Tanya Rose

June 2011 Vol. 10, No. 9

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Alternative country, Americana, roots, folk,blues, gospel, jazz, and bluegrass music news

ROUBADOURSAN DIEGOT

Welcome Mat………3MissionContributorsTanya RoseJohn Kuhlken

Full Circle..…………4Jean RitchieRecordially, Lou Curtiss

Front Porch... ………6Old Man FredMartin Grusin

Parlor Showcase …8Elizabeth Schwartz

Ramblin’...…………10Bluegrass CornerThe Zen of RecordingHosing DownRadio DazeStages

Highway’s Song. …12John Prine

Of Note.……………13Parker AinsworthTyson MotsenbockerWill SumnerVanguard’s Lost Psychedelic EraJane Lui

‘Round About .......…14June Music Calendar

The Local Seen……15Photo Page

10 YEARS

P h i l H a r m o n i c S e z

“I have had just about all I can take of myself.”

— S.N. Behrman, at 75 years

“I have had just about all I can take of myself.”

— S.N. Behrman, at 75 years

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JUNE 2011 SAN DIEGO TROUBADOUR

welcome mat

MISSIONTo promote, encourage, and provide an alternative voice for the great local music thatis generally overlooked by the mass media;namely the genres of alternative country,Americana, roots, folk, blues, gospel, jazz, andbluegrass. To entertain, educate, and bringtogether players, writers, and lovers of theseforms; to explore their foundations; and toexpand the audience for these types of music.

Alternative country, Americana, roots, folk,blues, gospel, jazz, and bluegrass music newsTROUBADOURSAN DIEGO

SAN DIEGO TROUBADOUR, the local source foralternative country, Americana, roots, folk,blues, gospel, jazz, and bluegrass music news,is published monthly and is free of charge.Letters to the editor must be signed and may beedited for content. It is not, however, guaranteedthat they will appear.

All opinions expressed in SAN DIEGOTROUBADOUR are solely the opinion of thewriter and do not represent the opinions of thestaff or management. All rights reserved.

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©2011 San Diego Troubadour

The San Diego Troubadour is dedicated to the memory of Ellen and Lyle Duplessie, whose vision inspired the creation of this newspaper.

CONTRIBUTORSFOUNDERSEllen and Lyle DuplessieLiz AbbottKent Johnson

PUBLISHERSLiz AbbottKent Johnson

EDITORIAL/GRAPHICSLiz AbbottChuck Schiele

ADVERTISINGKent JohnsonChristy Bruneau

DISTRIBUTIONKent JohnsonDave SawyerIndian Joe StewartDan LongPaul Cruz

PHOTOGRAPHYSteve CovaultDennis AndersenDan Chusid

WEB Chris Clarke

WRITERSRoss AltmanPeter BollandLou CurtissPaul HormickFrank KocherBart MendozaJim McInnesTim MuddTerry RolandSven-Erik SeaholmJosé SinatraAllen SingerD. Dwight Worden

Cover design: Chuck SchielePhoto: Dan Chusid

by Allen Singer

On Monday, April 25, at 4am, TanyaRose died, with her husband Larryby her side. After 14 months of liv-

ing her life with terminal pancreatic cancerand holding on against the odds, Tanya’s lifeended. Larry spent his time focusing hisvery being on everything he could do tomake Tanya’s time comfortable, happy, andproductive. Last year, at the beginning ofTanya’s illness, the doctors said she’d begone in days. Tanya told me at the time ofher diagnosis that she wasn’t afraid of deathand that she was ready to go home to Jesus.

Back in 2009, Walt Richards and PaulaStrong (Trails and Rails) took Tanya into arecording studio for the first time. There sherecorded two songs written by Les Buffham.During her last year, Bob Pearson recordedwhat would sadly be Tanya’s last recordingsat home and added some of her bluegrassfriends to her performances of the 12 songson her CD (Tanya Rose Favorites). On thisdisc you’ll find Tanya’s musical heart andsoul in each song. The one song she wroteis called “The Gift.” Tanya sings, “Knock,he will open; seek, you will find; walk in hisfootsteps, peace in your soul will surelyabide.” That song is the key to Tanya’s treas-

ures, her spiritual recipe for a time whensimplicity and truth were all you needed inthis world to live a life well spent.

With Larry’s support, Tanya helpedsecure Sam Hinton’s dream in establishingthe San Diego Folk Song Society. She creat-ed a wonderful newsletter and kept themembership updated until she became illlast year.

Tanya was a true country singer in thetradition of Rose Maddox and MotherMaybelle. Much more than that, she trav-eled the rails, rode the western trails, andtook us to foreign places visited by Mexicancowboys through the songs she sang.

When I last spoke with Tanya a coupleof weeks ago, her voice had lost its power,but we talked for over two hours with Larryby her side. Tanya asked me to sing for herand I did Woody Guthrie’s song, “Pretty BoyFloyd,” to honor her cat by the same name.Tanya was every cat’s protector and rescuer.Any cat that came into her yard was adopt-ed, rescued, and given care by Tanya.

Tanya knew the end was coming soonand wanted to let everyone know how shetreasured every email, prayer, song sung toher, food and presents, and all the thoughtspeople sent her way on her last journeyhome.

qrAfter Tanya passed, the music communitywanted to honor her and pay tribute to her insome way. Following is a letter from LarryRose a few weeks after her death.

Dear Friends and Family,

Many of you asked if there was going to besome kind of service for my wife, Tanya,who passed away on April 25. Well, itseems it has already been done. Sunday,May 8th, the San Diego Folk Song Societyheld a sing-along/get together in Tanya’shonor at Old Time Music’s new location.The place was packed with many folks I hadnot seen at similar events in years. It was avery emotional time for me and most ofTanya’s long time music friends who werethere. The musicians did many of Tanya’ssongs they learned from her and I played aCD of her early music from 1970. Thisevent turned into a celebration of Tanya andher music, which should be all that is nec-essary to send her memory off to the ages.Any additional event is too far after the factto be of any use and would further tear meto pieces. I am having enough trouble get-

ting my head straight after Tanya's 14-month struggle to live. With such a longlead time to a terminal situation you wouldthink that I could get ready for the endgame. Not so. I was never ready to lose mysoul mate of 43 years. Thank you all for car-ing during this tough time. It has helped mea lot. I really appreciate all the cards, flow-ers and letters. You have all been greatthrough this ordeal. See you all someplacedown the road.

Larry Rose

Tanya Rose A LIFE REMEMBERED

Y

Tanya Rose

Larry Rose leads a song circle at the SanDiego Folk Song Society meeting on May 8

As if it wasn’t bad enough to lose TanyaRose and Steve White at the end of April,within a week of each other, the San DiegoTroubadour also mourns the loss of JohnnyKuhlken, who died unexpectedly the lastweek of May. These three were all too youngto leave us and we will miss them, but theirmusic will live on in our hearts.

John Kuhlken, friend to all and drummerextraordinaire, will be remembered for thewonderful man he was.

Photo: D

ennis And

ersen

Photo: Steve

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full circle

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by Ross Altman

Her Kentucky mountain ballad voicestilled by a major stroke lastDecember, Jean Ritchie is no longer

able to communicate. But her inestimablerecorded legacy of traditional and originalsongs will continue to sing and speak forher for as long as time will allow.

When the soundtrack album for thefilm O Brother, Where Art Thou? became ahit, the movie’s music producer T. BoneBurnett seized the moment to record a fol-low-up studio album with the same musi-cians. It was titled Down from the Mountainand became a hit as well. But despite RalphStanley’s welcome presence I kept looking atits roster of contemporary musical talent,and despite their earnest efforts to soundtraditional, I kept asking myself the samequestion: Where is Jean Ritchie?

She didn’t have to make an effort tosound traditional; she was to the cabinborn, in 1922, in Viper, Kentucky, and hadjust turned 87 when she suffered the stroke.She was hospitalized in St. Francis Hospitalnear her home in Port Washington, NewYork, where she had moved in 1946 to pur-sue a living in music.

Not to put too fine a point on it, JeanRitchie was first down the mountain. Theyoungest of 14 children, she became thestandard bearer of her entire family’s amaz-ing repertoire of Appalachian ballads, many

inherited from England in just the way thatCecil Sharp described, an ideal livingembodiment of a folklorist’s dream-songspassed on through oral tradition and auralmemory.

She learned to play the mountain dul-cimer by imitating her father, who forbadeher and everyone else in the family fromplaying it. She was allowed to sing, howev-er, and by the age of five was already able tosing songs she had picked up from hermother. It was at that tender age that herrebellious streak first manifested itself; shedisobeyed her father’s orders and startedaccompanying herself on the lap dulcimer,first singing “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.”

When she moved to New York she mether future husband, photographer GeorgePickow, and he recognized the full signifi-cance of what she was doing, the only folksinger in New York’s then-burgeoning folkrenaissance to play the dulcimer. They setup shop beneath a bridge and started theirown workshop, handcrafting dulcimers forthe growing numbers of her fans whowished to learn to play for themselves. Theysold over 300 dulcimers in their first year ofoperation, and a dulcimer revival was born.

In 1952 Jean recorded her first albumfor Elektra Records, quickly followed bytwo others, which laid the groundwork forher rock solid folk music heritage. To takebut one example of what makes her tradi-tional song-bag both definitive and revelato-

ry, consider the classic lyric ballad, “Black Isthe Color.”

You may have heard the popular ver-sion of the song, as performed by Joan Baezon her second album in 1963. It is creditedto John Jacob Niles, the great ballad singerand dulcimer player who, like Jean Ritchie,came from Kentucky. It starts with thehaunting and distinctive repetition thatascends up the scale, “Black, black, black isthe color of my true love’s hair.” Did JohnJacob Niles write this song, as Joan Baezsongbook indicates?

Well, yes and no.If you spend some time researching this

you will discover the original sheet musicfor his version, published by Schirmer’sMusic around 1912-1915. Niles’ name is onit, all right, but he is credited as thearranger, for a piano accompaniment andmelody, not the author of the song.

Then if you go to Niles’ web site youwill discover his own notes to the song, aswell as his own recordings of it. He didn’tlike the traditional melody, he said, perhapsinfluenced by his own father, from whomhe learned it. It needed something, moregrandeur, to fit Niles’ quite dramatic way ofsinging and presenting these songs. Hisoriginal melody provides exactly that, andJoan Baez’s version is evidence enough thata great soprano could do justice to the wayhe had re-imagined the song.

But what about the traditional version,the one that you will find in Alan Lomax’sFolk Songs of the United States? To hear thatversion you will need to go back to thesource, and that would be Jean Ritchie’srecording, Songs of the Kentucky Mountains.While her version lacks the grandeur ofJohn Jacob Niles and Joan Baez, it morethan makes up for it in her simple honestyof telling the story.

That simple honesty is the hallmark ofJean Ritchie’s singing and performing style,through more than 50 years of recordingand live concerts. One of the most charmingstories I have heard from her demonstratesthis core quality to perfection. Twenty-fiveyears ago Elaine and Clark Weissman’sCalifornia Traditional Music Society pre-sented Jean Ritchie with a lifetime achieve-ment award, presented at what was thencalled simply the Summer Solstice DulcimerFestival. It was their first lifetime achieve-ment award, and they wanted to acknowl-edge Jean’s pioneering role in creating anaudience for this instrument across thecountry, even to the point of naming theirfestival after it.

During her concert performance at thefestival Jean Ritchie told the story of thetime she asked guitar virtuoso Doc Watson

to accompany her at the Newport FolkFestival, hoping to impress the audiencewith some fancy picking that went beyondwhat she could do by herself. Doc took onthe assignment all right, but then proceededto vastly disappoint Jean by toning downhis guitar playing so that it fit her style,rather than displaying what he could do ontop of it.

When Jean Ritchie complained to Docabout not having taken any breaks, orindulged in any fancy guitar work, Docreplied, “But Jean, I did just what the songcalled for.” In that one brief anecdote, toldat her own expense, Jean Ritchie taught mewhat guitar accompaniment is all about,and why her style of performance hasendured through so many changes of musi-cal fashion, and even folk music instrumen-tal mastery.

In her work, whether a traditional songlike “Black Is the Color,” or one of her owngreat protest songs about strip mining like“Black Waters” or “The L. and N. Don’tStop Here Anymore,” the song is alwaysfront and center. Her role as a great folkartist is to serve the song, both vocally andinstrumentally, not to impress the audience.

But in so doing, Jean Ritchie has con-tinued to set the standard for traditional

music performance, and to carry on hermountain legacy of songs inherited from theRitchie Family and collected at home andabroad for over half a century.

Because of Jean Ritchie there are nowdulcimer festivals all over the country, andthe Summer Solstice Festival of TraditionalMusic, Dance and Storytelling, inspired byone Kentucky ballad singer’s childhood dis-obedience to her overbearing father, contin-ues to flourish.

Kubla Khan, Coleridge’s unfinishedmasterpiece about a lost paradise, ends onthis unforgettable image: In a vision once Isaw a damsel with a dulcimer...

I too saw a damsel with a dulcimer, andhappily I wasn’t dreaming. It was JeanRitchie.

REPRINTED FROM FOLKWORKS WITHPERMISSION (www.folkworks.org)Ross Altman has a Ph.D. in English. Beforebecoming a full-time folk singer he taught col-lege English and Speech. He now sings aroundCalifornia for libraries, unions, schools, politi-cal groups and folk festivals. You can reachhim at [email protected]

Jean Ritchie: Damsel with a Dulcimer

Jean Ritchie



full circle

TOWN HALL ON ANY SATURDAYNIGHT

It was an old converted movie the-ater in the L.A. suburb of Compton,built over in the front to look like

an old barn. I never knew if they usedit much during the week, but duringmy teenage years it was the Town HallParty on Saturday nights. The band onstage was led by a six-foot plus manwith a double-necked Mosrite guitarnamed Joe Maphis and with him onstage were Marion Ross on pedal steel,Fiddlin’ Kate Warren and Bill Hill onfiddles, Jimmy Pruitt on piano, QuincySnodgrass on string bass, and Pee WeeAdams on drums. This band backed upmost anyone who came on the show,including regulars Johnny Bond, TexRitter, Merle Travis, Wesley andMarilyn Tuttle, Freddie Hart, LeftyFrizzell, Larry and Lorrie Collins, theSons of the Pioneers, Gordon Terry,Skeets McDonald, Tex Carmen, CousinEmmy, the White Brothers (Clarenceand Roland), Les “Carrot Top”

Anderson, Tommy Duncan, BobLuman, and so many more. On anygiven Saturday night you might seeguests from the Grand Ole Opry likeRay Price, Stonewall Jackson, MartyRobbins, or Faron Young. You mightalso see rockabilly artists like CarlPerkins, Wanda Jackson, Gene Vincentor Eddie Cochran, and the BurnettBrothers. You might see western movieold timers like Eddie Dean, RayWhitley, Jimmy Walkely, or even GeneAutry.

It was billed as Western Music’sHall of Fame and from 1953 to 1961,the West Coast country music scenepersonified in the Town Hall Party gaveNashville’s Grand Ole Opry a good runfor their money. When Joe Maphiswould lead Town Hall package toursout on the road, regulars Johnny Bond,Merle Travis, or Wesley Tuttle would

either bring in a band or sometimesbring in a guest band like OleRassumussen, Leon McAuliffe’sCimarron Boys, or Hank Penny’s group.I seem to recall that Bob Wills and hisTexas Playboys even filled in one time.Three hours of the Town Hall showwere telecast all over SouthernCalifornia every Saturday, first by KTLAand then by KCOP. We drove up toCompton to be there in person as oftenas we could but if we couldn’t make it,my family down in Imperial Beach wereusually parked in front of the televisiontrying to clear up the snowy reception.

