December 2000 #53

San Francisco Bay Area rockabilly Dave Crimmen has had positive reviews the last few years in publications like BAM (Bay Area), Goldmine, Rockin' Fifties and for his pre-Greaseball show in San Francisco at the Café Du Norde in 1998. This year Dave found time musically to tear up the Jackson, Tennessee Rockabilly Hall of Fame groundbreaking Thursday night show in late March. Two weeks later in Nevada, Crimmen was at Tom Ingram's Viva Las Vegas weekender at the Gold Coast Hotel. This time Dave performed three standing room only shows at the Rockabilly Hall of Fames stage in the West Lounge of the hotel's main lobby. No stranger to rockabilly fans in America and Europe, Crimmen has been on a roll the last couple of years. A perfect example is when on October 22, the C.B.S. Sunday night movie entitled Songs In Ordinary Time contained three original Dave Crimmen songs in the soundtrack of the movie! Not your garden-variety type rockabilly, Mr. Crimmen is not afraid to have opinions that may challenge or even violate the party line or conventional thoughts, wisdom etc. on the current state of rockabilly music. No cookie cutter talk from this cat, he's honest about what he thinks and who and what has shaped his current original sound. Due to his success in Hollywood with movie and TV soundtracks, Dave freely admits that some old school rockabilly purists. Here's the kicker &endash; Crimmen thinks it's funny because he knows he can only be honest and true to himself, when it involves his musical expression. Bottom line? He could care less. He's got to be Dave, so here it is music lovers, warts and all! Here's the Dave Crimmen interview! Enjoy!

BSN: Dave, could you tell us a little about your musical past?

DC: I've played music professionally for years and I've always been a band guy. I've always enjoyed playing with other musicians. I played the clubs and bars in the 1980's. I guess I played every type of music you can think of, but I personally always had my favorites. It was the pioneers of rock, blues and that type of music. Tell you the truth, I don't remember if we called it rockabilly, but that was one of the types of music I personally found the most interesting. I should mention that my taste in music can be eclectic and there are all kinds and types of good music. I'm not a one-dimensional guy, but I do have my favorites.

BSN: Who were your early favorites?

DC: At the age of two I heard Elvis Presley. I was the baby of the family and I had a sister 20 years older who brought home Elvis records in the 1950's and after hearing that great voice, it was off to the races for me (laughs)!

BSN: So how did your music head off in the direction of rockabilly?

DC: The perfect explanation would be when I met Carl Perkins here in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. Carl was playing a club in Marin County and he was appearing at my favorite record store in the whole world, Village Music in Mill Valley, and Perkins was signing autographs for his fans. I've always been a songwriter and after telling Carl Perkins this fact, he said, "Boy, do you write songs in my style of music?" I said, "Yes sir, I do." He laughed at my response and I explained that I was born and raised in California, but my daddy was from Augusta, Georgia and you could say I was raised in the south. My daddy, Otis Alvin was a big influence on my guitar playing and musical direction. Carl Perkins seemed to understand all this and we got along very well. I sent him some of my original tunes, but in the interlude, I was getting involved in a band called Xtender that recorded two albums in the early 1990's.

BSN: Was your family a big influence on your music?

DC: Yes, I mentioned my older sister brought home music that amazed me as a kid, but also my dad Otis Alvin was a big influence on my guitar playing. He was 30 years in the Navy and could play a mean guitar. My mother Susan Rose was a good Irish Catholic girl from the Roxbury district of Boston. She had been a singer in many of the speakeasy's in the 1930's and had show business in her blood.

BSN: Besides your dad Otis, who else has influenced your guitar playing?

DC: Scotty Moore, who backed Elvis from 1954-58 and James Burton, who played with Dale Hawkins on Suzie-Q in 1957 and Burton played with Ricky Nelson from 1958-62 and Elvis Presley in the 1970's and today, Burton backs Jerry Lee Lewis. Also, I don't want to forget the great country picker from the TV show Town Hall Party, Joe Maphis, (the guy who taught Larry Collins of the Collins Kids to play guitar).

BSN: What about singers?

DC: Little Richard and believe it or not, John Lennon!

BSN: Wow!

DC: John Lennon always raises a few eyebrows, but he had a strong background in the early days of rock and roll and was a rocker by nature. In 1969, Lennon released and album of old rock songs that were almost all rockabilly.

BSN: You're a strong songwriter, so what songwriters do you respect and have they influenced you?

DC: The Brill Building guys out of New York like Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Also, the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and the guy that looks like a mummy, what's his name (Keith Richards)? They are great songwriters who can write anything so they have not influenced me, but have inspired me as a songwriter.

BSN: What rockabilly performers do you like?

DC: I like the under rated performers and if they have been influenced by black performers (like John Lennon was by Specialty records performer Larry Williams) that's cool also. Country, blues, boogie, swing &endash; it all helped to produce rock and roll.

BSN: Can you name a few current artists you like?

