Episode 36 of Hooked on Creek features my interview with Dave Reed. Dave played guitar and sang in Max Creek from 1971 to 1974 and he is one of the founding members of the band.
In this episode, Dave talks about the formation of Max Creek, his memories of playing in the band and his interests in Americana, roots and indigenous music.
This episode also includes the following songs featuring Dave Reed:
- Back Porch Boogie Blues: This song was performed live by Max Creek on February 10, 1974.
- I’m Leaving: This song was recorded by Max Creek sometime around 1972.
- I Am Here: This song was recorded by Max Creek sometime around 1972.
- It’s All Over Now: This song was performed live by Max Creek on November 27, 1993.
- Road of Good Intentions: This song was included on the 2019 album Gypsy Davy released by David Reed & the Introverts.
Visit tambouraproductions.com to learn more about Dave Reed.
Transcript of episode 36
You’re listening to Hooked on Creek, a podcast celebrating the music, history and fans of the legendary jam band Max Creek. I am your host, Korre Johnson, and you are listening to episode 36.
Thank you for joining me on episode 36 of Hooked on Creek. I am very excited to share this episode with you because it features my recent conversation with Dave Reed. Dave played guitar and sang in Max Creek from 1971 to 1974 and he is one of the founding members of the band. Since then, Dave has become an accomplished finger-style guitarist, a recording artist and a seasoned performer who has played extensively throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Europe. In this episode, Dave talks about the formation of Max Creek, his memories of playing with the band and what led him to ultimately leave the band in 1974. Dave also talks about his interests in Americana, roots and indigenous music, and his love of cigar box guitars. Dave and I cover a lot of ground in our conversation, so I think fans of Max Creek are really going to enjoy this one.
And after my conversation with Dave, be sure to stick around because I have some really good music lined up for you. I am going to play a couple songs Dave gave me that were recorded by Max Creek around 1972, so this is very early in the band’s history, and Dave said these early recordings were probably made in the band house in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. And then, I am also going to play a nice recording of Dave performing live with Max Creek in 1993. And after that, I will finish things off by playing a track from the album Gypsy Davy released in 2019 by David Reed & the Introverts.
As a reminder, you can learn more about this episode and read a full transcript of my interview with Dave Reed by visiting Hooked on Creek website at hookedoncreek.com. Alright, we have a lot to get to, so let’s get started.
Korre: Dave Reed, welcome to Hooked on Creek.
Dave: Hello there, Korre. How are you?
Korre: I’m doing great. Thank you so much for being here.
Dave: Sure.
Korre: Dave, you are a multi-instrumentalist, a singer, a songwriter, a recording artist, you build cigar box guitars and you’ve performed and toured across the U.S. and internationally over the course of your career, but you are also a founding member of Max Creek. You started the band with John Rider and Bob Gosselin in 1971, singing and playing guitar in the band until 1974. But before we talk about the formation of Max Creek, can you take me back to your childhood before Max Creek, and tell me about your initial exposure to music and what influenced you to start playing music when you were growing up?
Dave: When I was 3 or 4, I lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, and my parents lived next door to a fellow who had migrated up from New Orleans and he was a jazz cornet player. And I would hear him practicing, and this and that, and I would go next door and he would take me in. And he would listen to all these jazz Dixieland and New Orleans music, and other jazz, too. And he let me fool around with his cornet and make noises on it and stuff. He also had a big Wollensak tape recorder that he would run. And, I would sing and make noises into that, which was certainly fascinating for somebody who was, you know, 3 or 4 years old. That kind of planted the seed musically.
And then later on, I was in second, third grade, and given the opportunity to choose an instrument. I wanted to be just like Chuck McCoy. And so I chose the trumpet and got rather proficient at it and played all through school, high school. That’s where Bob Gosselin and I go way back. We played together in high school band and other little things. And later I went on to major in music at Hartt. That’s where I met John Rider. He was a trumpet player and Scott was my music student. He was taking trumpet lessons from me. And, there was a time when I was giving him a lesson at his house and I saw this guitar there and I said, “You play?” He says, “A little.” I said, “Let’s hear you.” And of course, I don’t know how old he was. He was probably 14.
