Stage Talk with Rick Koster
Where every show has something to say.
The return of a hometown boy
This is the prefatory part of an artist interview where the Journalist — me — details the history and qualifications of the Artist — in this case, guitarist extraordinaire Jeff Pevar of Our House: The Music of CSNY.
The problem is, Jeff has played with so many incredible artists that any comprehensive list would read like the pages of an old-school phone book — if the only names in the phone book were incredibly gifted and famous musicians and bands from the last four decades.
What’s that you say? You want a sample anyway, just for context?
Well, sure: Pevar has played and/or toured with Ray Charles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bette Midler, Joe Cocker, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Carly Simon, Kenny Loggins, Jefferson Starship, Phil Lesh and on and on.
I know! Amazing!
Most importantly, Our House hits the Garde for a 7 p.m. show on Sunday, Aug. 16, and the eloquent and anecdotal Pevar, back from a brisk exercise walk in Oregon last week, took a few minutes to talk about his career and friendships with David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills.
Answers have been edited for space and clarity.
The Garde: You’re touring with “Our House: The Music of CSNY.” But I think folks would be mistaken if they think they’re going to see a tribute band — at least so far as that phenomenon is understood. Is that accurate?
Jeff: When you mention the idea of tribute bands, yes, there’s a lot of that activity these days. It makes sense on a certain level because there are audiences who want to continue to experience iconic music that was and still is part of their lives. In many cases, as with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, they’re never going to have that experience again because, you know, as life moves on, and some of these artists are transitioning on.
The thing that separates Our House from what I’d call a tribute band is that most of those acts have never been involved with the original music. Personally, I played on and off with Crosby and with Crosby & Nash and with Crosby Stills and Nash for over 30 years. The singer and another guitarist in Our House, my friends Kip Lennon and Steve Postel, played and recorded with Crosby, too. Everyone else in the band is a seasoned professional with big name touring experience.
So there’s a history of making music with the actual people and various combinations from CSNY. That kind of, dare I say, pedigree separates this ensemble from, let’s just say a bunch of strangers who had no idea, you know, who the artists were. We have a real knowledge of the essence of their music just as we have our own musical personalities. I mean, David originally asked me to be in his band because of what I do, so there’s that element.
To get to perform this catalog and help people reconnect with their memories and what the songs mean to them is a real privilege.
Garde: Another aspect of what you’re doing in Our House is that you’re performing the music reverently but without trying to replicate every last detail. The respective vocal qualities of CSNY are/were utterly distinctive. So, while it’s possible for y’all to figure out and sing their complex harmonies, you don’t have someone saying, for example, “I’ll sing the nasal Neil Young line and you take the raspy Stephen Stills part.”
Jeff: There will never be any singer that that can replicate another singer. I mean, yes, certain people have vocal qualities that remind listeners of certain artists. But we are not trying to do that in any fashion. We’ve assembled a band of world-class musicians bringing our artistic vision to this music. Our mission is to honor and celebrate this music with the decades of our own musical development — and to also take artistic license to interpret it, as is fitting, with our own creative abilities.
Garde: Speaking of your own abilities, talk a bit about some of your other extensive musical experiences and how that all plays into where you are now in your creative voyage.
Jeff: Well, yes. Everyone is a product of everything they’ve ever experienced. But, as someone once said to me, while I was viciously practicing a song, “Why don’t you go outside and take a walk in the woods because, you know what? That’s going to influence how you look at this piece of music.”
And that was such a very eloquent statement.
We’re all a product of everything we’ve ever heard or seen or tasted or felt, and it’s, it can’t be put into words, and it’s unique to each person in the world, I believe, but it’s something that makes us these, um, incredibly diverse beings. And when we put that diversity into creativity, then all kinds of cool stuff can happen.
Garde: In that context, you’ve had quite a variety of experiences.
Jeff: Oh, definitely. The fact that I’ve played with Phil Lesh and learned and played 70 Grateful Dead songs and got to know Phil is hugely influential. The same for working with Bette Midler, Donald Fagan, Joe Cocker and Mark Cohn — and I’m lucky that the list goes on and on. All those things have influenced me in ways that are beyond comprehension.
Garde: You also played with Donald Fagen. For the fun of it, I once counted the number of chords in a Steely Dan song, and it was 36. And I thought, “How is that possible?” Not that there were that many chords, but that Fagen and Walter Becker could make it work in a pop context.
Jeff (laughs) There are no rules. Anybody can make a song with chords that never even repeat. The fact is that Fagan and Beckers wrote some of the most profound combinations of pop. Well, actually, what they did defies genre. To me, anyway. And one of the things I think they did, besides writing incredible songs, was taking music that was incredibly diverse, incredibly, um, melodic and somewhat jazz-tinged — and got it across to the mainstream. So, of course, that was a fun and valuable situation to be around.
Garde: At what point did you know you wanted to be a musician?
Jeff: I was in high school and I decided, “You know what? I’m just going to play music full time.” And not that I’d suggest this to anyone else, but I was at a point in my life where I knew what my life quest was and I left high school in my junior year to play full-time. Plus, I also had a side job to earn enough money to buy guitars and, you know, pay rent and do what I needed to do.
Garde: That’s an admirable sense of self-awareness and discipline at a relatively young age.
Jeff: I am the kind of guy that goes after my dream. I don’t take no for an answer. I am a manifestor, and I’ve been that way my whole life. I’m a self-taught musician, and, you know, I once talked my way backstage to try to get a gig with Ray Charles. And I did.
