Episode 55 of Hooked on Creek features my conversation with Kenny Johnson, a devoted fan of Max Creek. Kenny is helping preserve the band’s legacy by updating their Wikipedia page and sharing audio of their live performances on YouTube.
In this episode, Kenny discusses his experiences seeing Max Creek over the years, his work updating the band’s Wikipedia page and why he uploads live audio recordings on YouTube. Kenny also talks about the community of fans that supports Max Creek, his favorite venues to see the band play and his thoughts on the future of Max Creek.
This episode features the following songs performed live by Max Creek:
- In Harmony performed at The Met in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on November 23, 2018
- Emerald Eyes performed at the Strange Creek music festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2017
- Trail To Odeo performed at Boney’s Cafe in Winsted, Connecticut, on May 23, 1975
- ICU performed at the StrangeCreek Campout music festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on May 23, 2009
- Three performed at Mill Street Brews in Southbridge, Massachusetts, on March 27, 2010
Transcript of episode 55
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 55.
Thank you for joining me on this very special episode of Hooked on Creek. Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with Kenny Johnson, a devoted fan of Max Creek. Kenny and I talked about his journey into the world of Max Creek, his work updating the band’s Wikipedia page and his YouTube channel featuring live audio recordings of Max Creek performances. We also talked about his favorite Max Creek experiences, his feelings about the community of fans that supports the band and his thoughts on the future of Max Creek. Kenny is a huge fan of Max Creek and a really interesting guy, so I am excited to share our conversation with you.
As a reminder, you can find links to the music featured in this episode in the show notes, and if you head over to hookedoncreek.com you can read a full transcript of my conversation with Kenny. Alright, now let’s get started.
[interview begins]
Korre: Kenny Johnson, welcome to Hooked On Creek.
Kenny: Hey, Korre. Thank you for having me.
Korre: Well, it’s awesome that you’re on the podcast with me. Maybe to begin with, Kenny, tell me how long have you been listening to Max Creek?
Kenny: Just about 11 years.
Korre: Where did it all begin? How did you find this band?
Kenny: So, I was first introduced by a stranger. I wasn’t immediately introduced to the actual music, but rather I was given a suggestion to see the band by a woman who I was speaking with outside the Met, a small venue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I believe it was in September of 2012. I was 17 years old. We were both attending a Grateful Dead cover band out of Massachusetts called Playing Dead and we struck a conversation outside on the deck. She was asking me about my music interests and she suggested I attend a Max Creek show the following month at that venue. I believe it was October 12th, 2012.
Yeah, the way she described the music immediately interested me. Because I was fresh out of the water and wasn’t exposed to much of the jam band scene, I was really eager to attend their show. I was more into, and still am into, the music of John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, King Crimson. I arrived at the show super early with my friends. We watched Mark [Mercier] set up his keyboard. I was thinking he was the sound engineer for the band and people gradually entered.
I noticed the band just had this music that contained this freshness to me, something I hadn’t heard before. I could feel a sense of antiquity to it — what I would describe now as Americana music by a regional phenomenon. Jay [Stanley] and Bill [Carbone] had just started playing with them the previous year, I believe, so I got into it in the new iteration of the band — the new incarnation with Bill and Jay.
Korre: Well, I love what you said there. You described it as a freshness, but maybe balanced with this antiquity. The music can run really deep — meaning deep from the style of music they’re playing, whether it has roots and folk music or blues or some traditional music, or maybe it’s deep because it’s deep in the folklore of the Grateful Dead and sort of what that represents. But there’s also a freshness to it because I believe Max Creek has their own take on certainly their own music, but also the covers they do. And so there is a balance there, right?
Kenny: Big time. Yeah.
Korre: One of the things I saw earlier this year that you put on Facebook is this message you wrote, “I rewrote 85 percent of the Max Creek Wikipedia page. Come check it out.” So tell me about the work you put in to updating the band’s Wikipedia page. What did that all involve?
Kenny: So, I have to thank you greatly for that. To be honest, a lot of your interviews are a part of that. So, basically there’s been some stagnation, there’s been some inertia with the Wiki page, and I noticed that there was some errors and just things that need to be cleaned up. So, I took under this overhauling of it by doing some meticulous research, article combing, mainly using Google, the Wayback Machine on Archive and a lot of your podcasts, actually, a lot of the interviews that you’ve done. You can see that within the footnotes of the sources on the page. You’ll see her name mentioned a lot.