It was amazingly informal. Pick ses-sions would be going on back stage,usually led by Skeets McDonald orMerle Travis, and you’d often findmembers of the audience circlingaround, checking out a lick or two.Performers would also mingle with the

audience as would comedians TexasTiny and Quincy Snodgrass. I remem-ber going up to Wesley Tuttle and ask-ing him to sing “I Dream that MyDaddy Come Home” (one of his oldCapitol records from about 10 yearsprior) for my sister Leona right as hewas going on stage. He said, “Well, Iwas going to do something else but I’lldo ’er,” and he did, dedicating it to mysister. If you wanted to hear somebodysing a song and you couldn’t get tothem, you could always ask Town Hallemcee Jay Stewart and he’d pass italong.

Along about 1961 or so, Town Hallshut down and country music on theWest Coast started to fade with it. TheBakersfield Bounce of the mid-’60s gaveit a little jump, but by 1970 it was allthe Nashville Sound. Most Town Hallartists like Tex Ritter and Joe and RoseLee Maphis, Lefty Frizzell, and so manymore had moved back to Nashville, andcountry music on the West Coast wasnonexistent except for a few revivalbands. The idea of a country barndance show in California is probablydead forever except in the memories ofthose who were fortunate enough tovisit Western Music’s Hall of Fame atthe Town Hall Party.

If you’re interested in hearing whatthe Town Hall Party sounded like,check out the following two CDs onthe Country Routes label.

RFD CD 06: Rockin’ at Town Hall:Unissued broadcasts from 1959-1961on the rockabilly side of Town Hall,featuring Carl Perkins, the CollinsKids, Warren Smith, Wanda Jackson,and Bob Luman

RFD CD 15: Town Hall Party: 1958-1961: The country side of Town Hall,with Johnny Bond, Faron Young, HankThompson, Marty Robbins, Joe Maphis,Skeets McDonald, and Merle Travis.

There are also solo CDs on CountryRoutes by Jose and Rose Lee Maphis,Merle Travis, and the Collins Kids, fea-turing material from Town Hall Partyshows. Bear Family records has issued aseries of DVDs that feature artists likeGene Vincent, Johnny Cash, and EddieCochran (with more to come) live onthe Town Hall Party shows. It isn’texactly like being there, but it’s theclosest thing we have. It hails back to atime when West Coast country musicwas just as big as anything Nashvillehad to offer and a hell of a lot morecountrified.

Recordially,

Lou Curtiss

Recordially, Lou Curtiss

Lou Curtiss

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Town Hall Party Regulars — Seated, Front: “Tiny” Guy Cherry, Quincy Snodgrass, SkeetsMcDonald Back Row: Larry Collins, Merle Travis, Lori Collins, “Buddy” Dooley, Pee WeeAdams, Marilyn and Wesley Tuttle, Tex Ritter, Johnny Bonds, Rose Lee Maphis, Joe Maphis,Marian Hall, Betsey Gay, Tex Carmen

by Tim Mudd

There are only a few, I believe, “pre-requisites” for being an open michost, and none of them are what you

would immediately imagine: tenacity, stami-na, and a love of people before music. I’vealso never known a pursuit that can vary sowildly from one night to the next. Were youto ever seriously consider taking-up thishonorable mantle – I say “honorable” as theposition is akin to being a part-time“musical social work-er” – one of the lessdesirable habits you willalmost certainly developis the process of profilingan artist based on howthey act before taking thestage. “Why that’s awful,” Ihear you gasp, but allow meto elaborate. A usual openmic can see anywhere from10 to 40 performances pernight (and that doesn’taccount for all the histrionicsoutside the venue on the side-walk), multiply that by thenumber of years you’ve hosted –in my case five – and you mightgive me a little more credit for having hadenough interactions to justify this prejudice.So yes, what I’m really saying is that I’veseen it all. Luckily, another prerequisite forbeing an open mic host is to know whenyou’re wrong and having the humility toaccept it very quickly.

All of the above came in to play for mydiagnosis, a few months ago, of an oldergentleman who walked into the MuellerCollege open mic I host. He was incrediblypolite and appeared to be suppressing hisprobably quite shy nature in the name ofthe art inside him. When he eventually tookthe stage what came next was so completelyunexpected and hit me at such a deeplyprofound level that I felt a very definitesense of privilege to have witnessed it. Yousee, most performance artists are in it forthemselves. I don’t care how you try to jus-tify it, there’s always a degree of self-cen-teredness that goes along with what we do.I don’t believe I’d ever have highlighted thisso distinctly for myself until I met theexception to the rule: Old Man Fred.

After I’d introduced him, he told thesmall audience that he is not a guitar player,he is not a singer, and he is not a song-writer. He was there to perform the songswritten by his son, Jack, who couldn’t do sohimself, as he is currently seven years into aten-year prison sentence. He performs as“Old Man Fred” because that’s what Jackcalls him. Hang on. Are you telling me thatthis man has learned to sing, play guitar,AND take it outside his home environs toperform in an attempt to keep his incarcer-ated son and the art he creates connected tothe outside world? Wow. Not only was thisone of the most beautifully compelling sto-ries I’d heard in a very long time, as I lis-tened I realized something else: the songsOld Man Fred performed were all incredi-ble.

When he was finished, I approachedFred and asked if he’d mind sharing his andhis son’s story for the Troubadour, to whichhe modestly replied, “That would be fine.”Our conversation continued a week later ina vastly different location: 11 floors up into

one of San Diego’s most prominent businesshigh-rises, in a corner office boasting one ofthe best southern views I’ve ever seen look-ing across the city.

SFred Phillips grew up with his three sib-

lings on a farm in Iowa, the son of a farmerand packinghouse worker. At 15 he won ascholarship to a private boarding school inNew Hampshire, from which he continuedon to attend Stanford Law School. When hisfirst wife was accepted into Medical Schoolin San Diego, the couple moved south,which is where he’s remained to this day.

While Fred had had the odd brush withmusic – a little guitar and piano here andthere in high school and college – it neverled to anything formal. As most do, he goton with life, got married, started a family,and carried that responsibility. He marriedChris in 1980. With two children from hisfirst marriage and two from hers, the finaladdition of Jack in 1982 – their only childtogether – their household was a zoo andthe couple got on with raising their family.

The eldest son, Christopher, showedsomewhat of a musical flare by taking upthe saxophone and joining a band in highschool as well as dabbling in a little guitar.This piqued the interest of Jack who tookup the guitar himself at 15. Fred picked uphis guitar again around the same time justso he could play with the boys.

While the other kids in the family wentto college, got their degrees, and began livesof their own, Jack attended college for onesemester before dropping-out. He kickedaround for a little while before he “got ittogether” and focused on his true love: act-ing. He was admitted into the AmericanAcademy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood,where he excelled into his second and finalyear. That was until he had one very badnight.

It was his roommate’s twenty-first birth-day and a friend of his came up from SanDiego to celebrate. The three of them drankin the apartment before driving out to aclub in West Hollywood. (This was the lastthing Jack remembers before blacking out.The rest of the story has been pieced togeth-er over time from witnesses and Internetcomments that followed the news story.)The group continued their binge until Jackgot into a brawl with a group of musicians.Retrieving a gun from his vehicle (that he’dapparently procured for protection in theneighborhood he resided in), Jack returnedto the venue to confront his attackers. Hewas attacked again, this time by a mob ofpeople; he took out the gun and fired it.

He wounded two people in the process,one in the knee, the other in the foot. Thecrowd beat him up again, this point until hewas unconscious. Eventually the ambu-lances came and took him to hospital beforethey took him to jail. Hours after the fact,Jack’s blood alcohol was recorded at .28.Jack was charged with two counts ofattempted murder and the family spent thenext 15 months embroiled in legal proceed-ings to reduce the original sentence pro-posed by the prosecution: 25 years to life.Eventually a deal of 10 years was offered,

which they accepted.Fortunately, during the time that Jack’s

legal woes continued, his family was able tohave him released on bail so that he couldattend live-in drug and alcohol rehabilita-tion, which helped him immensely. He cameback to San Diego where he attended fur-ther counseling and made all the necessarymental preparations before going to prison.

It was during this time that Fred andJack began to play a lot of music together. Itwas also during this time that Jack’s musicalfocus shifted away from rap music andbegan to hone in on country music. I askedFred if he felt this shift was circumstantial,to which he responded, “There’s no way toknow. I think that life is so serendipitous.All the things you do, the forks in theroad… things just ‘happen.’”

Having had this time together, a processevolved whereby Jack documented his tra-jectory through the state prison system inhis songs and passed them on to his Father.While sending the lyrics and chords by mailwould be somewhat helpful, they wouldn’tmean a lot to Fred until he could hearthem. Jack would then make a collect callfrom prison where he’d sing the song intothe phone and Fred would capture it on adictaphone. Fred would then transcribe themusic on piano before learning it on theguitar. Fred recalls, “This was actually quitea fun exercise for us to do together. Westarted-off with about 10 or 15 of them andI’d just work on them until I knew them.Eventually it got to the point where we had50 or 60 of them – I’d be comfortable per-forming 45 or so today.”

As any performer can attest, there’s ahuge divide between playing songs for your-self at home and performing them for anaudience in a venue – especially whendrawing from such a wide original cala-logue. This is something that Fred was ini-tially keenly aware of.

STim Mudd: Was there a moment for youwhere you just said, “I need to go and playthese songs,” or was it more of a gradualprocess?

Old Man Fred: It was a gradual process,because it took me a while before I wasthinking, “Gosh, can I actually get up thereand do this?”

And what was your motivation for finallygetting out there?

I want people to know… I want Jack toknow that I just think his songs are reallygood. That’s all.

In this process have you found that you’vestarted writing yourself?

You know, I have a little bit. I’ve editedsome of his songs, but I just don’t have thetalent he does. And maybe that’s a functionof time, too; as you can see (looks aroundthe office) it gets so hairy with all of thesethings we do to keep food on the table. I’dlike to write songs, but I don’t know if Ihave the ability to do that or not.

Nevertheless, it sounds like it’s a prettystrong hobby for you.

Yes. Yes it is.

Does Jack have any aspirations at this point?Is he sitting there, plotting world dominationwith his music?

No. He’s actually very frightened because hefeels as though he’ll be 31 years old with noskills when he gets out. He is smart. He’sjust about finished with a paralegal course,which is good, but it’s very hard to get any-thing on the inside. They’re supposed tohave programs but in practice they don’t.He’s been trying to get into a correspon-dence program so that he can get a junior

college degree, but budgetskeep getting cut andthere’s little incentive toset up new programs.

That’s an interesting topicfor a whole other inter-view, probably for a differ-ent publication.

It’s a real eye opener. It’sopened me up to a wholeother world that I knew ofbut I hadn’t really thoughtabout.

So he’s not sitting there think-ing, “I’ve really got somethingwith this music?”

No. What’s interesting is theclosest he comes to it is when I go aroundto perform at the open mics because it’s agreat chance to just sit there and write tohim. He writes almost every day to hismother, and she responds in kind. I’m luckyif I can get one letter out to him in a week,but waiting to perform at the open mic is agreat chance to just sit and write stuff; talkabout it, talk about his songs and the reac-tion of people to him. He loves that. Hetalks about going out and playing someopen mics together when he gets out –that’s a really nice idea for me.

Have you noticed a growth in your commu-nication as father and son?

We talk about that all the time. I’ve said tohim on more than one occasion, “You know,when this happened, you were a jerk, I did-n’t like you very much, and I’m sure youdidn’t like me, and we may never have beenclose. We are now.”

SAs I mentioned in the beginning of this arti-cle, every time Old Man Fred gets up onstage he starts his performance by tellingJack’s story as well as informing the audi-ence that he’s not very good at either play-ing guitar or singing. Apparently he does soto “lower expectations,” but his true reason-ing is that he wants people to focus on thesongs, not the man singing them. The thingis, the songs are so good that it’s hard tofocus on anything else.

Jack’s songs also have the ability tospread further than simply hearing themaccompanied by a tragic story at an open



front porch

one voice through another

old Man FredLetter from Jack

The following is part of a letter from Jackto his father, which Fred shared with meduring our interview to illustrate theexpressive way in which he writes:

“…Aw man, Pop, I guess that’s it fornow. I’ll talk to you soon because weshould be getting program this week.It’s been a long time down, my man.[This particular letter was accompaniedwith a song] This song really does sayit. I’m so tired Dah. It’s impossible toexpress in words the feeling I get whenI wake up every morning and have tostart the fight all over again. Nobodysaid it would be easy, but nobody eversaid it would be this hard. I’m trying tobe good man, trying to find the posi-tive, trying to love my brothers, but thisplace… it’s hard damn work Freddy. It’slike ol’ Dostoyevski says in the BrothersK, “It’s easy to love men from a dis-tance, it’s when you get close, smell thestench, see the filth – that’s when it’shard to love. It’s also the best kind oflove.” I’m doing my best. Three moreyears, then we’ll be on the pigs backthen, won’t we Dah?

You’re loving son, Jack.”

Old Man Fred sings his son’s songs @ open mic

Photo: Dennis A

ndersenContinued on page 13.

The Phillips Family



front porch

by Paul Hormick

The walls of Martin Grusin’s Del Marhome are crowded with mementos.Photographs of family and entertain-

ers, many of them autographed, hang nextto certificates or diplomas that reflect a lifeof accomplishments. Along the wall by thefront window are the promo photos, the8x10-inch glossies that entertainers andcelebrities hand out like candy. Among thepictures are San Diego’s best singers andbands: Ruby and the Red Hots, MarkDeCerbo, Eve Selis, and many, many others.For the last 28 years Grusin has worked

as a voice trainer, helping these singers todevelop the strength and technique to singthe blues – or country, rock and roll, or jazzfor that matter – night after night and dayafter day.Everyone knows that pianists, flutists,

bagpipe players, or anyone who plays aninstrument, needs to practice. They have towork at the craft of making music, develop-ing the fluidity of the fingers on a keyboardor perfecting the embouchure needed tomake a note on the flute. Singers are no dif-ferent. They need to strengthen their vocalcords and learn the proper techniques toproduce the sounds they want their voicesto make, while avoiding habits and practicesthat may diminish their voices or harmtheir vocal cords.For Grusin the voice can be improved

and strengthened through the control ofbreath, timing, and what Grusin terms thenondistortion of vowels. At the foundationof Grusin’s method is a system of tenmanipulations of the larynx, the portion ofthe throat that houses the vocal cords. Likeany other part of the body, daily use andexercise increase the strength of the vocalcords. For example, if a person were tospend a portion of the day singing – with-out straining – his or her voice, that per-son’s voice would naturally grow stronger.Grusin’s method, which is calledVocalessence, accelerates that process ofstrengthening. He says that with his methoda singer can achieve in one year the strengthand control that would normally take thatsinger three and a half years to develop. Hismethod is a real hands-on approach, literal-ly and figuratively. Grusin places his hands

on either side of the singer’s throat as thesinger is producing a note, putting pressureon the vocal cords. Singing the note exercis-es the voice, like pumping your arms in theair exercises your arm muscles. Placingpressure on the cords is like adding weightsto your arms, making the exercise moreproductive. Grusin started vocal instruction back in

the eighties. He remembers, “I was teachinga music class at City College, and HarveyWilliams, who was in the class, came up tome and asked, ‘Can you teach me to sing?’ Itold him I could. He said, ‘How long will ittake?’ I said about a year.” And it was a yearlater that Williams launched his Harvey andthe 52nd Street Jive, one of SouthernCalifornia’s most successful review bands.Grusin has similarly recognized the inher-ent talent of others who were not profes-sional singers and has been able to helpthem along to similar success.“Rock, country, jazz – I can teach you to

sing any style. The only type of singing thatI don’t teach is opera,” he says. Grusinteaches singers the basics; from there it’s upto the singer to specialize. Also, if a singerwants to clean up a gravelly voice, Grusincan help the vocalist achieve a clearer tim-bre. On the other hand, if someone wants tosing rock and roll and wants a rough edge, a

rasp, a just-gargled-with-Drano sound to hisor her singing, Grusin can get that singermoving along in that direction as well.Bad breathing habits can reduce a singer’s

range. Grusin says that it’s important tobreath without forcing the voice. Hedemonstrates with his hands on his bellyand shows how the belly works as a sort ofbellows. If the muscles of the belly get hard,the singer is forcing his or her voice andhurting it. Emphasizing the full cycle of thevoice breath cycle, Grusin says, “You beginsinging when you finish a breath.”Grusin explains that the voice is like a

cross between a wind instrument and astringed instrument. As a person raises thepitch of his voice, muscles around the vocalcords tighten the vocal cords, just as pullingtighter on a string produces a higher pitchwhen that string is plucked. At the sametime, muscles in the vocal cords pull tightand make the vocal cords themselves thinner,which is also the way to make a higher note.The singer who does everything right?

