Nick Gravenites



NickGravenites

Click to enlargeMy Labors






Play Gypsy Good Time
Play Killing My Love
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Killing My Love
2. Gypsy Good Time
3. Holy Moly
4. Moon Tune
5. My Labors
6. Throw Your Dog a Bone
7. As Good as You've Been to This World
8. Wintry Country Side
9. It Takes Time
10. Blues on a Westside
11. It's About Time



125330303$12.99
Click to enlargeKill My Brain


Nick Gravenites & Animal Mind



Play Bad Talking Blues
Play Highway One
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Kill My Brain
2. Ran Out Of West
3. Highway One
4. Bad Talking Blues
5. Get Together
6. Didn't You Used To Be Somebody
7. Four Floors of Forty
8. Your Heart's in the Wrong Place
9. There's No Heaven
10. I'm Gone



124931145$12.99
Click to enlargeDon't Feed The Animals


Nick Gravenites & Animal Mind


Play You Can't Hurt Me
Play Big Bad Etta
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. You Can't Hurt Me
2. Gypsy Good Time
3. Big Bad Etta
4. Funky News
5. Wintry Country Side
6. Blue Highway
7. Party
8. Key to the Highway
9. Six Weeks in Reno
10. Southside
11. Buried Alive in the Blues



124931315$12.99
Click to enlargeMonkey Medicine


The Nick Gravenites/John Cipollina Band


Play Born in Chicago
Play Trust Me
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Blues in the Bottle
2. Six Weeks in Reno
3. I'll Pull the Trigger
4. Trust Me
5. Buried Alive in the Blues
6. Born in Chicago
7. Bad Luck Baby
8. Signs of Life
9. Pride of Man
10. Hot Rods and Cool Women
11. Small Walk-in Box



124931238$12.99
Click to enlargeLive In Athens At The Rodon

The Nick Gravenites/John Cipollina Band


Play Anna
Play Can't Hurt Me No More
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Walkin' Blues
2. Funky News
3. Anna
4. Get Together
5. Born In Chicago
6. Small
7. Four Floors or Forty
8. Can't Hurt Me No More



125453063$12.99
Click to enlargeLocal Blues






Play Since the Gas Station Left Town
Play Goin' Down Slow
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Coming Home Baby
2. Since the Gas Station Left Town
3. Born in Chicago
4. Walkin' Blues
5. Going Down Slow
6. Walk-in Box
7. Livin' in the Right Hand World
8. Blues in My Bottle
9. Down in the Bottom
10. Funky News
11. Good Night Irene



124931293$12.99
Click to enlargeBluestar






Play Junkyard in Malibu
Play Dekalb Blues
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Junkyard in Malibu
2. Bye Bye
3. I'm a Bluesman
4. Dekalb Blues
5. Blues Back Off
6. Who's Out There
7. Down in the Bottom
8. I'm a Dancing Fool
9. The Sister Song
10. My Party
11. Southside
12. Nobody's Fault But Mine
13. Rattlecan Man (bonus track)
14. Hollywood Woman (bonus track)



124931362$12.99
Click to enlargeThe Electric Flag - A Long Time Comin'





Play Full Stream of Groovin' is Easy
Play Full Stream of She Should Have Just
Play full streams of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Killing Floor
2. Groovin' Is Easy
3. Over-lovin' You
4. She Should Have Just
5. Wine
6. Texas
7. Sittin' in Circles
8. You Don't Realize
9. Another Country
10. Easy Rider



124931506$12.99
Click to enlargeThe Electric Flag - An American Music Band





Play Sunny
Play Nothing To Do
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Soul Searchin'
2. Sunny
3. With Time There Is Change
4. Nothing To Do
5. See To Your Neighbor
6. Qualified
7. Hey Little Girl
8. Mystery
9. My Woman Hangs Around The House
10. Goin' Down Slow (bonus track)
11. Look Into My Eyes (bonus track)



