Mike Wilhelm and Curtis

Mike Wilhelm

Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Mike Wilhelm learned blues guitar in his teens from legendary Tennessee bluesman Brownie McGhee and Texas songster Mance Lipscomb. A U. S. Navy veteran, he is perhaps best known as one of the founding members of San Francisco's first psychedelic rock group, the Charlatans (1964-69). He led his own hard rock group, Loose Gravel, from 1969 until 1976 when he joined cult heroes and power pop originators the Flamin' Groovies, playing with them until 1982.

Mike Wilhelm with 12 String Guitar

Mike Wilhelm Mini Bio

Known for his adroit finger picking and bottomless baritone, Mike continues to perform as a solo artist on acoustic 12-string, electric and slide guitars and played successful solo tours of Japan in 1995 and 1997. CDs are available from www.bamesandnoble.com. - notes by Wellman Moody, 2006

George Hunter, Dan Hicks, Mike Wilhelm, Mike Ferguson, Richie Olsen
The Charlatans, 1964, Golden Gate Park Conservatory

The Charlatans
(U.S. band)

The Charlatans were an influential psychedelic rock band that played a pivotal role in the development of the San Francisco music scene in the 1960s. More akin to earlier jug band and blues influences than the later heavy psychedelia from the same scene, the Charlatans set the stage with their rebellious attitude and appearance. Their recorded output was small, and their first nationally distributed album (The Charlatans) was not released until 1969 (see 1969 in music), long after the band's heyday. This band was the first commercial appearance of Dan Hicks, later of Hot Licks fame.

Early Years: 1964–1965

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, San Francisco, New York City, and Boston were dominated by the so-called "Folk Revival" which was kickstarted by the Bay Area's Kingston Trio in 1958, then dominated in the early 1960s by Greenwich Village–based folkies such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles made a legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. In the following months of 1964, American radio was dominated by British rock bands previously ignored in the United States, a period which became known as the British Invasion. This turn of events encouraged many former folk artists in America to exchange their acoustic guitars for electric ones. Among the first to do so was San Franciscan George Hunter, who formed a rock band called the Charlatans in the summer of 1964. He was joined by Richard Olsen (bass), Mike Wilhelm (lead guitar), Mike Ferguson (piano/keyboards), and Sam Linde (drums). Linde was soon replaced by Dan Hicks.

Rehearsing incessantly, the Charlatans are often cited as being the first group to play in the "San Francisco Sound" style, since most of their eventual peers (such as the Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish) were still playing folk music in 1964 and early 1965. At first, this was somewhat of a disadvantage for the group as area venues were small, scarce, and apt to book folk acts rather than rock bands. As rock concerts became the norm in San Francisco during late 1965, the group's fortunes changed dramatically.

Red Dog Saloon

On June 1, 1965, the Charlatans began an extended residency at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, just across the border from Northern California. This two-month-long stint was important for at least two reasons. First, Charlatans guitarist Mike Ferguson produced a rock concert poster in advance of the residency to promote these performances. This poster -- identified by poster art enthusiasts as "The Seed" -- is almost certainly the first psychedelic concert poster. Later in the year, San Francisco's Family Dog organization copied the idea to promote their concert productions. In 1966, when the Fillmore Auditorium began booking rock acts nightly, they, too, used the idea. Through to the end of the decade, rock concert poster artwork became a mainstay of San Francisco's music scene, led by poster artists Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, and Victor Moscoso.

(NOTE: there were actually two "Seed" posters, which look almost identical. They are differentiated by the date. The first lists the band as playing "June 1–15", while the second states, "Opening June 21". The second "Seed" poster can be seen here.)

The second reason that the Charlatans' extended stay at the Red Dog Saloon was important was that, immediately before their first performance at the club, the band members took LSD. Purportedly, this was on accident, as they didn't know they would be performing that night. This is the first time a musical group performed under the influence of LSD. As a result, the Charlatans are sometimes called the first acid rock band, although their sound is not indicative of what later acid rock bands would sound like.

