When we had the opportunity to sit and talk, Johnny was soft-spoken and gracious when he reflected on his experiences and musical friendships. It was almost the polar opposite of his raucous, guitar-shredding stage presence. There are so many layers to this Rock n’ Roll legend, so we started our conversation with those early, formative years. “I was born in San Francisco and grew up in Redwood City until about 1958.” Johnny says. “I was about eight years old when we moved to Daly City. It used to be all farms; even when I grew up there was a pig farm. Colma is right next to Daly City and it was known for its cemeteries and the Christian Brothers Dairy, mainly farms and a lot of florists.”

I read your family was very musical, especially accordion music. How did you become a Rock n’ Roll guitar player? “My lack of being able to read music.” Johnny smiles. “I was faking it for awhile but my dad and uncle were very well known accordion players at that time. Accordion was a very big deal back then, the 30s, 40s and 50s! A long story short, my accordion music teacher caught me faking it, I’d take the music home and my father would play it and I would listen to him and play it back. As the music became more complicated I would miss the value of some of the notes then my teacher realized I’d been fooling him. He got angry. So, I saw a guitar in the studio and asked my dad if I could try that…and that was it!”

Were there garage bands growing up? “We actually were starting to play and being hired so we rehearsed in my mom’s garage. I joined the union at thirteen and I was playing the accordion and the guitar. My buddy’s father was the treasurer in the union. He said you guys might as well join the union. We were underage so he said, ‘I’ll grandfather you in. You’ll need a note from your parents.'”

So what type of venues were you playing? “Oh, the Masonic Temples, Jewish clubs, Moose Lodges and a lot of Teen Clubs and Community Centers, they all had dances and activities on the weekends. So, we were always playing and making good money.”

You started on guitar, but you also played the bass. Tell us about the band, Day Blindness. “That was the band I started playing bass for. Then we changed the name to Fox. They already had one LP out under the name Day Blindness and they turned into a rock trio, so I took over the lead vocals.”

The 1960s in the Bay area was about to become the center of a world-wide musical revolution. “Fox was a good band and we worked a lot in that scene. Our guitar player (Gary Pihl) went on to play with Boston and Sammy Hagar. It was a good band and we played at the Fillmore, Bill Graham really liked us. In fact, he remembered when I started playing with Elvin, he remembered that band. We (Fox) ended up going to Hawaii on a one-way ticket, we found out later it was the Korean mob that brought us over there. Then we were kind of stuck in Hawaii, which sounds wonderful but it’s not really because there’s only so many places to play…and we had to play under their blanket. We played a concert and met John Selby, who was producing Quicksilver and he asked us how we got there and we told him. He told one of the road guys to go get a truck, put our equipment in it and go over to our house and get all our stuff. So he took us under his wing, we were black-balled from all the clubs, but we were able to play concerts. So we made a living doing that. A friend of mine worked for Janis Joplin and when Janis came over there, we all met and that’s how we got off the island. It was through Janis.”

You were able to leave the islands and go back home, because of Janis Joplin? “Yeah, she called her promoter and said if we didn’t open for Big Brother they wouldn’t go. So we did four shows with Big Brother and then came back. But Quicksilver at that time…those guys were fantastic!”

At this point of the interview, we both went off on a tangent…’ooooohhh, have another HIT of Fresh Air!’ “I still think of that song, once in awhile.” Johnny smiles, then adds. “Cipollina’s amp rig was fantastic, with the horns on top, he was such a great guitar player.”

Did you get to hang with Janis a little? “I knew Janis pretty well, but it was only about a year when she passed, though. My friend worked for her and he was mentioned in some books about her. We’d go to lunch or over to her house a lot. That’s where I met Nick Gravenites, so I’ve known Nick from those days. Also another guy who came back from Hawaii with us who worked for Fox as a roadie was Jim Green. I had mentioned to Jim when he went back to Georgia that we were looking for another singer and that’s how Mickey Thomas was found.”

Our mutual friend, Charlie Musselwhite used to speak highly of Janis and how sweet she was as a person. “She was very, very sweet and a lot of people misrepresent that. That really bothers me to this day to hear something disparaging about her. She was a very, very nice person, she was troubled is all, but she would give the shirt off her back if you needed it. I remember after Monterey she was talking about her new band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band about how she loved Otis Redding’s style and she changed her dance moves and her singing after seeing Otis. You have to think now, if they both had survived and what if they’d done stuff together. Oh, and after that lunch we switched cars and raced back to her house. I drove her Porsche and she drove my dad’s Karmann Ghia.”

