Chet Powers(1937-1994)

Born in Danbury, CT, his parents were performers and he and his sister Katherine grew up working in carnivals. He took up guitar and moved to Greenwich Village in 1960, performing under the name Dino Valenti. While there, he wrote the folk-rock classic "Get Together," a song which was originally released in 1964 by the Kingston Trio. Many other folk artists covered the song but it was the 1966 recording by The Youngbloods that is the most well-known. It was originally released in July 1967 to little fanfare but when re-released in 1969, the song reached #5 on the Billboard Top 100 by September of that year.

As Dino Valenti, Powers is also known for being the lead singer of the psychedelic blues-rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service on several of their albums. He left NY for Los Angeles in 1964 and met David Crosby, who soon had recorded a version of "Get Together" and had asked Powers to join him in a new band to be called The Byrds. However, Powers hated LA and moved later that year to San Francisco, where he played frequently on the coffee house circuit. However, folk was soon going electric, as typified by the success of the very band Powers had turned down a chance to join. In 1965, he met lead guitarist John Cipollina and the two planned to form a psychedelic rock band but problems with the law took Powers in a different direction. He served two years while Cipollina went on to actually form the band they had planned, Quicksilver Messenger Service. They were signed by Capitol Records in 1967, about the same time that Powers was released from prison, having had to sell all publishing rights to "Get Together" in order to pay his legal fees. Cipollina invited him to join the band but instead, he signed with Epic as a solo artist.

Somewhat bitter after his prison experience and difficult to work with during the over-budget sessions, the album was released in 1968 with the last name of his stage moniker Valenti misspelled "Valente." Sales were very poor and live dates in New York City to promote the album had only a few people showing up. The release was a failure that Powers never got over and that caused Epic to drop him immediately, as they were already furious over his behavior in the studio and the expense of recording. He moved back to New York in 1969 but in early 1970, he accepted Cipollina's still-open offer to join Quicksilver as its lead singer. That summer, the band went to Hawaii and recorded material for its next two albums, with Powers' singing some of his best compositions, "Fresh Air" and the prescient "What About Me." Although most critics did not like the more melodic direction that the band took with Powers, both albums did well enough and the two songs especially received heavy national airplay on the budding FM rock stations that were multiplying across the country. However, by the time those two albums were released, Cipollina had quit the band and other personnel shifts took place. Powers stayed for another two albums and the remnants of the band eventually dissolved in 1979.

Powers stayed in the San Francisco area. He had brain surgery for an arteriovenous malformation in the late 1980s, after which he suffered short-term memory loss and had to deal with the side effects of anti-convulsive medications. Still, he performed with members of the Marin County music scene until his death.