Just take a look at Sugarcane Harris on Amazon.com and you'll see a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately, as I've seen for many artists, some of the mp3 downloads at $0.99 don't mention any credits. Tunes like "So Alone", "My Soul's on Fire", "What Comes Around Goes Around" are there for download with not mention of the fact that these were all recorded in 1972 at Seattle's Fresh Air Tavern for the Pure Food & Drug Act. No mention of song writing credits either. "My Soul's on Fire", "What Comes Around Goes Around" and "Where's My Sunshine" were all co-written by all four musicians in the PFDA. The riff from "My Soul's On Fire" was created by Harvey Mandell.

Cup Full Of Dreams is available on a new CD release

Promising Music has re-released the Cup Full of Dreams album (MPS) as a CD, with original liner notes and new additional ones. This music was recorded in L.A. with many people Don played and recorded with at the time: Dewey Terry, Paul Lagos, Larry Taylor, Harvey Mandel, Victor Conte and Richard Aplan (and your humble servant, me).

 

Ralph Quinke wrote in the original liner notes, Should you , dear reader, be perusing this text in a record store without having heard the fabulous music on this record, please listen at least to a few bars of "Running Away"... Without doubt, you will be excited by the firerworks of sounds which Sugarcane is conjuring up on his blue fiddle. From bar one, it takes off like a hurricane, fast-paced, with dream-like assurance and intense feeling.

Left to right: Harvey Mandel, Paul Lagos, Victor Conte, Randy Resnick

Don, Paul, Larry and Randy started jamming in Paul's basement. Paul Lagos had the energy to put together the band, whose other  original members were Larry Taylor on bass and Randy on guitar. Taylor was already famous for bands he had been in, such as Canned Heat and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Resnick had been playing in other bands with Lagos and had developed an innovative (remember,  this was in the late 60's) tapping/hammering style.

Harvey Mandel was asked to join the group having played with Lagos and  Sugarcane in Mayall's band, the idea being he would attract better  label interest.

Taylor got tired of Sugarcane's antics and constant lateness, and dropped out. Victor Conte, who had played with Randy in Common Ground in Fresno was called in to replace Larry. Victor went on to play with Tower of Power and the Herbie Hancock Monster Band, after leaving PFDA. And then there was Balco...

Lagos was able to convince John Hammond to sign the  PFDA with Epic, and in 1972, a live album "Choice Cuts" was recorded at the Fresh Air Tavern in Seattle Washington.

Dewey Terry sent me a few photos before he passed away. Also, a 1981 gig at the Raven & The Rose with Don, Paul Lagos and me. More of Dewey's photos here.

This was always our most requested song.

Why won't it play? AH, now it does...

If you came for Sugarcane's music, look below!

I met Paul Lagos during the time my brother Art and I were starting a
band. Paul was by far the best drummer we tried and from the first bar
of whatever we played, we could hear that. Paul died last fall and you
can see more about him here: http://rememberpaul.posterous.com

I met Don at Paul Lagos' house, in the basement where we started
jamming. Paul put together the "Sugarcane Harris Band", I believe
after touring with Don and Larry in John Mayall's band and recording
"USA Union". Don was impossible to work with and John dropped him.
Larry quit the band after a couple of gigs, one of which was at the
Troubadour Ash Grove on Santa Monica Blvd.

When Larry split, my friend Victor Conte came in and I think the band
sounded better from then on. Victor's style, which developed during
that band's life, got really personal, and he learned, we both learned
a huge amount of shit from Paul, from Don and from others like Richard
Aplan, the great sax and flute player that we got to know through Paul.

One of the first gigs we played with Victor was at El Monte Legion
Hall, opening for Johnny Otis, with whom Don and Paul played before.
In fact, Paul is the drummer on the Monterrey Jazz Festival recordings
of Johnny Otis. On that gig, the audience went nuts over Don's
playing, singing and his stage antics, such as jumping into the crowd
with his violin, creating at the same time a hugely amplified 60 hz
hum when the cord snapped out of the violin.

From the first gig on, I saw the magic Don inspired in audiences and I
thought he'd be another Jimi Hendrix, albeit not as creative in song
writing. I think we could have gone there eventually if not for Don's 
total self-destructive habits. All I can say is that I never got
chills in any other band like the ones I got when Don took off alone
in a cadenza or when he and Paul did violin-drums duets. It was
tribal, it was primitive and it was real music with all the faults
that make us human. Don had a swing to his playing, a groove, a
soulfulness that you don't hear anywhere else. No one plays with such
gut-wrenching rawness, because musicians are trained to play "better".
Little by little, I want to try to comment on the recordings I will
post. I hope someone reads this and shares their own memories.

The Headband, Santa Barbara, CA early 70's

The Headband in Santa Barbara, California. College crowds always loved
Sugarcane's playing. This was a fun gig, aside from the usual pawn shop
issues.

This is some pretty raw shit, "So Alone", Don's tune, recorded at UC
Davis in the early 70's.

I have a good feeling from my memory of this gig. Yes, we did go on
for almost 20 minutes in a ballad, but the people liked it. Victor and
I developed a figure in 7/4 time in this and Don always was happy in
any kind of time signature as was Paul, who taught us this kind of
madness.

Again, because Don died alone, "So Alone" gives me a chill when I hear
it. Not only did you have to be there, but you probably had to be high
on something, too. Still, the civilians don't know, do they, but this
was really something to be up there doing this, almost 40 years ago.

I hope someone who wants to hear this music is out there. That's why I
post it here to the Internet memorial.

I wrote Mr. Roulette especially to feature Freddy Roulette on lap steel guitar. It has an atypical solo by Don. The amazing thing about this was how he listened  to the track once and then laid this down. It sounds like he recalled  how the drummer, Earl Palmer, was playing because he phrases with
that. Grab this while you can.

Victor asked me, "This is your tune, man, don't you want to solo on it?" I told him, "When you're getting off, it doesn't matter what part you play."

Listening to this just now, almost 40 years after the recording, it brings me back to those times. No, I wouldn't want to go back, but shit, they were good whent ey happened.