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Daughters S


TONEGROUND HAS HAD A long and varied career, undergoing innumerable changes in their line- up along with several diversions in


their style. None of whom have ever managed to keep the band, their name and their music in the spotlight for very long. For the purposes of this article, we focus on the band’s early days, their early tours and the first three albums, all of which show how much of a vital part of the San Francisco scene they were.


Really, it all begins with another band, the much more widely known and revered Beau Brummels. Their story is widely documented so there’s little need to go into it here, other than to note the presence within The Beau Brummels of Sal Valentino, their lead singer. A man whose voice has been described as “frankly magical” by no less an authority than author and historian Alec Palao in his sleeve notes to The Beau Brummels’ Magic Hollow box set. Another key link between The Beau Brummels and


Stoneground was Tom Donahue. As Valentino explains, “When I met ‘Big Daddy’ Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell they had come West to avoid the fall out of payola investigations in the East coast. Tom had hooked up with Sly Stewart (later of Sly & The Family Stone) who was their producer, at Autumn Records. Anyway, Tom and Bob introduced us young, innocent but aspiring ‘way out westerners’ to the recording industry. Tom is responsible for every record deal I’ve ever had as an artist and at the time, this would be around late 1968, maybe early ‘69, the year before he basically created what was to become Stoneground”, recalls Valentino. “I was nearing the end of my relationship with Lenny Waronker and Ron Elliott and the whole Beau Brummels band.”


Tom Donohue had been working as a DJ at KMPX and then KSAN in San Francisco and had the idea of organising a musical trek across the USA that could be filmed and made into a movie that would hopefully catch the public’s imagination in the same way that Woodstock had. So, Tom began putting people together to see how it would work out. Amongst his cast list were Annie Sampson, who had been in the stage show of Hair for the last 18 months and was looking to have a break from that. Then there was Lynne Hughes who had a real psychedelic pedigree, having worked as a waitress at the now legendary Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. She also sang vocals on a few tracks by The Charlatans as well as playing live on stage with them. Lynne had also been part of a band called Tongue And Groove with ex- Charlatan Mike Ferguson. Tom also had an interest in a band revolving around guitarist Tim Barnes that had previously been called The Immediate Family who had released a lone 45 on Golden State Records.


Valentino remembers that “I had a handful of songs written while in Southern California that were never considered as Beau Brummels material and when Tom visited me one day and said come north and we’ll make a record, I left what I had been doing and started working with an artist Tom was producing. That turned out be Ron Nagle and Bad Rice. By getting involved in that project, I met John Blakeley who had been assigned by Tom to over-see a three piece sort of power trio, that I think was already called Stoneground. Tim Barnes on guitar, Michael Mau on drums and a bass player whose name I forget. (Author’s note: I am by no means


Annie Sampson and friend on the set of The Medicine Ball Caravan


certain but it might be a gentleman by the name of Kit Thomas, who seems to have been bass player by the time that hit the road, so he may have been there from the start.) We started developing a few songs of mine that the Beau Brummels’ team had not wanted for that band. We were doing ‘Queen Sweet Dreams’, ‘Me and No One’, (sometimes referred to as ‘Snowman’) and ‘Stroke Stand’. Plus a Gene Clark song, ‘Set You Free This Time’.”


John Blakeley, rhythm guitar player, remembers it all happening this way. “First of all there was Tom Donohue, radio jock and manager for several bands. When I first moved up here, I hooked up with Ron Nagle, a well-known ceramicist and songwriter. He was managed by Tom. Donohue suggested that Sal help us on some background vocals and that’s how I met Sal. We admired each other’s ability in the studio and became good friends. Meanwhile, Donohue wanted me to produce a band in Walnut Creek called Stoneground. I went out there and spent several weeks trying to help them put things together. It was right about then that The Grateful Dead bowed out of a movie deal with Warner Brothers called The Medicine Ball Caravan. Donohue put everyone together along with four women to form a larger band to go and do the tour and the subsequent movie. That was the beginning... and nearly the end.”


Some readers may think that Donohue, having so much power, must have been a bad or corrupt manager. In fact, in researching this story, I have yet to find anyone who has a bad word to say about him. So finally, the band is ready to tour, despite being completely unrehearsed. A camera crew and director of international fame, Francois Reichenbach, had been brought over from France to film proceedings as they went along and everybody’s hopes were high. Various forms of


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