Yokohama was quite small and there wasn't any room for an electric setup...
(1997) - And Furthurmore...And Furthurmore...And Furthurmore... is a live album by the American rock band Hot Tuna. It was recorded on the 1998 Furthur Festival tour. It was released on October 12, 1999.And Furthurmore... was released in HDCD format...
(1999)
with Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
- Too Many YearsToo Many YearsToo Many Years is a Jorma Kaukonen studio album released in August, 1998. It was his last studio album on Relix Records. Michael Falzarano returned to play guitar and to help produce as he did on the previous Kaukonen solo album...
(1998) - Jorma Kaukonen Trio LiveJorma Kaukonen Trio LiveJorma Kaukonen Trio Live is a live album taken from performances from Jorma Kaukonen's 1999 solo tour, and his last album for Relix Records. Performing with Kaukonen were Michael Falzarano and Pete Sears who had both been present on his previous solo album, Too Many Years, and had performed with...
(2000)
Guest Appearances
- Papa John CreachPapa John Creach (album)Papa John Creach is Papa John Creach's first solo album. All the members of Jefferson Airplane also make appearances on the album along with members of the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Santana, and Tower of Power.-Side One:...
(by Papa John CreachPapa John CreachPapa John Creach played for Jefferson Airplane , Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation, the San Francisco All-Stars , The Dinosaurs , and Steve Taylor...
) (1971) - Betty DavisBetty Davis (album)Betty Davis is the self-titled debut album by Betty Davis, released through Just Sunshine Records in 1973. The album was produced by Greg Errico and features contributions from a number of noted musicians such as Neal Schon, Sylvester, Larry Graham and The Pointer Sisters...
(by Betty DavisBetty DavisBetty Davis is an American funk, rock and soul singer. She was also Miles Davis's second wife.- Background :She worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads in Seventeen, Ebony and Glamour...
) (1973) - ManholeManhole (album)Manhole is Grace Slick's first solo album credited solely to her...
(by Grace SlickGrace SlickGrace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
) (1973) - Insane Asylum (by Kathi McDonaldKathi McDonaldKathryn Marie McDonald , popularly known as Kathi McDonald, is a blues and rock singer. She currently performs with Kathi McDonald & Friends. She has appeared on an extensive list of rock and blues albums and toured extensively with Long John Baldry prior to his death...
) (1974) - Tiger Rose (by Robert HunterRobert Hunter (lyricist)Robert C. Hunter is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead.-Biography:He was born Robert Burns in San Luis Obispo, California...
) (1975) - Solid Silver (by Quicksilver Messenger ServiceQuicksilver Messenger ServiceQuicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
) (1975) - Blue StarBlue Star (album)Blue Star is the third album by Levinhurst, released in the U.S. on June 9, 2009 and worldwide on February 2, 2010. Although Michael Dempsey had previously worked with Lol Tolhurst in The Cure and Presence, this marks the first album that the two of them have recorded together since Three...
(by Nick GravenitesNick GravenitesNicholas George Gravenites , with stage names like Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy, is a blues, rock and folk singer–songwriter, and is best known for his work with Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and names of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s...
) (1980) - The Doubtful Handshake (by Terry & the Pirates) (1980)
- The Usual SuspectsThe Usual Suspects (album)The Usual Suspects is the 9th solo album of Joe Lynn Turner released in Japan in 2005.-Tracklisting:#"Power of Love" - 5:04#"Devil's Door" - 3:29#"Jacknife" - 3:23...
(by The Usual Suspects) (1981) - Rising of the Moon (by Terry & the Pirates) (1982)
- Planet Earth Rock and Roll OrchestraPlanet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (album)-Personnel:*Paul Kantner – vocals, guitars, banjo, glass harmonica, synthesizers on "Circle of Fire", lead guitar on "Underground"*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "The Mountain Song" and "The Sky Is No Limit"*Jack Casady – bass...
(by Paul KantnerPaul KantnerPaul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...
) (1983) - Chance in a Million (by Zero) (1994)
- Mecca (by Memphis Pligrims) (1996)
- Kak (by Kak) (1999 re-release)
- Love Will See You ThroughLove Will See You ThroughLove Will See You Through is the first album by the rock group Phil Lesh and Friends. It is also known as Highlights Volume One. It was recorded live in 1999 and released later that year....
(by Phil LeshPhil LeshPhillip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career....
) (1999) - Live At The Chi Chi Club (by Marc BennoMarc BennoMarc Benno is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Benno was a member of The Asylum Choir with Leon Russell in the late 1960s, and launched a solo career in the early 1970s, with his 1972 effort Ambush being the most commercially successful...
) (2005)