The singer who has technique in spades?Grusin doesn’t hesitate for a moment withthat question. “Sinatra,” he says. He alsomentions Ella Fitzgerald. “She just had abeautiful voice. A totally balanced register, agreat singer.”It’s easy to hurt your voice. And singers,

who really put the vocal cords to work,have the potential to do a lot of damage totheir voices. Not only does Grusin helpsingers to develop good singing habits andavoid hurting their voices, but he hasworked with persons with damaged vocalcords and been able to reverse the damagedone. In some cases, mostly due to badvocal practice, singers develop what arecalled nodules, masses of tissue that growon their vocal cords. Grusin has been ableto reverse the growth of the nodules ofsingers plagued with this problem.The vocalists who have worked with

Grusin sing his praises. Local country rock-er Eve Selis has worked with Grusin foryears. “I wound up working with Martinwhen I was in a rather desperate situation,”she says. “I’d been singing incorrectly foryears and had caused my voice a lot of dam-age. I had a lot of gigs with my band, theHeroes, and lost my voice on a cold andrainy Thursday night gig. That Saturday myband, Kings Road, was opening for Crosby,Stills, and Nash, and I was going to doeverything to keep that date. Martin workedwith me that Friday and in that one sessionwas able to pull my voice back to 80 per-cent.” Selis sang that Friday night, her badhabits loosing her voice again. A return visitto Grusin gave her 85 percent of her voice,and the performance with CSN was a suc-cess. “That night Stills and Nash stayed formy whole show, and Crosby was like, “Whois that? We have to follow her!”Grusin is soft spoken, yet his voice comes

across full and easy to listen to. He speakswith the diction that any radio announcerwould give his right arm for. Unsurprisingly,he has been singing his whole life. TheChicago native started singing at the age ofseven, when he was at camp. Recognizinghis inherent talent, the grownups encour-aged him to keep singing.After serving in the military, with a case

of pneumonia keeping him from beingshipped overseas, Grusin moved to the bigtime, New York City. He sang at the VillageVanguard, Birdland, and other jazz meccas.He worked with guitarist Mundell Lowe andshared billings with John Coltrane andother jazz icons of the day. Among his goodfriends and associates were the bassist andviolinist Johnny Frigo and the premier scatsinger Dave Lambert of the legendary jazzvocal trio Lambert, Hendrix, and Ross.

Grusin assembled a successful vocal trioof his own in the early sixties. Called, of allthings, The Group, the ensemble combinedGrusin with fellow tenor Tom Kampmanand soprano Anne Gable. Their recordinglegacy is an album of a dozen show tunesand jazz standards that RCA Victor releasedin 1963. Downbeat magazine awarded therecording Best Jazz Vocal Group for thatyear. Grusin arranged the music for therecord with Fred Karlan and Don Sebesky,who is known as the arranger of the hit“Come Saturday Morning.”

Besides The Group, Grusin’s vocal ensem-bles performed on some of the biggest tele-vision shows, including Johnny Carson’sTonight Show, The Shari Lewis Show, The JimBackus Show, The Bobby Morse Show, andthe perennial early morning staple, TheToday Show.After years in the limelight, Grusin

moved to California and, well past the timein life that most folks start their academiccareer, went back to school. He earned abachelors of music from the San FranciscoConservatory of Music and a master’s incomposition, theory, and vocal research atUCSD. Doctoral research continued atUCSD through the seventies. Besides hiswork as a performer and teacher, Grusin isalso a composer. The National Endowmentfor the Arts honored him with awards fortwo of his compositions.Today, Grusin’s time is dedicated to help-

ing singers. “People come to me, and if Idon’t think that they can do it, I won’t takethem on. I’ll tell you another thing. If youstudy with me, and you’re unsatisfied withyour progress, I’ll give you your moneyback from all your lessons.” He pauses andleans back in his chair. “In 28 years, I’venever had to refund anybody’s money.”

Sing, Sing, Sing! Martin Grusin Can Help

Martin Grusin

The Group’s album cover

now showing (through May) at OB People’s Food, 4765 Voltaire St., Ocean Beach

Photo: Pau

l Hor

mick



parlor showcase

by Allen Singer

enjoy their brief getaways and vacations. One time,

while David Tarras, the Benny Goodman of

klezmer, was performing, he realized that Charlie

Parker and Miles Davis were sitting in the audi-

ence. There are also stories that tell of Charlie

Parker gigging Bar Mitzvahs after his get together

with David Tarras. Joel Gray’s father, Mickey

Katz, was a comedian and also a fine jazz/klezmer

clarinetist. He often combined his humor with

klezmer melodies and played a Jewish klezmer

band-version of Spike

Jones.

Elizabeth Schwartz

greeted me, her face

familiar, her voice like

many I’d known in my

life. This was going to be

more than just another

interview. Olive, the fami-

ly dog, also welcomed me.

Finally, Yale Strom,

Elizabeth’s husband and

band leader of Hot

Pstromi, offered a warm handshake and a Yiddish

greeting. Yale is a noted musical scholar and resi-

dent artist/professor at SDSU as well as being a

multi-talented klezmer musician. The familiarity of

their home, their gracious, unpretentious warm

greetings, Elizabeth’s voice, and hints of New York

vocalizations, immediately put me at ease and set

the interview’s course and direction.

When Elizabeth was ten years old in 1974, she

moved from Great Neck, Long Island, a Jewish

enclave just outside New York City, to New Paltz,

New York, a small college town north of the city,

where her mother taught at the college. After the

move, Elizabeth described feeling like a stranger in

a strange land. As a child, this sense of being dif-

ferent plus the realization of being a Jewish kid in

a hostile environment shook her to the core.

using klezmatic themes. Ziggy Elman’s trumpet

solos with Benny Goodman in his classic jazz

swing song, “And the Angels Sing,” is also classic

klezmer. Many of the hotels in the Borscht Belt, an

area in New York State’s Catskill mountain region,

also had klezmer bands as part of the musical

entertainment they provided. These hotels were

usually the only places Jews could visit while on

vacation from New York City and other East Coast

cities because of widespread discrimination. The

klezmer bands included singers, violins, clarinets,

trumpets, and accordions. The other entertain-

ment consisted of comedians who teased with sar-

castic humor and told stories to help the immi-

grants adjust to their lives in the new country and

Elizabeth Schwartz, a uniquely talent-

ed vocalist and singer with the

klezmer band Hot Pstromi, seemed

familiar to me even before we ever

met. Sometimes you just get a feeling

you’ve known someone without meet-

ing them. You sense connections, a

voice, a common tongue, a theme, a

world you both had been a part of

somewhere in time a long while ago.

While I was driving over to meet her for the inter-

view, I felt this moment of commonality, where we

could find a cultural meeting place of archetypal

memories in both our DNA and ways of speaking.

This would be my re-entry into an old Eastern

European shtetl (small town), an almost mythical

place containing the heart and sounds of many

generations of a wandering people who planted

new roots in strange lands. I questioned myself

many times, asking how these cultural fragments

played out in the context of our forbears’ lives,

who tried to live as they had in the past while

being assimilated into new, foreign, and often dis-

tant lands with different languages and customs.

Our grandparents left such countries as Poland,

Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, and other

now nonexistent places with strange names in

Central and Eastern Europe. They traveled by foot

and on horse carts to steam trains to ships and

sailed in steerage to get to the land of strawber-

ries with cream and the golden medina. Standing

on countless slippery ship decks, practicing poor

immigrant’s English, sailing into New York Harbor,

seeing the Statue of Liberty through tears of sea-

sickness, joy, and loss, entering Ellis Island, their

life’s possessions in a satchel and their children in

tow, leaving their old world names behind, strug-

gling to be heard among the many languages of

babble all around them, they trudged ashore as the

doors opened and their new lives began. But these

immigrants brought much more than just the

clothes on their back. Some had old photos and vio-

lins; some had songs in their hearts and old world

tastes on their tongues. America became that

stirred up melting pot of many cultures in addition

to being a place of some significant loss, a place of

abstraction, the beginning of a journey that would

cause a disconnection from our past that many of

us would later try to retrieve. This would have

been Elizabeth Schwartz’s family’s journey, and

her own, later on, when she’d be bringing it all

back home through klezmer, with its musical

themes, rhythms, and improvisations of life’s daily

celebrations of happiness, turmoil, and those spe-

cial moments of joy.

So what is klezmer music? The word “klezmer”

is derived from the Hebrew words “klay,” meaning

“instrument,” and “zemer,” meaning “music.”

Klezmer is literally the “instrument of song.” The

music is not liturgical and not normally a part of

religious services. The sounds are Eastern

European in origin, with a variety of influences

unique to the countries through which the music

passed. Along the way, the klezmer sound was

influenced by the music of the Roma (gypsies),

who originally came from Northern India and then

moved on to Eastern Europe. The hints of Indian

raga-like improvisations with multilayered inter-

pretations and emotional song passages can be

heard in klezmer. In Eastern Europe, the amalga-

mation was completed when the themes and

rhythms of Turkish music with its bluish minor

scales were also added to the mix. In America,

klezmer was known as Jewish jazz and was played

on New York’s Jewish Broadway, on Second

Avenue, a six-block area of theaters on

Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where many of the

Jewish immigrants first made their homes and

became acculturated into our country. On Second

Avenue you could find plays, dramas, musicals,

vaudeville with its Jewish comedians, klezmer

bands, and Yiddish Shakespeare. Farther down-

town was the original Tin Pan Alley, on Park Row,

an area of saloons and music halls, and home to

many song writers and the notorious Bowery of

Gangs of New York fame. George Gershwin and

Irving Berlin both frequented the Lower East Side,

taking in the new sounds and melding them with

the klezmer they grew up with in their early lives.

Listen to the opening clarinet solo in Gershwin’s

American in Paris and you’ll hear a klezmer riff.

Early Irving Berlin songs told tales of the naïve

immigrant’s first American experiences, many

Nearby was the largest chapter of the KKK.

Woodstock was also a few miles away, a place of

music and art with a French café, a place that Bob

Dylan called his home and refuge. The town of New

Paltz itself was a town with old values and a great

little pizzeria called Chez Joey, but it was also a

town stratified by the state college with its local

“townie” population and the multi-ethnic, often left

wing invaders from the City. In New Paltz

Elizabeth said, “I was run out of the school having

experienced anti-Semitism

for the first time in my

life.” Her family left New

Paltz and moved to

Washington Heights in

Manhattan. Elizabeth

sensed she was different,

a difference she would go

on to treasure down the

road. However, she grew

up immersed in our

American culture. Born in

1964, at a time when the

previous generation was involved in the Great Folk

Scare/revival and the politics of the 1960s,

Elizabeth’s life began in a family of assimilated

Jews who didn’t speak Yiddish. The music they

heard at home was American, her parents were

melting into the larger culture, and her mother

loved Glen Yarborough (now a resident of

Fallbrook), who sang with the pop folk group the

Limelighters. Elizabeth would go on to earn a

degree from Sarah Lawrence where she majored in

fine arts. She always sang, some blues, Broadway

standards, some jazz, and eventually moved out to

Hollywood as a young adult to work in movie pro-

duction. Elizabeth got into the film business, work-

ing with top producers, making movies, and singing

sometimes for enjoyment after work. She sang

backup for Chucky Weiss, the Chucky of Ricky Lee

ElizabethSchwartz

Finds herVoiceThroughKlezmer

I was run out of the

school having experienced

anti-Semitism for the first

time in my life.

— Elizabeth Schwartz

Phot

os:

Dan

Chusi

d


parlor showcase


Jones’s big hit song “Chucky’s in Love.” Elizabeth

assisted in the production of some very successful

movies, living in the world of big-deal producers

without a hint of what was to come her way. As

she entered her thirties, while she was producing

films in California, a suggestion and a phone num-

ber exchange back East that would change

Elizabeth’s life was taking place. Yale Strom’s

movie The Last Klezmer: Leopold Kozlowski, His

Life and Music (1994), was being shown at Lincoln

Center, and Elizabeth’s mother and a friend, Yale

Strom’s relative, were at the show. They got to

talking about matchmaking, made a plan,

exchanged a card with Elizabeth’s phone number,

and the wheel of future love was set in motion.

Normally I wouldn’t include this gossipy stuff in an

article, but the moment was so romantically

stereotypical, so culturally coincidental and so sig-

nificant that to leave it out would omit an impor-

tant piece of the puzzle. Yale’s relative gave him

the card, which he put in his little black book, but

he didn’t call Elizabeth for several months. Then, a

few months later, an act of Newtonian gravity

caused the book and card to separate. Some might

say this was an act of divine intervention; others

might attribute this to Newton’s law. Yale called

Elizabeth, figuring he would soon be out working in

Los Angeles anyway, so why not have a date, noth-

ing lost and maybe something gained. (At this

point in the interview, I faintly heard strains of

“Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match,”

from Fiddler on the Roof, filling my right brain.)

Serendipity and gravity seemed to make a new

match for Elizabeth. At first, Elizabeth was uneasy

with her mother’s sharing her phone number with

this strange guy. But, after a date and after only

five days, Elizabeth was sure Yale was the one.

Yale was a fine fiddle-playing klezmer musician,

scholar, and professor at SDSU, who had grown up

in San Diego, after starting

out his life in Detroit. One

night, both attended a typi-

cal Hollywood party with a

piano player entertaining the

wine drinking party goers.

Elizabeth sat down with the

pianist and some extra red

vino and sang her songbook

of standards and jazz and

blues for two hours. Later,

as they were driving along

PCH after the party, Yale pulled to the side of the

road and Elizabeth, completely unprepared, didn’t

expect what was coming next. Yale said, “You’ve

got to learn to sing in Yiddish and join my band.”

At the time, the band members included Tripp

Sprague, Gene Perry, Fred Benedetti, and Joe

Pekarek. Elizabeth was surprised, but pleased. Her

life, like all fairy tales, had taken a wonderful, new

turn.

The transition from blues, jazz, and standards

was not the musical stretch that many might imag-

ine. Elizabeth had found a life partner and a schol-

ar. She undertook learning Yiddish and learned a

couple of klezmer songs to sing with the band. The

experience took her full circle as she immersed

herself in the culture and language of klezmer.

Elizabeth’s mezzo -soprano voice, with a bluesy,

smoky sound, was perfect for the music. Even now,

listening to her sing, you’re taken back to the

ghosts of those who lived life in the shtetl, who

vanished through the smoke of the crematoriums,

and who left us high up on the breezes among the

birds that flew by. When listening to Elizabeth

sing, a tear appears, loneliness passes, and sudden-

ly in the burst of her improvisation (or doina)

you’re taken back to the shtetl where you smell

the food, hear the lost voices, and are touched by a

culture that has never died. Elizabeth sings the

songs of klezmer, a musical style cross-fertilized by

the Roma, the Arabs, the Turks, and the lost souls

of Eastern Europe. Elizabeth’s voice is that of a

messenger, a carrier of old lyrics and DNA rem-

nants of her long-gone relatives.

When I met Elizabeth again for the podcast

interview for this publication, she described her

first visit to her father’s ancestral home in Lasi

(Yash), Romania, with Yale. She ventured out,

walking along an old cobblestone street on the way

to the main synagogue. As she walked, she felt

each stone, noticing its glistening shine off the

ground. She looked down at one particular cobble-

stone and thought that 500 years ago one of her

relatives must have walked this same street. She

suddenly felt a jolt of electricity that took her back

and created a cathartic moment that joined her to

her past. Elizabeth was doing what my generation

tried to get away from doing. Conversely, as we

became Americanized, we moved defensively away

from our Jewish culture and shtetl heritage, proba-

bly as a reaction to the Holocaust and the deep

black hole it left after World War II. Yiddish was

disappearing, the shtetl culture was mainly

trapped in the memories of our grandparents, and

klezmer was the shtetl music, played somewhere in

time and in the back streets of the old Eastern

European towns. These were cultural artifacts,

fragments, like the Rosetta Stone, in the minds of

the Jewish and Rom (pronounced Rōm) Holocaust

survivors in Eastern Europe. Elizabeth was finding

these cultural roots as she became a klezmer

singer. She became a song catcher, a collector of

ghost music.