DC: I like Rockin' Lloyd Tripp and his band. He's a San Francisco Bay Area guy, who is really good. Tripp's new CD is great rockabilly and they are also a good live band. Like myself, Lloyd is a good songwriter and as you know in the music, it all starts with the song. I like the band Slow Gin Joes and guitarist-singer Pee-Wee Thomas. All great acts.

BSN: Speaking of songwriting, who has influenced you?

DC: Both my parents were really big influences in my life.

BSN: We know that you had one of your songs used on the TV Show Melrose Place a couple of years ago, so how was a rockabilly singer able to get tunes used on TV and in movies?

DC: Marc Ferrari at Master Source Publishing has placed some of my songs in movies (the Sissy Spacek TV movie on Oct. 22 of this year had three of Dave's songs &endash; "Take Me Baby", "It Was Love" and "A Girl Like You") and we together as a team have done well on the TV and movie circuit.

BSN: The College Radio people seem to play your music on many college radio stations. What's the secret to your success in this field?

DC: A good product and a little luck and good people plugging your tunes for you (laughs). I met a very talented lady named Stephanie LeBeau, who has a company called New Visions Trust that promotes new music to college radio stations. Her company has been a big help in breaking my three Dave Crimmen CD's on college radio on the national level. I've had number one songs and CD's on many college stations across America the last two years. New Visions Trust has been a big help. In fact, on album The Son Of Sun had to be re-released because of renewed interest in the music because of the new college radio play that happened after my third album Where He Left Off was released, all the work of New Visions Trust. Confusing, but still success on the college radio circuit playlist.

BSN: Dave, we understand you showed up in Jackson, Tennessee this spring at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

DC: Yes, the virtual Rockabilly Hall Of Fame was having a meet and greet before they broke ground to build the hall of fame. I took my band to Tennessee (think expensive) and we were the first ones to jump on state Thursday night at the jam session. Needless to say, we had a ball. One of the things I tried to do was to get Bill Haley's Original Comets to come up on the stage and jam with us. I tried everything like begging (laughs) and even asked Marshall Lytle to come on up alone &endash; everything I could think of. It was a no go, but when the Comets did a recent show this last August in Reno, Nevada at the "Hot August Nights" weekender, my girlfriend Sharon and I were blown away. What a great band! If anyone has a chance to see "the real" Comets, go for it. Still one of the greatest rockabilly bands in the world today

BSN: An editor from one of the national magazines who was at Jackson, said you have never met a microphone you didn't like. Any comment?

DC: Sounds like me (laughs)! The most amazing thing to happen to me personally in Jackson was the morning after the jam session at breakfast, Brenda Lee came up to me and said how much she and her husband, Ronnie, enjoyed our show the night before. I thanked her and tried to look like I was not going to faint. Brenda Lee walked away and only then did I sneak a peak over my shoulder to see if she was talking to some guy standing behind em! The good news is there was no one there, so she was talking to me. Needless to say, I was in seventh heaven…no, make that rockabilly heaven. The Dave Crimmen band has been invited back next year in June to the Jackson, Tennessee Rockabilly Weekender again, and we are excited. We always do good shows when we are in Tennessee.

BSN: We understand that just two weeks later you and the band were at the big Viva Las Vegas weekender in Nevada.

DC: Yes, we did three shows in the West Lounge at the Gold Coast Hotel and the crowds were great. All the shows were well attended.

BSN: What's in the pipeline for fans of your music?

DC: We have a new CD coming out next year called "Big Daddy 'D'" and before that releases, I'll have a new vinyl 45 out that's my first ever cover tune. As always, it'll come with a picture jacket for the record collector inside of all of us.

BSN: There must be a story there? I mean the song on 45 not the picture jacket.

DC: Yes, there is. My daddy, Otis Alvin's favorite song of all time was a Red Foley hit in the '50's (8# January 1950) and our version of the song came out very good. I'm looking forward to releasing it on vinyl in the spring. It's been 31 years (1969) since my dad passed away, but this one is for him.

BSN: We know your three CD's are doing very good on college radio and we wish you continued success in rockabilly and we will watch for the "Big Daddy 'D'" CD next year. Thanks for the interview and your time, Dave.

DC: Thank you and with that thought, I'll plant you now and dig you later!

The smoke had cleared and the interview was over. In the distance, a coyote howled. I thought to myself, "Hey, who let the coyotes out?" A story for another time, perhaps. My impression was that musician Dave Crimmen was not some questionable personality lost in a banal musical dream. This is one focused cat who brings no sense of entitlement to the rockabilly party. Bottom line is you have to love this guy, warts and all. Crimmen does not claim to be a picture perfect, card carrying, rockabilly purist. He wears many musical influences on his sleeves and the real proof is in his powerful original songs, especially his ballads. The proof is out there waiting for you to discover it. So give Hepcat mail order a call and tell them the guy with the greasy nose and bad breath from Seattle sent you. "Keep rockin".