You played with a band called Gideon and Power. “Gideon was really interesting and I wish more people knew about him and there was more out there about him. He was a gospel singer that turned regular Baptist Gospel into a club act. We were still doing the old gospel tunes that you would hear in church, but he would have raps in between that would explain different things. The music was fantastic and at one point he had a coffin, a small coffin we would haul around in the back of my truck or on the road. He would tell people during the song, ‘Give Me my Flowers while I Live’ and he’d have people come up and look in the coffin. There were flowers on the casket and they’d look in…there was a mirror in there. It was his way of telling everyone how much you love them, while you’re here.”

Talk a little about Wumper’s Old Man on Grant in San Francisco? And didn’t Paul Butterfield used to come in there and jam with you? “I didn’t actually know Paul that well, but we did know each other. He and Elvin were pretty tight. But concerning Wumpers…that was Perry Welsh. (Perry and the Pumpers) Perry used to play with Elvin and was Elvin’s road manager and he played harmonica and sang. Perry was a true character in the purest sense, there was stuff he did that was historical. He had a house; he and his wife split up, so myself and the bass player, Fly Brooks who passed in 2010, we moved in with Perry and started this band. Perry and I had tried to start ‘Perry and the Pumpers’ previously and couldn’t get it together. The original bass player for Perry and the Pumpers, Johnny Ace, went back to New York.

So we started messing around learning some blues stuff and I moved back to guitar, Perry talked me into doing that. I’d still been playing bass with Gideon and Luther Tucker. Luther found out I played guitar, so Luther had me playing guitar, too. Perry played harp and was a great singer and he knew all the cool blues stuff so we were really one of the first blues bands out of that area, because most people were focused on rock. It was 1971. We started playing and Perry bought this big metro van we called the Pumpermobile. The name pumper came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there was a song called ‘I’m an old pipeliner and I lay my line all day’…pumping oil. And we would drive that old metro van around all hours of the night creating holy hell all around North Beach and playing in all those clubs. The club Wumper’s, the owner really liked us and Perry talked him into letting us play every weekend and we usually filled the place on Friday and Saturday. Then people like Elvin started coming in and when Butterfield was in town, Paul would come in. And Luther would come in all the time, so it got to be a place where people who loved blues started coming. Word got out and it was all about the music. Right down the block was the Orphanage and the North Beach Revival that had Mike Finnigan and his band playing. You could walk to all these clubs and sit in. That was my university. Later on when I got in Elvin’s band, that’s what we’d do. That went on for about a year before Elvin took me and the bass player Fly, and the rest you already know.”

Before we get away from it, Luther Tucker was one of the sweetest guys. “Luther was phenomenal and such a nice guy. One time we were rehearsing at his house and Sunnyland Slim was playing piano and Luther goes ‘let me buy you lunch.’ He was living in Hunter’s Point at the time and we walked up to this BBQ place. He didn’t talk much but he asked me, ‘when we get back, would you fire my band for me?’ I looked at him in shock, I’m 21 years old and he wants me to fire his band. But that’s the way Luther was, he didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Elvin loved Luther and years later I kind of noticed similarities that Elvin picked up from Luther and I learned a lot of rhythm guitar playing from Luther.”

Blues music seems to have that personal connection, handed down or shared with fellow musicians more than any other music. “I hate to say it, but it’s gone now because things change. Now, young people learn about the blues from the internet and there’s so much out there, they forget to go back to the roots. Back then, as a young man I learned to shut up and listen and watch and that’s kind of gone now. Things have changed; I can’t say in a bad way, they have just changed so things will be different in the future.”

You’ve said that some of your influences on guitar were players like Chet Atkins and Steve Cropper. “I think Steve Cropper because when I was growing up and that was the type of music I was listening to…all the stuff from Stax-Volt and he was the king of rhythm guitar. I was listening to all the guitar players. Freddie King was playing instrumentals before he started singing because that’s what sold. Luther was a big influence – first hand. Chet Atkins, I couldn’t play jazz or any of his stuff, but I loved the way he played and I would listen to him and watch him on TV. Elvin, of course was a learning experience because of what we listened to and what we put together at that time. I did a session with Cropper in 1980, I think it was with Mickey Thomas for MCA it was quite an experience because the tables were turned. He played lead on that session and I played rhythm, so it was very interesting.”

