My Story
“I grew up in Chicagoland on the Northshore suburbs where I played ukulele and guitar from the time I was 5. I taught myself to play with an inner ear and found fingerings on the guitar imitating that sound or melody in my head. I was nobody’s best friend… and as a loner, I spent most of my time practicing hours each day.
Looking back, I had a few lessons to get me started strumming chords, but without instructions, I was able to play “Classical Gas” by Mason Williams just from listening to it on the radio, and when I was 12, I read about Eric Clapton on the back of a “John Mayall and the Blues Breakers” album talking about how they were trying to capture the authentic sound of the Blues bands in Chicago!
1964: From Beatles to the Blues
That was it for me and I began the Blues when I was 12 years old, as I became bored with the simplicity and folky-ness of the Beatles and the Mersey Beat which had inspired me and that I still loved and that was the rage in 1964.I played around Chicago, hitchhiking down to Maxwell and Hallstead to jam with famous blues musicians like, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. Making my way out of the suburbs wearing a black leather Cabreda jacket with my guitar so I blended into a scary part of the Southside of Chicago, I was not afraid in the least of being the only white face in an all-black neighborhood, when I was just 13 years old in an empty lot playing the role of my having hard times and experiencing “The Blues”.
I was blessed to have grown up in Chicagoland
Halstead St. is 800 West or 8 blocks East of State street. It is famous for being the center of Old Town, a quaint part of Chicago on the near north side that reflects an older day where the cobblestone streets and Trolley Street Train tracks and gaslights and wrought iron railings still remain. It is where my early Rampage bass player, Frank Wing bought the very last livery horse named, “Misty” that was registered in the city of Chicago from the last horse drawn carriage company in 1975 when it closed. An era had ended without a whisper…Halstead street is where the Earl of Old town is, where I played my folk songs 1975-1978 and Steve Goodman and John Prine …and Jim Croce made famous before me. My recent song “Hammer in my face” verse…Underneath the window sill in the alley of the Earl of Old Town Restaurant and Pub… There’s a name I covered up with a piece of gum…
And.. Halsted street runs south a couple miles to cross Maxwell street on the south side of Chicago. Maxwell Street Market was the Chicago neighborhood where blues musicians jammed on the street from the 1940s until it was leveled in 1996 to make way for University of Chicago athletic fields and parking. Willie Dixon is considered one of the key figures in the creation of Chicago blues. He worked with Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Joe Louis Walker, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor.
Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, “Maxwell Street” Jimmy Davis and other legendary blues artists played their first performances in Chicago on Maxwell Street for spare change from passersby before graduating to the clubs. Maxwell Street Market had no formal boundaries, but its most active area was Maxwell Street between Newberry Avenue and Union Avenue, and Halsted Street between West Roosevelt Road and West Liberty Street. Blues musicians roamed Halsted as far north as Madison, while gospel singers dominated Newberry Avenue.
I jammed at the Checkerboard Lounge, a blues club in Bronzeville, on the South Side of Chicago, which was established in 1972 by Buddy Guy and L.C. Thurman. It became famous later as the “Live at the Checkerboard Lounge”, is a concert video and live album by American blues musician Muddy Waters and members of British rock band the Rolling Stones in Chicago 1981.
In 1969 I wrote a medley for the Maine East all school assembly and I was finger picking Flatt & Scruggs “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and then breaking into the Beatles, “Sargent Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band” and then Jimmy Hendrix, “Purple Haze”. That was back in 1970 still in high school and very few people ever knew I played guitar …as I was known more for my athletic skills. It was hard to be cool …and do sports back then. If you have muscles… few people will ever give you credit for anything else …like playing an instrument or being intelligent. Weird how we stereotype people and put them in comfortable boxes, but we all do it.
Influences: Steve Goodman
Back when Motown ruled the world with the Chiffons and the Supremes… and before bands with guitars came over with the British invasion, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins and Carlos Montoya were the only guitar heroes of the day. But I was blessed to grow up with friends like Steve Goodman who showed me my first bar chords and “Johnny Be Good” in his basement after our baseball practice in Glenview, Illinois in 1960. I was 10 years old, Steve was 14. His younger brother David was my drummer and we had sleep overs and wrestled and played baseball and my father bought his cars from Steve’s father, Goodman Chevrolet in Glenview. Life was still innocent and simple back then…I went to my first concert with Steve Goodman when I was 15 in 1967, at Aaron Russo’s Kinetic Playground at Clark and Addison to see Johnny Winter and Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Steve became a legend and folk hero writing “City of New Orleans”, which Arlo Guthrie brought to fame. in 1985, it received a Grammy award for best country song, as performed by Willie Nelson. Goodman was closely involved with the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he met and mentored his good friend, John Prine.
Last person in Chicago to say goodbye to Steve Goodman
The Earl of Old Town where Steve had played was on the map and Chicago had a street near “The Earl” named for Steve Goodman. I was devastated to hear that Steve was fighting cancer. I remember being at my friend’s recording studio in Evanston @ 1980, which also happened to be the local “Medical Marijuana” shaman.. I answered the door and Steve came by to pick up something for the road… We were both surprised to see each other and hugged.. as he said he was leaving Chicago and driving to California and I looked outside and waved to his wife Nancy packed up in their white Mercedes.I was the last person to say goodbye and hug Steve before he left Chicago… Yes I am sad… and proud to be the one.
Around the time Steve Goodman’s career began to take off, he was diagnosed with leukemia. The entire time he was writing and singing, he was also fighting cancer. On September 20, 1984, Steve Goodman died at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington. Eleven days later, the Chicago Cubs, the baseball team Goodman rooted for and wrote two songs about, would play their first play-off game since 1945 at Wrigley Field.
