Jefferson Starship performs at The Cotillion Ballroom on July 11, on a bill that features Pure Prairie League and Firefall.
Jefferson Starship’s history is somewhat complicated, revealing a band that could easily move its musical focus and weather sudden and significant changes in its ranks.
Emerging in 1974 with Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, and David Frieberg of Jefferson Airplane, the group marked an evolution in the sound that its predecessor had pioneered in the San Francisco of the late 1960s. The unit’s second album, “Red Octopus,” released in 1975, featured the single “Miracles,” demonstrating a more polished approach, although a dizzying musical diversity prevailed. (“Git Fiddler,” which follows “Miracles” on the album and features a writing credit from Kevin Moore, who would later have success under the name Keb Mo, is evidence that Jefferson Starship wasn’t seeking soft rock stardom.)
In the contemporary music market, the diversity that allowed both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship to soar might be seen as a liability. After all, it might seem unthinkable to some that “Miracles” and 1979’s “Jane” emerged from the same group, but Jefferson Starship had a proclivity for moving forward, enough so that one could be forgiven for having difficulty charting the outfit’s rapid succession. Perhaps it was the desire to continually break new ground that led to Jefferson Starship’s demise in 1984, making way for the vastly more pop-minded Starship, which achieved broad commercial success in 1985 via the album “Knee Deep in the Hoopla,” a record populated with material largely penned by outside writers, just one of the elements separating Starship from Jefferson Starship.
Eventually, Kantner reassembled Jefferson Starship in 1992, remaining with the band until his death in 2016.
The group continues with Frieberg back in the ranks, alongside vocalist Cathy Richardson, guitarist Jude Gold, drummer Donny Baldwin, and keyboardist/bassist Chris Smith. This became the version of Jefferson Starship responsible for the most recent group release, “Mother of the Sun,” and a new LP which is currently being recorded.
David Frieberg and Cathy Richardson recently spoke about the band’s history and why they feel it’s important to keep making new Jefferson Starship music.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Listening back to some of the classic Jefferson Starship material, as well as some of the more recent songs, it occurred to me that this is a band that wasn’t interested in just doing one thing musically. There was and is a lot of diversity within the sound.
David Freiberg: You tell who wrote the song! [Laughs.] Particularly in Jefferson Starship. There was the mad, almost intellectual things that Paul [Kantner] would write, going into outer space. Grace [Slick] could be particularly weird. “What is she talking about?” [Laughs.] Then there was Craig [Chaquico] who was a real rocker. Then there was me. I don’t know. I kind of like music! [Laughs.]
There was Pete Sears, Jeanette Sears, a whole bunch of songwriters. It was really cool. Everybody could help out. Loved it!
Cathy, you must have been a fan before you joined.
Cathy Richardson: Absolutely. I remember the first time I heard “White Rabbit.” I said, “Who is this? Jefferson Airplane? I’ve heard of Jeferson Starship.” I just started diving into both the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship catalogs and became a huge fan around the time I was 13 or 14. I think I went to my first Jefferson Starship concert in 1983. I would have been 14.
DF: You were on the top row! Didn’t I see you there?
CR: Yeah, I was in the very last row. I was waving. I don’t if you guys saw me. [Laughs.] I think I caught the last Jefferson Starship tour, for “Nuclear Furniture.” Then of course the band morphed and turned into Starship and I went to a bunch of those shows too. I still have my concert t-shirts [from those shows]. They’re worn out. Absolutely one of my favorite bands. What I loved so much, besides Grace Slick being an icon for rock ‘n’ roll for women, I loved Mickey Thomas’ voice too.
He was a huge influence on me as a singer. I was into Heart and Jefferson Starship and they overlapped in the studio at that time. It’s interesting, we just went and recorded a song at the old Record Plant [in Sausalito] where Heart recorded their [1985] self-titled album where they kind of regrouped and moved into the ‘80s. Mickey and Grace were in the studio next door when they did that and sang backups on the Heart album. For me, it’s beyond a dream come true, [to play] this music that was such a part of me and my youth and was such an influence on me. I never actually thought that I would be in the band but that’s the way the universe works I guess!
You’re still writing and recording new music, which is one sign of a healthy, vital band.
DF: Oh yes!
CR: I’m a songwriting and that’s a big part of who I am and what’s in my basket of tricks. It’s important to me to be able to still create new music. I think that it’s really cool writing for this band. Jude [Gold], our guitar player, has a lot of ideas so we’ve been collaborating. With the first record, we got together and the songs just started from us all jamming around together. From there, whenever there was a skeletal piece, I would take it home and write a song around it.
It’s cool having this microphone of this band, which reaches a lot of people, and being able to continue the messages of social justice. That Paul Katner kind of thing. I think it’s important to the legacy, too, that we don’t just go out and be a jukebox of people playing the music. That would be a tribute band. The fact that we’re still a living, breathing band that is in a creative space and writing stuff that I think is relevant is really, really cool. I hope people will check out our last record, “Mother of the Sun.” I don’t know what our next one is going to be called but we just recorded a really cool song that we’re going to release this summer.