You start touring with Elvin Bishop; things must have really changed in your musical career? “The first band was a 5-piece band before Mickey, that band really had something going on. Then we added Mickey as a background singer through my connection with Gideon. And he took over a lot of the leads, and after ‘Fooled Around’ hit things changed our position on the totem pole, so-to-speak. Everything got larger, our road crew, lighting and it was quite the experience for a 24-year old.”

Elvin Bishop Band ‘Fooled Around and Fell in Love’ (1975)

Must have been like riding a rocket. What was it like for you? “There are some blank areas!” (laughing) “Suprisingly, when I read Keith Richards book, he said he remembered everything. Well I don’t remember everything but I remember quite a bit. I left Elvin’s band in ’78 but I still played with him. It got a little fuzzy in the 80s because I was playing with Norton Buffalo. But I never noticed until I got sober, just how close I was with Elvin, he was like a big brother to me, so when I quit the band he took it personally more so than some of the other people that left the band, so we had some odd dynamics until the 90s, but I just talked to him yesterday.” Johnny smiles. “Things have changed.”

That’s good to hear. Talk about your time with Norton Buffalo and the Knockouts. “Working with Norton was quite an experience because when I left Elvin, we were on the road constantly; 300 days a year almost and playing more shows than that. When I went on the road with Norton it was more vans and RV’s and shared rooms, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Norton was such a great guy. Norton would go on the road with Steve Miller and when he would come off, he would subsidize some of his tours. That’s how much he loved playing with the Knockouts. The band had different names; the Commandos…we changed the name on every tour.” (laughing) “One tour was called ‘Driven to Extinction’ and when we were halfway through the tour, someone noticed extinction was spelled wrong.” (laughing) “Those tour badges are now collector’s items. It was great touring with him and we were playing constantly, six nights a week.”

You played with Commander Cody, George Frayne. “I played guitar with Commander Cody. That was fun; he was a good friend of Norton’s because Norton played with him. George was great and he was my guest a few years back at Gator by the Bay. When I lived in Stinson Beach, George lived there, so we would close down the Sand Dollar the only bar and restaurant in town. We used to laugh about it because both of us said the only thing we could get is asphalt burns on our knees on the way home because we lived so close. George was great, a great player, great songwriter, a great sense of humor and a great artist.”

Another name from that era, Jerry Garcia. “He used to come by because he really dug Elvin and they were really close from the Haight days. There are pictures online, but he would come by and jam.”

Another chunk of your musical life was with the Capricorn label. And that included Charlie Daniels, Bonnie Bramlett, Dixie Dregs, Marshall Tucker…“Toy (Caldwell) especially, when we were on the road together every night after the show we ended up in my room. He roomed with his brother Tommy, but we’d end up in my room playing guitar till four in the morning, laughing and drinking and all that good stuff. On days off we’d go fishing and he took me hunting…Toy was a good cat.” But that label (Capricorn) Gregg (Allman) was the main person that started the ball rolling for Jimmy Carter’s run for president. But we all did benefit shows to put Jimmy in office. He was a fantastic person and I met him numerous times…truly, one of the greatest humanitarians of all time.”

How did you end up playing with Van Morrison? “That was an odd thing; we were playing the television show ‘Midnight Special’ and Van showed up and didn’t know he had to have a band, so we learned the song ‘Domino’ in about 20 minutes and pulled it off. It’s on Youtube and it sounds damn good, you know?”

Elvin Bishop Band backing Van Morrison on the Midnight Special

Again, your ability to hear something and play it back is just incredible. “I think it’s just something you’re blessed with. It’s a blessing and a curse. Ed Fletcher who worked for Van and later on went to work with the Doobie Brothers, taught me the guitar part really quick, because he played guitar. Years later I jammed at Humphries with the Doobies and I sat in and did ‘Listen to the Music’ and we’re getting ready to go on stage. Ed asked me, remember that part and I said I’m a little rusty and he showed me again…then said, this is the second time I’ve showed you a part! We laughed about it.”

