Last member of original Yardbirds to play in Massachusetts. We interviewed him
- At 81 years old, Jim McCarty, the drummer for The Yardbirds, will be incorporating storytelling into the band's upcoming tour.
- The Yardbirds are known for having three legendary guitarists in the band throughout their career: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
- The Yardbirds will be performing at City Winery in Boston on April 9th and the Narrows Center in Fall River on April 10th.
- McCarty stated that he is excited to play with the current lineup of The Yardbirds, noting their chemistry and shared love for the band's music.
After decades of driving the sound of the prototypical hard rock band, the group generally acknowledged as the ones who inspired the whole heavy metal genre with their dynamic sound, Jim McCarty is ready to admit he might need to cut his workload just a bit.
Since drumming is usually the most physically demanding musical role in a band, and since his band made fiery rock bursting with innovation their trademark, McCarty has amazed several generations of fans with his playing. McCarty formed The Yardbirds with some London pals in 1963. And at 81, McCarty still loves playing the band’s greatest and most enduring songs, but he knows today’s fans also like to hear tales of the Yardbirds’ halcyon days too.
The Yardbirds spring tour of the United States will try something a little different this time around, with McCarty providing extensive storytelling segments, augmented by a video program that will include films and photos of the band’s history. There’s plenty of stories to entice music fans, since the Yardbirds’ first heyday only lasted from 1963-68, but during that stretch included stints by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, three of the best half-dozen guitarists in all of rock ‘n’ roll history.
And after the final breakup, when Page first began continuing with different members as "The New Yardbirds," it was soon obvious a new name was needed. Page and his new cohorts came up with the monicker of Led Zeppelin.
The Yardbirds will be appearing at City Winery in Boston on Wednesday, April 9, and then returning to the Narrows Center in Fall River on Thursday, April 10. City Winery is located at 80 Beverly St. in Boston, by City Hall Plaza, and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. with tickets priced between $40 and $65. (There is also a $25 minimum spend on food and beverage per person). Check citywinery.com/Boston or call 617-933-8047 for more information.
The Narrows Center is located at 16 Anawan St. in Fall River, by Battleship Cove, with the show starting at 8 p.m., and tickets priced at $73 in advance and $76 on day of show. There is also a VIP package available at the Narrows Center, with a pre-show meet-and-greet. Check Narrowscenter.org or call 508-324-1926 for more information.
McCarty offers a different type of Yardbirds show
“The repertoire of the band is still really strong, and I think the music always sounds really fresh,” said McCarty by phone from New York City. The group was going to be rehearsing the new show for a few days in Lancaster before embarking on this 12-date East Coast tour.
“This time I have an assignment, and I’m working from a script which I’m writing, to talk more about the history of the group,” said McCarty. “We are also going to be able to visually illustrate the band’s history, with film and photos, and then we’ll play the songs as we go along. But I want to link my talking in with the video projection, to make it flow smoothly. I’ll be talking for about 40 minutes in all, and the thought is that it might save me from playing as much.”
“I taught myself to play acoustic guitar, but honestly there is not much call for it with the Yardbirds music,” McCarty said with a small laugh. “The band sound is so reliant on the drums and how I sound that I have to stay on that. It is very demanding physically, because this is music that has to be played forcefully. This tour is kind of an experiment to involve more storytelling, and we’re anxious to see how it works out.”
Yardbirds had some noted short-time members
To provide a quick history of The Yardbirds, their first incarnation included Clapton and Chris Dreja on guitars, with Keith Relf on vocals, Paul Samwell-Smith on bass, and McCarty on drums. But just about the time they had their first hit with “For Your Love” in 1965, Clapton became itchy. The hit single had included the band’s buddy Brian Auger on harpsichord, and Clapton feared they were moving in too much of a pop direction, so he left.
Jeff Beck replaced him for the next couple years, and Page came aboard in ’66, giving the band perhaps its most potent guitar frontline. But Beck hated touring and soon he was ready to leave, despite the success of tunes like “Over Under Sideways Down,” “Heart Full of Soul” and “Shapes of Things.”
By the time the final breakup came in 1968, McCarty and Dreja were keen on forming a softer, more folk-oriented band called Renaissance, while Page recruited a new lineup that soon became Led Zep.
That was it for many years, although McCarty, Dreja, and Samwell-Smith reunited in 1983 as Box of Frogs, releasing an album that year and a second one in 1986, featuring guest shots from Page, Jeff Beck and Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher. But those albums didn’t sell, and Box of Frogs faded away. (Original singer Relf is one of the most tragic rock stories, as he was electrocuted by coming in contact with an ungrounded microphone in his home studio in 1976.)