Red Dog Saloon

The group was also famous for their style of dress during concerts. They clothed themselves in late 19th Century fashions, as if they were Wild West gunslingers during San Francisco's Gold Rush. This eye-catching choice made them hard to ignore, and as the 1960s wore on, many young San Franciscans dressed just as outlandishly -- whether they were in a rock band or not.

The Charlatans returned to San Francisco at the end of the summer of 1965 and, in September, were given the chance to audition for Autumn Records, a label headed by local deejay Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue. Autumn didn't sign the band, partly due to lack of money: the label was on the verge of bankruptcy and sold to Warner Brothers early the following year. (Incidentally, the Grateful Dead, under the temporary name "The Emergency Crew", auditioned for Autumn Records in November 1965, and they, too, were turned down.)

A Tribute to Dr. Strange

In October 1965, a small commune called the Family Dog threw an unusual dance at Longshoreman's Hall, starring a rock band called the Charlatans that had played the previous summer at the Red Dog Saloon, a restored silver rush dance hall in Virginia City, Nev. The second-billed group, which had an even weirder name, Jefferson Airplane, was making its first appearance outside the Marina District nightclub it had opened the month before. The third act on the bill, the Great Society, featured a former model from Palo Alto named Grace Slick.

More than a thousand people turned up for the dance. Hair flowing over their collars, the revelers were dressed cheerfully in colorful discards plucked from thrift stores. Many were on LSD, as were many of the musicians. Virtually everyone who attended "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," as the dance was called, seemed to have the same thought about the gathering: "I didn't know there were this many of us."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/20/MNG2NPUD1C1.DTL&type=printable

The other development that helped form the Haight's early temperament took place at a Western-style dance hall, the Red Dog Saloon, in the ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada. In June 1965, a San Francisco band, the Charlatans, took up residency at the saloon. Their easygoing attitude and meandering performances--as they played sometimes under LSD's influence for an audience also sometimes under LSD's influence--set another model for psychedelic gatherings, one less tense and sardonic than Kesey's.

In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15255158/san_francisco_the_start_of_the_revolution

Event: First Rock Dance Concert. Saturday, October 16, 1965.

Short Note: Produced by the Family Dog at the Longshoreman's Hall.

Long Note: The first rock dance concert ever held took place under the sponsorship of the Family Dog at the octagonal meeting hall of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union near Fishermen's Wharf. It was billed as "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," and featured the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, the Great Society, and ?the Marbles [who later metamorphized into the Loading Zone]. A light show was operated by Bill Ham.

http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/2005/07/hey-yall-you-know-i-hate-to-call-this.html

Family Dog collective dance and concert, a tribute to Dr. Strange, at Longshoremen's Hall with The Jefferson Airplane and the Charlatans, and the Great Society. Russ "The Moose" Syracuse of KYA was master of ceremonies.

http://www.diggers.org/chrono_notes.htm

Mike Wilhelm, April 4, 1966, San Francisco Cow Palace

Later Years: 1966–1969

The failed Autumn audition proved to be only a minor setback as the Charlatans signed with Kama Sutra Records in early 1966. As home to the Lovin' Spoonful, one of the earliest folk-rock bands to find success, the group thought the label would be the ideal home for their music. This, however, turned out to be completely wrong. The Charlatans recorded nine songs for their debut album, but when they insisted on releasing the song "Codine" as their first single, the record company balked and refused to release it. Ironically, the tune penned by folk artist Buffy Sainte-Marie spoke of the dangers of drugs, rather than promoting their use, but Kama Sutra was adamant in its refusal. In its place, the record company released "The Shadow Knows" as the band's first single (with the b-side "32-20 Blues"), but did nothing to promote it, and it flopped. The label dismissed the band from their contract, and left the other seven songs intended for the debut unreleased. These recordings were finally issued by the Sundazed Records label in 1996, thirty years after being recorded.

