It’s hard to imagine a more quintessential San Diego band than the Beat Farmers. The raucously entertaining country-punk outfit arose in the mid-1980s and gradually built a following through incessant touring, until charismatic ringleader Country Dick Montana died of an aneurysm onstage in British Columbia in 1995.
Montana’s death was a huge loss for San Diego, but the remaining Beat Farmers found ways to keep making music. Guitarist/singers Jerry Raney and Joey Harris played with a variety of bands (sometimes together, sometimes separately) before settling into their present roles: Harris as leader of rocking trio the Mentals, and Raney fronting a partially reconstituted Beat Farmers known simply as the Farmers.
Once a year, they get the whole gang back together for the Beat Farmers Hootenanny. Begun in 2010, the reunions originally happened in January but have since become a summertime tradition. This year’s model is Saturday, July 11, at the Belly Up in Solana Beach (8 p.m., $33-$55). The Beat Farmers, the Farmers and the Mentals are all aboard, along with an impressive swath of hometown special guests: Sue Palmer, Thomas Yearsley, Sara Petite, Evans Kontopuls, Robin Henkel and Whitney Shay.
Harris wasn’t in the Beat Farmers from the get-go, but he joined in 1986 when original member Buddy Blue departed. Raised in Coronado, Harris already had plenty of experience. His uncle, San Diego native Nick Reynolds, was a founding member of 1950s-60s folk-pop sensation the Kingston Trio, a connection that led to a teenage Harris joining the group as a touring guitarist in the late 1970s.
By 1983, Harris had a record deal with MCA and a self-titled debut album with his band the Speedsters. After the ensuing decade-long run with the Beat Farmers, Harris spent time in a variety of bands (Powerthud, The Joey Show, Slim & the Crowbars, the Tighten Ups, etc.) before the Mentals released their first and only album in 2009. We talked to Harris last week about this year’s Beat Farmers Hootenanny, his San Diego history, and more.
How did the Beat Farmers Hootenanny get started in 2010?
Joey Harris: I think the first one was in January 2010. We had done a couple of reunion shows. We even did a show once that included Buddy Blue, who I replaced in the Beat Farmers in 1986. (What became the Hootenanny) was kind of a New Year ‘s-ish Beat Farmers reunion, and that ended up being a yearly thing. In the meantime, Jerry had put together the Farmers, and I had my band, Joey Harris & the Mentals.
Initially, I thought it’d be great. What we’d do is we’d have Jerry’s band host a guest star every year, and then next year we’d have my band host a guest star. The guys who were booking it for the Belly Up, I think, had a little more faith in Jerry. I was still drinking back then, so they were not as confident in my abilities. I managed to secure the opening slot for my band, but the Hootenanny shows are really driven by the Farmers, and Jerry does all the work.
So yeah, doors open at seven, and I start at eight and do my set (with the Mentals). I have to be careful not to do any Beat Farmers songs, because then the Beat Farmers will play right after my set. And then all hell breaks loose. Jerry puts in all this work to get these guest stars from then on out, and it goes on for another couple of hours. They try to get out of there by 11 or 12.
Can you tell us more about this year’s guest stars?
Joey Harris: Sue Palmer (listed on the lineup as “the queen of boogie woogie”) inspired so many local musicians that they are always trying to bring her in to pay her back a little bit. There’s always a kind of family connection with her.
Evans Cantopil is a partner with Jerry Raney. They do a duo together often, but lately they’ve been doing Raney Evans Raney, which is Jerry and Evans and Jerry’s son, Nate Raney, on the drums.
Whitney Shay is an amazing entertainer and a terrific singer. Her band sounds like a LasVegas production every time, and I’m always blown away.
Robin Henkel plays old-school, really beautiful, funky, gorgeous, thumping, bluesy, fingerpicking guitar. I often say to him that I think he sounds more heavy metal than heavy metal guitar players do, because of this big roaring tone he gets out of his dobro. He’s just fascinating.
Sara Petite came down from Washington state around the same time the Beat Farmers had been over for a few years, after Country Dick died. Sara would come around to those shows, and she struck up a friendship with me. We spent quite a long time talking about San Diego and places to approach for gigs, or musicians that she should try to get in touch with. She started working with the Farmers because they had a regular gig at the Spring Valley Inn, which is where the Beat Farmers had started.
