Crafting brilliant stories with his song was an persistent love for Paul Kamanski, whose best-known tunes— including” Hollywood Hills” and” California Kid” — were recorded and popularized on albums by the globe-trotting San Diego roots-rock circle the Beat Farmers. His Oct. 5 dying from sudden heart failure at period 68 has silenced Kamanski’s words, but his music lives on.
” I play Paul’s melodies at every present I do, and for the past few years I have always introduced each of them by saying: ‘ Paul Kamanski is San Diego’s greatest musician'”, said Beat Farmers foundation Joey Harris, who performed alongside Kamanski in such highly regarded San Diego songs as Fingers, the Pleasure Lords, the Rock Trio, Electric Sons and Country Dick &, the Snuggle Animals.
One of my favorite artists of all time is Paul, according to brother Beat Farmer Jerry Raney, who is straight off it with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Smokey Robinson. ” His tracks were well-written and thought away, the chord progressions were definitely good, and his songs were very smart”.
Kamanski’s work is held in similarly high regard by former San Diego troubadour Steve Poltz, who co-wrote Jewel’s chart-topping 1997 song,” You Were Meant For Me”, and has a dozen solo albums to his credit.
” I’ve always been an admirer of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg, and I think Paul Kamanski was cut from the same mold as them”, Poltz said. Paul taught me a lot from him by observing his actions. Paul wrote wise songs that told a story and had an edge.
Kamanski lived from the mid-1980s until late 2020 in Mission Hills. He and his wife of 28 years, singer Caren Campbell-Kamanski, then moved to the small Northern California town of Walker, halfway between Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes. He died in Reno, Nevada, on Oct. 5.
” It was very sudden”, said Campbell-Kamanski, who performed frequently with her husband. Our last performance together was on September 21 at the Walker’s Andruss Motel. Paul did n’t take a break for three straight hours.
The set list that night mixed songs Kamanski had written, including” Blue Chevrolet” and” Nickels and Dimes”, with favorites by Neil Young, Gram Parsons and San Diego’s Farrage Brothers. Also featured was Kamanski’s” Bigger Stones”, one of the standout numbers on” Tales of the New West”, the acclaimed debut album by the Beat Farmers.
Kamanski and fellow Coronado High School student Joey Harris shared dreams, which gave them inspiration for the song. The two rose to local prominence together as members of Fingers, one of San Diego’s best original-music bands of the late-1970s and early 1980s, and in several other bands thereafter.
” Paul and Joey were great friends”, Raney said.
” Bigger Stones” begins with the lines:” Sometimes I wanna fall asleep and die off in a dream / The music takes me back to my old past when I was young and feelin’ mean/ And as I stare into the spotlight, it’s like drivin’ in my car/ We had the girls and a will, and a bill on a stolen credit card/ Sayin ‘ someday we’ll be stars, Joe”.
After another verse, the chorus kicks in:” Seems like we rolled bigger stones back then / Seems like we rolled bigger stones”.
As he was traveling near Toronto with fellow Kamanski fan Danny Michel, Canadian native Poltz said,” That song still rings so true to me, because Paul talks about Joey Harris and how they grew up together.”
” I grew up in Canada listening to the Beat Farmers and Paul’s songs, and my band toured here with the Beat Farmers”, Michel recalled. ” I never met Paul, but my band in high school covered his song,’ Hollywood Hills,’ when I was 16″.
Kamanski’s love of music took root early on. He was born to Charles and Robin Kamanski on Dec. 16, 1955, in the San Mateo city of San Carlos. His attorney’s father also worked as a songwriter for the defense.
” Paul’s dad was a great storyteller”, said guitarist Billy Thompson, the lead guitarist in the band Fingers. ” Paul was an adventuresome wordsmith as a songwriter. He enjoyed making new brushstrokes to paint double entendres and numerous metaphors. He was a very funny, wild, and crazy guy in his youth”.
A talented singer and guitarist, Kamanski had rock-star looks and considerable charisma. However, his specialty was songwriting, and the Beat Farmers recorded nearly all of his compositions. One of them,” Hollywood Hills”, was covered by actor Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West. The song also earned Kamanski a music-publishing deal with Los Angeles-based Bug Music.
Comanche Moon, the band Kamanski led for more than a decade, recorded several albums. The first,” Electric Lizardland”, won Best Local Recording honors at the 1995 San Diego Music Awards.
Raney said,” Paul liked being in a band and recording his own songs,” but he did n’t believe he really wanted to travel. ” And I do n’t blame him, it’s a hard life”.
When Kamanski was n’t creating music, he enjoyed restoring vintage motorcycles. A musical celebration of his life is planned for the spring of following his writings and recording of many of them in his home studio, first in Mission Hills and then Walker.
In addition to his wife, Kamanski is survived by their daughter, Tennessee Snow Cree Kamanski Dennis, and by his brothers, Brad and Charles W. P. Kamanski Jr. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Paul Kamanski’s name to the Antelope Valley Lions Club, P. O. Box 157, Coleville, CA. 96107.
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