Korre: How much older are you than Scott? Just to put it in perspective here.
Dave: I must have been 19.
Korre: You’re a teenager. What types of music are you listening to? What influences are you hearing in music or popular music at that time?
Dave: For me, I was very interested in some of the folk music that was going on. And, that was sort of interesting. But what really lit the fuse was the British invasion. You have the Beatles. You have the Rolling Stones. The first live concert I ever went to, I was 15, I went to see The Dave Clark Five and that, you know, knocked my socks off. But as a trumpet player, I noticed all of these bands didn’t have trumpets in them. But at that same time, Herb Albert, Al Hirt, were on the scene and they were playing.
Rolling the clock back even further, I think one of the things that really lit my fuse for performing is, I think I was in seventh or eighth grade and my band director knew I was taking trumpet lessons, because we’d be fooling around. And he heard me playing an Al Hirt song and he apparently liked it well enough that, I don’t know, a few weeks later, months later, I can’t remember what, the Air Force Jazz Band came to do an assembly at the school. And he said to me, “How would you like to play the Al Hirt song,” which I think was Java, “with the Air Force Jazz Band?” Well, I had no frame of reference to what that meant. And I said, “Sure. That would be OK.” The band came and I was eventually brought up on stage. And of course there’s no rehearsal or anything like that, and they said to me, “What key you in?” I told them and they said, “Just start.” And so I started playing my tune and this Air Force Jazz Band kicked in and it was kaboom! The whole thing just took off and flew around the auditorium. And then, I was just transported by that experience and I think I’ve been chasing that experience and others like it ever since.
Korre: Max Creek, the band, started in 1971 when you were at Hartt college. Right?
Dave: It was actually a little before that.
Korre: Was it? OK.
Dave: Yeah, because John and I were getting together and we were both very much into the roots — Americana roots — music. And we were both beginning to dabble with writing our own songs. We both played a little bit of guitar, but that wasn’t our major or anything. And neither of us, as far as I know, had any lessons or any training. And so we were just self-taught and we enjoyed getting together and singing some of these old folk songs, which I notice there is still some of them in their repertoire. And, that began to gel.
And, we would rehearse. Rehearse — it was no rehearsal because there wasn’t any real intention, other than having some fun, sometimes at his fraternity house. That’s where Mark Mercier lived and John Archer and Biff Mellon and a bunch of these other people who were instrumental in the beginning parts of the band and they encouraged us to keep going.
So we would learn more stuff and I said, “I’ve got this friend of mine back home I grew up with. I played with him over the years. He plays drums. Let’s see what happens.” So I brought Bob in and we had this little trio. And, we started doing, you know, some of these old things like Crawdad Hole and Going Down the Road Feeling Bad and some old Woody songs and things like that. But we bumped them up a notch with amplifiers and drums. So that was fun. That was fun. And it began to catch on for us. And John, with his southern roots, really resonated with that stuff. And, all of us at that point in time, I think had some kind of a, I don’t know, a naive or romantic predilection for the old times, and we kind of gravitated towards that.
Korre: Tell me about the song Back Porch Boogie Blues.
Dave: Okay. That was a tune that I wrote. I was working on that, you know, kind of a blue grassy, flat picking sort of thing — instrumental tune. And, we were playing it in the band and that’s one of the tunes that we played when I brought Scott into the band house basement to rehearse, to jam. And he played that and man, that lit that song on fire. And it’s something that they continue to do. One day a few years ago, I was just kind of scrolling through YouTube or something and then there’s kind of a homemade video of Phish. It’s Phish covers Creek. I said, “Oh, what’s this?” Phish covering Creek playing Back Porch Boogie Blues. And I’m like, what? Holy cow. Isn’t that something. But of course, back then we didn’t copyright anything. We just did it, you know? And so there it is. And, what are you going to do? It was fun. It was fun to bump into that.
