The concert promotions fates have collaborated this week to bring a pair of divergent but equally entertaining options to Redding: Peter Frampton, who was the ubiquitous, golden-maned voice of pop rock in 1976, and Karen Savoca, a folk music staple who has been gliding back and forth across the country for more than 20 years.
Photo by Austin Lord.
Frampton and his band will be performing Tuesday night at the Redding Civic Auditorium; Savoca and her guitar-playing partner, Pete Heitzman, will perform Saturday night in the acoustically sublime Pilgrim Congregational Church as part of the Oaksong Society concert series.
So just how big was Frampton in the ’70s? None other than the noted music historian Wayne Campbell (the alter ego of Mike Myers) summed it up in the film “Wayne’s World 2”: “Everybody in the world has ‘Frampton Comes Alive.’ If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide.”
While “everybody” might be a stretch, it is a fact that upon its release in January 1976, “Frampton Comes Alive” spent the next 97 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts. For a full year it was in the top 40 and it was at the very top of the charts for 10 weeks. With sales in excess of eight million copies, it became the largest-selling live album of its time. (It is now the fourth biggest seller.)
As a Sacramento State University student back then, I can attest that it was impossible to walk more than 10 feet without hearing “Show Me the Way,” “Baby I Love Your Way” or “Do You Feel Like We Do” on an approximately 24-7 basis.
The success landed Frampton, shirtless and with a fan carefully ruffling his long hair, on the cover of Rolling Stone. The adulation grew to be a bit much, Frampton has said in numerous interviews. While the record sales and radio airplay was certainly appreciated, Frampton felt the pinup idolization detracted from what he considered his actual strength as a rock ‘n’ roll guitarist.
He has a valid point. The native of Kent, England, was the lead guitarist with The Herd by age 16 and at 19 he joined Steve Marriott to form the hard-rockin’ Humble Pie. He has recorded with artists like Harry Nilsson, Jerry Lee Lewis and George Harrison. Heck, his high school chum was David Bowie.
It was Bowie who gave Frampton’s career a shot of adrenaline in the ’80s. As he told reporter Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune in a recent interview, “I have to credit my friend Dave — David Bowie — for having me on the ‘Glass Spider Tour,’ and on that ‘Never Let Me Down’ record. He reintroduced me in ’87 as a guitar player, ’round the world. And everything sort of started from there, back again. It really invigorated me personally, and I think people’s idea about me changed back to the music, that I was a musician and not just this face or image.”
Frampton, 67, is aging well. One of his later recordings, “Fingerprints,” earned him the Instrumental Pop Album Grammy in 2007. Frampton was tickled with the industry accolade, according to Walden’s interview: “I’m honored that I got a Grammy for not singing! I mean that, I mean that,” Frampton said with a laugh. “… To get a Grammy for my guitar-playing, after all the image s— I went through — haha! — was the best possible way to get a Grammy. Just for my guitar-playing.”
John Davis, a former colleague of mine from the Record Searchlight days, saw Frampton in concert last Thursday and was impressed. “He was excellent. Some may say, ‘Frampton? He’s soft,’ but the dude rocked the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. He’s bald and gray, with chicken legs and stooped shoulders, but he plays a mean guitar.”
Chicken legs or no, there’s no denying that Frampton is rock royalty and it’s pretty cool that he’s on his way back to Redding.
Karen Savoca
The Oaksong Music Society has long been in the habit of introducing audiences to worthwhile artists who they’d otherwise miss out on, given the vagaries of radio and streaming services these days. The artists—Slaid Cleaves, Chris Smither, Achilles Wheel, Keith Greeninger and Tracy Grammer are just a couple that come to mind—have been a delight.
Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman.
Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman can be added to that list and when Pete Angwin, the society’s artistic director, had a chance to bring them back, he jumped on it. The pair played an Oaksong show in early 2013 “and it’s well past time to welcome them back,” Angwin said.
A New Jersey native and the daughter of a big-band singer, Savoca was the very definition of a precocious child. An entry in her baby diary reads “20 months, knows 6 songs.” She was the emcee of her school play by the age of 5.
She hasn’t stopped performing since. As Angwin says, “Savoca puts her heart into a song the way a great actor throws herself into a role, charming audiences with a supple alto and a boundless range of expression. A gifted songwriter, she draws you into her world of humor and compassion, telling stories with grace and ease, as though you’ve been invited to her table for supper.”
Heitzman, her longtime musical partner, was described by one Alaskan critic as “the aurora borealis of guitar.” Together, they have appeared on “The Today Show,” “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Mountain Stage,” “Big Top Chautauqua” and at the Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg folk festivals.
In Redding, they’ll be supporting Savoca’s eighth recording, “I Shook the Tree.” The album was recorded in the 1890s church in central New York that they transformed into a studio.
If you’re going
Peter Frampton performs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Redding Civic Auditorium. Tickets are $49.50 to $69.50; call 229-0022 or visit www.reddingcivic.com
Karen Savoca performs at 8 p.m. Saturday at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2850 Foothill Blvd. Tickets are $25, adults; $10, students 18 and under with valid ID. Available at The Music Connection, 3086 Bechelli Lane, or visit www.brownpapertickets.com
