My "friend of a friend of ..." series may have been interrupted a bit lately, but it's not done yet. Consider this more along the lines of "halftime" in that series. None of the "connections" I've taken a look at so far would have been made if I hadn't had the opportunity to meet legendary blues and soul musician Lester Chambers in person at a birthday party in Petaluma, California, on New Year's Eve 2011.
Now, Lester Chambers' time has come.
Lester Chambers
After teaming with Reddit.com co-founder Alexis Ohanian on a successful Kickstarter funding campaign last winter, Lester has released a new album of music, "Lester Chambers' Time Has Come." And, as of today, he also has a new website at www.lester-chambers.com. The website has photos, videos, biographies, links to song samples, contact information, and a link to order the CD.
The album features Lester and his five-piece band, The Mud Stompers -- David Aguilar on guitar, Kenneth Roy Berry on keyboards and percussion, Marcia Miget on saxophone, Kenny "Mo" Susan on drums, and Baron Chase on bass along with music director, engineering, and producing duties.
Not surprisingly, the album includes a mix of rock, soul, blues, and gospel-tinged classics that harken back to the days when Lester and his siblings, The Chambers Brothers, rode the top of the charts in the 1960s and '70s on songs like "People Get Ready" and the timeless classic "Time Has Come Today," both part of the new album with a crisp, modern sound.
The band also shines on classic tunes like "Are You Ready?", "Let's Get Funky," "I Got The Blues," "Hold On," and "Boogie Children," along with the Christmas "teaser" tunes that were released early to Kickstarter donors, "Merry Xmas Happy New Year" and "Jingle Bells."
Now, after the fund-raising campaign followed by recording sessions and engineering and working out copyright issues, the album is ready.
Lester and The Mud Stompers are more than ready themselves. The time has come.
The "publicity train" for my musical friend Lester Chambers in his efforts to raise funds to record a new album with his band The Mud Stompers keeps moving along.
Lester Chambers and The Mud Stompers (left to right, Kenneth Roy Berry, Marcia Miget, Kenny Susan, Lester Chambers, Chick Peteresen, Baron Chase)
As of this writing, with less than three days to go before the end of the Kickstarter fundraising campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lesterchambers/lesters-time-has-come-today) Lester has going with Reddit.com co-founder Alexis Ohanian, the drive has 2,128 backers and it's raised close to $60,000 -- nearly $21,000 over its minimum goal to cover expenses.
January 3 provided a prime example of how busy life has been lately for Lester and his friends. It started in the morning with an appearance at a television studio in San Jose for a recording on Press:Here on NBC -- with Alexis and Lester each being interviewed, followed by one of the funkiest performances of "Let's Get Funky" that I've heard yet out of the band.
From the television studio, the group packed up their gear and headed into downtown San Francisco, where they appeared with Alexis at WeWork Labs in front of an audience of close to 100 people for a Q&A and concert, designed to show how musicians can use the Internet to take greater control of their own artistic destinies.
It was an evening that was captured very well in an article by Drew Olanoff at TechCrunch.com.
It was a night of questions, answers, fascinating stories capturing moments in rock music history, and more musicianship from Lester and The Mud Stompers.
Since then, the phone calls continue at "Mud Stompers Headquarters." A new CD is now in the planning stages, and recording will begin soon.
Yeah, Lester Chambers' train just keeps on rollin' along. It could roll on to a marvelous comeback for a man who believes strongly in miracles, hopefully helping along the way to set the tone for musicians like him who want to be able to do something with their music, on their own terms.
I wrote here last week about Reddit.com co-founder Alexis Ohanian and soul/rock/blues/gospel music legend Lester Chambers teaming up on Kickstarter (at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195088551/lesters-time-has-come-today) to launch a public funding campaign so Lester and his current group, The Mud Stompers, can record a new album in the coming months, and so Lester can "pay it forward" by giving money back to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund charity with part of the proceeds from his new album going to Sweet Relief through Ohanian's Breadpig site.
Tomorrow will mark a full week since Lester and Alexis' Kickstarter campaign was launched, and the goal of reaching $39,000 just to cover recording expenses by January 9 is under one-fourth of the way there as of this writing.