Do you know Greg Douglass who lives here in Southern California? “We just did a project together with John Avila from Oingo Boingo. It’s ongoing but Mark Langford who owns Rock and Roll San Diego, took 200-year old Irish poems and put them to music. It’s kind of rock-based, but it’s really good. It hasn’t been mixed and mastered yet, and it’s still untitled…”

In 2014 you released ‘Lions and Thieves’ and Albert Lee played on that. “Yeah, Albert came in. It was interesting because I was trying to get Don Peake from the Wrecking Crew to produce it. He played with the Everly Brothers and he was the first white person to play with Ray Charles, an incredible guy and a beautiful person. I wanted him to produce it but I just didn’t have the budget. He introduced me to Albert some years back and I wanted him to play on a couple of songs, so we went up to Don’s studio and we recorded Albert up there and he was just incredible as everyone knows.”

Where did the title come from? “I was at the opera, Salome. King Herod was berating Salome about her love interest. And he says ‘I saw him lounging under the palm trees in the desert with the lions and thieves.’ And I thought that is such a cool line and when thinking about it later, you know meeting Jimmy Carter but I was also friends with the president of the Hell’s Angels. Lions and Thieves…that connection; from good people and people that were considered bad but had treated me really well, and were very good people in their own sense. There are two songs on that album that are about cheating death, because I have. But like Elvin says, ‘Quit complaining, we beat the odds!'”

You were a constant at the Record Plant in Sausalito, another hub for musical excellence. Who were some of the players you ran into? “Just about everybody!” (laughing) “I used to play pinball with Buddy Miles, that’s how I met Buddy. He was holding court at a club down in Santa Cruz and I would go down and play with him a bunch. And Bob Johnston, he produced Bob Dylan, he was doing some production there, so I started playing guitar on a lot of his stuff. I lived maybe a half mile away from the Plant, so I was always there.”

Stephen Stills? “Yeah, I used to see Stephen there. It’s funny because the stories I have about Stephen are more about partying than anything else.” (laughing) “He’d come by to see Elvin and he’d come backstage or we’d go up to his room and take our guitars.”

You talked about some current recording projects, any other musical endeavors looking down the road? “I’m getting ready to record in January up in Greaseland with Kid Andersen. It’ll be called the ‘Gates of Redemption’ and Elvin will definitely be on it.”

Your road is truly incredible, playing with some of the most notable artists of a generation. And growing up so close to ground zero; the right place at the right time. “You know Elvin says that on the ‘Blues Rolls On.’ He says once again I was at the right place at the right time. I always tell everyone, its talent of course and how hard you work, but it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time…and sometimes the wrong place at the right time. It just so happens at that moment in music history that whole area is where it was happening. I’m sure other cities had their little scene, but at that time it was the epicenter. Even when I joined Elvin’s band, every night we’d play guitar then jump in a cab and go to maybe five or six clubs a night and sit in. Then we’d go to Berkeley and do the same thing. Winterland we played so much, the Carousel; I never played the Avalon but our drummer lived in the basement and we used to rehearse there so all those places were home to us and everyone was so generous and worked together.”

Most definitely…another place and another time.

The post Johnny V: You’ll Need a Note From Your Parents appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Growing up in Illinois, Morvan learned early if you want to succeed, you have to put in the work. Using education as her toolbox, Laurie became an Electrical Engineer. She had dreams of being an astronaut so she learned to fly; acquiring her private, instrument, multi-engine and commercial pilot’s ratings. She got a job in Aerospace in Los Angeles but left it to play full time in a Top 40 band. It wasn’t enough so she went back to school for a Master’s in Applied Mathematics to teach at the college level. Today, Morvan fronts her own band, has six albums to her credit and as the dust settles on the Pandemic era, she is already back on the road with an extended tour schedule.

There’s a lot to unpack with Laurie Morvan; first and foremost is her unrelenting admiration of song-writing and making the music she loves. After a sweaty, three-set blitz at the Old Town Blues Club in Southern California, Laurie took time to talk about her road, her fans and her specific shade of blue. “A long time ago I made a decision not to limit myself and my songwriting” she says. “So I kinda’ let the song be the boss. Wherever the song leads me; it’s like the music that speaks to me the most, just as a consumer of music as I was growing up was that high-energy, rockin’ blues. It’s what grabbed a hold of my heart and shook me to my core! And that lead me down the path of the more traditional blues which is beautiful and rich and awesome, but it’s not the thing that just grabbed me by the throat and said, ‘you’re gonna’ be a musician.’ So I love the high-energy, rockin’ blues side of things and I’m always going to be a purveyor of that style of blues. We’ll play some traditional blues because I think it’s beautiful and a particular song will speak to me and we’ll do it, but I think to truly be an artist you have to speak the truth of your own heart and be who you are. If you try to be somebody else you’re just going to be a carbon copy kind of band, and that just never interested me. There are people that play traditional blues and its wonderful and I respect them and I’m happy for them and they find joy in it and I say, ‘go for it!’ And then there are folks like me that play the high-energy, rockin’ side of blues because that’s what fuels my soul. My number one goal is to help people feel uplifted, it doesn’t mean people come in feeling bad, but if they come in feeling good, I want them to leave the show feeling even better. If they came in feeling sad, I want them to feel like their soul got fed a little bit by some love and healing through the music and that’s what I’m always trying to give. I love music so much I’m just trying to get it out of my body, out through my guitar and out to people and let it heal them.”

