John Koerner

"Spider" John Koerner (born August 31, 1938, in Rochester, New York, United States) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as a guitarist and vocalist in the blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover, with Dave Ray and Tony Glover. He has also made albums as a solo performer and with Willie Murphy.
Koerner grew up in Rochester, New York, and after a brief military service attended the University of Minnesota. He intended to major in engineering but soon became involved in the Minneapolis music scene, where he met Dave Ray and Tony Glover. They formed a loose-knit trio, releasing albums under the name Koerner, Ray & Glover. The group gained notice with their first album, Blues, Rags and Hollers, originally released by Audiophile in 1963 and re-released by Elektra Records later that year.
Koerner was an early influence on Bob Dylan, who mentioned Koerner in his autobiography, Chronicles. Speaking of the early 1960s, Koerner later said, "We were all goofy, you know. We were thinkers and drinkers and artists and players, and Dylan was one of us. He was another guy."
In 1965, Koerner recorded his first solo album, Spider Blues, for Elektra and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival accompanied by Glover. He continued playing on the folk circuit and joined with Willie Murphy to record Running, Jumping, Standing Still in 1969. The duo eventually split up, and Koerner pursued an unsuccessful career in filmmaking, retiring from music and moving to Copenhagen, Denmark. He later returned to music in the traditional folk genre and continued to perform and release new albums from time to time. He now lives in Minneapolis and has two sons and a daughter.
==Links to Peel==
Peel had Koerner do a session for Night Ride in 1968, but doesn't seem to have played anything by the singer on his shows. Koerner and his colleagues Ray and Glover were influential Elektra artists in the mid-1960s; Elektra label boss Jac Holzman recalled (in Mick Houghton's book Becoming Elektra, 2nd edition, London 2016, p.162) that when he met the Beatles in 1965 he found that John Lennon and George Harrison were big admirers of Koerner, Ray and Glover. But by the time Peel returned to the UK in 1967, the trio had split up and there was no new material from the individual members. 
In Becoming Elektra (p.241) Clive Selwood described how, when he began running the label's London office, "Someone like Spider John Koerner would arrive with his guitar and spend three months in Europe playing folk clubs", but this began to change as the label switched its focus from folk to rock and "albums by Love, Tim Buckley, the Doors and the second Incredible String Band album were all suddenly very hip" - which explains why nothing by Spider John Koerner was heard on the Perfumed Garden. However, Peel may have played a track or two from the 1969 album Koerner made with Willie Murphy, Running, Jumping, Standing Still (its title derived from a film featuring the Goons). Andy Roberts covered his song "Creepy John" on a 1970 Top Gear session and on his LP Home Grown. 
==Sessions==
;Spider John Koerner
1. Recorded: 1968-06-25. First Broadcast: 17 July 1968
*Things Ain't Right / Eugene C From Tennessee / I Ain't Blue / Running Jumping Standing Still / I Don't Wanna Be Terrified
==Other Shows Played==
*None
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
Category:Artists