During the podcast Elizabeth spoke about her

life since meeting Yale Strom and their return to

Eastern Europe, the joy of singing with Roma and

the ongoing discovery of new songs and old his-

toric memories. She explained how the Roma

brought their music out of Northern India and how

the Roma became the people who still knew the

music of the klezmer, the words and styles, follow-

ing the Holocaust. I recalled viewing a film clip on

YouTube, made in Hungary during the 1930s. In

the film the Roma and the Jews playfully joined

together and played off each other, driving the

music into a frenzy of creativity and swing. A few

months ago, I talked to Yale Strom, and was

pleased to find out that he has the whole film.

Elizabeth’s excitement about klezmer is infectious,

which is very evident on the podcast. She got

excited about discovering old traditions after grow-

ing up in an assimilated household. She is now flu-

ent enough in Yiddish

to feel comfortable con-

versing with the

Yiddish speakers she

meets with and enter-

tains in Eastern

Europe. While talking

about her trip to

Germany with Yale in

mid-May Elizabeth

described Germany as

a country that contin-

ues to make cultural reparations to enhance the

importance of Jewish history in a place that gener-

ated the deaths of six million Jews. She also men-

tioned that there are many non-Jewish musicians

in Germany who are currently playing authentic

klezmer music, a phenomenon that has also taken

hold in our country and other parts of Europe.

During the discussion, we explored the role of

religion and talked about whether klezmer was sep-

arate from liturgical music. Klezmer is played by

nonreligious as well as orthodox Jewish musicians,

sometimes joining together without limitation and

exclusion of the women in the band. Elizabeth

described a concert in Jerusalem last year where

she noticed a group of ultra-Orthodox musicians

dancing in the back of the audience to her singing.

She also made mention of the European Roma who

are still being killed and experiencing pogroms in

Romania and Hungary. She has a deep sense of

appreciation for them and is especially simpatico

with those who experienced many of the same

forms of oppression that Jewish people have lived

through in their diaspora and the attempts to

destroy their culture. Elizabeth described how Rom

music, under the guise of Gypsy music, is very hot

right now. The only problem is that what is being

now called Gypsy is really not the music of the

Roma but is similar to the reinterpretation of some

of the themes, in the same way the 1960s British

blues groups co-opted traditional blues, when they

copied them and made them radio worthy.

Playing klezmer music is Elizabeth’s way of

keeping the traditions and cultures vibrant and

alive. You can hear a rhythm in her words, a depth

of feeling with each phrase, at once old with the

wisdom of tradition and also open to the excite-

ment of new discoveries. People say you can’t go

home again yet Elizabeth has found her own road

map to places where artifacts from the past are

now sprouting new branches of what might not

have been but for the seekers of their roots.

Elizabeth talked about the black hole, the post

Holocaust Jewish culture, and her need to recap-

ture the traditions to bring the music back from

the dead. Elizabeth remembered a meal she had in

a Polish restaurant in Krakow and described the

similarities of the food, realizing that the Jewish

food she had grown up with was very much like

the meal she had just had in Poland. Like the food,

klezmer offers a wide variety of familiar music for

performers to perform.

The role of women in klezmer is still being

defined. She explained that some bands exclude

women from performing with them because of

their belief that women shouldn’t share the stage

with men. This is not universal in the world of

klezmer but is based on certain individuals and

their religious beliefs.

Elizabeth’s life journey has played out like a

modern day fairy tale – Great Neck beginnings,

New Paltz golems, Hollywood openings, the joy of

singing the American songbook of blues and

Broadway standards, East Coast matchmakering

maneuvers – all culminating in her connection to

Klezmer via a skinny, scholarly, fiddle playing,

Yiddishkeit musician named Yale Strom, without a

road map or guidebook. The magic of coincidence

that connected Elizabeth Schwartz to klezmer

music, and to the ghost language that she never

really knew as a child, and to her Romanian ances-

tors, would give Sholom Aleichem and Isaac

Bashevis Singer many a tale to tell.

Elizabeth is her voice and her voice is the key

that has opened the door to klezmer and her roots,

roots she only discovered through the magic of the

music and her relationship with Yale Strom. In the

depths of her singing, in the rhythms of the medi-

tative improvisations, Elizabeth has gone full circle

back to her family’s shtetl in Romania. The black

hole of the Holocaust and the deaths of six million

Jews and 250,000 Roma, all now ghosts, have

allowed us to find some solace and peace through

the music of klezmer and the memories it has

awakened. This is Elizabeth’s musical gift to us all.

Sometimes, you don’t know what you’ve missed

until you open new doors, revisit the dead, and

make renewed connections with your family in the

old country. Elizabeth Schwartz is still on her jour-

ney of discovery. We’ll treasure her cultural and

musical adventures as we hear her mezzo soprano

vocals dance through klezmer riffs and runs.

June 6, 7:30pm at the Lyceum (San Diego Rep): A livestaged performance of the radio play Elizabeth co-wrotewith Yale and Ellen Kushner, “The Witches of Lublin,” areturn to the golden days of radio, the audience will getto watch how it was done with live musicians and a foley(sound effects) artist on stage.

June 13, 7:30pm at the Lyceum: “Souls on Fire,” anexploration of the golden age of Spain, when Moorish-Arabic, Sephardic, and Gitano cultures co-existed andblended together harmoniously - Elizabeth will be singingin Ladino (Judeo-Español) and Arabic and will be joinedby a host of amazing musicians (including Yale Stromand Jeff Pekarek) and the magnificent Flamenco dancerLakshmi “La Chimi” Basile from Sevilla, Spain.

In July, Hot Pstromi will be guests at San Diego FolkHeritage in Old Poway Park.

Go to www.sandiegotroubadour.com to hear the live pod-cast with Elizabeth. Listening to the podcast will enrichwhat you’ve read and let you experience first-hand theexcitement and conversation described in this articleabout Elizabeth Schwartz.

Yale said, “You’ve got to

learn to sing in Yiddish

and join my band.”

— Elizabeth Schwartz

Elizabeth in Lasi with the Romani children

Common Chords’ Salman and Elizabeth Common Chords Recording Session

Yale & Elizabeth in Vasteros, Sweden 2008 Warsaw Singers Festival



ramblin’

by Dwight Worden

BLUEGRASS EVERY DAYDo you ever wonder where you can havefun playing and listening to bluegrassmusic here in San Diego? Fortunately,the answer to that question is: lots ofplaces. Let’s take a quick look at some ofthe opportunities here in our home town,focusing on places where you can jamand participate as well as listen to somegreat bluegrass music. This month wewill look only at those recurring eventsthat happen on an ongoing basis. In afuture issue we will take a look at someof the concert venues.Every Tuesday is bluegrass night in

San Diego as there are recurring blue-grass jam sessions and events on everyTuesday of every month. Here’s whereyou can find the Tuesday action.

First Tuesday of Every Month: At theRound Table Pizza at the corner ofWashington and Ash in Escondido. Theaction starts at 6:30pm and goes to 9pmwith pickup bands performing on stagefrom 6:30-8pm, and a featured band inconcert from 8-9pm. The public is wel-come and there is no admission charge,although donations are solicited. Thereis also usually lots of informal jamming inthe parking lot. The First Tuesdays arehosted by the North San Diego CountyBluegrass and Folk Club; you can learnmore about their programs at their web-site: http://www.northcountybluegrass.org

Second Tuesday of Every Month: AtFuddruckers restaurant in GrossmontCenter in La Mesa. This get-togetherfeatures lots of jamming on the patio inaddition to open mic and pick-up bandsperforming on stage. The event is hostedby the San Diego Bluegrass Society,admission is free, and donations aresolicited. To sign up for an open mic slotsend an email to: [email protected], or, space permitting, sign upon site.

Third Tuesday of Every Month: You’ll findthe action at New Expression Music (for-merly Old Time Music) now located at4434 30th Street just north of El CajonBoulevard. From 6:30 to 7:30pm there is astructured slow jam led by acclaimedmusic teacher Janet Beazley. Admissionto SDBS members is free, and $5 to oth-ers. The slow jam focuses on learning toplay classic bluegrass tunes at non-breakneck speed under the careful tute-lage of Janet Beazley. To sign up, sendJanet an e-mail at: [email protected] Tuesday also features an open

jam in a separate room for moreadvanced players, which runs 6:30-9pm.Participants in the slow jam are wel-come to attend the open jam after theirsession ends.The third Tuesday events are spon-

sored by the San Diego BluegrassSociety.

Fourth Tuesday of Every Month: Thismeet-up, also sponsored by SDBS, findsthe action at the Boll Weevil restaurantlocated at 9330 Clairemont MesaBoulevard. There is an open mic andpick-up bands from 6:30 to 8pm, with afeatured band presented in concert from8 to 9pm. Admission is free and dona-tions are solicited. There’s also jammingin the outdoor areas.If Tuesdays are not a good night for

you, take heart, as the following regularevents occur on other days.

Every Wednesday: Emma’s Gut BucketBand, sponsored by SDBS, meets at theWalt Whitman Elementary School at 4050Appleton Street in Clairemont. The group

meets from 6:30 to 10pm and the actionfeatures a jam session open to the pub-lic. Typically, the group plays a numberof fiddle tunes and then passes the jamaround the circle, taking turns choosingtunes. The music is often quite varied,ranging from Hank Williams Jr., to hard-core bluegrass, to folk music. All levelsof players are welcome with most play-ers being at the intermediate level. Youcan learn more about this event andabout the Gut Bucket Band at thegroup’s web site: http://www.larryed-wards.com/egbb/index.html.

Every Thursday: There is a jam sessionheld every Thursday of the month from6:30 to 9pm at Today’s Pizza at 481 SantaFe Drive in Encinitas. The sessions areled by banjo player extraordinaire JasonWeiss and the public is welcome.Attendees contribute $5 each and pizzaand salads are shared by the group withthe proceeds. This is generally an inter-mediate-level jam, although it is a greatplace for beginners to get involved andeven the advanced pros can have agood time soloing and leading songs.Jason calls on those who want to soloand gives them that opportunity, whileallowing the more timid to stay in thebackground playing rhythm.

Every Saturday: Every Saturday a jam isheld at the Antique Gas and SteamEngine Museum located at 2040 NorthSanta Fe in Vista. The jam is located onthe main outdoor stage.The action starts generally around

11am with swing music, and then after acouple of hours moves into bluegrass.The event is open to anyone with noadmission charge.

Sunday Bluegrass Brunch: UrbanSolace, a fine dining establishment,presents a Bluegrass Brunch everySunday from 10am to 2pm on its patio.Each week features a different blue-grass band. Those currently appearinginclude Prairie Sky, Chris Clarke andPlow, the Shirthouse Band, and theVirtual Strangers. You must be a cus-tomer of the restaurant to enjoy themusic, but trust me, the food is excellent.So, there is regular, recurring blue-

grass “action” essentially everyTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday andSaturday of every month! Not bad for aWest Coast city in the corner of the US.

A CLEAN HIT

Of all the tasks set before a fledg-ling or veteran recording engi-

neer, none can seem more daunting,frustrating, or elusive as capturing agreat drum sound. One reason is that there are so many

factors interacting with each other. Thedrums themselves, for instance, needto be tuned not just to themselves butoften to the actual key of the song. If asong is in A and includes some signifi-cant tom work, one might tune thehigh tom to an E note, themiddle tom to an A, andthe bottom tom to thelower octave E.Additionally, disengagingthe snares and tuning thesnare drum to a comple-mentary note before reën-gaging them can make ahuge difference in how wellthe drums speak as a wholewithin the song’s mix.One thing you might

notice is that there’s awhole lot less duct tape andMoon Gel® on drums thatare properly tuned. Theyjust seem to need less treatment …because they don’t.Dampening the drums is largely situ-

ational as well. Every project has itsown vibe, personality, and needs, butoverall I tend to either hyper-dampenand closely mic a kit for a sweet, AlGreen-style intimacy or let ’em ringand pull the mics back for a moreroomy, organic tone. In either case, Ifind that a well-tuned kit is preferredmost of the time.Sometimes you just have a poorly

intonated or maintained kit to workwith. Or that moment of inspirationmay have come before you could reallydial in a great sound. Increasingly, it’sbecoming more okay to just go for it.The tools for dialing in tones after-wards have become so good in recentyears, that many have come to rely onthem as part of their personal “sound.”There are times however, that no

amount of eq, compression, or evenphase correction can salvage thedrum’s tone. It is at this juncture thatmany folks consider (or possibly

should, anyway) drum replacement.This involves isolating the offendingcomponents and triggering profession-ally tuned and recorded sampled ver-sions instead.I’ve seen and/or worked with many

of the options out there and I have yetto find anything that does anywherenear as good a job as Drumagog fromChicago-based Wave Machine Labs(www.drumagog.com). With the releaseof Drumagog 5 (PC/Mac, Platinum[reviewed here], $379; Pro, $289; Basic,$149), this excellent plugin not only

deepens its performance and function-ality, but takes a quantum leap forwardas a creative tool as well.Let’s suppose you’ve recorded some

pretty good-sounding drums, but yourkick drum is still not really making it.After all your efforts, it remains dull,dead, and kinda wimpy sounding.After a relatively painlesschallenge/response or iLok key install,you simply open your DAW of choiceand insert the Drumagog plugin on thekick drum’s channel. After several seconds, Drumagog

opens to reveal a totally redesignedinterface. As a long-time user, I mustadmit to being thrown at first glance,but I soon began to appreciate the dif-ferences the more I used it. The upper left shows the new brows-

er window, which provides access toDrumagog’s proprietary .gog files, whichare made up of lots of samples that helpto vary dynamics, velocity and tone fora more realistic “performance”. Wavfiles can be triggered as well and dragand drop is also supported.

The samples are shown at the topcenter of the screen and in playback,they each light up as they’re “hit”,should you need such info. Click on asample and a list of it’s properties islisted below.On the right are a series of on/off

buttons that provide further controlover the things that help Drumagogsound so much more “human” thantheir competitors, like Dynamic &

Random Multisamples,Left/Right Hand alternation,Dynamic Tracking, StealthMode (lets the original signalbleed through) and two newfeatures: Auto Hi-Hat Trackingand Auto Align 2.0.Auto Hi-Hat Tracking

enables Drumagog to not onlydetect and replace the high-hatcymbal but also to tell the dif-ference between closed, half-open and fully opened statesand replace them accordingly!Auto Align 2.0 makes sure

the replaced sounds are linedup phase accurately, making it

even easier to blend the new soundswith the original tones, if desired.Tabbed access to “Groups” allows

one to further define which velocitiestrigger which samples. “Settings”allows access to the more advancedfacets of plugin.The lower left of the interface shows

the sensitivity display, which allowsyou to quickly and easily set the trig-gering threshold, visually. Adjustingthe Transient Detail slider makes sureto grab all of the “ghost notes” withoutany errant double hits.The lower right is where the fun

stuff is. Under the “Main” tab, are con-trols for blending, fine-tuning pitch,and a couple of newcomers: O/H andSt. Room. These are for balancing roomtones into .gog files that feature them,such as the excellent set of drums theypainstakingly recorded at Butch Vig’sSmart Studios, birthplace of greatalbums from Nirvana, Garbage, andSmashing Pumpkins. The ability tocontrol this crucial element reallybrings in the “air” around things anddelivers the excitement of recording ina great room.The “Synth” tab gives you tools for

introducing even more control, be it asine wave for imparting deep, 808-esqetones or a noise generator to give yoursnare some ’80s trash, à la U2.The “Effects” tab houses two new

standout features: a convolution reverb(yay, finally!) and for the more adven-turous, the Morph|Engine, which addsa Kaos-Pad styled controller forextreme effects and endless craziness.The “Plugins” tab even allows trigger-ing of virtual synths like KitCore andBFD, so the sound libraries you’re cur-rently used to working with can beused as well.In use, I have found Drumagog’s

performance to be better than everbefore. It’s ability to easily and quicklyfinely tune things, along with its dra-matically more powerful sounds andfeature set make it a natural fit for anystudio looking to sweeten its drumsounds beyond the current de factostandard.

