Eric Fowler, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Xavier
By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 7, 2000) - Lenox native Eric Matthew Fowler, guitarist with the soul-rock band Boxing Gandhis, returns on Friday night for a rare gig on his home turf. Fowler will be joined by the man he describes as his “mentor,” Dave Lincoln Jr., at the Quality Inn at 8 p.m. Fowler, who was born in Pittsfield in 1968, moved to California in the mid-‘80s after graduation from Lenox Memorial High School. He lived at Wavy Gravy’s Hog Farm, which he describes as “America’s longest running hippie commune,” before working his way into the Los Angeles music scene. Before joining Boxing Gandhis, Fowler played guitar in the reconstituted British reggae/ska group General Public. His recording credits include work with Sting, Pato Banton and UB40, and he has worked with Clint Black, Hot Tuna, Carole King and Jimmy Buffett. He has also done extensive work in film.

Fowler toured and recorded with Boxing Gandhis in the mid-1990s, but today he mostly works as a solo performer, teacher and studio musician. He recently recorded with Roseanne Cash and Taylor Dayne for the tribute album, “Searching For Jimi Hendrix.” Fowler is associated with several regular showcases in Los Angeles, including the MP3/ASCAP Acoustic Songwriters Showcase, a residency at the Baked Potato, a Hollywood jazz club.

“To help promote it we give away a DVD player at the end of the night which tends to get people down to the show,” said Fowler in a recent Email. “I’m also doing this very cool songwriters showcase here in L.A. called the Circle of Songs, which has four or five songwriters on stage together trading songs. It’s very intimate and very cool.” Fowler’s latest work can be downloaded from the Internet at www.mp3.com/ericfowler.

Fowler said he’d probably perform an hourlong acoustic set of mostly original material with his wife, Colette, and his old mentor, Dave Lincoln Jr., and Lee Everett of Tamboura, at the Quality Inn tomorrow night. Also appearing are Jack the Dog and DJ Jay Rigdon. For more info call 637-4244 or Email bandboard@mail.com .

Little Charlie and the Nightcats: Swing shift

There is that grey area of music where blues, rockabilly, jump-blues, r&b, swing, jazz and bebop meet. It’s grey only in the vagueness of what to call it, but it’s full of color and vitality in the hands of a group like Little Charlie and the Nightcats, the California group that has been playing this style of music for a quarter-century, and which comes to Club Helsinki in Great Barrington (528-3394) on Saturday night at 9. Fronted by guitarist Little Charlie Baty and mouth harpist/vocalist/songwriter Rick Estrin, the Nightcats have a long list of plaudits and awards, including Grammy nominations, W.C. Handy awards (speciality blues awards), critical raves and the respect of their peers, including performers like Robert Cray and the Allman Brothers Band, with whom they have shared stages, and Koko Taylor, Saffire and John Hammond, who have recorded their songs.

Also at Club Helsinki this weekend is Hank Decken, a New Hampshire-based rock singer-songwriter whose new album, “Life Around the Edges,” suggests a performer in the John Hiatt/Bruce Springsteen mold, with occasional flashes of hard rock.

Helsinki’s September schedule is trickling out, and includes shows by funk band Two Ton Shoe (Sept. 14), former Band replacement guitarist Jim Weider, with his new group, the Honky Tonk Gurus (Sept. 15), Greg “Fingers” Taylor, best-known as Jimmy Buffet’s harmonica player (Sept. 16), blues guitarist Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater (Sept. 22), soul/hip-hop outfit Wax Poetic (Sept. 23), and Babaloo (Sept. 30).

Xavier: Full circle

In the mid-‘80s, a group of teen-agers in South-Central Berkshire got together and formed a band patterned after the rock idols of the day - groups like Motley Crue, Poison and Warrant. They had the hair and clothes to match, and they called themselves Xavier.

Over a decade later, hair bands are but a faint memory or a joke (in spite of attempts to bring the style back). But Xavier has outlasted the bad trends and matured into a solid, professional, mainstream, Tom Petty-like folk-rock band.

Last year, founding members Abe Guthrie, Randy Cormier and Timothy Sears (who lent his middle name to the band) regrouped for the first time in a decade, and recorded “Full Circle,” an album of all original tunes reflecting the influence of the musicians’ experience, which in the interim included touring with Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Little Feat and the Outlaws. It also suggested they’d been listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash, as the songs feature multiple-part harmonies and rootsy-flavored arrangements.

Xavier will perform “unplugged”-style at the Guthrie Center (528-1955) on Saturday night at 8. Also at the Guthrie Center this weekend are old-time folk quartet Sweet Bama on Friday night, and singer-songwriter Fran Mandeville, celebrating the release of his new CD, “I Have Walked with Angels,” on Sunday at 2.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 7, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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