The Charlatans

Mike Ferguson left the Charlatans in 1967, and Dan Hicks moved from drums to rhythm guitar before he, too, left the group in 1968 to form his own band. The Charlatans' founder, George Hunter, soon left as well, leaving Richard Olsen and Mike Wilhelm to carry on the band with new personnel.

Dan Hicks, April 4, 1966, San Francisco Cow Palace

Despite a promising audition in 1967 and another in 1968, the Charlatans failed to gain a new recording contract until 1969. The resulting album, titled simply The Charlatans, was released in 1969 on the Philips Records label. Unfortunately, by this time, their sound was outdated, and the new lineup only tangentially shared the charm of the original band. Further, so many of their peers from San Francisco had gained fame and fortune during 1967 and 1968 that there began a backlash against the "San Francisco Sound" and all things hippie-related. Their chance had come too late to gain the fame their historical importance could have afforded them. By 1970, the Charlatans had broken up for good.

Mike Wilhelm, April 4, 1966, San Francisco Cow Palace

Despite their lackluster recording career, the Charlatans earned a unique place in the history of rock and roll. Being the first of the underground San Francisco bands of the mid-1960s, their importance is felt by the dozens of successful Bay Area bands that emerged later in the decade, and to all the bands that those groups influenced.

Mike Wilhelm, 1967, Avalon Ballroom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Additional links and information located at below Source link.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charlatans_%28U.S._band%29

The Family Dog, Mike Wilhelm on right with rifle on shoulder

Mike Wilhelm: Dapper and dangerous as usual
Written by Gary Peterson
Friday, 09 February 2007

Mike Wilhelm

"May the baby Jesus shut your mouth and open your mind." That's what it says on the Family Dog's logo and that's how Lake County's finest guitarist, Mike Wilhelm, signs his e-mails these days.

It's an anonymous quote, probably contributed by Family Dog founder and Avalon Ballroom entrepreneur, Chet Helms, who died in June 2005. Helms was the power behind the throne of both the concert hall and the people promoted shows.

The Charlatans played at the 40th Summer of Love event. Chronicle photo by Brant Ward

Wilhelm attended Helms' funeral where he says a large urn containing Helms' ashes sat next to a smaller one with the overflow and a blown up portrait of the anti-Bill Graham standing in front of Palo Alto's Antonio's Nut House with its "Hippies Use Side Door" sign.

Wilhelm's old band, The Charlatans (with Dan Hicks), played the Avalon in the 60s -- as well as Virginia City's Red Dog Saloon, establishing themselves as the first psychedelic band in San Francisco and Nevada.

Dan Hicks (left) and Mike Wilhelm, 40th Summer of Love

Charlatans George Hunter and the late Mike Ferguson also produced the first psychedelic posters for Family Dog and the Avalon.

Wilhelm, who is on the cover of one of the histories of Haight-Ashbury, penned by an ex-Billboard editor, is all over the photos in others in the company of Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, etc.

Last year he had a problem with his hand, which was cured by Chinese acupuncture. Later he was invited by Flamin' Groovies founder, Cyril Jordan, to sit in at a Plimsouls Reunion/Magic Christian in San Francisco at the Cafe du Nord on Market Street.

Wilhelm was in the Flamin' Groovies, named the number four SF band of all time by the Chronicle in 2000 (right after the Grateful Dead) for six years. Magic Christian is Jordan's new band, with drummer Prairie Prince (The Tubes), Roger Daltry-like lead vocalist "without the English accent," Paul Kopf, and British music archivist and bassist, Alec Palao.

Palao wrote the liner notes for the English issued "The Amazing Charlatans" and produced boxed sets by The Zombies and Creedence Clearwater Revival as well as the ever popular "Nuggets" anthologies of one-hit wonders.

Peter Case, who's just reformed his 70s band, The Plimsouls, busked the streets of San Francisco in bygone times with Wilhelm and others.

