Canned Heat is an American blues and rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat". After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup of Hite (vocals), Wilson, Henry Vestine and later Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor (bass), and Adolfo de la Parra (drums).
Canned Heat in 1970. From L-R; Larry Taylor, Henry Vestine, Bob Hite, Alan Wilson, Adolfo de la Parra
Canned Heat at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy, in 2000.
Dallas Hodge & Stanley Behrens of the later-era Canned Heat
Alan Christie Wilson, nicknamed "Blind Owl", was an American musician, best known as the co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, and primary composer of the blues band Canned Heat. He sang and played harmonica and guitar with the group live and on recordings. Wilson was the lead singer for the group's two biggest U.S. hit singles: "On the Road Again" and "Going Up the Country".
Wilson in 1968
Alan Wilson's Arlington High School senior portrait, 1961.
Wilson's 1954 Les Paul Gold Top with improved 2 part tailpiece