Spirits of the ‘60s

Two ghosts loom large in the life of Peter Albin, bassist for Big Brother & the Holding Company.

First there’s the giant specter of Janis Joplin, the phenomenal singer who came to public acclaim with Big Brother before going on to overshadow the band first in a solo career and then in her untimely death in 1970.

And second, there’s the ghost of the whole ‘60s San Francisco scene to which the band’s image is inexorably leashed.

But to Albin, those are friendly ghosts.

“Of all the band members I’m the one who lives the most in the past,” admits Albin, who will be on stage with the reunited band as part of the “Psychedelic Summer of Love” caravan that plays the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday, at the Bacchanal in San Diego on Wednesday and at the Universal Amphitheatre on Friday. (The shows also feature the Seeds and Love, and--at the Universal only--Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Music Machine.)

As for the Joplin ghost: Albin and fellow original members James Gurley, Sam Andrew and David Getz hired female singer Michel Bastian to front the band precisely because she does not sound like Joplin.

“We wanted to get someone with the same kind of power and emotion, but a different voice and look, and Michel is certainly that,” Albin explains.

The ‘60s aura, though, is a bit harder to retract. Still, Albin doesn’t view that as a “Ball and Chain” (to borrow a Big Brother song title) on the band, though it does hinder it from being taken seriously in its own right in 1989.

“I see it as an advantage,” the 44-year-old musician says. “Sometimes it’s hard. We’re always told, ‘You guys are from the ‘60s and that’s all you’re going to be noted for.’ But when it comes to playing for people of the ‘60s or young people of the ‘80s who think they were robbed by being born after the ‘60s, there’s a lot of interest.”