Providence (band)
Encyclopedia
Providence was a six-piece music group originally from Boise, Idaho
, but later based out of Portland, Oregon
, USA, circa 1971—1974. The band was made up of six members: Bob Barriatua, electric bass
, vocals; Bart Bishop, lead vocals, piano
, harpsichord
, organ
, autoharp
; Jim Cockey, violin
, glockenspiel
, vocals; Andy Guzie, guitar
s, vocals; and brothers Tim Tompkins, cello
, vocals, recorder
s, percussion
, and Tom Tompkins, viola
, vocals, occasional violin.
The style of the group was decidedly soft rock
with dominant classical influences, particularly in contrapuntal instrumental interludes by their string trio and in broad vocal harmonies that followed strict rules of voice-leading.
Their greatest accomplishment came when The Moody Blues
, seeking to expand the roster of their fledgling label Threshold
, signed Providence to a recording contract. They managed one release, Ever Sense the Dawn (1972), before parting ways.
Live, Providence was an impressive unit that drew heavily on the combined power of Bob Barriatua's bass and Tim Tompkins' cello, the two instruments combining to create a rock edge that could be quite intense. Layered on top of that were Tom Tompkins' viola and Jim Cockey's violin. Andy Guzie's guitar work was often treated as a lyrical embellishment more than the blistering leads of his rock contemporaries of the period. Lead singer and main writer Bartholomew Bishop's keyboards centered around piano, organ and harpsichord, rather than the Moog, ARP and other synthesizers then in common use among groups exploring a mixture of rock and classical influences. Because of their string trio, the group did not use the popular Mellotron
(which the Moodies popularized in songs like "Nights in White Satin"), giving Providence a sound that was quite organic and more complex than that created by the Mellotron.
Following the band's breakup, individual members have gone on to a wide range of professional activities.
Cockey and the Tompkins brothers lent their talents to the duet album Blue Jays
(1975) by the Moodies' Justin Hayward
and John Lodge. They also became part of the Bluejays touring band for the 1975 uk tour and in 1977 they appeared on Justin Hayward's solo album Songwriter.
Barriatua has completed an M.D.
degree and has established a practice in Portland.
Cockey completed a degree in composition at University of Oregon
under Hal Owen and has since established himself as a composer and music teacher working out of McCall, Idaho
.
Andy (now known as Andrew) Guzie completed a classical guitar degree from University of Oregon and continues to work as a performing guitarist in Portland.
Tim and his wife Frances Tompkins have been composing and performing music together for 25 years and he appeared on the 1995 recording "Freelight" which also featured former Moody Blues keyboardist/vocalist Michael Pinder.
Tom Tompkins has worked as principal violist with the Boise, Idaho
symphony, broadened his musical skills to include flute and mandolin
, amongst other instruments, and recorded with a range of artists.
Robert Barriatua works in medicine.
Bart Bishop has perhaps sustained the most visibility in the field of recorded music. He continued working in the recording industry as a vocalist throughout the 1970s, featured on albums by Ted Nugent
(Nugent
), Alan Clarke
former lead singer of the Hollies
, Billy Thorpe
(Children of the Sun), Carmine Appice
/Rick Derringer
(Doctors of the Universe), Peter Noone
(Herman of Herman's Hermits
), The Orchids
, The Runaways
, Staying Alive
soundtrack album (platinum selling status), and Rand Bishop and the Underdogs.
Rand Bishop is Bart's brother and was the original producer of the Providence demo that drew attention from the Moodies resulting in the signing to Threshold. Rand now works on Music Row
in Nashville, Tennessee
and has penned top sellers for Tim McGraw
, Toby Keith
and others.