124931593$12.99
Click to enlargeThe Electric Flag - LIVE





Play I Found Out
Play Never Be Lonely Again
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. It's Not the Spotlight
2. I Was Robbed Last Night
3. I Found Out
4. Never Be Lonely Again
5. Losing Game
6. My Baby Wants to Test Me
7. I Should Have Left Her
8. You Don't Realize
9. Groovin' is Easy



124931409$12.99
Click to enlargeThe Electric Flag - The Band Kept Playin'





Play Earthquake Country
Play Doctor Oh Doctor (Massive Infusion)
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Sweet Soul Music
2. Every Now And Then
3. Sudden Change
4. Earthquake Country
5. Doctor Oh Doctor (Massive Infusion)
6. Lonely Song
7. Make Your Move
8. Inside Information
9. Talkin' Won't Get It
10. The Band Kept Playing



125595488$12.99
Click to enlargeThe Trip - Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the 1967 film composed by Nick Gravenites.




Play Peter's Trip
Play Green and Gold
Play Samples of the entire album

Songs on this album are:
1. Peter's Trip
2. Psyche Soap
3. M-23
4. Synesthesia
5. Hobbit
6. Fewghh
7. Green and Gold
8. Flash,Bam,Pow
9. Home Room
10. Practice Music
11. Fine Jung Thing
12. Senior Citizen



124931447$9.99
Click to enlargeLIVE At Bill Graham's Fillmore West





Coming Very Soon!



125556410$12.99



About Nick Gravenites

It's not so easy to introduce Nick Gravenites because the man has done so many things that one can easily write a book or build a web site only dedicated to Gravenites who is singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer in one person. Subsequently everything found on this page concerning Nick can only be described as incomplete. Nevertheless let's start with a short introduction Taxim Records added to one of their Bay Area Blues Samplers 'More Bay Area Blues' which contains the song 'Hard Thing' by Nick.

'Nick Gravenites grew up on the southside of Chicago hanging out in the mid-50's with a coterie of misfit white kids - Elvin Bishop, Paul Butterfield, Michael Bloomfield - who went on to form that protean powerhouse of watershed white blues, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Learning their lessons first-hand from the southside greats - Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Otis Rush - Gravenites & Co. burst open the seams of the scene with a feverish intensity and undeniable authenticity, redefining the blues with as much impact as the introduction of electric instrumentation had 15 years earlier. From the late 50's through the mid 60's, Gravenites gravitated between Chicago and San Francisco, establishing himself in the Bay Area in 1965.

In addition to authoring the classic "Born In Chicago" and the groundbreaking "East West" for Butterfield, Gravenites scribed hits for Janis Joplin and has his songs recorded by Big Brother and the Holding Company, Michael Bloomfield, the Electric Flag (of which Gravenites was a founding member), Pure Prairie League, Tracy Nelson, Roy Buchana, Jimmy Witherspoon as well as blues giants Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, and James Cotton. He has a couple of solo albums and has scored and played on the soundtracks for "The Trip", "Medium Cool", and "Steelyard Blues". He has appeared on some 40 albums as singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer.

Other bands: He formed the short lived Blue Gravy and joined Big Brother And The Holding Company early in 1969 staying until early 1972. He was involved with the Taj Mahal/Mike Bloomfield live album, and again in 1973 with "Steelyard Blues". He also formed the Nick Gravenites Band which became Nick Gravenites Blues in 1978 and in the summer of ‘78 he joined Huey Lewis' Monday Nite Live sessions but by the end of the year that too had disbanded.

Nick also worked a lot with John Cipollina, a connection that started with Nick producing the first Quicksilver Messenger Service albums. Later they built the Nick Gravenites-John Cipollina Band which toured a lot in Europe and their record label Line being based in Germany. One of the band's drummers was former Clover drummer Marcus David - who later recorded his solo album 'Greates Hits' on Line Records in 1980. Nick Gravenites himself recorded 'Bluestar' which was also released on Line in 1980 as a solo album but it already had John Cipollina on guitar. Harmonica player on this blues album was Huey Lewis - at that time being something of a session cat who, after Clover's demise, played harp also on albums by Phil Lynott, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and City Boy.