Out of the hundreds of interviews I’ve done over the years, your road is unlike any I’ve ever seen.

“I will say it’s been an unusual path to the blues.” She nods. Let’s make a list…teacher, pilot, mathematician…”an electrical engineer.” Laurie grins. “Doesn’t every blues guitarist go down that road?” (laughing) “You know that path was actually formed by my childhood, really. My biological father walked out on my mom and me when I was five and I saw her struggle. I don’t remember exactly the age I was, maybe seven or eight, but I remember having an epiphany and saying to myself in my little girl voice, ‘I’m going to be always able to take care of myself and in a way that is comfortable and I won’t have to struggle so hard.’ So, I set out to use every skill and or talent that my hard work could muster and I would always be able to pay the bills, put a roof over my head and food on the table and pursue my music. I went off to college because I saw education as a tool. That’s really how I saw it…if I go get this degree in electrical engineering; I’m going to be able to land a job that makes good money and I’ll learn how to play this guitar better and better.”

To be so driven and motivated at that age, is pretty remarkable.

“Yeah, I always wanted to land on my feet and not count on anyone else. That doesn’t mean I want to isolate myself, I just wanted to be in charge of my own destiny. “

“I see creative beauty within math. A well-written proof is so pretty I want to frame it and put it on a wall. It’s just so pretty! The logic of it is very pleasing to me. That makes my brain happy.” —Laurie Morvan

What was your attraction to Aerospace and Engineering?

“When I was in High School I remember my senior counselor, just before I was going off to college told me ‘you know, you’re really good at math and science why don’t you go be an engineer? They make a good living.’ And I was like, ‘Ok!'” (laughing) “It wasn’t like I had a dream, but actually when I was a little girl; I wanted to be an astronaut. Hence, the reason I went toward aerospace engineering and why I got a pilot’s license. I was interested in space travel, I read all kinds of science fiction as a little girl…everybody. I loved that world and the idea of going out and experiencing new things.”

What kind of aircraft do you fly?

“I learned how to fly in a Beechcraft Sport which is a low-wing, single engine plane. I also learned how to fly a twin-engine, so I got my private, instrument, multi-engine and commercial pilot’s ratings. For a brief time I thought of becoming a pilot and pursuing that but once I landed my gig as an electrical engineer and it got me to Southern California and then started playing in bands…then I was just like, this is what I have to go do.”

Would you say that playing in bands while working your Aerospace day job was kind of like your garage band period?

“Yes, right. I was just learning how to play guitar, I barely knew what to do with a guitar at that time other than strum some chords. I had to learn how to play rhythm guitar, then I started to fall in love with lead guitar and there came a point where I went into my boss at TRW Aerospace and just said, ‘I’m leaving engineering to go play music full time’ and he about fell on the floor. It was time, I had learned enough to get out on the road and play and I was working with a Top 40 band. In those days you’d set up in the club on Tuesday and you’d play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then you’d tear down and go to the next town. The road gigs we were playing from 9 to 1:30AM in the bar and then everyday in my hotel room I’d play another three or four hours because you’re out on the road and there’s nothing else to do. I just wanted to get good; I was in love with all things guitar.”

I think I’ve only seen you perform with a solid body guitar. Do you ever play an acoustic?

“I started on an acoustic. My very first guitar was acoustic and after I learned three chords I wrote my first song. It’s like the most natural thing in the world to me…is to write a song. It’s like what I’m supposed to do. In fact, during the Pandemic I played an acoustic guitar exclusively for about six months and wrote a whole bunch of songs on there. I’ve considered putting out an acoustic album and that may happen. Since that time I’ve also been writing on my electric. At the end of this year, we have so much touring so it can’t happen until the end of the year but I’m hoping to record my next album which will probably be a full-on, full-throated, electric guitar album. Then maybe the next year put out an acoustic album.”

