SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/129115
The Band That Time Forgot: Autosalvage Rises From History's Ashes by Ed Ward U HARRY GALE sually my job is to report rock and roll history, not make it. For over 25 years, I have been doing that for Fresh Air with Terry Gross on National Public Radio. But this past August, I needed one more piece (I record them in batches of three) and had the inspiration to pull down my Autosalvage CD. Now, why I decided to buy the group's original album back in 1968 is lost to the sands of time. Only 29,999 other people did, after all. The album quickly became one of my favorites, and several Autosalvage then of my friends bought it, too. However, nobody knew a thing about the band. I eventually penned a short review for Rolling Stone, but that was it; Autosalvage remained an obscurity. In 2001, an old friend who ran a collectors' label in Great Britain asked me to write liner notes for his reissue of that same album, and thanks to the Internet and a guitarist friend, I chased down Rick Turner, one of the four band-members, in Santa Cruz, where he had been making high-end guitars since the band fell apart shortly after the album was made. Basically, the story from Turner was that when the record came out, the group had been urged to move to San Francisco from New York and get on the ballroom circuit there. The album was getting airplay, and Autosalvage and the Youngbloods (known for its hit "Get Together") were friends of long standing, going back to the folk era in New York City and Boston, where Turner and Banana, the Youngbloods' keyboard player (born Lowell Levinger, although nobody seems ever to have called him that), had been in bands together. But Turner was the only one willing to make the move to the West Coast, so that was that. When the Fresh Air piece went live though, e-mails started flying between the coasts. What about a reunion? It couldn't be all of the original band because bassist Skip Boone would be too ill to take part, but Banana was eager to join in and Sam Page, who played bass in Banana's Autosalvage now band, also offered to help. 38 SXSWORLD / MARCH MUSIC 2013 I suggested SXSW as the perfect place for a reunion gig, and contacted then Creative Director Brent Grulke, who said "This kind of thing is my cup of tea." His tragic death changed nobody's mind. The band was going to reunite and apply for SXSW. After all, if that didn't come off, there were clubs in California where they could play. And so it was that in late October, I steered a rental car up a mountainside in Marin County to Owl Mountain Studios, where engineer Ethan "E.T." Turner, Rick's son, runs things. As I opened the car door, I heard a cymbal and guitar chord fading away. To date, that is all I have heard of the new Autosalvage, but Turner, drummer Darius Davenport, and guitarist Tom Danaher were waiting for me. Besides an informal session to see if they could still play together, the day's work was to transfer a delicate 7" mono master tape of the album to digital, so that Ethan could remaster it for a limited-edition "bootleg." The three stood behind the mixing console hearing the music for the first time in decades, not saying a word until it was over. Then the memories started pouring out. This continued after our parade of vehicles went back down the mountainside, and we made our way to Banana's house in Inverness, where a fine meal he had cooked awaited us. In the months since then, the band was accepted at SXSW, and serious work began with the new year. "We have all evolved musically since the 1960s … but the core of our tastes is still very much Americana folk based," Rick Turner says. "We all listen to a nicely overlapping range of music; we all 'get' most of the same musical references as a common language." For instance, on the album, one of the highlights is the band's version of Leadbelly's "Good Morning Blues," and the group have mined his legacy again for "When I Was A Cowboy." But there are originals, too. When I visited, Danaher was already talking about a song he had written that he thought would work. Things were, as of mid-February, going just great. "We knew we were on the right track during the first rehearsal," Turner commented. There seems to be only one thing worrying the new Autosalvage. Can they get in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most time between gigs? I don't know. I can't think of another contender, can you? ■ See schedule.sxsw.com for more information on SXSW Music showcases.