In his post-concert blog at www.petercase.com, Case describes his dressing room reunion with the "Kaiser:" "Wilhelm comes in looking dapper and dangerous as usual, the quintessential SF musician/1890s outlaw vibe ... and we start jammin' up there. I never play like this with anybody. We do 'Stagolee,' (Mike's strange, rocking endless old ragtime version with the big chorus no one's heard, the one we used to do on the street).

"Then 'Ella Speed,' the Mance Lipscomb song that begins with the lines: 'first time I shot Ella, I shot her through the side'... outrageous ... I'd cut an album of this stuff with Wilhelm ..."

In a post-concert phone interview, Wilhelm gave his version of the dressing room reunion: "I brought my resonator guitar upstairs with me so as to be able to go over the songs we would play at the jam with Peter and his boys ... Peter and I reminisced about playing on the streets of North Beach and Chinatown where we first met back in the early-mid seventies ... Peter asked about my ragtime version of "Stagger Lee,' which has nearly endless verses and a chorus he has never heard anyone else do ... I then started and Peter quickly joined in playing Mance Lipscomb's decidedly original version of 'The Death of Ella Speed.' "

Wilhelm learned the latter from Lipscomb. That and his having had Brownie McGee as his guitar teacher give the man a direct line straight back to the old guys.

My favorite Wilhelm stories still come from Lake County though. One time, coming off a two-week isolation due to illness, Mike came to my house and literally spent eight hours reminiscing about the Flamin' Groovies legendary tours of Europe.

Flamin' Groovies - Mike Wilhelm 2nd from left

In Manchester, England, he recalled, the Groovies played one night after the legendarily volatile English-French punk rock band, The Stranglers. Manchester is famous for its tough criticism so the Stranglers actually went out, sought out the particularly vicious critic, and beat him up.

When the Groovies hit the stage the next night in the Beatlesque costumes they then favored, the audience was, shall we day, a tad unfriendly. So the band left, then Wilhelm came out again, alone, "dapper and dangerous as usual," as Case put it, and simply said in his Johnny Cash deep bass voice: "We agree with The Stranglers; there are older laws."

The Manchester audience remained most respectful for the rest of the evening.

Another Wilhelm tale: When the Groovies played the Sports Palace in Berlin, where Hitler made many of his speeches, not only was it eerie, but when Mike hit the stage someone yelled out at the top of their lungs -"(Expletive Deleted) you, Mike Wilhelm!

Mike figures it was a response to his gesture towards Bill Graham at the end of the film, "The Last Days of the Fillmore.

In any case, it was something akin to the infamous heckler at the Dylan/Band concert at Royal Albert Hall.

Heckler: "Traitor!" Dylan: "I don't believe you!"

For the Sunday's last concert, Mike changed in the "airless" dressing room, into his equally "dapper" outfit, a Black Italian suit with a Crosby, Stills & Nash Fillmore tie, diplomat shirt with pale blue stripes and white collar and cuffs. His spider-in-web cufflinks were a gift from Richard Olsen (Charlatans) back in 1967.

I once had dinner at a restaurant with Mike and his lovely wife, Ana Maria, and he left the orginal 60s Charlatans black cowboy hat behind. But, only briefly, as we went back and got it.

You'll notice a lot of Wilhelm in George Thorogood, who was taken in by the then Loose Gravel guitarist and taught most everything he knows, including how to dress for performance. The Charlatans favored a 19th Century frontier look that bands like the Doobie Brothers later emulated for their robbing the stagecoach LP cover. Stevie Ray Vaughn's hat comes to mind as well.

Mike's only comment: "Poor old misguided Bill Graham is no longer around to collect the royalties on his necktie line."

In "The Last Days of the Fillmore," Wilhelm told Graham what he thought of him for not allowing Loose Gravel to play in the recorded concert, via his middle finger.

"Bill liked it so much," Wilhelm once told me, "they kept it in."

The man who told off Bill Graham didn't actually sit in with Magic Christian Sunday night, as I thought he might. But the group did a stellar set of mostly Jordan-penned originals from their new "official bootleg CD," which includes a live concert recorded at the Great American Music Hall and a few old Groovies covers.

