THE BEAT
Pittsfield native Adam Rothberg hits the road with Joan Baez
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 19, 1997) -- Adam Rothberg is a happy camper these days. The Pittsfield native has just been hired by Joan Baez to play in her band on a world tour that will take him through Europe and North Africa before returning to the U.S. in August, when they will kick off a four-month tour at the Newport Folk Festival on Aug. 9.
Before leaving for Morocco last week, Rothberg -- who will play various guitars, mandolin, a "McNally strumstick" and sing behind Baez -- spoke about his upcoming jaunt with Baez and how he arrived at this point in his career.
"I was watching that animated TV show about the psychiatrist whose patients are all famous comedians," said Rothberg, 28. "His son is perpetually in career-seek mode, and he asks his dad, `Remember when I was little and I used to pull on a pair of your pants so they went up over my head and I'd cinch them up there and run around the house and laugh and bump into things?' His dad says yes, and he asks him, `Do you think there's a job like that out there?' That's how I feel -- like I got that kind of job. The truth is I really love making noise, and who would have thought somebody would pay me to do it?"
Rothberg, the son of Linda Kaye-Moses of Pittsfield and Sheldon Rothberg of Great Barrington, traces his penchant for "making noise" back to his childhood love affair with Simon and Garfunkel -- "I remember trampolining on my bed to the sounds of `Cecilia'" -- and the Beatles -- "during my later elementary through middle-school years I forgot that anyone but the Beatles even existed."
Rothberg grew up in a deeply musical household. His mother plays piano, guitar and sings, and his stepfather, Evan Soldinger, plays guitar and numerous other instruments, and they were active in the local folk music community. "Every five or six months my mom would throw one of these parties and invite all her musical friends, or drag me up to Dreamaway Lodge or to the Unitarian Church for meetings of the Berkshire Folk Music Society," said Rothberg. "These gatherings, jams, song swaps, whatever you call them...you could touch and wrap around yourself. It was obvious to me that the spirit of `Cecilia' -- that pure excitement and energy -- was in these kind of parties."
Rothberg studied piano briefly at the Pittsfield Community Music School and played violin for a short time at Dawes Elementary. But he gravitated to guitar, in large part due to the influence of Soldinger. "He was my first real teacher," said Rothberg, who also studied guitar with Marc DelGreco and David Grover. As he grew proficient, he practiced obsessively. "We had to turn him off at 10 o'clock at night," said Kaye-Moses. "He was so enthralled with what he could do."
Rothberg attended Pittsfield High for two years, but graduated from the Putney (Vt.) School. At the time, inspired by Steven Spielberg movies, his ambition was to be a special-effects designer, and he spent a few years at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1990, he moved back home, worked a few day jobs, and began playing out at open-mike nights and with the Michael Haynes Band. At one of the open mikes he met Tom and Nattie Jawbone, and soon thereafter became a member of the Big Waaagh Scratch Band, playing guitar as well as banjo, mandolin and bongos, all self-taught.
Rothberg then moved to Northampton, where he continued to play with Big Waaagh. It was there that he met another Berkshire native, Jordi Herold, who hired him to work in the music office at the famed Iron Horse Music Hall. "This was really a blessing in a lot of ways," said Rothberg. "Although I had to work my butt off, before this job I didn't have a clue how this nut-house of an industry works. There I talked to managers, agents, record companies and performers. It was a great learning experience."
In 1992, Rothberg tried his hand at producing, manning the boards for Big Waaagh's first album, "Does Zoo Mean Zu." Around this time, he also met an aspiring singer-songwriter who asked him to produce her first album. "The Honesty Room" instantly propelled Dar Williams into the top ranks of the new-folk scene, and Rothberg's co-production credit on that album -- Williams calls him "simply a genius" in the liner notes - - led to numerous other production jobs, including Pete Nelson's "The Restless Boys' Club," Jaime Morton's "That Wild Blue" and Bernice Lewis's "Isle of Spirit."
"Even before I knew who he was, when I first saw him playing with Big Waaagh, I thought I'd love to play with him sometime," said Lewis. When it came time for her to record "Isle of Spirit," she said, "I felt lucky Adam was available and affordable, because I had a feeling that he wouldn't stay that way for long. He's Mister Music -- he can do whatever he is thinking in his mind. He's also a cool dude."
The Dar Williams connection also led to Rothberg's current gig with Baez. For much of last year, Williams toured the world as the opening act for Baez. When Williams's manager heard that Baez was looking for a new guitarist, he recommended Rothberg to Baez. One quick audition later, playing for Baez at her house in San Francisco -- "yes, I was quite nervous," he said -- the talented multi-instrumentalist had sewn up the gig.
To those who have been following Rothberg's career closely, it is no surprise that he would eventually wind up playing for someone like Joan Baez. Rothberg is an incredibly versatile, intelligent musician who boasts technical mastery and a warmth of feeling and spirit. It is a rare combination, and you can actually hear and feel it come through in in his production work. In this way he recalls the great artist- producers like Daniel Lanois and Don Was. Far from being the apex of his career, Rothberg's gig with Baez is undoubtedly just another step in what is going to be a long, successful run for this native son.
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 19, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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