So, I’m always looking for new ways to optimize the band’s page because I was constantly seeing inaccuracies and there’s this story that’s always being changed by different members’ input. So, it’s kind of hard to gauge the actual series of events chronologically. But yeah, with a lot of your interviews I’ve been able to do that. I try to keep it as unbiased as possible, so it’s being presented in a format that’s accepted by the Wikipedia community. But yeah, it’s something I love doing. I love just preserving their legacy.
Korre: You’re talking to the right guy. I mean, this podcast for me in some way is trying to do that, too. I mean, I certainly get a lot of personal satisfaction out of learning about the history and trying to arrange it in a way that I guess makes sense to me and hopefully for others who may be not familiar with the band or who are being exposed to the music. And when they have a question like, “Who was the drummer in 1979?” Or whatever the question would be, something out there can answer that. I looked at the Wikipedia page and I looked at it recently, and the work you did is just incredible.
So, I want you to know, thank you so much for doing that work to document their history, preserve their legacy. I mean, this is important work. I’m just so glad you’re doing it.
Kenny: Thank you very much, and thank you.
Korre: Kenny, since you started seeing the band in 2012, what shows stand out to you? Are there any shows that you think are memorable or really were special to you?
Kenny: I’ve had so many amazing experiences at Creek shows, but there is one that will forever stand the test of time for me. It was one of the most incredible moments I ever shared with my close friends. It was at Strange Creek, Saturday, May 27th, 2017. During the second set — halfway through the second set — Creek started playing Emerald Eyes. During the intro, Scott [Murawski] asked the crowd a question he asks often, which was, how are you doing now? And after that, he said something that instantly made me and my closest friends gather in a circle and just big hugs.
It was a profound moment that made really cherish my life and the people around me. But it was an incredible statement he made about seeing things in two different ways and how you have the choice to wake up and take on the world. Everybody struggles and it’s a miracle every day that we’re above ground. He said, it’s a miracle. And if you remember that, he says, and everyone else around you remember that, too. and it won’t be such a shit sandwich anymore, he said. It will be life and it’ll be a good one. And you can listen to that on the Archive recording.
Korre: One of the other things I’ve noticed that you’ve done over time is curate some really nice live performances of Max Creek and put the audio up on YouTube. Can you tell me about your YouTube channel?
Kenny: So yeah, I started that about a year after I started seeing them play. I was inspired by Dick Latvala — the Grateful Dead archivist. So, I created my channel as a way to preserve my favorite songs and to share them with my friends and ultimately the whole world. I have a strict formula I follow. I typically manipulate or edit the audio recordings so they’re easier to listen to, especially on a platform like YouTube.
I also do a little bit of research before posting to ensure that I’m crediting the proper tapers, archivists, writers of songs that Creek covers. Yeah, it’s pretty much a hobby for me. I love doing it. It also gives me an avenue to listen to Creek wherever I’m at.
Korre: Well, tell us, what is the name of your YouTube channel?
Kenny: It’s youtube.com/@creekstream. The main name of the channel though is FreakoftheCreek, which was inspired by the late Paul Murray. He was a great man who had passed away a few years ago. He actually helped me. He pushed me to start the channel and find specific recordings that were apt for the platform. But yeah, I love doing it. It’s so much fun.
Korre: I never had a chance to know Paul very well. When I started the podcast, he’d reached out to me on Facebook and we exchanged some emails and a few Facebook messages over the course of maybe a few months or maybe a year early on. But I’ve heard that he was obviously a really huge fan of Max Creek, and his passing was really sad.
Kenny: It was a big blow to the community. He is very missed.
Korre: One of the things I noticed also on these YouTube video descriptions is you are including the lyrics. I’m wondering how do you find these lyrics? I know for the Hooked on Creek website, I’ve often used those YouTube videos as my starting point on the lyrics, but where did you find these lyrics?
Kenny: So, I would say 75 percent of them were taken from Matthew Heydman at shoey.com. If you just Google Max Creek lyrics and chords, you’ll find his website. However, for about 25 percent of those recordings, I sit and try to annotate them. I will rewind the lyrics. I’ll relisten to the same line of one verse 20 times before I’m sure that that’s the lyric. Or, I’ll even listen to it using different mediums, like different speakers with headphones or in the car, because the clarity of the vocals seems to change depending on what you’re listening to it through.
