"Big Brother & the Holding Company" is a prime example
of a band with the right chemistry, with the whole being greater than the sum
of its parts. You cannot buy or manufacture that natural feeling.
"Big Brother played from the heart and soul with the goal of achieving a direct
connection with the innermost feelings of the audience." With Sam Andrew, evolving out of the San Francisco rock scene of the 1960s, Big Brother was in the forefront of the psychedelic music movement.
The band was formed by Peter Albin, Sam Andrew, James Gurley, and Chuck Jones in San Francisco, in a Victorian mansion/boarding house owned by Peter's uncle at 1090 Page Street in the Haight-Ashbury. That house became the site of Wednesday night jam sessions, which were organized by Chet Helms, who was the real "Big Brother", naming the band, bringing James Gurley into the fold, and later seeing that his old friend Janis Joplin came to sing with them. The first official Big Brother gig was at the Open Theater in Berkeley, January 1966. Within a short time they became the house-band for Chet at the Avalon Ballroom, and began to develop a loyal following, largely due to the charismatic, pioneering guitarwork of James Gurley. The band had what Sam Andrew called a "progressive-regressive hurricane blues style", playing such tunes as "Hall of the Mountain King", "Coo Coo", "That's How Strong My Love Is", and "Down On Me".