Sven-Erik Seaholm is an award-winning inde-pendent record producer, songwriter, and per-former (kaspro.com). His company Kitsch &Sync Production (www.kaspro.com) providesrecording, mixing, and mastering services forany sized project.

Sven-Erik Seaholm

by Sven-Erik Seaholm

BluegrassCORNER

Emma’s Gut Bucket Band

Prairie Sky at Urban Solace



ramblin’

Radio DazeHosing Downby José Sinatra

by Peter Bolland

LETTING GO

So the world didn’t end on May 21,2011. This isn’t the first time. Eversince the Bible was written thou-

sands of end-times predictions have comeand gone. Despite the consistent and con-tinual failure of all end-times prophecypeople seem perennially willing to buyinto the next one. Why is that?

The promise of impending disasterclearly feeds a deep psychological need.The zeal with which people foster andfoment doomsday scenarios – catastrophicand irreversible environmental disaster,the collapse of the global currency mar-ket, the Biblical rapture, and all otherforms of apocalyptic expectation – is evi-dence of the deep attraction disaster-sce-narios hold for us. Something inside uswants to let go of the illusion of control –it’s not working anyway – and feel thefreedom of surrender and non-attachment.Since we’re not very good at cultivatingsurrender and non-attachment conscious-ly, the unconscious takes over. We uncon-sciously long for something or someone tocome along and tear it all down.

We know that we live in a world ofperpetual change. We know that all formsarise and all forms fade. We’re exhaustedfrom trying to keep it all going. We wantto let go but we don’t know how.

Learning to let go means willfullyoverriding tens of thousands of years ofhuman evolution where fierce attachmentand anxious worry ensured survival.Qualities that once served us now standin the way of well-being.

Given the difficulties of retraining amind shaped by the glacial forces of evo-lution, most of us don’t bother. We staystuck in the consciousness of clinging,craving, and conflict, drunk with thedelusion that it is only through our ownstrenuous effort that anything good getsdone. Some of us find our way to one ormore of the world’s wisdom traditions,which all invariably teach us to surrenderand relax into the wonder of it all. Therest of us want to stay angry and resentful.

But the soul never for a moment stopsasking for what it wants, what it needs.Our soul longs for the surrender of peace,but our mind refuses to give up the fight.

Things have a way of working them-selves out. If truth is not realized in theconscious mind, it has a way of wellingup from the unconscious mind. So pow-erful is our longing for surrender that outof the collective imagination fanciful sce-narios emerge where everything is takenfrom us and everything is lost – the endof the world.

Most of us watched with bemusementas the recent doomsday prediction cameand went. But what struck me was thepowerful hold such prophecies have overtheir believers. Apparently reasonablepeople – writers, realtors, teachers, busi-ness owners – sold their businesses, saidgoodbye to their unbelieving family mem-bers, and spent every penny of their sav-ings in the days leading up to May 21,2011. Many of them reported a deeppeace welling up within them as all theirworldly worries were lifted. “I’m notthinking about retirement funds any-more,” said one financial planner, “youknow, 401Ks, annuities, commodities,stocks, the bond market or tax strategies.I’m living in the moment. I feel like a ter-rible weight has been lifted off of me.”We may find his belief system baffling,but this much is true: collective end-timemania has at least taught a few people thebenefits of non-attachment.

Entering into the consciousness of sur-

render and acceptance frees you from thebonds of your own ego – there is no onethere to do the controlling, no one toaggrandize by diminishing the other.Because you surrender to the reality ofyour own infinite value and the infinitevalue of the other, the idea of trying tocontrol any of it seems ludicrous. All is asit should be, no matter what is happen-ing. And frankly, it’s just exhausting try-ing to run everything, isn’t it?

The need to control is born from theconsciousness of fear and the mistakennotion that we have to fight, claw, andstruggle our way through this world. Anagitated, fearful, and conflict-orientedmind experiences everything through thelens of its own violence. A gracious, sur-rendered mind finds its way through life’schallenges the way water flows through aboulder field – only effortlessness willprevail. Most of us are too busy trying tomove boulders with our bare hands.

If unacknowledged, this soul-longingfor tranquility and peace can deviate intodangerous pathology. Our unconsciouslonging to surrender control often mani-fests itself in unhealthy ways – drugs,alcohol, random sex, reckless driving,mindless consumerism, slavish devotionto gurus and other ideologues, and a myr-iad of other self-destructive, high riskbehaviors. There’s nothing like diving off abridge high above a river gorge with abungee cord wrapped around your anklesto, for a moment anyway, free yourselffrom the tyranny of the busy mind anddrive you deep into the knowing that yourjoy lies in the surrender of letting go.

If we consciously acknowledged this, itwouldn’t manifest itself in such destruc-tive and ludicrous ways. We would nolonger need to concoct and cleave to elab-orate impending disaster narratives thatforcefully stripped us of all control. If wemade non-attachment our consciouspractice, a new-found freedom and joywould arise. Gradually the destructiveimpulses would be replaced with anutterly ordinary sense of well-being.

In the pursuit of our careers, in thecultivation of our mastery as artists,musicians, teachers, doctors, lawyers, sci-entists, and entrepreneurs, in our contin-uing drive to deepen our relationshipswith our husbands, wives, parents, chil-dren, and friends, we must allow ourinnate longing for peace and surrender tomanifest itself in healthy and meaningfulways. When we stop struggling and learnhow to live in accord with the deep cur-rents flowing forever around us we awak-en the ancient dream – a dream retold inevery wisdom tradition – to put first thekingdom of heaven, to accept as yourbirthright the peace that surpasses allunderstanding, to still the mind until, likea lake, all the silt has settled leaving noth-ing but clarity and depth. All of our end-less grasping and clutching only stirs upmud, clouding our vision and robbing usof our simplicity. The more we cling, themore we struggle, the more we suffer. Thebusy-mind works tirelessly to perpetuatethe illusion of its own importance. Whenwe awaken to the reality hidden justbeneath the surface of the illusion, wemove into wisdom. And wisdom meansletting go.

Peter Bolland is a professor at SouthwesternCollege where he teaches eastern and west-ern philosophy, ethics, world religions, andmythology. After work he is a poet, singer-songwriter, and author. He also leads anoccasional satsang at the Unity Center andknows his way around a kitchen. You canfind him on Facebook at:www.facebook.com/peterbolland.page orwrite to him at [email protected].

Philosophy, Art, Culture, & Music

StAgeSA WHOLE NEW WORDThe account of my encounter with Justin

Bieber (which appeared last year in this col-umn) did little to tame the smoldering ardorwithin our younger female readers. Indeed,it seems only to have added fuel to the pas-sionate flames licking the interior of theirbudding womanhood. Even one of our oldermale readers (himself a veritable localmusical legend) seemed inspired by thestory when he finally caught up with it uponits inclusion in the Dutton anthology, TeenIdols: Satan’s Minions, this past March. Hehas yet to stop pestering me for additionalminute details I may have “left out,” and I’lloccasionally catch him leaving the ParasNewsstand with an armful of the latestBieber teen magazines. I’ve had some nastylittle attacks of guilt about the part I mayhave played in leading him into an ugly liv-ing hell right out of Death in Venice. (Truthis best, Gregory, and I think I know some-one who can help you. Call me, please, andremember: you are not alone…)

It was not my intention to be a part ofthis great manipulative media monster thatturns the masses into unknowing zombieswhose affection and love can be so suc-cessfully steered toward what any outsiderwith taste could instantly brand as worth-less crap.

I decided to call this pervasive monster,this arbiter of public taste, this warrioragainst reason and intelligence.

PopagandaRan it by God and He dug it, agreeing

with me that under any name it seems tohave been working overtime recently.

Popaganda caused millions to eschewmuch-needed sleep in order to watch, onlive television, the nuptials of two foreign-ers who, along with most of their own cir-cle and many of their countrymen, sincerelybelieve that the very quality of your blood(and by implication all other bodily liquidsand exudations) is inferior to theirs. Even ifyou can prove (which they most assuredlycannot) that your blood is entirely untaintedby any generational inbreeding.

Popaganda is the source of more popu-lar modern delusions than most of us willever comprehend, creating and packagingidolatry, turning religious zealotry rabid andinsane, commoditizing music and the arts,coarsening and lobotimizing our language(abominations such as chillax andPopaganda come to mind) … It is the sub-tle genius of its vile agenda that renderswriters incapable of using the phrases “therest is history” and “tongue and cheek”without the respective insertion of “as theysay” and “firmly.” I’d go on, but I’m becom-ing bored and I fear I’m not the only one.Just trust me – this stuff really is, asJennifer Lopez recently said on network tel-evision, “impor’ent!”

Most (if not all) of us seem to have sur-vived one of Popaganda’s favored clients,Judgment Day, May 21, the End of Times,the Raptor … I mean Rapture, or what I’llhere more conveniently call JD2011.

I was astonished at the various televisioninterviews in the days leading up to May 21,the ones with Family Radio International’sfounder “Reverend” Harold Camping. He’sthe dweeb who came up with the “revela-tion” and after turning the matter over toPopaganda, there followed a frightenedworld brought to his knees (he wished).Straight-faced, the Rev would explain againand again his amazing mathematic decipher-ings to reporters who hadn’t the slightestinterest in challenging his delusions orexposing them as the dripping crap theyclearly are. At no point did I hear anyoneremind this charlatan that Holy Writunequivocally states that no one will (or, byinference, can) know the date of theinevitable Judgment Day, which thereforecan and will occur only on that one mysticaldate when absolutely no one alive is expect-ing it. Period. No asterisk!*

Popaganda’s most unfortunate victimson JD2011 were devout people of faith whobought the whole litter box of Camping’s

atrocities, perhaps reasoning that, since thelast 3000 or so Popagandized JudgmentDays hadn’t exactly panned out, this onewas sure to be the real thang, since thechance of somethin’ happenin’ 3001 timesin a row just gotta be near nonexistent.Yup, JD2011 was lookin’ better all the time… many of these brain-leeched victimsactually liquidated all of their worldyassets, abandoned their every material pos-session. Lo and behold, these pilgrims arecurrently learning just how curiously liberat-ing life can be when one isn’t so attachedto things, bless their sweet hearts….

Popaganda has really done a number onpolitical discourse for decades and has nowreached the point of hysteria, especiallywhen it comes to most radio talk shows. Ourcurrent president cannot so much as yawnwithout that yawn being accused ofattempting to subvert the Constitution of theUnited States. The yawn that tried to kill acountry, the yawn that thumbed its uvula atthe American way! If these talk show hostsare real and their rants sincere, then theyare, in fact, either clinically insane or theembodiment of Evil on earth. On the otherhand, if it’s all just an act for ratings, ifthey’re insincere and just dig the paycheckand attention, then I wouldn’t hesitate tocall them criminally irresponsible and trulydangerous. In either case, I do now com-mand them to Repent! O, kobasanda labah-soya etyu tuyu brute lala etanpetecetera!

I’ll close now (you’re welcome) with anabsolutely true incident that just happenedto take place as Saturday, May 21 unfolded.

Coincidentally, it was the date of thefirst OB Beach Ball, a wonderful better-than-a-street-fair festival with great music,contests, fun, booze, etc., which took placefrom 9am to 9pm all around the area justnorth of the great pier. I had the honor ofbeing the stage announcer for the day, and Ihad a blast. The only troubling glitch camein the form of one announcement that I washanded to read by an official, who stressedthat the person who had called the mes-sage in had sounded legitimately frantic. Sonow, transcribed from a recording of thesurveillance tapes:

This is a very important message fortwo teenage girls, Cindy and DonnaMusson, who are twins. Your parents needyou to return home immediately! They begyou to come home right away so that you’llall be together for the Rapture. They needyou home NOW, Cindy and Donna, and theywarn you that you’re going to be put onrestriction for two weeks if you’re not therewithin 30 minutes. Cindy and DonnaMusson, you must return home NOW!

Let us all join hands now and take amonth to pity those sweet twins. And mayI, with His help, have a hand in many oftheir own future raptures. Amen.

The Hose: SIDS and Rapture Survivor

by Jim McInnes

Are We Still Here?

I’m writing this on the evening of May20th. I’m wondering whether Ishould bother going any further than

this. Tomorrow, May 21st, is the Rapture,and the beginning of the End of theWorld!

I’m going to proceed, though, on theassumption that Harold Camping miscal-culated once again.

(But, in the very far reaches of mymind, a tiny voice is asking what if…?)

Call Me Gramps

My wife Sandi and I are grandparents …again. Daughter Danyell popped outcute little Haylee a few days ago. She’sgrandchild number five! How can it be?I’m too young!

What a Week!

The day before Haylee’s birth, my doctorcalled to tell me that my recent bloodtest indicated that I was perilously closeto developing type 2 diabetes. I hadbeen thinking for months about shed-ding 30 pounds and getting more exer-cise, but now I have no choice, which isgood, because, since my second backoperation, I’ve been a couch potato.That’s why my doctor’s diagnosis is ablessing in disguise!

The Wheel of Life

Earlier this month, one of the companiesfor whom I work, Metro Traffic, was soldto radio colossus Clear ChannelCommunications.

Clear Channel owns a bunch of radiostations here in San Diego, all of whichare in direct competition with the KFMBstations, from whom I also receive com-pensation. Through Metro, I providenews and traffic reports for KFMB. (Someof you may remember that I used towork at KGB…until Clear Channel firedme, back in 2002!) So, if my calculationsare correct, I am now in competitionwith MYSELF!I hope I win.

I’m Still Here!

Okay, it’s now 8:06 on Saturday night,May 21st. The Rapture was supposed tohave happened two hours ago. I don’tsee that anything has changed. Ofcourse, I AM a sinner, so I would still behere, anyway, right?

* Want to be able to celebrate a lot moreNew Years Eve parties with no apolalypticworries? Every day, when you wake up,persuade yourself to the point of TrueBelief that that day will be Judgment Day.Surely this will prove itself to be the mostpowerful and effective example of passiveresistance in all of history.

��



highway’s song

by Terry Roland

Writing is about a blank piece of paper andleaving out what’s not supposed to be there.There were many great days and many not sogreat days. I tried to turn them all into greatsongs.

— John Prine, April 1993

Irecently participated in an online topicdiscussion called “John Prine: Where DoI Start?” Good question. For someone

new to Prine, there really is a lot to choosefrom. He has lived through epics, eras andepochs of history. He’s been through musi-cal movements, changes in style, changes inlife styles, marriages, divorces and re-mar-riages, new trains and old friends, missingyears, and long Mondays. Personally, thereare so many memories and perspectives andexperiences with this singer-songwriter overthe last 40 years, it’s hard to narrow it downto one topic, one memory, one place or timeto even write about. I would recommend tothe Prine newcomer, his first album – sim-ply because of the quantity and quality ofthe songs that went on to become classics.It stands apart as one of the finest debuts inthe music industry in general and certainlystands as one of the best of what we nowhave come to call “Americana.” If any mem-ory stands out, it may the first time I sawhim one dull Sunday afternoon in 1972 onan hour-long PBS TV show playing songsfrom his first two albums. It was the firsttime I had heard him. It was also the firsttime I heard songs like “Sam Stone.” and“Hello in There.” Later, the next year, he’dcome through L.A. for a four-night gig atThe Troubadour on Santa Monica Blvd. inLos Angeles. Opening for him was anunknown duo who went by the name ofBuckingham-Nicks. He sat on a stool in afaded jeans jacket, peering out his eyes withboth comedy and tragedy in his songs. Overthe years, it’s been my custom to see himwhen he comes through town. However,today, he’s not the household name he reallyshould be; he is a well-established song-writer’s songwriter and always a welcomesight to the concert stage.