Thomas Yearsley and I go pretty far back. Country Dick walked into Bodie’s (a 1980s Gaslamp bar) one afternoon and noticed that there was a stage at the back of the bar.. Every bar we ever walked into, he would sit down and slap his hands down on the counter and say, “Well,” — and that would usually get the bartender’s attention right away, because of his big deep basso voice. He made a deal right then and there, and said, “Tell your boss I’ll fill this place every Thursday-Friday-Saturday night if you just let me take the door.” And that started Bodie’s as kind of the center of the rockabilly scene, which would become Americana in San Diego. The Paladins (Yearsley’s band) were one of those bands; they were just kids starting out here in San Diego.
For those who might not have followed the evolution of the two bands, can you explain the difference between the Farmers and the Beat Farmers?
Joey Harris: Well, the Farmers are fascinating because they’re an all-star band, basically. It’s Jerry Raney and Chris Sullivan, who was the bass player in the Penetrators. And then Joel Knak (also from the Penetrators) on drums. They have Nate Raney filling in on guitar, and I believe Evans Cantopil plays accordion on a few songs.
Jerry is a jukebox of songs, and they’re all the coolest British invasion songs that usually feature big guitar licks, because Jerry is first and foremost an amazing guitar player. It’s a great party band. They also do some Beat Farmers songs, and they have a couple of records of their own that they put out. They have a lead singer named Corbin Turner, and Jerry, of course, is a singer as well.
A few years ago, our old pal Mojo Nixon got the Beat Farmers on one of the Outlaw Country cruises. (The current iteration of the band includes Raney, Harris, original bassist Rolle Love and drummer Joel Kmak.) There’s something about the age demographics of the folks that go on these cruises — we couldn’t go 10 feet without being accosted by a Beat Farmers fan. It was unusual, because it’s been a long time since we’ve been the Beat Farmers! But I think from that, people started getting the idea that we should start playing out a little bit.
Dan Perloff (who helped the Beat Farmers get a deal with Rhino Records in the mid-’80s) is now working with the band, helping us put together little tours. We’re about to do another one in August. It’s very different now, in our old age. I used to love driving for hours and hours on end in between gigs, but now it’s like our bones are too creaky to deal with all that bouncing around on the road. But we’ve done a few more of those cruises, and because of that, I think we’ve gotten sort of a jumpstart on these Beat Farmers reunions.
What’s the current status of the Joey Harris & the Speedsters album, which came out on MCA in 1983? It’s never been reissued, but occasionally a fan will post the full album on YouTube.
Joey Harris: I’ve been having trouble trying to get digital renditions of it. It’s a great pop record. Pete Thomas was our drummer. He left us to go join Elvis Costello & the Attractions, and he said, “Come with me, you could be in the band too.” And I said, “No, I think I’ll stay here in California, where it’s nice and warm.” I think I might have missed a big opportunity there.
All of the master tapes for thousands of bands got burned up in a fire back in 2008, so there are no original tapes left. Bruce Donnelly (Speedsters keyboardist) and I were hoping to take a pristine, unopened album and get it digitized and re-release it as a CD. A few months went by, and I didn’t hear anything back, and I found out that Bruce had died. So now it’s just me, and I’m not particularly motivated. I’m just happy to raise my kid and enjoy life with my wife. We play a gig every now and then, and I’m perfectly happy doing that. But I would love for a new generation of kids to hear the Joey Harris & the Speedsters record, because it’s a really good pop record.
Can you tell me a little more about how your uncle, Kingston Trio founder Nick Reynolds, helped you get the job as guitarist with John Stewart when you were just out of high school?
Joey Harris: John had a solo career (after the Kingston Trio), and around 1975, when I was ready to graduate from high school, I got the word that his young guitar player was leaving the band. I went up and auditioned, but of course, I got the gig because of my uncle Nick and John being so close. So I spent the next four years traveling around America with them. As a teenager, I got a pretty good idea what life on the road was like.
It was easier for me to be a little less concerned about things then. My idea of being on the road with the Beat Farmers was drive all day, have dinner, play the show, stay up all night long drinking and doing as many drugs as you possibly can, and then getting back in the van at 10 in the morning, drive to the next gig, have dinner, play the show, stay up all night long drinking and doing as many drugs as you possibly can — and I think I sort of gained a reputation as being the least responsible person. But Country Dick and I had the time of our lives. It was the best.