Batholomew's work as a busy "session" vocalist and instrumentalist
in Hollywood drew the attention of Takoma Records Denny Bruce
in 1981 and Bart wrote produced and performed the Takoma records release "The Roulettes" a pop rock project of his own. Today, Bart has gone back to using his original stage name of "Bartholomew" and is in production on a new album that focuses on his folk-classical musical roots. The new project tentatively entitled "Three Cornered Hat" is being produced by brother Theo Bishop at Native Language Studios in the Los Angeles area, with a tentative release in 2008. It will feature the string arrangements and performances of yet another brother, Jayson Bishop on cello
and string bass, as well as Theo's world famous keyboard work. The brothers are currently entertaining distribution opportunities around the world particularly to accommodate a European tour tentatively scheduled for summer 2009 along with Bart's son Graham's act "Senors of Marseille".
The members of Providence reunited in 2007 to autograph rare copies of their original "Ever Sense the Dawn" Threshold records release for fans and friends in Europe.
Bart Bishop died 19 (?) Oct 2009. Born (probably) 15 May 1953. RIP!
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
, but later based out of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, USA, circa 1971—1974. The band was made up of six members: Bob Barriatua, electric bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals; Bart Bishop, lead vocals, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, autoharp
Autoharp
The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
; Jim Cockey, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, vocals; Andy Guzie, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, vocals; and brothers Tim Tompkins, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, vocals, recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
s, percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, and Tom Tompkins, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, vocals, occasional violin.
The style of the group was decidedly soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
with dominant classical influences, particularly in contrapuntal instrumental interludes by their string trio and in broad vocal harmonies that followed strict rules of voice-leading.
Their greatest accomplishment came when The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
, seeking to expand the roster of their fledgling label Threshold
Threshold Records
Threshold Records was a record label created by The Moody Blues, after their 1969 album On the Threshold of a Dream.It was a UK subsidiary of Decca Records and a U.S. subsidiary of London Records...
, signed Providence to a recording contract. They managed one release, Ever Sense the Dawn (1972), before parting ways.
Live, Providence was an impressive unit that drew heavily on the combined power of Bob Barriatua's bass and Tim Tompkins' cello, the two instruments combining to create a rock edge that could be quite intense. Layered on top of that were Tom Tompkins' viola and Jim Cockey's violin. Andy Guzie's guitar work was often treated as a lyrical embellishment more than the blistering leads of his rock contemporaries of the period. Lead singer and main writer Bartholomew Bishop's keyboards centered around piano, organ and harpsichord, rather than the Moog, ARP and other synthesizers then in common use among groups exploring a mixture of rock and classical influences. Because of their string trio, the group did not use the popular Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
(which the Moodies popularized in songs like "Nights in White Satin"), giving Providence a sound that was quite organic and more complex than that created by the Mellotron.
Following the band's breakup, individual members have gone on to a wide range of professional activities.
Cockey and the Tompkins brothers lent their talents to the duet album Blue Jays
Blue Jays (album)
Blue Jays is a 1975 album by Justin Hayward & John Lodge. It was recorded and released during the Moody Blues' five-year hiatus.The track "Blue Guitar", originally released as a non-album single credited to Hayward & Lodge in September 1975 but performed by Hayward with the band 10cc, was added to...
(1975) by the Moodies' Justin Hayward
Justin Hayward
Justin Hayward is an English musician, best known as singer, songwriter and guitarist in the rock band The Moody Blues.Hayward was born in Dean Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, England...
and John Lodge. They also became part of the Bluejays touring band for the 1975 uk tour and in 1977 they appeared on Justin Hayward's solo album Songwriter.
Barriatua has completed an M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
degree and has established a practice in Portland.
Cockey completed a degree in composition at University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
under Hal Owen and has since established himself as a composer and music teacher working out of McCall, Idaho
McCall, Idaho
McCall is a resort town on the western edge of Valley County, Idaho, United States. Named after its founder, Tom McCall, it is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake, near the center of the Payette National Forest...
.
Andy (now known as Andrew) Guzie completed a classical guitar degree from University of Oregon and continues to work as a performing guitarist in Portland.
Tim and his wife Frances Tompkins have been composing and performing music together for 25 years and he appeared on the 1995 recording "Freelight" which also featured former Moody Blues keyboardist/vocalist Michael Pinder.