Let’s talk about your discography.

“I have six albums that I’ve put out including the very first one from a long time ago (1997) with Back Road Shack ‘Out of the Woods.’ ‘Find My Way Home’ (2004) “I had been playing…and recording was really expensive and my drummer at the time was going to move to the mid-West, so we better get in the studio right now! That’s my only album that has cover songs on it because we had originally just recorded those cover songs to help get club work, but they turned out pretty cool so let’s put them out on a record.” ‘Cures what Ails Ya’ (2007) “You know, ‘Cures What Ails Ya’ came from the song, ‘One Little Thing’ and I can remember vividly we were at band rehearsal, I was going through a hard time, we played music and I remember stepping out into the night air, it was a cool evening and there was some fog and I walked out and felt so much better having played music and I just said, ‘Thank Heavens I have that one little thing that cures what ails me.’ I stopped in my tracks and went ‘Okay, I have my next song.’ When I went home I wrote ‘One Little Thing.'”

You’re so prolific when it comes to writing. Did you write more during the Pandemic?

“I did! For every song you hear on an album, I’ve probably written three or four or five more and I have to pare it down for the record and what’s right at the time and what I feel is complete enough. There’ll be something that maybe has a strong part here but not enough here, and this other one is great and we go with that.”

In 2009 you released ‘Fire It Up.’

“So on that album, we went to Northern California and worked with a wonderful producer, Steve Savage (Elvin Bishop) who co-produced with me. Steve has a really good heart and made me feel really comfortable in the studio. That album won a Blues Foundation Award and it was something I was really proud of at the time.”

Two years later ‘Breathe Deep.’

“We recorded that album here with a great engineer, Erik Zobler. We had worked with him before, Erik also recorded the ‘Cures What Ails Ya’ CD. Eric was George Duke’s engineer and he hooked me up. I had written this song, it’s not a blues tune but more of a singer/songwriter piano and acoustic guitar ballad and Eric said, ‘Laurie, you need a great piano player on this song, have you considered asking George to play on it? I won’t promise anything but let me play it for him. He’s really picky, he doesn’t play on many things, so don’t get your hopes up.’ So he played the song for George and George said, ‘Yeah, good song. I’ll play on it.’ So Lisa and I got to go to George Duke’s home studio in the Hollywood Hills and record that song. When I wrote that song, ‘Family Line’ I wrote it only for me, I never intended for it to ever be played for anyone and then it turned into this beautiful vehicle and the next thing I know, I’m in the Hollywood Hills at George Duke’s house recording.”

‘Breathe Deep’ was co-produced by Lisa Morvan, the harmony of the band.

“Yes! Lisa has unbelievably good ears and she played violin as a kid. You have to have a good ear for that. And she also plays bass and her harmonies…she harmonizes so well with me and she’s super good at matching what I do. We’ve been singing together for what now, 21 years? We know each other; we flow together and bounce ideas off each other.”

‘Gravity’ was released in 2018. You worked with Tony Braunagel, Mike Finnigan and Barry Goldberg.

“Oh Yeah! And I wrote a song on that album called ‘Too Dumb to Quit.'” (laughing) I love some of your original titles, ‘Beat Up from the Feet Up’ and my favorite, ‘No Working During Drinking Hours.’ Your blues and your writing themes seem to highlight everyday and relatable issues. “I try to find the humor or the healing in it and sometimes those two are intertwined. But, I’m not afraid to get down in the hard stuff and deal with it. I always want to find a way to sing about a hard thing in an uplifting way and isn’t just about poor, little me.”

The band is getting back out on the road…

“Starting in July through the end of the year we’re super busy. We go to Northern California for 10 days in July then we come home for about a week, then we head up North. We go into Canada for 10 days and we do our first tour of British Columbia that culminates in the Calgary Blues Fest. We’ll play the West Coast of Canada first, the greater Vancouver area, then we’ll start moving East to Kamloops, to the Kootenay’s and then to Calgary. We’re just super excited.”

After Canada?

“We drop down and play the Magic City Blues Festival in Billings, Montana then we go to Bismarck and into the mid-West. We’ve got dates in Madison, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan and we headline the Joliet Blues Fest in Joliet, Illinois.”

