Fred Field


Fred Field & Friends Maranatha 1976
 Warms Away the Coldest Night
 The Last Train to Heaven
Original lyricist for Love Song, Fred Field's obvious love is the violin. Harmony Magazine summed up this album as "Fred Field fiddles with country." Includes session playing of Jay Truax and John Mehler (both ex- of Love Song) and Al Perkins. The song "Country Life" was first recorded for a soundtrack to the film Five Summer Stories and the song "He Lives" was the title track for a film documentary entitled My Witnesses about the 1972 Munich Olympics. DS

The musical career of Fred Field began with violin lessons at the age of four and a half; by the time he was seven, he was playing in community orchestras, sitting right next to Los Angeles Philharmonic players. At 12, he joined the musicians union in L. A., and by age 16, he had had 11 years of formal lessons plus nine years in the “pits” playing opera, ballet, and the classics from Mendelsohn to Mozart, four years under the baton of Mario Cajati, one time protegé of Maestro Arturo Toscanini.

Then he joined a rock ’n roll band. In the late sixties, he began recording his own original material and making his first regular appearances on television, performing in his group, the Starfires, on the popular dance show “Ninth Street West” and the Las Vegas based “Teenbeat”. In those early years, the Starfires appeared in clubs from Las Vegas to the legendary Sunset Strip in Hollywood. They opened for such performers as the Byrds, the Turtles, the Standells, and the Temptations, and backed up stars such as Sonny Knight, Round Robin, the Olympics, the Larks, the Coasters, and Doby Gray. Since that time, his groups have opened for Three Dog Night, Alice Cooper, Seals and Croft, Elvin Bishop, the Grateful Dead, the Staple Singers, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, and, in Amsterdam’s Paradiso club, English rockers Cockney Rebel. On guitar, mandolin, and/or electric violin, he has also worked with Darlene Love, the Rhythm Kings behind Ike and Tina Turner, and appeared on LPs by Bonny Pointer (Pointer Sisters), Grammy Award winner Andrae Crouch, and many others.

He went abroad for the first time in 1972 to perform during the Olympics in Munich, West Germany. Soon after, he was invited to Israel to score a documentary on the Munich Massacre (of Israeli athletes). For nearly two years, Fred was also involved as player and performer on stage, radio, and television with many Israeli celebrities. Since that time, he has performed on five continents—North & South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia—and has toured Europe more than a dozen times, three times in the East—twice touring universities in Yugoslavia and playing at the World University Games in Zagreb (1987).

His versatility extends to country music, as well. In the L. A area, he’s played in such venues as the Palomino, the Crazy Horse, Knott’s Berry Farm, Superbowl XVIII (in Pasadena), and the Orange County Fair. He has opened for and/or backed such artists as the Osmond Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Doug Kershaw, Mickey Rooney Jr., and Tex Williams. Brush Arbor, one-time country music vocal group of the year, recorded two of Fred’s songs, one the title track to their “Hideaway” LP, which went to number 4 on the national charts.

His involvement in the music business spans more than 30 years. As a producer, he has worked for CBS Records in Israel and independently in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, with projects in five different languages. The breadth of Fred’s experience extends to film and video scoring (e.g., for ESPN, MacGillvray-Freeman Films’ Five Summer Stories—the best selling surf film of all time), as a studio player on records and jingles, for an NBC television series, for Radio Luxembourg, just about anything requiring music.

As an original member and principal writer for the group Love Song, Fred was among the pioneers of contemporary gospel music. Their records have sold for nearly three decades. Other projects include a solo LP on Maranatha! Music, Fred Field and Friends; a musical Through These Eyes, the Gospel According to Luke (its sequel, Acts, is currently in production); a live, double LP, the Mehler-Field Band Live, recorded in Germany, and a studio album, Life Support, also released in Germany. He has more than 50 published and recorded songs in this genre, many of which have appeared in various forms all over the world. As a long time member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, his songs have been played on radio and TV in Europe, the Middle East, the U.S., Australia, Japan, etc…

Due to his interest in language, Fred returned to school to study linguistics, which has led him to a second career in teaching. He has a BA from the University of California, Irvine, an MA from California State University, Fullerton, and, finally, his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. A published author and frequent speaker in his academic field, Fred is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English at California State University, Northridge. Fred Field - Jan 2001