Alan Gerber, Founding Member of Rhinoceros, Releases New Single “Put Back My Heart” From New Album, The Well
Alan Gerber, the Chicago-born, Val-David, Quebec-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of late-1960s Elektra Records supergroup Rhinoceros, releases his irresistible new single “Put Back My Heart” today, the opening track from his deeply personal new album, The Well, out now. A swaggering, blues-drenched soul romp co-written with his son Eli Gerber and produced by the two of them together, “Put Back My Heart” announces the album with exactly the kind of high-energy, good-humoured, emotionally honest songwriting that has made Alan Gerber one of the most beloved live performers in Canada and beyond for more than five decades.
The song moves with the effortless confidence of a man who has spent a lifetime inside the blues. “Fell for you like a baby grand from a tower,” Gerber sings with a grin you can hear, before the chorus lands its perfectly timed demand: “Put back, put back my heart, you stole it / Put back, put back my heart, steam rolled it.” It is a song that wears its heartbreak lightly and its joy loudly, a signature Gerber combination that has earned him a devoted following from Miramichi to Montreal and far beyond. Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and host of Little Steven’s Underground Garage, previously selected Gerber’s “Four Riders” as the Coolest Song in the World, a distinction that will surprise no one who has heard what Gerber does with a room.
The Well is a record that distills a lifetime of blues, soul, folk, and rock into a journey from gritty R&B grooves to poetic ballads and adventurous, genre-bending instrumentals. The album carries particular emotional weight as the last project Gerber was able to complete with his writing collaborator of nearly 50 years, Rolf Kempf, who passed away before its release. Kempf was celebrated beyond their partnership for writing “Hello Hurray,” which became a major hit for Alice Cooper, and his presence runs deep through the record. The album also reunited Gerber with his old Rhinoceros bandmate, the extraordinary guitarist Danny Weis, whose playing appears on eight of the album’s tracks, alongside Gaston Gagnon of Quebec legends Garolou, harmonica player James Tyrone Zeller, and a full ensemble of longtime collaborators mixed at Groove Paradise Studio with mixing engineer Nicolas Maranda and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering.
Family is at the heart of ‘The Well’ in every sense. Gerber’s son Eli plays guitars and co-produces throughout, while his daughter Hannah contributes lead and background vocals, and his wife Robin, a ceramic artist, created the bowl photographed for the album cover. He also wrote the song, Time Is My Treasure, from a poem written by his sister, Barbara Ford.
That circle of creativity reflects the life Gerber has built across more than three decades in the Laurentians, far from the Laurel Canyon living rooms and Elektra Records pressures of his early career, but every bit as rich with music, community, and meaning. Before any of that, there was Chicago, a family that had fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, a mother’s crimson fingernails on a Wurlitzer baby grand, and blues piano sessions with his uncles that set the course for everything that followed.
Over the years Gerber has shared the stage with Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Van Morrison, Lou Reed, Janis Joplin, John Lee Hooker, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, among many others, and has performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, and the Carcassonne Music Festival in France. Terry Whalen, Artistic Director of Whalen’s Barn Concert Series in Miramichi, has written that within the first 30 seconds of a live Alan Gerber show the audience is hooked, completely, calling him a seasoned pro and a master-class of how to take years of honing your craft and a million plus miles of live performances to reach this level. ‘The Well’ is the fullest expression yet of what those miles have made him.
Hi, Alan! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Born in Chicago, my professional career started with a teenage rock band, “The Tools”, playing covers and my original material at schools, parties and clubs. This morphed into Michael and Lee, a duo of myself and the bass player, we recorded a single, “It’s You I’m Thinking Of”, for Earic Records, a subsidiary of Chess. It was great fun to be sitting at school, plugged into my transistor radio, waiting to hear it played on WLS, the biggest rock station in Chicago, where it was often the most requested song of the night due to the repeated telephone calls from everybody in my high school.
I went on to study music at The Chicago Musical College, part of Roosevelt University. My girlfriend, attending NYU, helped set up an audition with Paul Rothchild, the producer of The Doors. Paul liked what he heard, offered to produce me as a solo artist or as part of a new super group Elektra Records was putting together. I chose the band believing that, working within a community of like-minded artists, I could be part of something bigger than me as an individual. I eventually found myself in Laurel Canyon, in Paul Rothchild’s living room with about twelve other musicians, passing around a guitar and playing original songs for each other. It was all new and exciting for a teenager from the Midwest. This group later became known as “Rhinoceros”.
I learned a lot from the other musicians and the whole experience, but, to my profound disappointment, my finest, most original work did not fit the musical pigeonhole created by the record company. After two years, disillusioned, I retreated to Northern California, playing bars for $15 a night along with all the beer I could drink. I eventually recorded a solo album for Shelter Records, produced by Denny Cordell, put together a terrific backup group and did some touring with Leon Russell. Once again, the record company let me down. This time my disillusionment was compounded by the failure of my marriage and separation from my young son.
