Beach Boys' Al Jardine, Brian Wilson to perform in Brown County
He cofounded the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson and three others in 1961, he still performs with Wilson, and he wrote a song about his Holstein cow, Jenny, his family's 2,000-pound pet. She's not his only pet. He said what he misses the most while touring are his dogs (his wife tours with him).
Al Jardine is coming to the Brown County Music Center and is about to help present "the best Beach Boy music you'll ever hear." He's talking about a concert by the Brian Wilson Band, featuring Al Jardine.
Jardine sang the lead on the Beach Boys classics "Help Me, Rhonda," "Then I Kissed Her," "Cotton Fields" and "Come Go with Me," in addition to providing backup vocals on many other hits.
"Brian derailed me," Jardine said over the phone of his would-have-been folk-singing career. Wilson's unusual style and harmonies lured Jardine into rock and roll, where he has stayed for several decades.
"Songwriting is the same as recording history. And Brian is making history."
South African-born musician Blondie Chaplin tours with Wilson and Jardine, too. Chaplin became famous after the Beach Boys hired him in 1972. He was lead vocalist on “Sail on Sailor” before they parted ways in late 1973.
Today's Brian Wilson group is a different band from what the Beach Boys were originally.
"We're a re-born Beach Boys, and Blondie is our new Carl Wilson. I'm a guest artist on Brian's tour, with Blondie," Jardine said.
Carl Dean Wilson sang, played lead guitar and wrote songs for the initial Beach Boys, which he also cofounded. He died in 1998. He was the younger brother of Brian and of bandmate Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983. Carl served as the band's leader in the early 1970s. The fifth original Beach Boy is the Wilsons' cousin, vocalist Mike Love, who is not part of this show.
In 1988, Brian Wilson released a solo album and the Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Back they zoomed to the top of the U.S. singles charts with "Kokomo," featured in the film "Cocktail," starring Tom Cruise (1988).
The Brown County show will run about an hour and a half and will include all the Beach Boys' hits plus a Blondie section.
"Basically, it's a Beach Boys set," Jardine said.
They'll also sing from their five-CD set "Feel Flows," the Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-71. It's a box set recorded by the Beach Boys and released by Capitol/UME this summer and is mostly songs the group recorded while making the albums "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up."
In addition, the audience will hear songs from "Pet Sounds," the Beach Boys' 11th album, released in 1966. Remarkably, U.S. listeners and critics were nonplussed in the beginning, but it later hit No. 10 on Billboard's Top LPs chart.
"(The Beatles') Paul McCartney famously said, 'Without 'Pet Sounds' there would be no 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,'" Jardine said.
"Brian and I don't sing those high notes anymore. My son Matthew Jardine sings them."
If they do well in Brown County, Jardine said they'll do more shows in Indiana.
If you go
WHAT: Beach Boys cofounder Brian Wilson, with guests Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin
WHEN: 8 p.m. Oct. 22.
WHERE: Brown County Music Center, 200 Maple Leaf Blvd., Nashville, 812-988-5323.
TICKETS: tickets-center.com or browncountymusiccenter.com.