Korre: And that song has persisted. It still is in their performances to this day.
Dave: It sure is. And sometimes they’ll do it as an encore thing. Of course they take it a hell of a lot faster than I can play it. But, possession is nine tenths of the law. They have it. They’re welcome to it.
Korre: You mentioned you became friends with Bob Gosselin in high school. What type of music were you playing or what were you doing with him?
Dave: We did some of the Herb Albert kind of stuff. We would do instrumental versions of the popular songs. Some jazz tunes. But we would take these arrangements of Beatles songs or something and play them. I think Bob mentioned in his interview with you that we played with an accordion player, and he knew a lot of stuff. So, we did that. And, it was just weird little gigs — nursing homes and Italian American home and Dante Club and a few other places. Before the band really got going, the deal I had with my parents is, “We can’t really afford school, but we’ll match you dollar for dollar.” So I had to work. I wanted to use music to make some money, so I was playing these strip clubs in the Hartford area, because these cheesy acts would come in from out of town and bring in a comedian and a dancer and the strippers and stuff. And some of them would bring the music that they wanted. I have a guitar around my neck and I could play the chords to some of that stuff, or I have the trumpet and I could play. So I was doing that and I brought Bob in with me on that. Eventually John did a couple of those things, too, I think. But that faded out because who wants to do that?
Korre: When you graduated high school and you went to college, did you think that music was going to be your career? Were you looking to make a career out of this or were you not really sure where it was going to go at that time?
Dave: Yes. My initial intention, my initial hope, was to be a classical trumpet player. And I learned fairly quickly, in the first year or two, that I didn’t have what it took, or at least that’s what I was told by the professor — which was very, very, very discouraging. And I changed my major to music ed, which was OK because I’d been teaching trumpet lessons since I was in high school to local kids. That was OK. I wanted to stay in music. So that’s what I did. And I taught school for a number of years, both John and I did.
Korre: Do you remember, what were your first impressions of meeting John Rider? What sparked that friendship and that bond that you guys had that ultimately brought you together to play music?
Dave: I think it’s because we were both sort of a little bit of freaky outcasts. We both had long hair, which was a little unusual at that time and in that milieu, and oftentimes we would sit next to each other in a section. So you get to chit chat about this and that. And one thing led to another. Like I say, we both discovered that while we were trumpet players, we both enjoyed these other musical avenues and both were teaching ourselves how to play guitar, so I think that’s how that began.
Korre: Do you remember the moment or the time period when you actually said we’re going to have a band, we’re going to call it Max Creek and we’re going to actually do this? Or was it not like that?
Dave: No. It was an evolution. Because as I said, we began just John and I fooling around. Then I said, “Well, let’s bring Bob in.” And we got these various parties, we played some bars in Hartford. What were they? Rocking Horse and some other places I can’t even remember now. We didn’t have a name, initially, and then because Max Creek is an actual place in Virginia where John spent a good part of his formative years, he wanted to name the band that. So that’s how that came about.
Korre: Tell me about the experience of the band house. As I understand, it was that in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts?
Dave: It was.
Korre: Eventually moved out the fraternity house, and then the band members were all together in one house. What was that? Like?
Dave: I never lived in the frat house. Only John and Mark Mercier did. Mark wasn’t in the band at that time, yet. Bob and I rented a house in Feeding Hills and Bob was married at the time. And I was living with someone who eventually did become my wife. And we thought, we had graduated from school, so John couldn’t live in his frat house anymore, “Why don’t you come stay with us?” And so, he did, and it made rehearsing and things much better. And Scott lived in the adjacent town and I had him come up to the house and sit in with us and that seemed to really bump it up a notch. And, kind of the rest is history. I think it’s certainly known that I got very sick with appendicitis and lost certainly a month worth of time recuperating from that. And that’s when Mark came aboard to fill in for me and stayed on. So the thing began to, like I say, organically grow.
