Happy B-Day to a Musical "Good Guy"

Today is not only St. Patty's day, but it's the 64th birthday of one of the true nice guys in music, John Sebastian. He got his start in jug band music, then started a little band called The Lovin' Spoonful. Stranger than truth, his godmother was Vivian Vance, better known as "Ethel Mertz"...

After the Spoonful called it quits, he formed his own band and did a couple of great solo albums, which were reissued a year ago by Collectors' Choice Music, and then in the 90's started a group called the "J-Band", where he returned to his jug band roots. We saw a memorable show he did in Waterville Valley in the mid 1990s, where his opening act was his former jug band mate Maria Muldaur, who joined him onstage during his set (she plays a mean jug!)

Last time I saw John live was 4 years ago, where he showed up for the NRBQ Reunion in Northampton, MA. He's been a good friend of the Q for ages. Sad to say, his voice is shot, but he can still play a mean guitar and autoharp, and even released an instructional autoharp DVD 3 years ago.

Here's a nice performance of John's from the mid 1980s, where he is joined by NRBQ's Big Al and some other characters that will be easy to recognize. Happy birthday, John!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_L_m4lJ40