It seemed to me that I had no place in the music industry. Refusing all offers, whether from producers, management or other bands, I played endless bars, moving my upright piano in the back of a pickup truck. Although this time was difficult in many ways, I never lost the joy of writing music and performing. If anything, it gave me the time to explore genres, instruments and techniques, increasing my depth of expression. I consider myself fortunate in having been able to discover my own voice in music and in life.
I have moved to the beat of a different drummer and in the past few years discovered a growing community of fans who want more of my music. I have also found my muse in my soul mate, Robin, as well as other invaluable writing partners, with whom I share vision, humour and the poetry of life. Two of my children, Eli and Hannah, are exceptional musicians and we are privileged to be able to perform and record occasionally as a family. One of the benefits of leading a non- traditional career is the intimacy I continue to develop with my devoted fans. Connections may start on stage in a venue pounding with the visceral beat of blues or in the stillness of a quiet moment when folk music stories are the main event.
I’ve independently produced and distributed numerous albums over the last 40 years and my mission has always been to move people, through music and words, to feel and think. I believe art should be meaningful. My vision is to continuously reach deep into the fullest spectrum of emotions I can experience and never be satisfied with what I’ve done in the past. By doing this, my art will be expressed not just intellectually but physically in every performance I give. It is in balancing my vision for art with the grounding that comes from real life that I am at my best.
After more than five decades in music, what inspired you to make ‘The Well’ now, and why does it feel like the right album for this chapter of your life?
For the last 40 odd years I’ve been composing and making new albums every 2 to 5 years, some kind of addiction! I started writing, with some of my most revered writing partners, the bulk of these songs for The Well just before Covid and topped off my studio with the necessary gear. The music, poetry and variety of these songs came together in a way that expressed exactly where I feel I am in my creative, musical and spiritual journey. This is definitely the right time for “The Well”!
This album was the last project you completed with your longtime collaborator Rolf Kempf. What did Rolf bring to your songwriting that no one else could? Family runs through every part of this record. How did working with your son Eli and daughter Hannah change the creative process?
I met Rolf Kempf in 1967, in Laurel Canyon, at a party in the back yard of record producer, Paul Rothchild. Rolf had an idea for a song and borrowed my guitar to write it. It turned out to be Hello Hurray, his big hit song that Alice Cooper recorded. He mostly financed his life with that song but I still have that beautiful 1963 Epiphone Troubadour guitar. We became fast friends and writing partners for about 50 years. Unfortunately, he passed away before the album was completed, he would have loved the final results.
Rolf brought his quirky, brilliant poetry to 7 songs on the album. He had a way of taking things to a place in his own unique world like:
Was reading the I Ching
‘Bout at the end of my rope
told me about the well
gave me some hope
gave me some rope
or
Homeless
while the rest just pass me by
while the pigeons rest and fly
where the lonely shadows cry
love me, please
somebody love me, please
Also, on the song, Over Again, he starts it with “I can smell the suntan lotion” ….not too many songs start with that line!
He will be missed as a friend and collaborator.
Working with my son Eli and daughter, Hannah is a creative and family bonus. Working with Eli as do-producer gives me access to brilliant ideas from another generation and, as a guitarist, he’s one of the best I’ve ever heard. Hannah has a beautiful, unique sounding voice that can create velvety layers of sound in the background or soulful, heartfelt lead vocals. The three of us worked out all the background vocal parts together.
You know how sometimes family voices have a special blend? Well, that “special blend” with Hannah & Eli is all over this album!
You’ve played with and alongside legends like Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Van Morrison, and Janis Joplin. What is the biggest lesson those experiences taught you about making lasting music?
The biggest lesson for making lasting music that I learned from playing alongside the variety of legends from Bob Dylan to BB King to Janis Joplin was that there can be a profound, poetic depth and also a strong physical, soulful, emotional presentation. I always try to include both to achieve the successful outcome of making lasting music.
Looking back, are there moments from the Rhinoceros era that you appreciate differently now than you did at the time?
In hindsight, there are elements of my Rhinoceros era that I appreciate differently now than at the time because, hopefully, I have grown and matured as a human being since those days. At the age of 20 I was somewhat blinded by the glitz and glamor of the Hollywood, Laurel Canyon experience, the huge billboard on Sunset Strip and being part of Elektra Records new supergroup.
I came from a peace and love social situation in Chicago where, I naively thought, everyone with long hair, who smoked and ingested various substances was cool and you could trust them. Here there were business people with long hair, passing you the pipe and, who I later realized, were not acting in my best interest. A real wake up call!
Another aspect I saw more clearly years later was the coming of age experience of arriving in this intensely competitive situation to be part of Elektra Records new super group. Out of the 14 original musicians assembled for the group only 3 remained at the end when we were joined by the fabulous players, Danny Weis, Michael Fonfara, Billy Mundi and Jerry Penrod to form Rhinoceros.
I also didn’t fully appreciate the opportunity I had to play with the calibre of musicians in Rhinoceros until many years later when I had subconsciously incorporated some of their skills into the palate of my creativity.
Upcoming Shows:
Aug 5 — Val-David, QC — 1001 Pots