Korre: I’m curious, when you came back after your appendicitis and you saw Mark was playing with the band and there, what was that like? Were you aware that the band was gonna expand to include another member? Was that a good addition to the band or was there some hard feelings about any of that?
Dave: No. It was very different. Mark is a wonderful guy, a sweet gentleman and a first-class, world-class musician. So, with both him and Scott, it bumped things up. That was really quite good. I think part of the stuff that began to happen was, as I’d said, I really needed to stay focused on making some money. And, the band was beginning to really want to expand their sound. They were starting to get into the Dead and all that sort of thing. And, the bigger bands or the bigger PAs and all this kind of stuff, and wanted to invest the money into growing that way, and I couldn’t afford to do that. So that began to create some friction. And, I think our musical vision began to change, too, because I was still more into the roots music, folk, and in beginning to expand my horizon to other cultures — African music and even Delta blues and things like that. And, I wanted us to expand our horizon. I didn’t want to stay just doing that sort of Dead thing. And, that was a little change there for everyone.
Korre: Do you remember having those conversations with the other band members? And was that a hard conversation to have?
Dave: Well, here’s the thing. We were kids and we did not have these conversations. We should have. We didn’t. We were immature. We didn’t have the skills to be able to identify issues when they came up and to be able to get to the bottom of it. And so, you know, the tensions would happen and they they’d never get resolved. And, communication in that regard was, I think in retrospect, somewhat immature. And we were all just early twenties and what do you know? What do you know then? You think you know everything and you don’t know nothing.
Korre: You stuck with music for your entire life. Can you put that in perspective for me a little bit about what Max Creek and that experience has meant for you, as a musician, as you grew and went on to other things?
Dave: Well, I am proud to be affiliated and associated with them. The way things spun out, we didn’t remain in close contact. Occasionally they would invite me to play a reunion sort of thing now and again, which I would do. But of course the strength of a relationship is based on shared experiences and they began to grow and do what they did and go where they went and do those things, and I wasn’t a part of that. I was doing other things. So, voids occurred. I think when we do get together, it’s kind of fun. It doesn’t happen all that often anymore. Did they influence my future as far as what I did? I don’t think so. No. Because I went in very different directions. Like I said earlier, I’m really interested in roots music, indigenous music of different cultures and things. And so, I made a trip to the West Indies in, first one was in ’94, I think. I was interested in that culture and that music. When made my first trip there in ’94 and had been going back every year since and playing and absorbing that — so that became part of who I was. I traveled to Central America, began listening to some of that music. Never been to Africa, but I like to listen to the various kinds.
So that’s what I’m saying. I began to be influenced by that and try to bring that into my playing. And then, I started to get really interested in finger-style guitar. Because when I was playing with the band, with Max Creek, I was the rhythm player. And, it’s an important role and I appreciated it. But when you are playing mostly by yourself, or with a small group, let’s say a percussionist and whatnot, I wanted the guitar to be essentially a band in the hand. And, my thumb is my bass player and my fingers are my rhythm and melody. And, I think of the guitars as a drum. And that’s kind of where I was going. I’ve expanded on that somewhat, since
Korre: You’ve recorded a number of solo albums, you’ve recorded some work with some other bands. But what I learned about you, also, is that you build, what’s it called, cigar box guitars. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Dave: Sure. That, too, harkens back to my interest in primitive and indigenous cultures and the instruments that they played, and the fact that they wanted to create this spiritual and musical experience out of whatever they had around. So, doesn’t matter what country or what continent you go to, you will find something that has a string on it, or some sort of drum, some sort of flute, wind instrument. And in this country, we have certainly the African influence brought over unfortunately by the slaves. And they made instruments out of things that they had around Later on, right around the Civil War, people were still making instruments out of found objects and what not. But cigars had been sold prior to the Civil War in barrels. And right around the Civil War, they started putting them in boxes because they could then tax these boxes to help pay for the war effort. It was a lot easier to tax these and register these small cigar boxes than barrels full of cigars.
