John Sebastian brings old and new to Everett show

EVERETT — John Sebastian, famous for his work in the 1960s as leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, is excited to play at the Historic Everett Theatre.

“I frequently find that my best gigs are at these sorts of beautiful old theaters,” Sebastian said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Built for vaudeville, used for movies and other stuff, and then sold to somebody who wants an old guy like me or Roger McGuinn to play in his theater.”

Sebastian said he likes the intimate venues, instead of the big stages where he played in his heyday.

“I have managed to avoid the nostalgia tour,” he said. “And that way, after the show, I can talk to people and be available to sign CDs.”

That’s what Sebastian plans to do Feb. 12 at the Everett theater.

His fans can expect Sebastian songs old and new.

“I travel compact,” he said. “Guitar and harmonica. And I do sketches — renderings of songs that were written for a band and usually had eight overdubs.”

On his website, Sebastian says the Lovin’ Spoonful played a role in the rock revolution, but perhaps it was really a counter-revolution.

“We were grateful to the Beatles for reminding us of our rock and roll roots,” he said. “But we wanted to cut out the English middlemen, so to speak, and get down to making this new music as an ‘American’ band.”

Sebastian, now 70, grew up exposed to “roots” music.

“I am blessed to have lived through a delicious time in American music,” Sebastian said. “A wonderful accident of time and place.

“The cycle has come around again. I am delighted to see young people embracing jazz, folk, bluegrass and the blues. I love it when somebody listens to John Lee Hooker and says, ‘How have I been missin’ this guy?’”

Sebastian’s father was a noted classical harmonica player and his mother a writer of radio programs. When he was a kid, regular visitors to their Greenwich Village apartment included Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie.

As a teen, Sebastian jumped into the folk music revival of the late 1950s. He played with the Even Dozen Jug Band and found work with Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, washtub/jug virtuoso Fritz Richmond, Mississippi John Hurt, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan.

Though the original Lovin’ Spoonful is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Sebastian counts as his biggest honor the days when he accompanied blues pioneers Yank Rachell and Sleepy John Estes on the steps of courthouses in the South, when black musicians still were not welcome to play in concert halls.

Music producers soon figured out that Sebastian wasn’t just a blues man or a dyed-in-the-wool folky.

The Lovin’ Spoonful’s songs include “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice,” “Do You Believe In Magic?” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?” and “Summer In The City.”

“Do You Believe In Magic?” is No. 218 and “Summer In The City” is No. 401 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

When asked about “Summer,” Sebastian was quick to note that it was his brother Mark who came up with the idea for the song.

“He wrote this dramatic chorus, so I asked if I could write some tension into the verses and Steve Boone added the bass,” Sebastian said. “At the time, the Spoonful were these positive guys, so the reaction to ‘Summer In The City’ was interesting.”

A little tougher and less day-dreamy than some of Sebastian’s other hits, the song includes a VW Beetle horn, the sounds of a Manhattan traffic jam and steam hammers.

“Back in the 1960s we didn’t have sound libraries to draw from. We had a great old Jewish sound man from the radio era bring us recordings to add that urban grit to the song.”

The song was No. 1 on the national charts for 11 weeks in the summer of 1966.

“With all of this, there have been many other delicious things happen to me over the years.”

Sebastian noted his work with Sting and Bono, and he talked about “Satisfied,” an album of duets with mandolin master David Grisman in the late 2000s.

“We’d been cohorts in the Even Dozen Jug Band and we sort of returned to that,” he said.

Sebastian has written music for movies, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “You’re A Big Boy Now” and Woody Allen’s “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” and he wrote the theme song for the TV show “Welcome Back, Kotter.”

His songs have been used for Coke, Gatorade and Pepsi commercials and others.

“That’s my income now,” he said. “I’m not going to put out a new album like U2 does. I might turn down some big corporations, but the idea of intellectual property is out the window for me. I can’t be a hypocrite here. This is how classical songwriters make their money in 2015. Maybe I will be able to send my granddaughter to college.”

Along with tours, Sebastian also plays benefit concerts for social and environmental causes and he hosted a PBS series in late 2010 called “Folk Rewind.” His stories from the 1960s are regularly featured in many media.

As his website states, Sebastian remains one of the best ambassadors American music has ever had.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.

If you go

Lovin’ Spoonful’s legendary John Sebastian performs at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave., Everett.

Tickets: From $32.50; call 425-258-6766.