Sometimes the big lights in popular music rise in glory and then burn out too soon. But some of those who played with them, no less talented but less well-known, keep a steady, warming glow -- they keep making music for all of their lives.
Bob Harvey is one of those. Past the time when others retire or want to be forgotten, Bob Harvey loves performing so much he can't quit. He keeps adding young talent to the sound of his current band, Georgia Blue, and truckin' on.
California was the setting for the legendary Bluegrass group, the Slippery Rock String Band, where Bob got his start in 1963. Then he was a founding member of Jefferson Airplane but went back to the re-formed Slippery Rock group and then into folk-rock with Catfish Wakely
Both the U.S. Navy and getting a journalism degree kept Bob working in other areas for some time, including writing and being managing editor for American Trucker Magazine. On assignment for the Navy in 1990, he went to Saudi Arabia and met Brian Fowler, whose "mandolin playing pulled me back into Bluegrass music," Bob says.
The two formed San Francisco Blue and recorded the CDs "Idiot's Vision" ; "Live on the Cartersville Express"; "Hurting for People," a tribute to Skip Spence, an Airplane member who co-wrote the song with Bob "back then"; and "Live at ARTS in hARTwell." Brian and Bob performed together at Brasstown Bald's Musicfest, Race Fest in Morrow, Ga., and again at the Cartersville Arts Festival, and then Brian decided to step back from music for a while.
Since all the current performers are from Calhoun, Ga., Bob has changed the name to Georgia Blue. Alesia Chester is a skillful and experienced harmony singer who joins Bob on vocals. Bob says violinist Danny Taylor's "soulful and intuitive progressions will absolutely pull your heartstrings." Taylor will co-produce the group's next show and CD, "Alternative Country." The icing on the cake, says Bob, is Zack Lanier, a guitar-banjo man whose playing Bob likens to that of Chuck McCabe on "Live at the House of the Rising Sun" recorded by Jefferson Airplane in 1966
Firmly bound by his musical roots, but ever willing to leap out in faith on a new project, Bob Harvey continues to play festivals and venues wherever people want music that feels good, music that tells a story, and lyrics that have a message.
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