Welcome!

This website is lovingly dedicated to Alan Christie Wilson’s desire to share his love of music and nature. Though he co-founded and co-fronted the legendary sixties blues rock band, Canned Heat, Alan was an unlikely “rock star”. As the band’s primary musical arranger, he drew upon his scholarly knowledge of blues roots music to create the music which would become synonymous with the Woodstock generation.

To this day “Going Up The Country” and “On The Road Again” are used in the soundtracks of movies, commercials, and TV shows. But his passion for the blues also netted him fame, a fringe benefit that he was not altogether comfortable with. Quiet and somewhat introverted, he preferred the solace and comfort of nature to the rigorous touring schedule of a successful band.

Alan Wilson

He battled anxiety and depression in a time when the artillery was rudimentary at best. Unfortunately, he lost the battle.

It has been forty years and several generations of blues inspired music since we lost Alan. Almost as many years had passed between Alan’s musical scene of the sixties and that of the founding fathers and mothers of pre war rural blues to which Alan felt such a strong connection.

Music evolves every time a musician “connects” with an existing genre of music and is inspired to combine different sounds and techniques to create a distinctly new musical style. In this way Alan made his contribution to the evolution of blues/ rock with a unique style that remained true to the spirit and feeling of the early primitive blues he loved. Forty years later the evolution continues as young musicians take inspiration from Alan and other musical innovators to create their own significant “mutations” in the evolution of blues rock!

His family, friends, and many fans miss him but it is our hope that through this site we can celebrate his memory by enjoying the body of work he left behind. Listen to his music and interviews, read his writings, learn about the redwoods, send us a note or join one of the forums. In this way, we can keep him alive in our hearts and minds.


- Joseph and Shirley Konecny, Jayne Wilson, Darrell Oswald*, Nicole Hamilton, Lisa Lindenberg and Heidi Galgowski


* On September 11, 2010 Darrell lost her very long, courageous battle with breast cancer. A caregiver by nature, and by trade (a registered nurse) she was a devoted mother, wife, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend. She has joined Alan and she, too, will live on in our hearts.