An initial Yardbirds reunion
Eventually, in 1992, Dreja and McCarty launched a full scale Yardbirds reunion, recruiting various guitarists as they went along. Boston area jazz-rock guitar ace Johnny A was the lead guitarist from 2015-2018. (You can catch Johnny A and his trio April 11 at the Spire Center in Plymouth.)
The reformed Yardbirds released an album of new material in 2003, and once again Jeff Beck was a guest on it, along with jazz-rock guitarist Steve Vai. The current lineup includes John Idan, a 20-year veteran on vocals and guitar, Kenny Aaronson on bass, Myke Scavone on harmonica and backing vocals, and Godfrey Townsend on lead guitar. Townsend has performed with a wide array of rock stars, including Jack Bruce, of Cream, and the late John Entwhistle, of The Who.
“The lineup has changed a lot over the years,” McCarty admitted. “For one group it was a lot of young guys, who were excellent players, but the Yardbirds music hadn’t been a factor in their lives as much. With this band we’ve changed perspective a bit and got more seasoned players who remember how much Yardbirds music meant to them growing up as teenagers. I really enjoy playing with these guys – we’ve got some real chemistry.”
And how did McCarty find Townsend as his prime guitarist?
“We were introduced by my old manager, a woman named Margo, in New York City,” McCarty replied. “She had handled Bo Diddley’s estate, and several other projects where she had recorded him. Godfrey was a very good technical guitar player, and had played with people like Jack Bruce and Alan Parsons, a very high caliber of musicians, so he obviously had the chops. But Godfrey is also a very easy-going person, and you can imagine some guitar players I’ve worked with are not quite like that. Godfrey is very congenial and relaxed – in fact, I’m staying with him here in New York before we start rehearsals.”
Documentary leads to reconnecting
Looking back at his famous former bandmates, McCarty pointed out that a recent documentary led to some nice reconnecting. Dare we say, all surviving parties now look back with warmth and admiration at what The Yardbirds accomplished?
“In fact, I’ve been in touch with both Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page,” said McCarty. “We are all part of a documentary done in the United Kingdom by the Sky network. Jimmy actually said that without the Yardbirds, there’d have been no Led Zeppelin. He also talked of the long friendship he had with Jeff Beck, going back way before they were in our band. That was interesting to me, because I never knew they were that close before the Yardbirds. Jeff’s death (January 2023) was a big shock to me, because he looked pretty healthy in recent years, and he was very busy. Jeff had gotten another manager in the last 20 years, and was playing out a lot more, which he hadn’t done for a long time before that.”
“On the documentary, they have people like Alice Cooper, Brian May and Hank Marvin from The Shadows talking about the Yardbirds, and their influence, and pointing out things even I didn’t know,” McCarty added. “It is a nice look back at everything since 1963, and it is amazing. It’s been quite some roller-coaster of a life for me.”
Looking at potential setlists, McCarty promised fans will hear every major Yardbirds song they want to hear, although he regrets one of his favorite Box of Frogs numbers had to be cut.
“We had been playing ‘Back Where I Started,’ but not this time I’m afraid,” said McCarty. “A few songs had to be trimmed, so we can focus more on the band history. But fans will hear everything they want to hear, and looking out at our audiences lately, it is quite surprising to see so many young fans – who seem to know all the lyrics too!”
Spafford sets up camp in Pembroke
There are surely plenty of groups in the wide ranging jamband category but one of the most successful, with the most devoted fanbase, is Prescott, Arizona's sextet Spafford.
Since getting together in 2009, the talented band has combined rock, soul, jazz, folk, country and seemingly every other musical category into their own heady stew. They not only have a passel of their own original works, but in that classic jazz technique, they often take on popular tunes from other artists, re-interpreting them and jamming out on them in unexpected directions.
Spafford has released six studio albums of their music so far, but also an astounding 12 live albums. In fact, live shows are so much a part of their identity that recordings of nearly every show are made available at the end of the night, and there is a large community of Spafford fans all over the country, eagerly trading recordings. Those folks are known as Spaffnerds, sort of a 2025 version of Deadheads, and they'll be all over Pembroke this weekend, as Spafford performs at Soundcheck Studios on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
We need not tell you every show is different, and since this is the only New England date on this leg of their tour, fans may be coming from all over the region. Spafford will be back in the area, with a Worcester date in June, but for this weekend, the Spaffnerd capitol is Pembroke, and it promises to be three nights of unforgettable music. Spafford's pals from Bridgeport, the quartet Big Shrimp, open all three nights.