The next album "Monkey Medicine" was recorded in Germany after Nick and John finished their European tour in Germany. Under very primitive conditions but with a lot of heart they recorded this album in Hamburg accompanied by Marcus David on drums and Al Staehely on bass/vocals.

In late 1984 Gravenites was again a member of one of John Cipollina's many projects - Thunder and Lightning - in San Francisco.

During the last few years Gravenites regularly played the psychedelic blues in a small club called the Bodega Bay Grange, Marin County - joined by Doug Kilmer (bass), Mark Adams (harp) and Roy Blumenfeld (drums). The German Taxim label released one of these concerts (rec. Jan. 1994) on CD in 1996.

1999 saw the release of yet another Gravenites' solo album on which Huey Lewis plays harmonica again.



Nick Gravenites Discography:

1969 My Labours
1973 Steelyard Blues OST (with Bloomfield; Warner)
1980 Bluestar (with H. Lewis, J. Cipollina)
1982 Monkey Medicine (with J. Cipollina)
1991 Live In Athens At The Rodon
1996 Don't Feed The Animals
1999 Kill My Brain



From the AllMusicGuide by Richard Skelly

Unless you're familiar with Chicago blues of the 1960s, or from the San Francisco Bay area, the name Nick Gravenites may not be a familiar one. That's because Gravenites has been an important and unfortunately sparsely recorded behind-the-scenes blues player for many years. More people are likely to know Gravenites for the dozens of great songs he wrote: "Born in Chicago" (Paul Butterfield), "Buried Alive in the Blues" (Janis Joplin), "East-West," "Work Me Lord," "Groovin' Is Easy," "Bad Talkin' Bluesman," and literally hundreds of others. Gravenites' compositions have been recorded by Butterfield, Joplin, the Electric Flag, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Brother and the Holding Company, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Witherspoon, David Crosby, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Tracy Nelson, Blue Gravy, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Buchanan, Pure Prairie League, and others. He's also made quite a name for himself as a producer, working on albums by Otis Rush, James Cotton, Michael Bloomfield, Janis Joplin and others. Gravenites' sessionography is extensive; he's performed on more than 45 albums as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, or bandleader.

Gravenites, the son of first-generation Greek immigrants, grew up on Chicago's South Side and entered the University of Chicago in 1956. He began to play guitar in college, was immediately drawn to the university's large folk music club, and shortly thereafter began hanging out in the blues clubs. He met Paul Butterfield, who was still in high school, through the university's folk music club, though Butterfield never attended the University of Chicago. They began playing acoustic blues and folk songs together at campus-area coffeehouses. Also in the late 1950s, he became friends with other black and white blues players then hanging out in the Chicago blues clubs, musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Mike Bloomfield and Charlie Musselwhite. In the late 1950s, he began making periodic trips to San Francisco, and spent nearly ten years commuting between Chicago and San Francisco before finally settling in northern California in the mid-1960s. Gravenites was a key player and impresario on both the Chicago blues scene and the emerging blues-rock and psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco. In 1967, he formed a short-lived but legendary band, the Electric Flag, with guitarist Bloomfield, organist Barry Goldberg, bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Buddy Miles. The Electric Flag made their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and their first album, A Long Time Comin', made the Top 40; the group continued to record into the mid-'70s. Gravenites' solo albums include My Labors (1969), Steel Yard Blues (1973), Junkyard In Malibu (1980), and Blue Star (1980) and a mid-1990s album with his group Animal Mind, titled Don't Feed the Animals.

Gravenites continued to perform through the 1970s and '80s around San Francisco and northern California, filling his live shows with raw, burning, very economical guitar playing and soulful singing. Most recently, Gravenites joined Bob Margolin and others in a Kennedy Center tribute concert to bluesman Muddy Waters, taped in the fall of 1997 for eventual airing on PBS.



Please visit Nick's web site