The Havalinas

Originating as the vision of former Rockats guitarist Tim Scott, born Tim Scott McConnell and already responsible for several solo releases on Geffen Records in the early 1980s, The Havalinas coalesced from the surviving players of multiple high-energy guitar groups based in Los Angeles, California, USA. Bassist Smutty Smith, an earlier Rockats bandmate of Scott’s, joined forces with drummer Charlie ‘Chalo’ Quintana to complete the lineup. Rejecting conventional rock, the three musicians merged instruments drawn from folk traditions—banjo, mandolin, flute, and dobro—with a confrontational street-level sensibility also shaped by figures as varied as Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. Their 1990 debut album, helmed by producer Don Gehman of R.E.M. and John Mellencamp renown, emerged as a chaotic yet gripping collection confronting present-day socio-political concerns. The band’s Guns N’Roses-style image earned scant approval among folk audiences.