But yeah, I will sit there for about an hour or two, maybe three — even days sometimes. I’ll give up and then go back on it and then I’ll upload it. Typically, I won’t upload a song unless I do have the lyrics. I feel like it’s important for people to see what is being portrayed within the song — the messages and themes of the music.
Korre: I am also familiar with that type of work, relistening to songs over and over to try to get the lyrics. I will say, while it is work, sometimes it can be very fun to track down that version of a song where the lyrics pop out just enough to maybe catch that one word you’re trying to hear.
Kenny: Yeah, it’s incredible.
Korre: I’ll let you know, Kenny, a couple songs that I’m still searching for. So, maybe you’re already working on these, but here are four songs that I desperately need the lyrics to. I have partial lyrics for The Seven, Secrets, Into the Ocean and It Must Be Nice. So, those are the next four I really want to work on, but I just cannot crack those yet.
Kenny: Yeah, I could probably help you with Into the Ocean.
Korre: OK, good.
Kenny: Yeah.
Korre: Kenny, why is music such a big part of your life?
Kenny: Oh, man. So, I’m a musician myself. I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 10. I come from an Azorean Portuguese family on my mother’s side, which was very musical. When I was younger, I would play Portuguese feasts when I was a kid with my band at various Catholic churches around Rhode Island. We would butcher traditional Portuguese songs trying to sing in Portuguese, and we would add in Beatles music and some other originals we created when we were kids. So yeah, the celebrations at festivals or we would call feasts has always been a part of my life and probably due to why I enjoy the music festival scene so much.
I currently cover and perform a few Max Creek songs here and there. I just got back from living in Arizona, after 10 years back in Rhode Island. Music is very much a part of my identity. So, recently I’ve been listening to a lot of 1930s music — big band music, swing music, artists like Ray Noble and his orchestra, Henry Hall, Al Bowlly. Yeah, I love all kinds of music. I’ve always been fascinated by world music. I’m very music curious. I have a lot of interests from traditional music to prog music — everything really.
Korre: What are some of your favorite Max Creek songs?
Kenny: I have a top three, but kind of like a top four. In Harmony is my favorite song of all time by them. Emerald Eyes would probably be a close second. Three, I love Three. I believe that’s a Murawski original. The other two are pretty much originals by Murawski I believe, as well. ICU is very close. I love Scott’s writing. I just love the way he approaches the guitar and the way he sings. It’s very much the way I would approach music if I was more serious about it.
Korre: Have you had any opportunities to meet or interact with any of the band members?
Kenny: Yeah, I’ve essentially shaken every band member’s hand, but I’m probably the closest with Jamemurrell. I’ve had a lot of great conversations with him. We’ve shared a lot of time. He’s an awesome guy. Bill Carbone — I don’t think I’ve officially met Bill, actually. But I have shaken the rest of their hands. I’ve spoken with Mark a little bit and I thanked John Rider for performing a few songs one night that I really enjoyed.
Korre: I only know them through this podcast, and it’s sort of the most awkward way to be introduced to anybody. I will say my interactions with them have been incredibly positive and they’re so outgoing and receptive to this guy from Wisconsin who wants to talk about Max Creek. Anyway, my point is that the band just seems to be so generous, I guess I’ll say it that way, to their fans and to the music and to the scene that they’re supporting. It just seems like it’s one of the reasons that this band is so special.
Kenny: Yeah.
Korre: Kenny, how would you describe the community of fans that supports Max Creek?
Kenny: I wrote a short blurb in 2019, I believe, regarding my first Creek experience. I touched on how the most captivating thing about being at the show were the folks in attendance. I immediately felt like I was in a different part of the country or had been transported in time. There’s ladies with long paisley dresses swirling around, dudes with jean-embroidered leather, cowboy hats, and everyone was stomping their feet. I’m pretty sure there was some bikers in attendance, as well.
But, I was fascinated by what I assumed was a subculture or what I thought at the time was a preservation of hippiedom that existed in the room with me. But how I would describe us? Ultimately, I would say us Creek Freaks are very much a close knit group of free thinkers who enjoy the simple things in life and having a good time. That’s really it.
