Article Contributed by Dennis McNally
Published on 2026-08-05
Terry Haggerty, the acclaimed lead guitarist of the Sons of Champlin, is preparing a new family-centered album that revisits music from across his career while placing it in a fresh, contemporary setting.
Haggerty first came to prominence during San Francisco’s musical renaissance of the 1960s. With their deep R&B influence and full horn section, the Sons of Champlin stood apart from contemporaries including Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Though the band often received less attention than some of its peers, Haggerty’s inventive guitar work earned the admiration of fellow musicians. Jerry Garcia described him as “a unique and original player, who is highly inventive, incorporating the tone of rock and the harmonies of jazz.”
Although the Sons of Champlin disbanded in the late 1970s before reuniting in the 1990s, Haggerty never stopped creating. More recently, he began thinking about shaping his body of work into a project that could serve as a musical legacy.
Working with his brother Tim Haggerty on keyboards and his nephew Aaron Haggerty on drums, he reviewed songs spanning his career. Using modern recording technology, the musicians returned to older material, isolated the original vocals, and rebuilt the arrangements around them.
The process gave Haggerty the freedom to transform the songs considerably. “Tears of Time,” which began in the 1980s as what he describes as a heavy-metal, operatic cruncher, has evolved into a tender ballad.
Elsewhere, the album moves through touches of rap on “Who Can You Trust,” gospel and reggae influences on “Greater Plan,” and full-throttle rock ’n’ roll on “Dogs R Us.”
The collection also includes three instrumentals—“Wish You Were Here,” “Latin Hags,” and “New Frontiers”—that place Haggerty’s guitar playing at the center of the project.
The album features vocals from Phil Perry, whom Haggerty recruited from a Quincy Jones project; Mike Duke, known for writing songs for Huey Lewis and the News; and Bay Area soul and R&B vocalist Cliff Payne.
The project also honors Haggerty’s family and musical upbringing. His father, Frank Haggerty, was a big-band-style guitarist who performed with Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong, and the Dorsey Brothers. His mother was a Cuban percussionist and dancer who introduced him to Latin music and musicians including Armando Peraza.
Haggerty began playing his father’s guitar at age three and absorbed the Great American Songbook throughout his childhood. His first paid performance came at age five when he appeared on the Bay Area children’s television program Mother Mary’s Birthday Party.
By his teenage years, he had joined a local group called The Opposite Six alongside Tim Cain and Bill Champlin. The band eventually became the Sons of Champlin.
The Sons became one of promoter Bill Graham’s favorite groups. Haggerty remembers one particularly strong performance after which Graham doubled the band’s pay for the evening. Internal pressures and drug use eventually brought the group’s original run to an end.
Outside music, Haggerty pursued botanical work and later followed a spiritual path that led him to Buddhism. He eventually became involved with the Living/Dying Project, founded by Ram Dass associate Dale Borglum, and his work with people approaching the end of life has become an important part of his journey.
That spirituality now informs both his life and his playing, bringing added depth to a project that reflects his family, history, and decades of musical exploration.
The album will be presented by Little Village, a nonprofit record label that curates a diverse range of music with the goal of creating a more harmonious world.