It's a busy time of the year, that's for sure. One thing to consider during this time of giving might be to look at this campaign as a way of sharing a special gift for friends or loved ones in a variety of ways through the investment in/purchase of new music that could be given to music fans through the items that are available by pledging at the various levels: a digital copy of the new album for a pledge of $10 or more; a limited edition CD and more for a pledge of at least $20; all of these items plus a specially designed shirt or an autographed copy of the new CD ... it just gets better.
And don't think Lester and The Mud Stompers aren't ready to get this thing going. Here's a nearly half-hour taste of an appearance they made on a Bay Area public television program in the last few months.
It looks like my friend Lester Chambers of the iconic 1960s and '70s rock/psychedelic/soul band The Chambers Brothers ("Time Has Come Today") has been recording in the studio! Just found a few photos from a recent session at Chick's Place Recording & Rehearsal Studio in San Rafael, California, on Facebook, and I'm sharing one with you here.
Can't wait to see what comes out of this!
Lester Chambers in the studio recording with The Mud Stompers recently. (Photo Courtesy Deborah Parrish)
I told you yesterday about a trip I made last New Year's Eve to help my old college roommate/good friend/brother Baron Chase celebrate his 52nd birthday with an annual birthday jam at his place in the Bay Area.
I told you about how Baron serves as music director for Lester Chambers, a musician with a long and colorful history to tell from the world of music with many stories coming from his days with the iconic 1960s soul/psychedelic/rock/gospel group The Chambers Brothers and songs like "Time Has Come Today," "People Get Ready," and "Love Peace and Happiness."
I told you about how Lester lived just a few houses down from Baron at the time. It was quite a rush to me to sit in Baron's kitchen that afternoon, look out the window, and see a part of music history walk up the sidewalk to Baron's front door.
After he came in, we were introduced and shook hands.
"Hi, I'm Lester Chambers."
"Oh, yeah, I know who you are," I responded. "It's an honor to meet you."
From there, we kicked back and watched some NBA on the television before more guests arrived and the jamming began.
Lester Chambers sings "Dock of the Bay" (Photo By John G. Miller)
I sat in an easy chair. Lester sat on a love seat less than five feet away from me. When the people who were there felt like getting into the music and they launched into the Otis Redding classic "(Sittin' On The) Dock of the Bay," and Lester Chambers was singing it five feet away from me, I felt the need to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. I grabbed my camera to record the moment.
It was a night to remember for sure. Lester is about the most decent, kind, gentle guy you'd ever want to meet. He's genuine. There's no "rock star aura" about him. Having him pull out a blues harp and start playing that is a treat all by itself. Vocally, he sings like a man who's traveled a few hard roads in his life and lived to tell the tales. He sang "Dock of the Bay" like he was telling a hard story about his life, and he sang it with love and care. When he sang Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," with the guest musicians jamming and singing along, it was like a prayer coming from Lester's heart. Everyone was captivated.
Dylan and Lester Chambers perform together.
Speaking of Dylan, there's Lester's son Dylan as well. Lester would love to come back strong in the music business himself, but he doesn't think so much of himself these days as he does promoting the career of Dylan Chambers.
Dylan's got some vocal talent himself, and he put it on display the night of the birthday jam. He's carrying on a family tradition. Dylan also rattled off tons of information about Lester and the rest of the Chambers Brothers for those more unfamiliar with them. He is an amazing historian when it comes to his famous father and uncles.
Lester and his brothers gave Dylan some great material of musically historic significance to work with. Songs like "Time Has Come Today" don't come around all that often and have the kind of lasting impact that tune has had.
Lester's still trying to leave his mark on the music world in his early 70s. He and Baron turned what was known as the Lester Chambers Blues Revue into a group called The Mud Stompers to note Lester's Mississippi roots, and they played two live shows online earlier this year on stageit.com. I tuned in to both of them and tried to help get the word out to anyone who wanted to tune in. Both stageit.com shows were top-notch in terms of musicianship and tightness, and Lester showed he still has the chops vocally and on that blues harp.
We can't forget Dylan Chambers either. He's determined to make people remember his father and uncles and the musical heritage they created. And he's working on doing something with his talents himself, with his group The Midnight Transit.