I’ve met so many people in the community from all walks of life and amazing people, amazing — extremely integral with their approach and how they treat people. They all have a common idea of how to act and be, and it’s very humbling to me. I always felt safe at a Creek show, especially when I was younger. Yeah, that’s how I describe us.
Korre: Do you have any favorite venues where you’ve seen the band over the years?
Kenny: Definitely The Met when I first saw them. I love seeing them at that spot. I don’t know if you’ve been able to see them there, but they play there a few times a year. Yeah, there’s something about that venue. It’s the perfect location to bring people in. It’s just extremely — yeah, it’s a thing.
Besides that, I would say in Greenfield at Strange Creek Camp Kee-Wanee. It’s always been very special. There was one year they played late night in the cabins and did a karaoke set where fans could sign up and they would choose who’s going to come up and sing a song. That was so cool. Yeah, the Met definitely is the most, but Strange Creek is a close second.
Korre: When you listen to Max Creek recordings from archive.org, how far back do you go? Is there maybe a decade that you find yourself listening to more often or maybe an era of the band that seems to resonate more with you?
Kenny: Yeah, I really enjoy the late 90s, early 2000s sound. I like high percussive music — high energy, a lot of percussion. But, I’ll span all the way back to the 70s. I believe it’s Boney’s Cafe. I don’t know how you pronounce the name of the venue. But, the earliest recording I’ve found is a super interesting recording. But yeah, I’m all over. I love their music across all the decades.
Korre: One of the things that I’ve very much enjoyed about this project I have with Max Creek and the podcast is just that. I’ll listen to maybe the same song from the 70s, 80s, 90s to today. You can see how it evolves a little bit. You can see how the band changes a little bit. Obviously with some of the drummers changing over time, things kind of feel different, too. That for me is fun. It’s like an interesting way to understand the music from the perspective of the passage of time, which is really interesting when you think about it.
Kenny: Yeah, absolutely. I love how they omit certain parts of songs. They kind of reduce them. There’s some situations where I actually would like for them to bring back some of the bridges and the different things that they used to do with some of the songs. Like Something is Forming, there’s that one bridge that used to exist that I would love for them to do again.
Korre: What do you think the future holds for Max Creek?
Kenny: I think Max Creek will play as long as they need to. I think they’re an anomaly. They’re a staple, a diamond in the rough compared to a lot of acts around New England. That being said, I don’t want them to feel ever pressured by us as a community to continue for us. However, I do believe that that’s how they approach the music. They play for us. I’m just so grateful that these guys are continuing even until now.
I say it every time, Korre, believe it or not, every show I go to, I honestly think it’s better than the last show or any other show I’ve seen. It’s wild. I tell my friends that at the end of every show. My jaw is down to the floor because I’m like, “Holy mackerel, these guys.” And they’re like, “Kenny, you say that every time.” And I’m like, “Well, it’s true. That was the best show I’ve ever seen them play.” A lot of people have a similar understanding that these guys are just giving it their all and it’s really incredible to watch.
Korre: Kenny Johnson, I had a lot of fun talking with you. Thanks for joining me on Hooked On Creek.
Kenny: Thank you so much, Korre. In the words of the great Scott Murawski, I just want to thank you for being here with me.
[interview ends]
Huge thanks to Kenny Johnson for spending time with me on the podcast. But stay with me now, because I have a couple incredible songs lined up for you. First you are going to hear a live recording of Max Creek performing the song ICU and that will be followed by a live recording of Scott Murawski and Mark Mercier peforming the song Three.
This is Max Creek performing live during the StrangeCreek Campout music festival at Camp Kee-Wanee in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on May 23, 2009.
And now, this is Scott Murawski and Mark Mercier peforming the song Three live at Mill Street Brews in Southbridge, Massachusetts, on March 27, 2010.
That concludes episode 55 of Hooked on Creek. If you are curious, earlier in this episode I featured a clip of Max Creek performing the song In Harmony live at The Met in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on November 23, 2018. I also played a clip of Max Creek performing Emerald Eyes live at the Strange Creek music festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2017. And, I played a clip of Max Creek performing the song Trail To Odeo live at Boney’s Cafe in Winsted, Connecticut, from all the way back on May 23, 1975.
You can find links to stream or download all the music featured in this episode in the show notes or on the Hooked on Creek website at hookedoncreek.com. And while you’re on the website, go ahead and click the contact link and let me know what you think of this podcast. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in!