Joliet is pretty close to home for you?

“It is! I’m so excited. I didn’t even know there was a Joliet Blues Fest. When I found out about it, I was like a laser beam. These guys don’t know it yet, but they are booking me!” (laughing) “Then we come back to the West Coast for a month with shows up and down the coast…then we head south. We’re playing in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama and then we head to Florida. We do our first tour in Florida and then head back to Biloxi, Mississippi to play the new Ground Zero!

Festivals are back.

“We’re doing the Bogalusa Blues Festival in Bogalusa, Louisiana and the King Biscuit Festival in Helena, Arkansas. When we get back we’ll head down to Baja, Mexico to headline the San Felipe Blues Festival. So we’ll be in Canada, U.S. and Mexico and we’re super excited about that.”

Just describing all that…I’m exhausted. (laughing)

“When you’re touring, you gotta’ go. You don’t get to play the same town every night. I try to stay in shape, I do all my own booking and I’m the record company president. I have a lot of energy and I’m willing to work hard. I don’t know if there’s a person on planet Earth that can out work me. I believe in hard work and it got me here.”

Who’s touring with the Laurie Morvan band?

“Tommy Salyers on keyboards, he’s from Pittsburgh. Drummer, Robert Gates is our newest member and Pat Morvan on bass. Pat and I have been playing music together my entire adult life. I met him when I was 23 or 24 and we’ve been in and out of bands together and always had some kind of band going and we’ve been playing forever, together. Of course, Lisa Morvan on backing vocals and percussion and she’s been playing with me for 24 years. We’ve been together a long time.”

I would ask if your family was musical, but most of them are on stage with you. Are there any earlier family music connections?

“My Grandma played the organ in church and my Grandpa sang. My mom was not a musician but I gravitated to it really naturally. I remember being a little girl and there would be songs that were like my best friends and I’d run home from school and play that song over and over again. So music has always been a really important part of my life.”

I‘m fascinated with your right brain/left brain abilities. Usually people are either/or…but you seem to draw from both sides; the analytical and the creative.

“I see creative beauty within math. Writing a well-written proof is so pretty I want to frame it and put it on a wall. It’s just so pretty! The logic of it is very pleasing to me. That makes my brain happy. I think… I never told myself no. If something interested me then I just believed I could go learn how to do it. Now, there’s got to be certain limitations, obviously I’m 5’10” I’m never going to be a ballerina so thankfully that wasn’t my dream. But I found things, at 5’10” I played volleyball, that kind of stuff. My story is really just one of making up my mind to do a thing, then being willing to do the hard work to make the thing happen.”

Your blues always gets people on their feet.

“I just give myself over to music whether I’m listening to it or I’m playing it. Music’s never really in the background for me, it always takes my attention. Sometimes I’ll be somewhere and I’m supposed to be listening to somebody and then I’m analyzing the song I’m hearing on the radio…Oh, I really like that groove and I like the syncopation at the end, too! Oh Stop! Pay attention to the person who’s talking!” (laughing)

The world being in its current state, where does Laurie Morvan see herself in 10 or 15 years?

“It’s scary and you can go down into the abyss, but I choose to not go down the abyss. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur, I do my little part and I can try and help make things better! I’m going to keep playing music and writing songs; I have to write songs, it’s just in me.

At the show today at the OTBC in Southern California you stopped sets to pay homage to B.B. King, Koko Taylor, John Lee Hooker as well as John Prine and the Meters. That’s about as versatile as a band can be.

“Yeah, we try to just surprise people. I don’t want to be pigeon-holed. For me as the leader of the band and as the lead singer, a song has to speak to me because I have to be able to sell that song, so-to-speak. Or why would I bother doing it? I don’t do songs unless they grab a hold of me and go…PLAY me! And we usually do ’em up and put our own little twist on them while still respecting the artists and where they came from. Again, I never want to just copy someone, I want to honor them.”

Your live shows have become a rocket ride. What is it about that connection with your fans?

“That’s a wonderful feeling, that beautiful symbiosis that happens when the audience plugs into the musicians and there’s a circular flow of beauty and healing and love…it’s wonderful.”

