Everything is connected. But one connection that took me a long time to make was between the lovely city of Claremont, California (Peter Drucker’s home and site of the Drucker School), and rock music. I have traveled to Claremont – which also contains a stretch of Route 66, not far from the Drucker School — a number of times since 2002 for research on my book. But it wasn’t until last year that I discovered how many great musicians come from Claremont.
Two members of one of my favorite ‘60s bands, Kaleidoscope, David Lindley and Chris Darrow, live there. I had a couple of nice phone conversations with Chris when I was in town last June, after being introduced by a mutual friend from Claremont Graduate University. Check out Jud Cost’s interview with Chris on the Sundazed Records site.
Besides Lindley, the best-known Claremont rock artist is Ben Harper. I visited the Folk Music Center Museum & Store in the “village” part of Claremont, which was started by his grandparents in 1958, and which Ben now owns. I met his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, also a musician, and now the store’s manager. Last year, Ben was one of the headliners of the Claremont Folk Festival, with Jackson Browne and Taj Mahal.