The famously balding Jordan, sporting a wig, somehow managed to make his Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar sound exactly like George Harrison's guitar on the original "Tax Man."

"Bleeding amazing, that," Wilhelm commented, adopting a British accent.

Their set also featured "Make My Bed," by the Down Under Beatles, The Easybeats.

Mike and Cyril joined the Plimsouls at the end of their excellent set played to a sold out audience of 350 mostly younger people, who probably don't remember the Charlatans.

But the last time I saw Wilhelm open for Case, who was then playing solo in SF, the audience screamed "Charlatans, Charlatans," repeatedly, something you don't hear in Lake County.

But this crowd was no less enthusiastic for the reunited Plimsouls and friends. In fact, I've talked to a surprising number of younger folks who remember the original Plimsouls.

When Jordan and Wilhelm joined the reunited band, they brought the house down with covers of the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Reed, the Groovies' classic, "Jumpin' In The Night,' and even "The House of Blue Lights," sung by the Kaiser hisself.

Before the show, I asked Mike if he was going to do Chuck Berry's duckwalk, something I've seen him do a few times. He didn't and he also didn't say why.

Maybe, he's just saving the best for Lake County.

http://lakeconews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=2

The Flamin' Groovies, "Bust Out At Full Speed: The Sire Years"
Silent Uproar - Reviewed by: gary

Mike Wilhelm, who was the Flamin' Groovies' lead guitarist for six years, likes to introduce Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain," with this: "Here's a song Robert Johnson stole from Mick Jagger back in 1936."

Flamin' Groovies, May 26, 1978, Brunel University, England

The Groovies are a band everyone's been stealing from since Roy Loney was still in the group. In 2000, when the San Francisco Chronicle's "critics" made a Pink Sheet list of the 100 Best Bands in SF History, the Groovies were number four, right after the Grateful Dead, and somewhat before Santana, Neil Young, and all those offshoots of Jefferson Airplane and the Dead. There are still famous git pickers who won't appear on stage with Wilhelm. You can hear the reasons herein. Of course the group does have Cyril Jordan, he of the perfect George Harrison imitation, leader and founder; Chris Wilson, George Alexander and David Wright, with an occasional appearance by Danny Mihm, original Groovies' drummer and some Welsh blues by Dave Edmunds to boot.

As if that wasn't enough, they shake some action, let the boy rock and roll, please please you, paint it black and don't put you on. And that's just for starters. Wilhelm, about Bob Dylan's age these days and hanging with the Lake County Blues Band "up north" still does a mean Chuck Berry duck walk when the spirit moves him. Cyril has a new band, Magic Christian, with Praire Prince, Paul Kopf, and Alec Palao. Please spend a few moments on Palao's liner notes for this set. He also did those on The Amazing Charlatans and The Zombies' box set among others.

Flamin' Groovies Tune Up, May 26, 1978, Brunel University, England

Disc One, Shake Some Action is considered the ultimate Groovies release by many but still has James Ferrel on guitar. There's nothing wrong with Ferrel but both "Now" and "Jumpin'In The Night" have Wilhelm
(or "Willie," as Jordan calls him) the man whom Cherry Garcia told photographer Herb Green way back in the sixties was his favorite guitarist. Pigpen was Mike's favorite. They used to play slide guitar together at the old Dead House up Ashbury just past that famous sign and Ben And Jerry's where the waitress had only 27 piercings the last time I talked to her.

Flamin' Groovies, 1976, Backstage Paris, France

Disc Two, Now, just feels a whole lot better taking you down to that house of blue lights. There's a place, yeah, my baby. I hate to dwell on one guy but when you've seen the guitarist Larry "Mojo" Platz, the man with the single greatest name in the blues, called "a 12 on a scale of one to ten...I'm a two," it's hard not to do so. Forgive me my trespasses and join the Groovies, all of them, for a jump in the night. It's absolutely, sweet, Marie.