Laurie Morvan Band – Upcoming 2022 Tour Dates

• Sun 5/29 – Big Blue Music & Brew Festival, South Lake Tahoe CA
• Sat 6/11 – Casuelas Café, Palm Desert CA Sun 6/19 – Old Town Blues Club, Temecula CA
• Fri 7/1 – Sly McFlys, Monterey CA
• Sat 7/2 – Murphys Irish Pub, Murphys CA
• Tue 7/5 – Bluesday at Palisades Tahoe, Olympic Valley, CA
• Wed 7/6 – Peacetown Concert Series, Sebastopol CA
• Thu 7/7 – Fairytale Town, Sacramento CA
• Fri 7/8 – Twin Pine, Middletown CA
• Sat 7/9 – Twin Pine, Middletown CA
• Sun 7/10 – Powerhouse, Folsom CA
• Sat 7/16 – Casuelas Café, Palm Desert CA
• Wed 7/20 – Club Fox, Redwood City CA
• Fri 7/22 – Blue Frog Studios, White Rock BC Canada
• Sat 7/23 – Jazz & Arts Festival, Fort Langley, BC Canada
• Sun 7/24 – Summer Sundays, Port Moody, BC Canada
• Tue 7/26 – Music in the Park, Kamloops, BC Canada
• Thu 7/28 – Balfour Beach Inn, Balfour BC Canada
• Fri 7/29 – Finley’s Bar & Grill, Nelson, BC Canada
• Sun 7/31 – Calgary Blues Festival, Calgary AB Canada
• Fri 8/5 – Magic City Blues Fest, Billings MT
• Sat 8/6 – Laughing Sun Brewing Co, Bismarck ND
• Thu 8/11 – Red Rooster, Madison WI
• Fri 8/12 – Park Theatre, Holland MI
• Sat 8/13 – Joliet Blues Festival, Joliet IL
• Sun 8/14 – Pop’s Place, Decatur IL
• Mon 8/15 – The Alamo, Springfield IL
• Thu 8/18 – Blues Society of Omaha, Stocks n Bonds, Omaha NE
• Sun 8/21 – Sizzlin’ Summer Concerts, Grover Beach CA
• Sun 8/28 – Yaamava Casino Blues Brunch, Highland CA
• Wed 8/31 – Desert Blues Revival, Agua Caliente, Palm Springs CA
• Fri 9/2 – Tooth & Nail Winery, Paso Robles CA
• Sat 9/3 – 105 Noshery, Roseville CA
• Sun 9/4 – The Saloon, San Francisco CA
• Sat 9/10 – Lawndale Blues Festival, Lawndale CA
• Sat 9/17 – Old Town Blues Club, Temecula CA
• Sun 9/18 – Rhythm Room, Phoenix AZ
• Wed 9/21 – Green Oaks Tavern, Humble TX
• Thu 9/22 – Beauvoir Park, Baton Rouge LA
• Sat 9/24 – Bogalusa Blues Festival, Bogalusa LA
• Sun 9/25 – Capitol Oyster Bar, Montgomery AL
• Wed 9/28 – Quaker Steak & Lube, Clearwater FL
• Thu 9/29 – Crazy Uncle Mike’s, Boca Raton FL
• Fri 9/30 – Cottonmouth Southern Soul Kitchen, Bradenton FL
• Sat 10/1 – Buckingham Blues Bar, Fort Myers FL
• Sun 10/2 – TT’s Tiki Bar, Punta Gorda FL
• Tue 10/4 – Paradise Bar & Grill, Pensacola FL
• Wed 10/5 – Ground Zero Blues Club, Biloxi MS
• Fri 10/7 – King Biscuit Blues Festival, Helena AR
• Fri 10/14 – San Felipe Blues & Arts Fiesta, Baja, Mexico
• Sat 10/15 – San Felipe Blues & Arts Fiesta, Baja, Mexico
• Sun 10/30 – Old Town Blues Club, Temecula CA
• Fri 11/11 – Almost Famous Wine Co, Livermore CA
• Sat 11/12 – Murphys Irish Pub, Murphys CA
• Sun 11/13 – Powerhouse, Folsom CA
• Fri 11/18 – Jeremy’s Juke Joint, Lake Havasu City AZ
• Sat 11/19 – Jeremy’s Juke Joint, Lake Havasu City AZ
• Sun 12/4 – Old Town Blues Club, Temecula CA
• Fri 12/9 – Twin Pine Casino, Middletown CA
• Sat 12/10 – Twin Pine Casino, Middletown CA

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