Journey rocker Cain makes a new home in Nashville
http://www.marinij.com/ci_15222559
Paul Liberatore
Posted: 06/03/2010 06:01:25 PM PDT
After 30 years in Marin County, Jonathan Cain, the longtime keyboard player for the supergroup Journey, has packed up his family and quietly moved to Nashville, country's Music City.
Jonathan just turned 60 this year, and sounds like a man who has enjoyed his time here, but at this point in his life he's fed up with the frantic Marin scene - the traffic, the high prices and rising taxes, the hyper-busy lifestyles, the sense of entitlement and competition, the pot holes in Mill Valley.
"I just feel like it's a slower, gentler pace in Nashville, and as I get older that's fine with me," he said. "It's a lot less dog-eat-dog than California. They actually throw welcoming parties for you. My wife and I were invited to several. That doesn't happen in Marin."
After tirelessly volunteering his talents for the benefit of Novato's Pleasant Valley Elementary School, he didn't
want to have to now watch his three teenagers compete to get into Marin's exclusive private high schools, and possibly suffer the disappointment of being rejected.
"My kids really matter to me, and I want them to have a shot, but I just don't think they'll have that shot in Marin," he said. "I don't like the way the schools are going. There's too much competition. That's kind of why I'm moving."
Cain is from Chicago and still speaks with a slight Midwestern accent. He has positive associations with Nashville, beginning his career there with Dial Records in the late '60s.
He joined Journey in
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1980, taking over for Gregg Rolie. (Ironically, Rolie is also a Marin ex-pat, moving from Novato to San Diego County in the late '90s for much the same reasons.)
A year later, he settled in Marin as Journey was making its ascent to the top of the charts with songs like his hit "Faithfully" and the anthemic "Don't Stop Believin'," featuring a Cain piano part considered one of the greatest opening keyboard riffs in rock.
Back in the day, Novato was the town where rock stars like Steve Miller and James Hetfield could live in suburban solitude. I have a fond memory of interviewing Gregg Allman in Jonathan's home studio in 1993 for a story on the now defunct Bammie Awards.
"Those times were unbelievable," he sighed. "I miss all that. But the music scene is long gone from Marin County. I feel like a fish out of water here."
All those reasons aside, the main impetus for the move is Jonathan's 16-year-old daughter, Madison Cain, an aspiring country singer-songwriter who has already headlined Nashville's famed Bluebird Cafe, the showcase that launched the careers of Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Keith Urban and Trisha Yearwood, among many others.
"She's trying to become the next Martina McBride," he explained. "I try to bring my daughter everywhere I can, to feature her and get the buzz going about her. The more times she gets shots like the Bluebird, the better she'll be. I believe in her. I think she's that good, and she's only gonna get better. She got a little of my DNA. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
Jonathan isn't a stage father blinded by pride. After listening to Madison's demo on MySpace, I was genuinely impressed. This girl has a voice that has that ineffable star quality.
After taking Madison to Nashville to work on her music for the past few years, Jonathan bought a big house there last summer on two acres in Brentwood, a suburb 10 minutes outside of town that fortunately escaped the recent disastrous flood.
"It's three times the house we had in Novato," he said. "It was too good to pass up. I said to the family, 'Let's do this.' So the kids finished up school and we moved in the dead of summer, when it was brutally hot. Then we made it through the worst winter in 30 years and the worst flood in history. I'm just waiting for the cicadas now."
Jonathan says his kids have handled the culture shock quite well, adjusting to the genteel Southern ways and their new school: private Franklin Road Academy.
"There are only 80 kids in the graduating class," he said. "They wear uniforms, and they're watched pretty well. It's a Christian school, but the emphasis isn't so much on religion as it is on being a good citizen and a good student. They're learning at an easier, gentler pace. They've got less kids in their classes, less peer pressure, no gangsters, hardly any drugs. At the very worst they get drunk after the prom."
Jonathan's four-bedroom, 4,100-square-foot house in Novato's Verissimo Valle is on the market for a little more than $1.95 million. It comes with its own recording studio and a hillside planted in pinot noir grapes. You can see it online at 25saddlelane.com.
"There's really nothing like it," real estate agent John Hammer said. "It's one of a kind."
When he's in Marin, Jonathan and Journey are in Berkeley's Fantasy Studios, working on a new concept album with what he describes as an "Eastern ancient Hindu spiritual theme."
"It's a big departure from anything we've done in the past," he said.
That same thing can be said about the new life and new community Jonathan and his family have created for themselves.
"Thirty years is long enough to live anywhere," he said. "We felt it was time to move on."
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:19 pm