Prine’s recorded musical career reachesback to 1971 with the release of his firstself-titled solo album. With a rusty earlyacoustic Dylan-esque voice, he first had todistinguish himself from the large field of“new Dylans” floating around during thatera; it was a time when Dylan was in hiber-nation, out of the public eye; the singer-songwriter movement was in full swing andlooking for a new icon. John Prine becamean unlikely and ironic heir to the poet’sthrone. With his feet planted solidly in theMidwest, raised in a suburb of Chicago byparents from Kentucky, who gave to him thesame southern-rooted sensibilities. He firstpicked up a guitar at age 12 when his broth-er Dave taught him how to play. In 1964,following high school graduation, he servedas a postal worker for a short time. It wasduring his service in the army, stationed inGermany, that he discovered his knack forentertaining the troops with songs, jokes,and stories. After returning from the army,he returned to his job as a mailman. Helanded in the Chicago folk scene in 1970where he was coaxed into a playing a fewsongs at an open mic night at a club calledThe Fifth Peg. This landed him is first paidgig. This went so well, he was hired andable to quit his post office job. This meantthat he had to write enough songs to fill anentire set. When he tells this story in con-cert he describes how one of his best-lovedsongs, “Souvenirs,” was written quickly tohave enough songs for that night’s set. But,things would speed up when he met theshort guy who wrote the best train songever. That was Steve Goodman and the songwas “City of New Orleans.” To paraphraseJohn from an interview: “I had heard thatthe guy who wrote ‘City of New Orleans’was playing at the Earl [a Chicago pubcalled the Earl of Old Town] and I wantedto go listen to him. I had this mental pictureof what the singer would like. I was expect-ing to see this real tall, skinny guy with agoatee and a real deep voice. So I walk inand I ask if I could meet Steve Goodmanand this little guy with long hair and a fullbeard walks over and I ask him if he wasgoing to take me back to meet SteveGoodman and he tells me he was SteveGoodman.”

The meeting would form a friendshipthat would last a life time and become wor-thy of its own story. Goodman, a wiry, fast-witted guitar picker – part jester, part poet,a comedian and profound songwriter in hisown right – became Prine’s best friend. Hisperformances were so dynamic and ener-getic – and gathered up so much attention –that he ended up opening for KrisKristofferson at Chicago show in Chicago.This was when Steve persuaded Kris to gohear his friend, John Prine, in a pub afterhours. The story and Kris’ impressions arewell-documented on the liner notes ofPrine’s first album where Kris says on firsthearing John, “It was one of those rare,great times when it all seems worth it, likewhen the Vision would rise upon Blake’s‘weary eyes, even in this dungeon, and thisiron mill.’” Later when Kris had John andSteve Goodman as guests on his show atNew York’s Bitter End, he said of John,” Noway somebody this young can be writing so

heavy. John Prine is so good, we may haveto break his thumbs.” That night resulted inPrine being signed to Atlantic Records byJerry Wexler.

His first album became one of those rarebreak-out standard-setting debut albumsthat allowed Prine to shed the “new Dylan”label with his own distinctive voice emerg-ing from the familiar Dylan rasp. The albumprobably contains his best-loved classics.While he never charted a hit himself, theclassic “Hello in There,” about the plight ofthe elderly, was famously covered by BetteMidler. Bonnie Raitt’s interpretation of therodeo-themed “Angel From Montgomery”also grew his reputation among other indus-try insiders. However, on this album asthroughout his career, it is Prine’s own orig-inal takes on his songs that really shine andreveal the soul of what he as a songwriter,storyteller, and artist is really getting at.There’s no better example than “Sam Stone,”which, more than any song of this or any

era, brings home the lost despair of the vet-eran’s return home from the war and hisloss of ideals and vision. “Donald andLydia” tells the tale of alienation and an off-beat romance through the eyes of two lone-ly misfits. “Far From Me” is reported to beJohn’s favorite song. It’s like what onewould imagine may happen if HankWilliams and John Steinbeck met JohnFord. It’s a visual song capturing themoment of a relationship’s breakdown, withlines like... “you know she still laughs withme/but she waits just a moment too long...”and “ain’t it funny how an old broken bottlelooks just like a diamond ring.” The albumalso included the classics “SpanishPipedream,” with the clever line “I knewthat topless lady had something up hersleeve,” “Illegal Smile,” which went on tobecome a ’70s anthem for his cannabis-inclined fan base, the anti-war song, “YourFlag Decal Won’t Get You into HeavenAnymore,” and the classic “Paradise,” aboutthe small Kentucky town Prine and his fam-ily used to visit, which was plowed away bythe coal company.

But, like any true artist, Prine followedhis musical muse rather than try to repro-duce the success and buzz that centeredaround his first album. He returned withthe spare, stripped down all-acoustic,Diamonds in the Rough, with an a capellainterpretation of the Carter Family classic.Musicians on the album included DavidBromberg and Prine’s brother Dave on man-dolin, Steve Burgh on drums and bass, andSteve Goodman on guitar and harmony.While the album doesn’t include the manyclassic songs, its overall consistency intheme and sound foreshadowed today’sAmericana-roots music movement with oneear to the earth of traditional music and theother ear to the changing and turbulenttimes. The song “The Great Compromise”describes a drive-in cheating situation thatis revealed to be a clever analogy of theVietnam War, still going on at the time ofthe record’s release in 1972. The songs onthe album also lean closer to HankWilliams’ Luke the Drifter than to Dylan orany contemporary of the time. Tunes like“The Torch Singer” and “Billy the Bum” aremorality songs that reflect the influence ofHank’s storytelling bard.

On this third, 1973 release, SweetRevenge, solidified him as a consistentlyprofound humorist and writer. At times, hesang like a hillbilly Jules Feiffer with some-times sarcastic, sometimes ironic themesthat would re-emerge throughout his career.It was at his 1973 L.A. premier at TheTroubadour, prior to this album’s releasewhen I heard many of the signature songson this album including, “Please Don’t BuryMe,” “Dear Abby,” and “The Accident(Things Could Be Worse),” for the firsttime. He came in solo on guitar with hisjeans jacket, not that far removed from

entertaining his buddies on German after-noons the decade before. Prine’s first threealbums form a foundation that could beused as a textbook for brilliant singer-song-writer craft and inspiration and also laid thefoundation for future Americana stylists andartists.

Later Prine albums would prove incon-sistent at times due to experimentation instyle and the attempt to gain commercialfavor. His fourth album, Common Sense, onAsylum, flirted with more electrified rockstylings and less coherent and linearthemes. It was a solid attempt to break outof the storytelling, singer-songwriter modeto attract a broader audience with mixedresults. With his fifth album, BruisedOrange, John returned to his strengths withmore acoustic, country flavored styles andstrong songwriting. During the interveningyears, John created his own record label, OhBoy Records, which allowed him to releaseuncompromising classics like the albumsStorm Windows, Aimless Love, and GermanAfternoons.

The years between 1986 and 1991 wereJohn’s silent years. With the release of theaptly titled The Missing Years in 1991, Prineofficially reached elder-statesman status.Equal to his first three albums and pro-duced by Howie Epstein from Tom Pettyand the Heartbreakers, he received supportfrom David Lindley, Albert Lee, MickeyRaphael, Benmont Tench, John Jorgenson,Phil Everly and Bonnie Raitt. It won the1992 Grammy for Best Contemporary FolkAlbum. Even though the production of thealbum was at a much higher level thanJohn’s earlier releases, it was once again thesongs and John’s connection to them thatmade this album so strong. Nearly 20 yearslater, it still stands among the best contem-porary folk albums of the last two decades.

In 1997, John’s life came to a personalsummit that would change things forever.He was diagnosed with squamous cell carci-noma, a form of cancer that formed on hisneck. After successful treatment throughsurgery and radiation, John recoveredenough to resume touring and recording in

John Prinethe man deserves a shrine

John Prine

Studio portrait from 1984

Continued on page 13

Photo: Jim

McQ

uire



of note

Will SumnerTracksby Frank Kocher

A big reason the guitar is so popular isbecause of the wide variety of voices ithas. From quiet, nylon-stringed classicalsto electric power axes, in the right handsa six-string can evoke anything frombaroque beauty to breathtaking speedand bombast. Carlsbad’s Will Sumner isthe kind of jazz guitarist whose playingdraws from all of the instrument’s possi-bilities.

His fifth and latest disc is Tracks, and itfeatures Sumner doing most of the play-ing (he is a fine keyboardist, and plays allof the percussion and bass, less onetrack). Nicely recorded with Sumner pro-ducing in Colorado and San Diego northcounty studios, the 11 tracks are smoothjazz but smooth jazz with somethinghappening – nearly all the tracks evolveinto displays of his skill in solo spots,along with some tasty contributions onsax and keys from studio guests.

“Samba at the Six” and “A Walk inthe Park” establish Sumner’s ability tobecome an entire jazz band, laying out ashimmering carpet of synth effects tocomplement his rhythm section. On“Samba” he tops an aggressive Latinmelody with acoustic guitar, while“Walk” throttles down, a mellower jazzfeel played on an electric rig with aninterlude of delicate figures. Local pianistSky Ladd sits in on “Wine Highway,” astandout track that features soaringexchanges between Sumner and Laddand a memorable melody hook. Sumnershows he is no slouch on keyboards him-self with “The Lake,” a simple tune dom-inated by his piano solo and musicalsounds imitating water pouring andsplashing.

In “Pura Vida,” Sumner’s versatilityagain comes through; he starts the up-tempo samba-rhythm tune with nylon-string chords and scales. As it movesalong he saddles up his overdriven elec-tric guitar and hits the afterburner, forsome flying improvisation that recalls for-mer Police guitar whiz Andy Summers.“On Target” features some of the beststraight ahead acoustic jazz guitar on thedisc, this highlight ends too soon.

Sumner’s guitar breaks are fluid andinventive, and his disc is better becausehe lets his fingers go a bit; though notenough to make this a technique-domi-nated disc, thank goodness. His prowessand taste combine to enable the layered,sonic cloud tunes to click and avoidsounding like some smooth jazz elevatormusic.

The feel generated by “A Night DownSouth” is that of a Mexican border town,with plenty of attitude in the percussionand the Spanish flourishes in the acousticguitar, and fast, piercing electric riffs à laCarlos Santana. Ladd is back on “CrystalWaves” to provide a counterpoint to thecombined plugged and unpluggedSumner, while the song surges forwardin a lurching manner like real waves.

The songs on Tracks are solid and giveWill Sumner a chance to share his wealthof skill as a musician and arranger. Hedoesn’t hold anything back, and the lis-tener reaps the benefits.

Jane LuiGoodnight Companyby Simeon Flick

Ah, San Diego. We love you for yourlackadaisical sunshiny ways, and we loatheyou for your inability to recognize, claim,and retain true artistic genius for your veryown. From Stone Temple Pilots to theDirty Projector’s Amber Coffman whohave also made (or have at least thoughtabout making) their artistic exodus, you’vebelied this ineptitude time and again. Andnow, another great mind has eluded yourmarine layer indifference to flourish else-where, another feather has been lost fromthe cap that could’ve helped put you onthe cultural map once and for all.

San Francisco émigré Jane Lui, onceagain with the expert help of studio guruand fellow under-recognized geniusAaron Bowen, has produced her SergeantPepper with this third studio album,Goodnight Company. The stunningly vastarray of instrumentation is a fantasticmixture of archaic and modern soundsthat serve the songs without overwhelm-ing the pre-eminent instrument – Lui’ssoothingly supple (and boastfully un-autotuned) voice; strings and blippysynths cohabitate symbiotically on“Jailcard,” and “Perished” juxtaposes a“Strawberry Fields”-esque mellotron lineagainst Trent Reznor-ian textures(scratchy vinyl LP noise and faint industri-al hum in the intro, with a distant echo-ing gunshot beat further in). “Take Mefor Now” is astonishing in its sonic ambi-tion, with full orchestration (strings,horns, vibes, etc.) creating the overallmood of an extant selection from anundiscovered Leonard Bernstein musical.And what a delectable contrast, to gofrom these lavish set pieces into the starkNick Drake-ness of “Illusionist Boy,”where Lui’s dulcet ruminations on love(which applies to most of Goodnight’stracks, lyrically) are accompanied only bya rich de-tuned acoustic guitar, and theclosing track “Last Rose of Summer,”where only hushed nylon-string pluckingsprovide the continuo.

There’s an emphatic sense that Luiand Bowen spared no expense to doexactly what they thought the songsneeded; this is corroborated by theaccompanying special edition DVD,which contains a brilliant 45-minute“making-of” documentary. Interviewswith Lui, Bowen, guitarist James Ritts,drummer Jake Najor, and arranger/trum-peter Karl Soukup, rather than diminish-ing the mystery, actually augment theviewer’s awareness that something trulyprofound happened in the creation ofthis work. Well-edited moments of warmhumor (maddening equipment failuresmade light of, loitering cats sitting in onrecording sessions in Bowen’s livingroom) mixed with awe-inspiring footageof horn, small choir, and string sectionsrehearsing and recording in large rooms,impart the sensation of a privileged,exclusive glimpse into the genius behinda superlative independent music release.

Make no mistake; this record is a pieceof Art (one wonders how the hell Lui’sgoing to pull these songs off live!), so theattention span of all the ADD bud-headswill be tested, as Goodnight Companybeseeches your prolonged receptivity toaural adventure. But as such, you willexperience the acuteness of hoping thatall the grant money (if there’s any left outthere) goes to Jane Lui, no matter whatcity she calls home. www.cdbaby.com/cd/JaneLui

Follow Me Down:Vanguard’s LostPsychedelic Era1966-1970by Bart Mendoza

Although Vanguard is often thoughtof as a folk label, populated by myriadacoustic troubadours, the truth is thatthe label has always had an adventurousedge, nowhere better exemplified thanon their new compilation, Follow MeDown: Vanguard’s Lost Psychedelic Era1966-1970. Featuring 18 vintage itemsfrom the labels vaults, there are nonames widely known outside garagemusic collector circles, save possibly theLeslie West fronted Vagrants and DickWagner led combo, the Frost. But that’snot to say there aren’t plenty of greattunes to be found here. Meanwhile a fewbands had members that would go on togreater fame elsewhere, such as The 31stof February, which featured futureAllman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks,Circus Maximus, which included a youngJerry Jeff Walker and the Third Power,which included guitarist Drew Abbottsoon selling out stadiums as part of BobSeger’s Silver Bullet Band.

As might be expected from an albumwhose participants’ music covers the lasthalf of the sixties, influences are all overthe place. While the music is indeedfrom the psychedelic era, blues, folk, andpop fans will find much to their liking.

The album opens strong with the ThirdPower’s “Get Together,” which comparesfavorably with Cream or Hendrix. Otherhighlights include Notes from theUnderground’s “Where I’m At,” whichmarries a Question Mark-type piano figurewith a fuzzed out guitar and sub BeachBoys “Smile” background vocals.Meanwhile Notes from the Underground’s“Why Did You Put Me On” also includedhere, almost sounds like a different band.A garage-flavored hammond-driven mas-terpiece, any fans of the Tell Tale Heartsor Fuzztones need this in their collection.Also particularly striking is the Vagrants “ICan’t Make a Friend” a keyboard fronted,Motown styled stomper, with a terrifichalf time middle eight.

The album careens between lighterfare and heavy numbers. It’s no coinci-dence that it opens and closes with thelatter, and it’s no coincidence that bothsongs hail from Detroit. The closer is theFrost’s “Big Time Spender,” which clearlyshows the way Frost would soon takewith Alice Cooper. There is lighter fare aswell, such as the Family of Apostolic’s“Saigon Girls,” a near Baroque instru-mental guitar, strings and horns-ladennumber that wouldn’t have sounded outof place on a Left Banke album, thoughminus the moans and screams over-dubbed towards the end.