Tom Tompkins has worked as principal violist with the Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
symphony, broadened his musical skills to include flute and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, amongst other instruments, and recorded with a range of artists.
Robert Barriatua works in medicine.
Bart Bishop has perhaps sustained the most visibility in the field of recorded music. He continued working in the recording industry as a vocalist throughout the 1970s, featured on albums by Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
(Nugent
Nugent (album)
Nugent is the eighth studio album released by Ted Nugent in 1982.-Track listing:All songs written and arranged by Ted Nugent.#"No, No, No" - 3:39#"Bound and Gagged" - 4:34#"Habitual Offender" - 3:09#"Fightin' Words" - 3:59...
), Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
former lead singer of the Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Billy Thorpe
Billy Thorpe
William Richard "Billy" Thorpe, AM was a renowned English-born Australian pop / rock singer-songwriter and musician...
(Children of the Sun), Carmine Appice
Carmine Appice
Carmine Appice is an American rock drummer of Italian background and is the older brother of drummer Vinny Appice by 12 years. He received a classical music training and was influenced by the jazz drumming of Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa early on...
/Rick Derringer
Rick Derringer
Rick Derringer is an American guitarist, vocalist, and entertainer.-1960s:When he was seventeen years old, his band The McCoys recorded "Hang on Sloopy" in the summer of 1965, which became the number one song in America before "Yesterday" by The Beatles knocked it out of the top spot. The song was...
(Doctors of the Universe), Peter Noone
Peter Noone
Peter Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:...
(Herman of Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
), The Orchids
The Orchids
The Orchids are a Scottish twee pop band that achieved success with Sarah Records. Formed near Glasgow in 1986, the Orchids released a series of underground singles on the influential Sarah Records . The group's line-up comprised James Hackett , John Scally , Chris Quinn , Matthew Drummond and...
, The Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
, Staying Alive
Staying Alive
Staying Alive is the 1983 film sequel to Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta as dancer Tony Manero, with Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Steve Inwood, Julie Bovasso, and dancers Viktor Manoel, Kate Ann Wright, Kevyn Morrow and Nanette Tarpey...
soundtrack album (platinum selling status), and Rand Bishop and the Underdogs.
Rand Bishop is Bart's brother and was the original producer of the Providence demo that drew attention from the Moodies resulting in the signing to Threshold. Rand now works on Music Row
Music Row
Music Row is an area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tennessee that is home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and Contemporary Christian music industries...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
and has penned top sellers for Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
, Toby Keith
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...
and others.
Batholomew's work as a busy "session" vocalist and instrumentalist
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
in Hollywood drew the attention of Takoma Records Denny Bruce
Denny Bruce
Denny Bruce is an American record producer and artist manager. He was born in Lancaster, PA on October 4, 1944.In the early 60s, he was a drummer for Frank Zappa but suffered a six-month illness with mononucleosis which cost him his job prior to the recording of Zappa's first album with The Mothers...
in 1981 and Bart wrote produced and performed the Takoma records release "The Roulettes" a pop rock project of his own. Today, Bart has gone back to using his original stage name of "Bartholomew" and is in production on a new album that focuses on his folk-classical musical roots. The new project tentatively entitled "Three Cornered Hat" is being produced by brother Theo Bishop at Native Language Studios in the Los Angeles area, with a tentative release in 2008. It will feature the string arrangements and performances of yet another brother, Jayson Bishop on cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and string bass, as well as Theo's world famous keyboard work. The brothers are currently entertaining distribution opportunities around the world particularly to accommodate a European tour tentatively scheduled for summer 2009 along with Bart's son Graham's act "Senors of Marseille".
The members of Providence reunited in 2007 to autograph rare copies of their original "Ever Sense the Dawn" Threshold records release for fans and friends in Europe.
Bart Bishop died 19 (?) Oct 2009. Born (probably) 15 May 1953. RIP!