Influences: Pat Leonard
I played with many local musicians including legendary friend and keyboard buddy Pat Leonard, who as young schoolmates, we would play in the early 70s with Pat’s father on sax jamming in his basement as well as playing local clubs, The Hut, Green Gorilla, Thirsty Whale and neighborhood concerts”.Other Chicago friends, mentors and inspirations growing up were:
- Allen Lake the great drum and percussionist who assisted Pat Leonard in his Johnny Yuma studio in Burbank, CA and gave more tips to Pat on albums for Madonna and others than he got credits for…and has always been a world class chef.
- Phil Weinberg who was my first jazz experience with freeform jamming when I was 13. Phil Weinberg also gave me John Lennon’s guitar strap which John wore on the Beatles first Chicago tour in 1964. Phil was a roady backstage and it was a gift from John Lennon and one of 4 Vox Python original straps made for John who wore it in Beatle shows. I still have that strap today.
- Peter Comita the great guitarist and Cheap Trick bassist, who had Gene Simmons call me from Paris to audition for Kiss in 1981. Peter has been a friend since 1964.
- Gary Levin the great guitarist from Ruby Starr has been a friend since 1964…I remember 8th grade jamming with Gary Levin kicking ass on Drums and Peter Comita Playing Bass…before they became demi-gods.
- And singers / songwriters, Lenny Bolasa and Mike Gabriel who taught me to sing and harmonize …all were friends and made an impact on me.
“I did my first recording at age 12 in 1964”
“I did my first recording at age 12 in 1964 and built my first studio ten years later in 1974. I had become obsessed with Ravi Shankar in 1966 and began tuning my guitar to an open Dorian D and C tunings. I wrote ragas wearing a small wire I had formed and configured around my first finger that allowed me to play as a sitar uses when I was 15 and eastern influences are deep within my music today.1967 When we were all still going to Maine East High School in Park Ridge, (where Hillary Clinton and Harrison ford attended)…Pat Leonard and Pete Comita came over to my folks house in Glenview and I was practicing my “Far Eastern scales and original songs” in my room and Pat Leonard asked, “Keith, where did you get these far eastern licks from?”…and I answered… “Eating Chop Suey”…and we laughed our asses off. It was clever and funny at the time we were just kids. For me it was a big deal… Pete Comita was the coolest guitarist and Pat was always my wiz kid buddy who would skip school…trip out and practice all day when he was 14. I didn’t have many friends… me and my guitar were all there was sometimes.
Famous Friends
Peter Comita went on to be a world class performer in Cheap Trick and was a major “Heart Throb”. Patrick Leonard became the God of Music, changing the way western civilization thinks about melody and rhythm from the Michael Jackson Victory Tour to Madonna’s Like a Virgin and co-writing Madonna’s “Live to Tell” the Best Song of the Year.Music Business
In 1976 I started Rampage Enterprises with Audiophile and audio engineer and speaker designer Bruce Birmingham, as a professional sound reinforcement system company and was the first quadraphonic PA system in Chicago with clients that included Led Zeppelin and Bob Hope. My band, Rampage went by the same name and was an original music band with the high intensity Rock fusion sound similar to Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Queen”.A Star is Born: And Crashes
1978 Keith was discovered on Rush street by famous photographer Charles Adams and Director Producer Chris Harris, who were filming a movie with Gloria de Haven. Keith was riding his chopper through the city and when he stopped, Chris came up to me and asked me to come to Hollywood.Charles began shooting my portfolio and Keith was meeting with Hollywood producers and engineers. The Woodstock newspaper ran the frontpage article about Charles Adams coming to Woodstock to shoot Keith Field, the next super star of Rock, the Next Mick Jagger, for a Hollywood Record Label. Chris Harris, friend and business partner with David Geffen, had showed Geffen my pictures and was bringing me to producers in Hollywood to work with.
That was 1978. October 28, 1979 I was in a van accident that left me in a body cast for 3 months and my left chording hand was paralyzed without feelings. It knocked my career off track and my visions of grandeur had been humbled. But it made me fight to get back and be stronger and better than before. It was a lesson about being blessed and how, being blessed with so many talents, in many mays can be a curse, if we fail to focus on what is most important ….and also ..the lesson” we don’t know what we have …until its gone”, became very real.
Eardance: 80’s Pop Minimalism
By 1982 after doing a 6 month gig in Hawaii with the group Gallery, a cover band Keith was back in top shape and playing in high tech bands with my synthesizer guitar and all the new digital sounds. In 1982 Keith started playing with a Stick player, Jim Jacobsen who had a Masters degree in Chamber Music and was the Musical Director of the Electronic Music Department at the University of Chicago. After writing for two years in extreme syncopated patterns and exotic harmonic structures, we started Eardance. It was a Techno Pop minimalist trio and had the sound like the Eurythmics and Howard Jones.New Age: The Messenger
In 1988 Jim Jacobsen produced the New Age album, The Messenger for Narda Records with Keith Field on guitars, Joe Pusatari on drums and percussion and Jim on clarinet, stick keyboards. It was in the highest rotation on the Wave radio station nationally.Broken Arrow
While doing sessions in LA throughout the 90s, Keith worked singer songwriter Parveen Michaels and wrote 8 songs with Jack Tempchin, (2019 Songwriter Hall of Fame recipient / Eagles, Glenn Frey), also writing and recording with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter from the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan and Denny Sewell, the drummer for Paul McCartney’s World Wings tour and Billy Joel. We recorded an album and got radio play.Norman Sancho was the vocalist and bassist and they became writing partners for the next 27 years and started the duet, Nobody’s Best Friend, with several albums in diverse styles between 1992 and 2019.