However, the albums top track is theFar Cry’s unhinged blues “Hellhound.”There is stellar guitar and harp work, butthe over-the-top vocals sell the song ontop of a groove that’s begging to be sam-pled. Captain Beefheart would be proud.

These are just a few of the uneartheddelights to be found on this excellentcompilation. The tracks collected onFollow Me Down may be obscure, but thisis a solid mix of bands and songs, withenough variety to make even a jadedcollector take notice. If you’re fan in theslightest of sixties rock music, this disc isan essential addition to your collection.

1999. When he issued a letter to his fans onhis website, he wrote, “I’m looking forwardto getting back on the road and singing mysongs. Hopefully my neck is looking for-ward to its job of holding my head up abovemy shoulders.” John’s voice remains in goodshape. He reported that he noticed it wentdown to a lower register but didn’t lose itsquality. He said that it gave new life to someof his earlier songs. He has been cancer freesince 1998.

In 2005 Prine released another finealbum, Fair and Square, followed by anotherGrammy for Best Contemporary FolkAlbum. John had proved to be an institu-tion in and of himself within the world ofAmericana music. It was decades ago thathe was trying to run from the shadow ofcomparisons to Dylan. Now he can be easilyregarded simply as one of Dylan’s peers. In a2009 Huffington Post article Dylan said ofPrine, “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian exis-tentialism, Midwestern mind trips to thenth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. Iremember when Kris Kristofferson firstbrought him on the scene. All that stuffabout “Sam Stone” the soldier junky daddyand “Donald and Lydia,” where peoplemake love from ten miles away. Nobody butPrine could write like that. If I had to pickone song of his, it might be “Lake Marie.”

So, let the record show, if you’re just nowfinding John Prine, Bob Dylan says startwith the song “Lake Marie.” This humblewriter recommends his first album. Youpick. Either way, you win.

John Prine will be at Humphrey’s by the Bay,2241 Shelter Island Dr., on Saturday, June 11,7:30pm. Peter Case opens.

ParkerAinsworthGone and Done Itby Frank Kocher

Parker Ainsworthis a folk bal-ladeer, originallyfrom Austin. Hemoved his guitarand muse outWest and hasbeen playing in

SoCal for several years. In mid 2009, heput together a five-track debut EP, ParkerLoves You, and it has been re-released.The songs are a series of originals thatspotlight Ainsworth’s considerablestrengths as a folk and pop craftsman.

“Awake” makes a solid impression,with finger-picked guitars underneathAinsworth singing effective lyrics (notincluded) about rising next to a lover inthe morning; it has a female harmony onthe choruses, and crying pedal steelechoes. Ainsworth changes things up on“Hope You Understand,” a quirky popkeyboard tune that seems to be in anuncomfortable key for him. “Rain...” isbetter, with a mid-tempo hook thatgathers steam, simple but effective. Thebest track is “We Just Forgot,” abouthow we are all angels made to fly, butwe have just misplaced our halos andforgot how to use our wings. The songzips forward with a hum-along melodyand positive-vibe energy. Ainsworthmoves back into a folk mode with“Higher Up,” as the studio band createsa keyboard and steel guitar cloud for hisvoice to float upon, and he is mixedfront and center to tell about how“There are so many more steps until thetop/ And so we both surrender to a pic-ture of higher up.” Ethereal message,ethereal music to deliver it.

Parker Loves You scores enough pointsto create anticipation for what AinsworthParker may have in mind for a follow-up.

TysonMotsenbockerUntil It Landsby Frank Kocher

Formerly gui-tarist and singerwith a bandcalled KeepPennsylvaniaBeautiful in theopen country ofSpokane, Tyson

Motsenbocker’s music was described as“lyrically driven folk music.” He is now inSolana Beach, and his latest music hasbeen beefed up by cohort and drummerBumper Dorman (Janu and theWhalesharks).

On his six-track debut EP, Until ItLands, Motsenbocker’s innocuous vocalstell of Northwest things like snow, stormynights, and the Grand Cooley Dam. Thearrangement on “Empty 25” is sort ofColdplay Lite, as he sings an interestingmelody that clicks, on top of a cushion ofechoing, layered guitars. It’s just him andguitar for “Always Leaving You Behind,”sliding up singing falsetto “you”s, but thetune seems to be missing a hook. Until itLands starts off quietly, with interestinglyrics (not provided, a shame), andbuilds. Overly busy drums (Dorman) dur-ing the last verse detract as they soundlike a drum solo in the background whilehe sings the words. The best song is“Until It Lands: Part II,” a full band againbacks Motsenbocker as he recalls travelsand life experiences to the most catchysoft rock riff on the disc; the guitars, songstructure, and vocal all recall early REM.“Lie Down and Die” goes back to the“Empty 25” formula, with a quiet melodyvocal intro with falsetto touches, buildup,and slickly layered final verse.

John Prine, continued

Old Man Fred, continued from page 6

mic… A couple of weeks after this inter-view I was chatting with our very own localpurveyor of “California Browngrass,”Tommy Dahill, who spoke of his experiencedriving in central California around SanLuis Obispo and being reminded of JackPhillips when he came across a solitary stoplight atop a hill. It was the very same stop-light Jack had written about, visible fromthe California Men’s Colony state prisonthat housed him, in his song “Light on theHill.” It’s a powerful song that can help any-one recall a story, in an instant, hundreds ofmiles outside of the context in which youoriginally heard it.

There’s nothing worse than talent that’sunrecognized, no matter what the circum-stance, and it is my sincere hope that Jack’sgift is embraced with and beyond this arti-cle. If there’s some support from our localmusic community here in San Diego whenhe’s back on this side of the walls that holdhim, I imagine it would be a phenomenalboost for him to know that he hasn’t wastedthe time that he’s been away. He has beenproductive and achieved something veryspecial.

At the same time, I also feel Old ManFred should give himself more credit for histalent, tenacity, stamina, and love for keep-ing Jack’s story alive.

Tim Mudd is the web director and online contentmanager for CBS Radio San Diego. He’s also aseasoned member of the San Diego singer-song-writer community and leads the Anglo-Americanagroup For Strangers & Wardens. He hosts “TimMudd’s World Famous Open Mic (currently in cultstatus)” every Wednesday night at 8pm, Acrossthe Street at the Mueller College PerformanceCenter, which he is also the Mayor on Foursquare.He’s also known to occasionally spend five minutesat home with his girlfriend, Jen, and their twocats.



‘round about

wednesday • 1Adrienne Nims & Spirit Wind W/ JR Betts,Cardiff Library, 2018 Newcastle Ave., 6:30pm.Anthony David, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30pm.Lisa Sanders Summer Tour w/ Cathryn Beeks/Peggy Watson/Veronica May/David Page/Gregory Page, Belly Up, 143 S. Cedros, SolanaBeach, 8pm.Chad Cavanaugh/Harley Jay/Yogoman/BurningBand, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.

thursday • 2Cowboy Jack, John’s Neighborhood Bar &Grill, 1280 E. Vista Way, Vista, 6:30pm.Peter Sprague, Roxy Restaurant, 517 S. CoastHwy. 101, Encintas, 7pm.Adrienne Nims & Spirit Wind W/ Jim Lair/Warren Bryant, Powerhouse Park, 1600 CoastBlvd., Del Mar, 7pm.Keoki Kahumoku & James Hill, Anthology,1337 India St., 7:30pm.Jason Robinson’s Janus Ensemble, Dizzy’s @SD Wine & Culinary Ctr., 200 Harbor Dr., 8pm.Jamie Drake/Jim Hanft/J.T. Spangler/Marianne Keith, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave.,9pm.Len Rainey’s Midnight Players, Patrick’s II, 428F St., 9m.

friday • 3Len Rainey, Patricks II, 428 F St., 5pm.Charlie Imes, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355 Hwy.78, Julian, 6pm.Zydeco Patrol, Barefoot Bar, Paradise Point,1404 Vacation Rd., 6pm.Jackson Price, Museum of Making Music, 5790Armada Dr., Carlsbad, 7pm.Tribute to Sinatra: John Vincent w/ the JohnCain Orchestra, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30pm.Storm, Dizzy’s @ SD Wine & Culinary Ctr., 200Harbor Dr., 8pm.O’Connell’s Last Hurrah w/ SweetTooth/SocialClub/Save Amos/One-Inch Punch, O’Connell’s,1310 Morena Blvd., 8pm.Kevin McCarthy, Across the Street @MuellerCollege, 4607 Park Blvd., 8:30pm.Nicole Vaughn CD Release/Roll Acosta,Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.Rockola’s Big as Beatles Show, Belly Up, 143S. Cedros, Solana Beach, 9pm.Shay Blues Revue, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.Tribute to Johnny Cash: John Vincent w/ theJohn Cain Orchestra/Adrienne Nims & SpiritWind, Anthology, 1337 India St., 9:30pm.

saturday • 4Sam Hinton Folk Heritage Festival, Old PowayPark, 14134 Midland Rd., 10:30am-5pm.Nathan James, Fallbrook Library, 124 S.Mission Rd., 2pm.Mark Jackson Band, Wynola Pizza Express,4355 Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.Cowboy Jack, The Beach House, 2530 S. CoastHwy. 101, Encinitas, 6pm.Zydeco Patrol, Coyote Bar & Grill, 300 CarlsbadVillage Dr., 6pm.Baja Blues Boys, Le Papagayo, 1002 N. CoastHwy. 101, Encinitas, 7pm.Benefit for Olaf Wieghorst Museum w/ RustyRichard/Belinda Gail/Tumbling Tumbleweeds/Tom Hiatt & the Sundown Riders, CuyamacaCollege Performing Art Center, 900 Rancho SanDiego Pkwy, El Cajon, 7pm.Scott West, Sky Box, 4809 Clairemont Dr., 7pm.N’Dambi, Anthology, 1337 India St., 7:30pm.Neil Innes, AMSD Concerts, 4650 MansfieldSt., 7:30pm.Gary LeFebvre & Joe Marillo, Dizzy’s @ SDWine & Culinary Ctr., 200 Harbor Dr., 8pm.Chet & the Committee, Eastbound Bar & Grill,10053 E. Main St., LakesideModern Glee Club of San Diego, Across theStreet @Mueller College, 4607 Park Blvd.,8:30pm.Maranina Bell CD Release/Arian Saleh/Lankin,Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.Shari Puorto, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.Diego Garcia, Anthology, 1337 India St., 9:30pm.

sunday • 5Adrienne Nims & Spirit Wind W/ Jim Lair/Warren Bryant, Vista Library, 700 EucalyptusAve., 1pm.Robin Henkel Band w/ Horns!, Coyote Bar &Grill, 300 Carlsbad Village Dr., 5pm.Frank Lucio, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355 Hwy.78, Julian, 6pm.NickZ/Carl Duant/Brooke Macintosh/AshleyElliot, The Wine Lover, 3968 5th AVe., 6:30pm.Simon, Mitchell & Joel (Not a Law Firm™),Dizzy’s @ SD Wine & Culinary Ctr., 200 HarborDr., 7pm. Tickets online: NotALawFirm.comSol E Mar, Belly Up, 143 S. Cedros, SolanaBeach, 8pm.Bayou Brothers, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

monday • 6Chet Cannon’s Blue Monday Pro Jam,Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge, 2241 ShelterIsland Dr., 7pm.Yale Strom & Elizabeth Schwartz “Live” RadioBroadcast, Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza,7:30pm.Rhythm Jacks, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

tuesday • 7Adrienne Nims & Mark Danisovszky, SanMarcos Library, 2 Civic Center Dr., 5pm.145th Street Blues, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 7m.Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt, Humphrey’s 2241Shelter Island Dr., 7pm.

Chris Clarke, Rancho San Diego Library, 11555Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon, 6:30pm.Zapf Dingbats, El Corado Cocktail Lounge, 1030Broadway, 8:30pm.

wednesday • 8Gone Tomorrow, Encinitas Library, 540 CornishDr., 6pm.Adele w/ Wanda Jackson, Humphrey’s 2241Shelter Island Dr., 7:30pm.Steph Johnson, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave., 7:30pm.Dusty & the LoveNotes, The Stage, 762 5thAve., 8pm.Johnny Vernazza, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.A Night of Belly Dancing & Music w/ CairoBeats, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.

thursday • 9The Farmers/Stone River Boys, Belly Up, 143 S.Cedros, Solana Beach, 8pm.Ruby & the Red Hots, Humphrey’s BackstageLounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr., 8pm.Justin Tarwick, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave.,9pm.Stoney B Blues Band, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

friday • 10Glenn & Jennifer Smith, Wynola Pizza Express,4355 Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.Zydeco Patrol, Concerts on the Green, PrescottPromenade, El Cajon, 6pm. Wild Blue Yonder, Newbreak Church, 10791Tierrasanta Blvd., 7pm.Fourplay, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30&9:30pm.Dave & Devine/Josh Damigo & Friends, Acrossthe Street @Mueller College, 4607 Park Blvd.,8:30pm.Chris Trapper/Donavan Lyman, Lestat’s, 3343Adams Ave., 9pm.Bill Magee Blues Band, Patrick’s II, 428 F St.,9m.

saturday • 11Full Deck & Next Generation, Poway Library,13137 Poway Rd., 6pm.Christy Bruneau, Zenbu Sushi Bar, 7660 FayAve., La Jolla, 7pm.John Prine w/ Peter Case, Humphrey’s 2241Shelter Island Dr., 7:30pm.John Batdorf & Jack Tempchin, AMSDConcerts, 4650 Mansfield St., 7:30pm.Joel Eckels/Dawn Mitschele, Across theStreet @Mueller College, 4607 Park Blvd.,8:30pm.Josh Damigo, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.Big Papa & the TCB, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

sunday • 12Bluegrass Day at the Fair, Paddock Stage, SanDiego County Fairgrounds, Del Mar, 11am.SD Folk Song Society Mtg., AcousticExpression Music, 4434 30th St., 2pm.Blues Jam w/ Doug Neel, The Royal Dive, 2949San Luis Rey Rd., Oceanside, 4pm.Deborah Blake, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.Irving Flores’ Chick Corea Tribute, Dizzy’s @SD Wine & Culinary Ctr., 200 Harbor Dr., 7pm.The Civil Wars w/ James Vincent McMorrow,Anthology, 1337 India St., 7pm.Shay La Vie, Dark Thirty House Concerts,Lakeside, 7:30pm. 619-443-9622Jethro Tull, Open Sky Theater, Harrah’s RinconCasino, Valley Center, 8pm.Robin Henkel Band w/ Horns!, Lestat’s, 3343Adams Ave., 8pm.Chet & the Committee, Patrick’s II, 428 F St.,9m.

monday • 13Poway Folk Circle Bluegrass Jam, Templar’sHall, Old Poway Park, 14134 Midland Rd.,6:30pm.Souls on Fire w/ Yale Strom & Jeff Pekarek,Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza, 7:30pm.Nathan James Trio, Humphrey’s BackstageLounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr., 7pm.Buddy Guy w/ Ben Powell, Belly Up, 143 S.Cedros, Solana Beach, 8pm.Rogue Deville, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

tuesday • 14Lou & Virginia Curtiss Song Circle, 1725Granite Hills Dr., El Cajon, 6pm.Stoney B Blues Band, Humphrey’s BackstageLounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr., 7pm.Gilbert Castellanos Quartet w/ James Zollar,Athenaeum, 1008 Wall st., La Jolla, 7:30pm.Jeff Moore’s Witchdoctors, Patrick’s II, 428 FSt., 9m.

wednesday • 15Joe Rathburn & Dan Connor, Vision, 1260Clairemont Mesa Blvd., 7pm.Rodney Dillard & the Dillard Band, AMSDConcerts, 4650 Mansfield St., 7:30pm.Hiromi, Anthology, 1337 India St., 7:30&9:30pm.Rheanna Downey/Austin Burns, Belly Up, 143S. Cedros, Solana Beach, 8pm.Atomic Pink/Run Hit Run, Lestat’s, 3343 AdamsAve., 9pm.The Bucky Walters, Soda Bar, 3615 El CajonBlvd., 9pm.

