Guitarist Danny Kalb, best known as a member of the 1960's psychedelic blues group The Blues Project, passed away today. No cause of death has been released, but the news was broken by his fellow Blues Project alum Steve Katz on Facebook. Kalb was 80.
The New York born Kalb was part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 1960's playing with the likes of Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Dave Van Ronk, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs. Kalb founded The Blues Project in 1965 along with Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfeld and would later be joined by Steve Katz and Al Kooper.
Signed with Verve Records, they would release three albums between 1966 and 1967 - Live at The Cafe Au Go Go, Projections and Live at Town Hall. Their songs combined folks, blues and psychedelia. The group would break up shortly after their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Katz and Kooper would found Blood, Sweat and Tears while The Blues Project morphed into Seatrain with Kulberg at the helm. As for Kalb, he largely kept out of the limelight but would occasionally partake in reunions with The Blues Project.
Kalb's most significant contribution to The Blues Project was his 11-minute plus interpretation of Muddy Waters' "Two Trains Running" (the song from which The Rolling Stones got their name) on lead guitar and vocal. Towards the end of the song one of Kalb's strings went out of tune and he just retuned it as the band played on. At the risk of being a curmudgeon this is the kind of spontaneity that is simply lacking in modern pop-rock music. For "Two Trains Running" alone, guitarists should take note of Danny Kalb. R.I.P.
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