I just see something that I want, and I do my best to go out and get it. At the same time, there is something to be said about certain things that are just not meant to happen. Sometimes, through the trajectory of your life, you see something that you think you want, and you go after it, and you realize, “Hmm. I think maybe I’m putting the canoe in the stream and trying to, to row upstream instead of putting the canoe in the stream and easily navigating downstream.”
Usually, those things show themselves to you. I think it’s part of our natural trajectory to go after our dreams, go after things that maybe we’re supposed to do. Maybe we’re supposed to be of service.
Garde: It certainly seems that way regarding your work and friendship with David Crosby.
Jeff: When I met David back in the day, he was kind of tired of playing the same old songs and, you know, the personalities he was surrounded by were kind of getting a little heavy. And we met, and I saw stars in his eyes. At one point, we were playing together and finished a song and he said, “I knew we were supposed to play music together.”
Garde: You worked together a long time and I saw y’all twice. He always made sure you had plenty of space to play, and he was always exceptionally effusive onstage while praising your skill.
Jeff: He called me his favorite guitar player and other compliments that are still amazing to me. You know, having had experiences like this, I’m constantly convinced that if we combine our life quest with consciously being of service to others, then amazing things can happen.
Garde: Did your relationship with David Crosby teach you things about life or music that maybe you didn’t actually realize until after he passed?
Jeff: I’ve never been asked that. I think … I think it’s impossible to calculate the immensity of inspiration that I got from David Crosby or what I might still be learning. Part of it is that David saw talent in me when I was a young man and was so passionate about my own creativity. But, as well, he realized I was passionate about being of service to David Crosby’s music and the music of Crosby & Nash. That I was passionate to get to write songs with David and form and write songs for CPR (Crosby, Pevar and the former’s biological son James Raymond). That I was passionate about writing songs with Graham Nash and be on a Crosby Nash record and be of service to Crosby, Stills & Nash.
And all of those were learning experiences. I might be onstage and recall something, or hear something maybe I’ve never noticed before in a recording we did — and I suppose that will always happen.
Garde: Is it true you were sort of thrown a curve on your first tour with Crosby and Nash?
Jeff (laughs): Well, first, let me say it was quite an opportunity. I’d been given this big list of songs to learn and, two nights into the tour, they suddenly said, “You know what? We’re going to try something. We’re going to do a thing called Set List Bingo.”
What that meant was that anyone in the crowd could raise their hand and request either a David Crosby song or a Graham Nash song or a Crosby and Nash song. And I wasn’t expecting that or prepared for it. But I thought, “Well, I’ll figure this out. It’ll be cool, you know? Because there’s only there’s only 12 notes and it’s got to be one of them.”
Garde: Obviously, you pulled it off and, among other things, you got the chance to play with Stephen Still. Just as obviously, he’s an astonishingly good player.
Jeff: Yes, he’s an absolute master with his own immense wheelhouse. He and Neil Young were two of my biggest guitar influences when I was growing up, so imagine how great it was to play with Stephen. What happened was, I’d been in the studio recording an album with David and Graham. They were getting ready to go on tour as CSN and wanted me to join the touring ensemble.
I suggested that maybe I should go over to Stephen’s house to bond with the guy because, while we’d met a few times, we didn’t know each other well. In previous meetings, he was not exactly very excited, you know, to have me there because, as Crosby subsequently let me know, Stephen was, you know, a little protective of his spot.
So, I went to his house because to not only let him know that I’d his compadre, but that he would have a musical accomplice; someone who’d support him. We talked awhile and did this great long blues jam and he goes, “I didn’t know you could play like THAT.” And that’s when I think he got excited about the possibilities.
Shortly thereafter, I sat in with Crosby and Nash and Stephen was onstage playing. I did a song and the crowd went nuts and, when I walked offstage, Stills went up to the mic and said, “Am I fired now?”
It was a wild combination of emotions. On one hand was total elation because I’d just sat in for the first time with one of my biggest heroes and, at the same time, I was a bit embarrassed to think that he was maybe a little threatened by it, you know?
Garde: That is indeed an amazing story.
Jeff: I guess I had the chance to kind of walk into the lion’s den and pull out the thorn. I deem that as one of my bucket list accomplishments — and of course I’m saying that jokingly.
Garde: These are distressing times in America. Our House are performing the music of artists who live through similarly tough times and used their art as both therapy and activism. Do you feel like y’all are providing a service beyond just entertainment? Can you see an emotional response in the audiences?
Jeff: Music is one of the most profound opportunities of humanity, in my opinion. It brings people together in celebration through lyrics, and what CSNY were expressing lyrically at that time is still very pertinent. We get that and appreciate it.
In a way, what we’re doing is sort of like a carrier pigeon. The reason we get out of our houses and get on planes and set up and play it to serve the intention of the musicians and the composers. To play the music of CSNY is a labor of love for us, and it’s healing for everyone on stage to be able to share it with and connect with people.
For the audience, we can see each night that it’s similarly healing for them to come out and enjoy and maybe revisit their love for the music or even reignite their love for the music. And in doing so, we all have a tribal gathering and celebration of life.
Garde: Last question. You’re a Connecticut guy and grew up playing all over the state in clubs like the Shaboo Inn in Willimantic and with musicians like Matt Guitar Murphy. By now, you’ve played the Garde several times. Hopefully, you’re excited to come back here as we start to celebration the Garde’s centennial.
Jeff: Yes! I am a Connecticut guy, and the Garde Theater is one the state’s most beautiful venues. I consider myself honored to play on that stage anytime I can. Members of my family will be there to join the celebration, as they almost always are. I consider myself a homeboy who learned how to play guitar in Connecticut, and to be able to come back and share the decades of my creative accomplishments at the Garde one of the great joys of my life.