Flamin' Groovies, 1976, Le Pavilon, Paris, France

Disc Three, Jumpin' In The Night is sort of the last official Groovies CD yet there are numerous boots out there including some of their legendary Phil Spector sessions. I've heard some of that at Wilhelm's home studio. The Byrds get a couple of readings here too - "5D" and "It Won't Be Wrong."

One time Wilhelm came to my then home in Clear Lake Oaks and talked about the Groovies' European tours non-stop for about eight hours. Wish I had a tape but one story will do. When the Groovies played Manchester, a town known as "a hard room to play," they'd been followed by the Stranglers the night before. Hugh and the boys had received a negative review from one of Manchester's acerbic scribes. So the band went out the next night, found the guy and beat the crap out of him. The Groovies came onstage in their Beatles outfits and faced a very hostile crowd. So, they left the stage and Jordan sent Wilhelm out alone and he made only one comment:

"We agree with the Stranglers."

You will too.

http://silentuproar.com/showreview.php?ID=1741

Mike Wilhelm Press Quotes

USA Today May 11, 2007

San Francisco Chronicle May 21, 2007

Blue Wing Blues Festival featured local favorites

Written by Thurman Watts
Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Summer Of Love Legend Mike Wilhelm and Lake Blues All-Stars featuring Jim Williams and Jon Hopkins were an early crowd favorite on Thursday night. Their set included Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."

Hopkins, the "Barrister of Bass," did a fine rendition of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man," playing bass and harmonica simultaneously.

A female vocalist named Neon guested on "The Thrill is Gone" and "I'm Tore Down." When not singing she worked the crowd admirably and did great percussion work.

Jim Williams put the great Mike Wilhelm's career in perspective by mentioning that Wilhelm was Jerry Garcia's favorite guitar player. Wilhelm interjected that he was playing though an amp that he bought from Garcia. (On a side note, both Mike Wilhelm and Betty Mae Fikes were pictured in recent issues of Rolling Stone Magazine.)

Wilhelm displayed great virtuosity and chops in his note selection during his solos. The band closed with "Red House' and "Further On Up The Road" to a great ovation by the crowd. Great set!

http://lakeconews.com/content/view/1301/558/

Mike Wilhelm Discography

An Unlikely Blast From the Past Film,
CD bring S.F.'s Charlatans back to life

JOEL SELVIN, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Monday, October 7, 1996

As likely as being struck by a bolt from the blue, members of a long-forgotten '60s San Francisco rock group suddenly find themselves in the spotlight again, with a documentary film and a CD release of recordings made 30 years ago.

When the four surviving members of the Charlatans arrive tonight at the Mill Valley Film Festival in a vintage limousine for the world premiere of ``The Life and Times of the Red Dog Saloon,'' the musicians, always conscious of how they looked, will disembark clad in the same sartorial combination of Edwardian finery and Wild West wear that was their trademark.

``We didn't go national,'' said Dan Hicks, who was the band's drummer before starting a successful solo career. ``We didn't get past Denver. We never made a record. Never toured. Never appeared on television.''

BEGINNING OF S.F. ROCK SCENE

Nevertheless, the Charlatans spent a brief but shining moment at Olympian heights atop the nascent San Francisco rock scene, headlining the first acid rock dance at Longshoreman's Hall, billed above the Jefferson Airplane, which was also making its first concert appearance. But the Charlatans, by virtue of their residency that summer at the fabled Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nev., were the stars of the show that night in September 1965 that marked the beginning of the San Francisco rock scene.

Although the group came apart at the seams and finally dissolved two years later, the musicians reunited eight years ago in a successful legal battle to reclaim ownership of the various tapes the Charlatans recorded. By coincidence, the release of ``The Amazing Charlatans,'' a 23-song British CD combining tapes from three sources (including an unreleased 1966 album), coincides with the debut of a documentary film by Mary Works, the 29-year-old daughter of a couple who worked at the Red Dog Saloon 30 years ago.