And so there began to be a lot of cigar boxes around. People who couldn’t afford to buy a mail-order, catalog instrument would make the instruments out of cigar boxes or small casks. That intrigued me. That intrigued me a lot. And I had heard about them and I learned about them, but I’d never heard one. And I’d only seen pictures. And then somewhere around 2008, 2009 or something, I saw this guy playing. He was playing in Stockbridge near where I live. And he was playing in a club that I play in called the Red Lion. And he had a cigar box with one string on it. And the music that he was making on this thing absolutely blew me away — primitive, simple, but powerful as hell. And, I went up and I looked at it and I thought I can do this. My dad was an amateur woodworker, and I inherited his tools and his interest in woodworking. So I put those two desires together to make an instrument with the woodworking stuff. And I made a cigar box guitar. Actually, the first one I made, which I still have, wasn’t a cigar box at all. It was made out of an olive oil tin. It’s what I had. I didn’t have a cigar box at that time. And so that is the essence of these instruments. They’re homemade. They’re primitive.
But as my skills improved and I was able to accumulate better materials — all of them are different. They’re made for, from scavenged materials, recycled wood. The early ones — I would buy these old junky crappy guitars and take the tuners and electronics and stuff out. Now, the cigar box guitar world has really exploded and there’s places where you can get parts and you can get all kinds of stuff. So I will buy different pickups or electronics to put in them. But I still enjoy making them from things that I have around. And, I’ve taught myself to play and they’ve become an integral part of my show. I do some blues, some Delta blues. I do some country. I do some kind of Indian raga kind of things on them because they’re just wild. I actually played it a couple times with Max Creek. I brought it to two of the reunion shows and did a couple of tunes with them. I think what I played was the Rolling Stones’ Dead Flowers with them, with the cigar box. So it has a degree of flexibility to it, once you learn how to do it.
Korre: That leads me to something else I want to talk about. I have a couple questions that came in from some Max Creek fans that they wanted me to ask you. This first one came in from Mike Dumas who asked, “What does it feel like to come back and play with Max Creek at their reunion shows?” And a related question came in from Jonathan Winalski who asked you to talk about your experience playing at Max Creek’s recent 50th anniversary reunion show. Wondering if you can comment on, on that.
Dave: The first question was, how is it for me when I come back with them? It’s always a little bit, “OK. What are we going to do now? We haven’t rehearsed anything.” You’re thrown into the pool. Oh, no. You’re gonna swim. So it’s a little anxious, but that doesn’t last long. It’s good to see the guys. It’s good to know that they’re still doing what they do. They’re still in love with what they do and that they have broadened their experience beyond just the band. It’s Scott’s projects, Mark’s projects, John and his wife have their business. And then of course there’s been a million drummers. Rob Fried kind of took my place. When the band was the band, I left. There was now four people. Then they brought in other — Amy came in and a few other people, but then Rob was the one who just was there. So it was good to see everybody having different projects, different ideas. Of course, it was sad to learn about Rob. He and I spoke several times prior to his death. He called me up and wanted to talk about stuff. And that was poignant.
For playing this past summer, I was anxious about it because of the COVID. And I didn’t know what the hell was going to go on there. And I talked to Scott at length about it. I almost didn’t do it. But he said as far as he knew, everybody in the band had had their shots or most of them anyway, I guess. And, he wears a mask and blah, blah, blah. And, I have some pulmonary problems, so I worry about that stuff. And, he said, it’s outside. It would be OK. And it was. It was good fun. It was good, fun. I enjoyed seeing them. I enjoyed playing. For me, one of the most enjoyable moments was the song that Amy did with just Mark and John. I don’t remember the tune. I just remember it moved me. It was very powerful. And, you know, the whole scene is kind of fun. You have multi-generations there who have known who the band is and I would venture to say most of the people had no idea who I was. I get on stage with the cigar box. “What the hell is this?” But it was fun.
