The Voice - Student Newspaper

Rock icon travels back to his Folk roots

By Mary Allan
Reporter, The VOICE

Lanky and bespectacled at 67, Paul Kantner sits on a North Beach corner sipping his espresso. He loves his hometown. San Francisco is known for embracing the eccentric and curmudgeon alike. Good thing for him Kanter says, "If I had not lived in San Francisco I would have been executed by now."

Kantner is alive and well and will not be sitting for long. The co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and Starship is leaving Sept. 20, 2008 for a 10 week tour, which includes performances in Japan. He wants to introduce the world to his new CD "Jefferson's Tree of Liberty." What is old is new again. This time he is going back to his roots; folk music. He is at the same time, honoring what went before and putting his own mark on it.

Kanter's initial interest in music was inspired by the legendary folk singers Pete Seeger and the Weavers.

"They drew me to music," says Kantner.

Katner started playing the folk circuit, and participated in hootenannies at such places called The Drinking Gourd.

At that time the civil rights movement influenced many folk songs and the folk culture. Kantar took up causes along with Pete Seeger. A cause that evolved from the civil rights era was women's movement.

Kantner responds, "I still fight for causes today especially women rights."

According to "Got a Revolution" by Jeff Tamarkin, the San Francisco Bay area seemed to be a magnet for the creative soul all the way south to the hippie hills of Santa Cruz. The gene pool of talent was unrivalled at that time. Kantner found like minds in the form of David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, and Janis Joplin to name a few.

However "everything changed when Kennedy was assassinated," broods Kantner, Some of the sweetness was gone. At that time a new culture was emerging, the San Francisco sound, the psychedelic age, free love and civil unrest. What brought this on? The aicd rock and everything else? Was it just acid?

"No, exclaims Kantner," It was a confluence of things like drugs, the birth control pill, the civil rights movement and the Beatles."

It was around that time that Jefferson Airplane was formed. Kanter has been through every incarnation of the group up to today. Asked why, Kantner replied. "I guess I was just always the last to leave."

His new CD Jefferson's Tree of liberty is a compilation of folk music classics and some innovative new original material. He is introducing a whole new generation to the joys of folk music.