The Charlatans served as house band at the silver rush dance hall, renovated by a bunch of crazed hippies playing cowboys and Indians while high on LSD in the Sierra Nevada ghost town. In Works' engaging, affectionate film, the Charlatans emerge as the centerpiece of a wild and wacky little community, full of characters whose eyes still gleam as they recall the glories of summer 1965.
How They Ended Up

``I was always afraid I'd lose you guys to Harrah's or something,'' Red Dog proprietor Mark Unobski, who died earlier this year, tells Richard Olsen of the Charlatans.

Today Olsen heads one of San Francisco's leading society dance bands. Hicks continues his solo work in performances across the country, a career move he made even before leaving the band in 1968. Charlatans founder George Hunter is a successful furniture designer living in Sonoma. Guitarist Mike Wilhelm lives in Clear Lake and considers himself retired. Pianist Mike Ferguson died in 1979, a blind diabetic amputee living on welfare in Alameda.

Assembling at Olsen's Inner Richmond home for a photo shoot recently, Wilhelm easily fit into the Victorian waistcoat he wore that summer in Virginia City, while Hicks said he no longer owns any of his authentic Charlatans outfits (``I outgrew 'em,'' he said, patting his waist. ``I have a belt buckle left''). Hunter needed to borrow an Autoharp; he lent his to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

``Essentially I was wondering about the movie, would it be of interest to anyone else,'' said Hicks. ``I mean, we have a film of our frat party and we can always watch it and dig it. But I'd like other people to see it.''

The recordings on the British CD have been circulating on European bootlegs for more than 20 years, but ``The Amazing Charlatans'' marks the first time the complete record of the band's studio sessions has been assembled on one piece from the master tapes.

There may be some truth to the musicians' jocular accusations of each other that they were the source for the illicit bootlegs. Hunter frankly admitted that he gave Rhino Records the one Charlatans track officially rereleased in this country 10 years ago. ``I collected all the royalties and didn't give any to the rest of the guys,'' he said.

``It's not that we don't know about it,'' said Olsen. ``I have a complete accounting upstairs.''

``I got rich on that one,'' said Hunter.

But the new record also supplies some long-missing physical evidence to counter an oft-repeated claim that although the Charlatans always looked great, they never played that well. ``After listening to this stuff and seeing it in perspective,'' said Hunter, ``I think we were a lot better than we thought we were.''

``We were certainly a lot better than we were given credit for,'' said Olsen, still smarting.

Indeed, Jerry Garcia often cited Wilhelm as his favorite guitarist on the San Francisco scene. ``Some of the stuff I played back then was so difficult I don't know how I did it,'' said Wilhelm.

But the legend of the Charlatans has lingered, the image of these gun-toting, guitar-playing dandies too delicious to fade away entirely. Several years ago, in fact, a British rock group decided to simply appropriate the band's name, although when Olsen warned the group's American record label, the British upstarts suddenly turned up Stateside named Charlatans U.K.

``If we're not the Charlatans, who is?'' said Olsen. ``That's our name. They should think up their own.''

With all the current activity bringing the band back from the shadows of dim memories, talk inevitably turns to a return to the stage. The band members obviously have discussed the possibility, envisioning the four original members augmented by some of the musicians currently performing with the Richard Olsen Orchestra.

``Everybody's talking about it,'' said Wilhelm. ``But nobody's talking about paying us.''

Some things never change.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1996/10/07/DD31203.DTL

Mike Wilhelm, Lake County Fair

Mike Wilhelm
PO BOX 2094
Clearlake, CA 95422-2094

Click for large image

MP3 - Ramblin' Lyrics by Robert Johnson, 2008 Mike Wilhelm - MP3
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/ramblin.mp3

MP3 - Worn Out Suits Lyrics by Dave Edmund, 2008 Mike Wilhelm - MP3
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/wornoutsuits.mp3

MP3 - Long Gone Stranger Blues © 2007 Mike Wilhelm - MP3
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/longgonestrangerblues.mp3

Flying Snail Studios Podcasts - http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/index.html

---