Korre: I have a question here from Kenny Johnson who asked, “Do you ever play any Max Creek songs on your cigar box guitar?”
Dave: I do a couple of tunes that Max Creek has done. As I said, the Dead Flowers, July, Going Down That Road. As far is their original tunes, no. I don’t. But tunes that we did like, like those that I mentioned. Yes.
Korre: OK. Dave, if fans want to learn more about you and your music, I understand you have a website and the URL is tambouraproductions.com is that the best place for fans to find you online?
Dave: Probably yes. Yeah. tambouraproductions.com. The COVID business has really knocked the snot out of pretty much anyone who is doing performing these days. And so the past couple of years, I’ve taken to making little homemade videos and stuff which you can find on YouTube, all solo stuff, and some videos that I make. My wife is a photographer, so I have used her shots, and then I do little soundtracks or songs and stuff behind them. And those are on YouTube. I’m speaking to you today from St. Augustine, Florida, where I am fortunate enough to be able to spend six months of the year. And, I’ve only recently started doing it because I can’t afford to go to the Caribbean anymore. In 2016, there was a massive hurricane there ruined where I stayed. And it hasn’t rebuilt and I can’t afford to go back there. But, I come down here and I’ve got a little TV slot coming up and I’ve got some other stuff happening down here. And then, I’ll be back up in western Massachusetts in May and be around the Berkshires. I got a show it in Delaware and another one in somewhere in New York. So I’m still at it.
Korre: All right, Dave. Well, it was a lot of fun talking with you today. Thank you so much for joining me on hooked on Creek.
Dave: You’re very welcome, Korre. Good to speak with you. Nice to see you.
Korre: Thanks.
I really hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Dave Reed. Now, I am going to play some music featuring Dave while he was in Max Creek, and some music from his career after Max Creek. But first, I want to acknowledge during the introduction to this episode, you heard Dave Reed in Max Creek performing Back Porch Boogie Blues live on February 10, 1974. Coming up, I am going to play the song I’m Leaving and the song I Am Free recorded by Max Creek sometime around 1972. After that, I am going to play It’s All Over Now, performed live by Max Creek with Dave Reed on November 27, 1993. And then to finish things off, Dave gave me permission to play the song Road of Good Intentions from his 2019 album Gypsy Davy released by David Reed & the Introverts.
OK, so now these first two songs I am going to play were recorded by Max Creek sometime around 1972, most likely at the band house in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. Dave sent both of these recordings to me, and from what I can tell, neither of these early Max Creek recordings are posted anywhere online. This first song is named I’m Leaving. It was written by Dave Reed and it featured Dave on vocals and guitar, John Rider on bass and Bob Gosselin on harmonica.
Coming up next is another recording by Max Creek from sometime around 1972. This is the song I Am Free written by Dave Reed, featuring Dave on vocals and guitar, John Rider on bass, Bob Gosselin on drums, and according to Dave, this might be one of the earliest recordings of Scott Murawski in the band.
And now, this is Max Creek with Dave Reed performing the song It’s All Over Now live at Woody’s Roadhouse in Washington, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1993.
Coming up next is the song Road of Good Intentions from the 2019 album Gypsy Davy released by David Reed & the Introverts. I bought this album in preparation for my interview, and I absolutely love it. So, huge thanks to Dave for letting me share this track with you.
And that concludes episode 36 of Hooked on Creek. It was a huge honor getting the opportunity to talk with Dave Reed and I really hope you enjoyed listening to our conversation and listening to all the music I included in this episode. If you have feedback about this episode, I would love to hear from you. You can get in touch with me via the contact link on the Hooked on Creek website at hookedoncreek.com or via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Just search for Hooked on Creek to get connected. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for tuning in.