This photograph was taken during a live TV show around 1959 at the peak of Eddy Cochran's booming career. Dave Shriver can be seen rocking out on his Fender Bass — one of the very first in the world.
Dave Shriver, standing, with his band The Trends.
Dave Shriver, left, rocks out with his longtime friend Bruce Maier.
Dave Shriver
Recording on the 2009 CD, Road Of Dreams, David Shriver takes a moment to make sure his Bass is in precise tune
David Shriver plays his red Fender
When local bicycle shop owner and renowned professional musician Dave Shriver died in 2012, his good friend Bruce Maier vowed to cobble together a documentary in his honor. In just over two weeks, that documentary will make its debut on the silver screen of the Chehalis Theatre.
The evening of March 25 will feature a one hour and five minute screening of the documentary, “Rock It: The David Shriver Tribute,” along with a 90-minute encore performance by the Bruce Maier Band.
Maier and Shriver became friends in the 1980s as a matter of course through the local music scene. In the three decades that followed, they wound up performing together regularly. When Shriver died at the age of 76 from a heart condition, Maier was deeply affected. As it happens for some creative types, that grief metastasized in the form of a tribute song, which eventually wound up as the audio cornerstone of the documentary.
“When David Shriver died in 2012, I was inspired to write a song about his life,” explained Maier, a Centralia resident. “I had a vision when I wrote the song that this has to be put to film.”
Chehalis Theatre Manager Debbie Hamilton said she jumped at the chance to host the Shriver tribute as soon as Maier broached the topic.
“You know what it was? When we went to Dave’s bicycle shop back when my son was young, Dave brought us out envelopes full of pictures and told us stories of playing with the rockers of the ’60s and ’70s,” said Hamilton of her visits to the Spokesman bicycle shop in Chehalis. “When Bruce Maier brought that up, it just brought it all back to me. This would be something that would be great for our community to see, because he was just quiet and ran a little bike shop but played with a lot of famous people.”
According to Maier, Shriver’s influence on the bass guitar reached much farther than your typical rhythm section. That’s because Shriver, who earned his chops on a standup bass, wound up at the trailblazing forefront of the electric guitar movement right around the same time that Bob Dylan made waves by going electric. Shriver was even sponsored by Fender guitars and used an early electric bass model professionally.
“He had done so many things,” said Maier, who noted that his friend played bass for Eddie Cochran on the heels of the Rat Pack years and then wound up touring the world multiple times over, playing bass for Trini Lopez.
“The Beatles wanted his autograph, especially Paul McCartney,” said Maier. “They looked at Dave like, ‘Hey man, he’s the guy who plays that Fender bass guitar.’”
In the 1970s, Shriver gave up the glamor and glitz of the rock-’n’-roll lifestyle for the dirty boot farm life in Mossyrock where he and his wife Lucy lived together until his passing.
Shortly after moving to the area, Shriver and Maier inevitably wound up crossing paths. By 1982, they were playing in a band together with Clayton Watson and The Trends.
“He never bragged about his past or anything. He was very humble. He could have dropped the bomb on everybody, but he was a regular guy,” said Maier.
Maier noted that “Rock It: The David Shriver Tribute” was a real labor of love to create and he is grateful for all of the help he received from co-producer Calvin Taylor. The project began in 2012 but there was an entire three year stretch between then and now where the fate of the project was very much in doubt.
“There was a mishap and the entire audio project went missing. It was sent out of state for mastering and it disappeared,” said Maier. Eventually the original files were retrieved from the soundboard of the studio where they were first recorded. It was a turn of events that Maier says happened only “by a stroke of luck and the grace of God.”
Maier says that he has at least one more trick up his sleeve in order to pay homage to his friend.
“There is a deeper concept behind this movie,” said Maier, who noted that two of Shriver’s best friends both happened to be drummers. One of those drummers was Clayton Watson, the other was Mickey Jones, who drummed for Bob Dylan on his controversial electric guitar tour. “Dave had a dream that (Jones) and his other best friend Clayton Watson would both have their kits set up and they would play a concert but it just never happened,” explained Maier, who plans to bring the drummers together in the studio in order to lay down dual drum tracks on the documentary title track, “Rock It.”
“I hope there is standing room only in the theater and Debbie has to close the doors and say, ‘We’ve got to show this again tomorrow,’” said Maier. “The real purpose is to bring the community together, and for those that loved Dave Shriver it’s a way for them to remember him and maybe get a smile and tear at the same time.”
The David Shriver Tribute evening will take place at the Chehalis Theatre on Saturday, March 25. The documentary will begin at 6 p.m. with the Bruce Maier Band taking the stage immediately afterward. Tickets to the event cost $15. They will be available to purchase at Dairy Dan’s and Book ‘n’ Brush on March 15 and the door on the day of the show.
To learn more about Dave Shriver, visit www.davidshriver.webs.com/.