thursday • 16Gabriel Hampton, Ramona Library, 1406Montecito Rd., 1pm.soundON Festival of Modern Music,Athenaeum, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla, 1pm.Monette Marino-Keita, Anthology, 1337 IndiaSt., 7:30pm.Mia Duson Hotel & Highway, Lestat’s, 3343Adams Ave., 9pm.

friday • 17Robin Henkel, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.The Tannahill Weavers, AMSD Concerts, 4650Mansfield St., 7:30pm.Wailin Jennys, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30&9:30pm.Na Leo, Humphrey’s 2241 Shelter Island Dr.,8pm.Nathan James & Steph Johnson, Dizzy’s @ SDWine & Culinary Ctr., 200 Harbor Dr., 8pm.Gregory Page, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.Michele Lundeen, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

saturday • 18Robin Henkel, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, 5627La Jolla Blvd., 10am.Julian Blues Bash w/ Zac Harmon/CatherineDenise/Joe Wood & the Lucky Ones/DennisJones/Wumbloozo/Chet & the Committee,Menghini Winery, 1150 Julian Orchards Dr.,11am-7pm.Zydeco Patrol, Southwestern Yacht Club, 2702Qualtron, 5pm.The Hips, Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge, 2241Shelter Island Dr., 5pm.Sara Petite, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355 Hwy.78, Julian, 6pm.Trails & Rails, Fallbrook Library, 124 S. MissionRd., 7pm.Jimmy Mulidore’s New York City Jazz Band w/Randy Brecker, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30&9:30pm.Eve Selis, Frogstop House Concerts, SanMarcos, 8pm. [email protected]/760-295-0222Chris Bell & 100% Blues, Patrick’s II, 428 F St.,9m.

sunday • 19Cowboy Jack, Pine Hills Lodge Father’s DayBrunch, 2960 La Posada Way, Julian, 10am.Fred & Regina Benedetti w/ Jeff Pekarek,Dizzy’s @ SD Wine & Culinary Ctr., 200 HarborDr., 4pm.NickZ/Keri Dopart/John Hull/Tim Mudd, TheWine Lover, 3968 5th AVe., 6:30pm.Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7pm.John Wesley, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 9pm.Stoney B Blues Band, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

monday • 20Chet Cannon’s Blue Monday Pro Jam,Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge, 2241 ShelterIsland Dr., 7pm.Donovan Frankenreiter/Seth Petterson, BellyUp, 143 S. Cedros, Solana Beach, 9pm.

tuesday • 21Poway Folk Circle w/ Abby & Kim Donaldson,Templar’s Hall, Old Poway Park, 14134 MidlandRd., 6:30pm.Robin Henkel, Wine Steals, 1953 San Elijo,Cardiff by the Sea, 7pm.Songwriters Showcase Competition,Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge, 2241 ShelterIsland Dr., 7pm.Donovan Frankenreiter/Seth Petterson, BellyUp, 143 S. Cedros, Solana Beach, 9pm.

wednesday • 22Ciro Hurtado, Cardiff by the Sea Library, 2081Newcastle Ave., 6:30pm.Duncan Sheik, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30pm.Steph Johnson, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave., 7:30pm.Willie K’s Warehouse Blues Tour, Belly Up, 143S. Cedros, Solana Beach, 8pm.Bayou Brothers, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

thursday • 23Cahill & Delene, Valley Center Library, 29200Cole Grade Rd., 7pm.Monty Alexander Trio, Anthology, 1337 IndiaSt., 7:30pm.Wally Bunting Live, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave.,9pm.Michele Lundeen & Paradise, Patrick’s II, 428 FSt., 9m.

friday • 24Rhythm & the Method, Humphrey’s BackstageLounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr., 7pm.Jake’s Mountain, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.Janiva Magness, Stagecoach Park, 3420Camino de los Coches, Carlsbad, 6pm.Chante Moore, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30pm.Peter Case, Oasis House Concerts, SorrentoValley, 8pm. www.oasishouseconcerts.comThe Bigfellas, Across the Street @MuellerCollege, 4607 Park Blvd., 8:30pm.John Hull/Nikki Lang/Paulina, Lestat’s, 3343Adams Ave., 9pm.Missy Andersen, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.Nikka Costa, Anthology, 1337 India St., 9:30pm.

every sundayJoe Marillo, The Brickyard, 675 W. G St.,9:30am.Shawn Rohlf & Friends, Farmers Market,DMV parking lot, Hillcrest, 10am.Marcia Forman Band, The Big Kitchen, 3003Grape St., 10am.Chris Clarke & Friends, Golden Hill FarmersMarket, B St. between 27th & 28th St., 10am.Bluegrass Brunch, Urban Solace, 3823 30thSt., 10:30am.Zzymzzy Quartet, OB People’s Food Co-op,4765 Voltaire St., Ocean Beach, 11am. Daniel Jackson, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave., 11am.International Ethnic Folk Dancing, BalboaPark Club Bldg., 12:30-4:30pm.Alan Land & Friends, Sunday Songs, E St.Cafe, 125 W. E St., Encinitas, 2pm.Open Blues Jam w/ Chet & the Committee,Downtown Cafe, 182 E. Main St., El Cajon,2:30pm. Celtic Ensemble, Twiggs, 4590 Park Blvd., 4pm.Elliott Lawrence, Avenue 5 Restaurant, 27605th Ave., 5:30pm.Jazz88 Sunday Night Jam, Spaghetteria, 1953India St., 6pm. Sam Johnson Jazz Duo, San Diego Desserts,5987 El Cajon Blvd., 6pm.Traditional Irish Session, The Field, 544 5thAve., 7pm.Open Mic, Cafe Libertalia, 3834 5th Ave.,8:15pm.Pro-Invitational Blues Jam, O’Connell’s Pub,1310 Morena Blvd., 8pm.Jazz Roots w/ Lou Curtiss, 8-10pm, KSDS(88.3 FM).José Sinatra’s OB-oke, Winston’s, 1921Bacon St., 9:30pm.The Bluegrass Special w/ Wayne Rice,10pm-midnight, KSON (97.3 FM).

every mondayOpen Mic, Gio’s, 8384 La Mesa Blvd., 5:30pm.Ukulele Jam, New Expression Music, 443430th St., 2852 University Ave., 6:30pm.Open Mic, Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey St.,7pm.El Cajon Music Masters, CentralCongregational Church, 8360 Lemon Ave., LaMesa, 7pm.Open Mic, Wine Steals, 1243 University Ave.,7pm.Open Mic, Turquoise Cafe Bar Europa, 873Turquoise St., PB, 7pm.Bill Shreeve Quartet, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave.,7:30pm.International Ethnic Folk Dancing (interme-diate & advanced), Balboa Park Club & WarMemorial Bldg., 7:30pm.Open Mic, Lestat’s, 3343 Adams Ave., 7:30pm.

every tuesdayLou Fanucchi, Paesano, 3647 30th St., 5:30pm.Open Mic, Downtown Cafe, 182 E. Main St., ElCajon, 5:30pm.Gypsy Swing Cats, Friendly GroundsCoffeehouse, 9225 Carlton Hills Blvd., Santee,6:30pm.Open Mic, Maria Maria Restaurant, 1370Frazee Rd., Mission Valley, 7pm.Open Mic, Joey’s Smokin’ BBQ & Doc’sSaloon, 6955 El Camino Real, Carlsbad, 7pm.Traditional Irish Session, The Ould Sod, 3373Adams Ave., 7pm.Open Mic, Beach Club Grille, 710 SeacoastDr., Imperial Beach, 7pm.Open Mic, E Street Cafe, 125 W. E St.,Encinitas, 7:30pm.Chet & the Committee All Pro Blues Jam,The Harp, 4935 Newport Ave., 7:30pm.Open Mic, Second Wind, 8515 Navajo Rd.,8pm.Open Mic, The Royal Dive, 2949 San Luis ReyRd., Oceanside, 8pm.

Patrick Berrogain’s Hot Club Combo, PradoRestaurant, Balboa Park, 8pm.Open Mic, O’Connell’s Pub, 1310 MorenaBlvd., 8pm.

every wednesdayMike Head & Friends, Farmers Market,Newport Ave., Ocean Beach, 4-7pm.Open Mic, Downtown Cafe, 182 E. Main St.,El Cajon, 5:30pm.Lou Fanucchi, Romesco Restaurant, 4346Bonita Rd., 6pm.Tomcat Courtney, The Turquoise, 873Turquoise St., 6pm.Jerry Gontang, Desi & Friends, 2734 LyttonSt., 7pm.Scandinavian Dance Class, Folk Dance Center,Dancing Unlimited, 4569 30th St., 7:30pm.Elliott Lawrence, Prado Restaurant, BalboaPark, 7:30pm.Open Mic, Across the Street @ MuellerCollege, 4605 Park Blvd., 8pm.Open Mic, Skybox Bar & Grill, 4809Clairemont Dr., 8:30pm.New Latin Jazz Quartet Jam Session w/Gilbert Castellanos, El Camino, 2400 India St.,9pm.Firehouse Swing Dancing, Queen Bee’s Art& Cultural Center, 3925 Ohio St., 9pm.

every thursdayBaba’s Jam Night, The Lodge, 444 CountryClub Lane, Oceanside, 5pm.Happy Hour Jam, Winston’s, 1921 Bacon St.,5:30pm.Joe Rathburn w/ Roger Friend, Blue FlameLounge, La Costa Resort, 2100 Costa Del MarRd., Carlsbad, 6pm.Chet & the Committee Open Blues Jam,Downtown Cafe, 182 E. Main, El Cajon, 6pm.Esencia Latin Jazz Quartet, The Turquoise,873 Turquoise St., 6:30pm.Wood ‘n’ Lips Open Mic, Friendly Grounds,9225 Carlton Hills Blvd., Santee, 6:30pm.Elliott Lawrence, Avenue 5 Restaurant, 27605th Ave., 7pm.Old Tyme Fiddlers Jam (1st & 3rd Thursday),New Expression Music, 4434 30th St., 7pm.Moonlight Serenade Orchestra, Lucky StarRestaurant, 3893 54th St., 7pm.Jazz Jam w/ Joe Angelastro, E St. Cafe, 128W. E St., Encinitas, 7pm.Traditional Irish Session, Thornton’s IrishPub, 1221 Broadway, El Cajon, 8pm.Open Mic/Family Jam, Rebecca’s, 3015Juniper St., 8pm.

every fridayOpen Mic, Lion Coffee, 101 Market St., 6pm.Joe Mendoza, Uncle Duke’s Beach Cafe, 107Diana St., Leucadia, 6pm.Joe Marillo Trio, Rebecca’s, 3015 Juniper St.,7pm. (1st three Fridays of the month)Elliott Lawrence, Shooters, Sheraton HotelLa Jolla, Holiday Court Dr., 7pm.Open Mic, Bella Roma Restaurant, 6830 LaJolla Blvd. #103, 8pm.Open Mic, L’Amour de Yogurt, 9975 CarmelMountain Rd., 8pm.Bill Shreeve Quartet, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave.,8:30pm.Open Mic, Egyptian Tea Room & SmokingParlour, 4644 College Ave., 9pm.

every saturdayJoe Marillo, The Brickyard, 675 W. G St.,9:30am.Elliott Lawrence, Croce’s, 802 5th Ave.,11:30am.Open Mic, Valley Music, 1611 N. MagnoliaAve., El Cajon, 6pm.Robin Henkel, Zel’s, 1247 Camino Del Mar,8pm.

W E E K L Y

saturday • 25Ross Moore/Allen Singer/Old Town Road/Dornob/Carlos Olmeda, El Cajon LibraryFestival, 201 E. Douglas Ave., 1pm.Cathryn Beeks w/ Matt Silvia, Wynola PizzaExpress, 4355 Hwy. 78, Julian, 6pm.Zydeco Patrol, Iva Lee’s, 555 N. El CaminoReal, San Clemente, 6pm.The Songs of Joni Mitchell w/ Robin Adler/Dave Blackburn/Barnaby Finch, FallbrookHouse of the Arts, 432 E. Dougherty St., 7pm.Dan Navarro, AMSD Concerts, 4650 MansfieldSt., 7:30pm.Chante Moore, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30&9:30pm.Chris Burgess, Dizzy’s @ SD Wine & CulinaryCtr., 200 Harbor Dr., 8pm.Java Joe presents Concert for Steve White,Ideal Hotel, 546 3rd Ave., 8:30pm.Ramekega/Wendy Bailey & True Stories/Zebra/Mirrors/Vanattica, Lestat’s, 3343 AdamsAve., 9pm.Baja Bues Boys, Patrick’s Irish Pub, 13314Poway Rd., Poway, 9pm.

sunday • 26Blues Jam w/ Doug Neel, The Royal Dive, 2949San Luis Rey Rd., Oceanside, 4pm.Donn Bree, Wynola Pizza Express, 4355 Hwy.78, Julian, 6pm.Zydeco Patrol, Four Points Sheraton, 8110Aero Dr., 6pm.

monday • 27Bayou Brothers, Humphrey’s BackstageLounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr., 7pm.Chet & the Committee, Patrick’s II, 428 F St.,9m.

tuesday • 28Lou & Virginia Curtiss Song Circle, 1725Granite Hills Dr., El Cajon, 6pm.Rene Marie, Anthology, 1337 India St., 7:30pm.Dusty & the LoveNotes, Voodoo Stage, Houseof Blues, 1055 5th Ave., 8pm.145th Street Blues, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

wednesday • 29Sarah Jarosz w/ Trevor Davis, Anthology, 1337India St., 7:30pm.Laura Roppe & CoolBand Luke, Humphrey’sBackstage Lounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr.,8pm.Toots & the Maytals, Belly Up, 143 S. Cedros,Solana Beach, 9pm.Bill Magee Blues Band, Patrick’s II, 428 F St.,9m.

thursday • 30Adrienne Nims – Flutations, Alpine Library,2130 Almond Way, 5:30pm.Jimmie Vaughan, Anthology, 1337 India St.,7:30pm.Paradise w/ Michele Lundeen, Humphrey’sBackstage Lounge, 2241 Shelter Island Dr.,8pm.Johnny Vernazza, Patrick’s II, 428 F St., 9m.

JUNE CALENDAR

Sven-Erik Seaholm @ Java Joe’s

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Jeff Smith @ Mission Hills Alive

Sweet Joyce Ann & Annie Rettic @ Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Tom Cahoon @ Waldorf School May Faire

Photo: Raul Sandelin

Rev. Stickman @ Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Miff Laracy @ Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Peggy Walker @ El Cajon Library

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Steve Harris @ Lestat’s Open Mic

Photo: Steve Covault

Heather Bond @ Lestat’s Open Mic

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Dan Walton, Asleep @ the Wheel


Nathan James

Photo: Bob Page

Pete Miesner & Bruce Doyle, Waldorf School May Faire


The Town Pants

Photo: Dan C

husid

Songswap @ Lestat’s

Photo: Dan C

husid

Lisa Haley

Photo: Bob Page

Border Radio

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Ross AltmanJoe Rathburn

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Tomcat Courtney

Photo: Bob Page

Carlos Olmeda & Sara Petite

Photo: Dan C

husid

Jim Hinton

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

David & Phil Boroff

Photo: Bob Page

15


the local seen

www.sandiegotroubadour.com

Alicia Previn, Folding Mr. Lincoln

Photo: Bob Page

Hot PstromiPhoto: D

an Chusid

Deborah Robbins & Larry Hanks

Photo: Bob Page

Robert Cray @ the Belly Up


John Chambers, Bayou Brothers


ROOTS FEST ON ADAMS

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

AROUND TOWN

Ray Benson, Asleep @ the Wheel


Jason Roberts, Asleep @ the Wheel


SD Jazz Collective @ Waldorf School May Faire


Dave Howard @ Java Joe’s

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Lindsay White @ Java Joe’s

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Ronnie Seno, Lestat’s Open Mic

Photo: Dennis A

ndersen

Thom Podgoretsky, Bayou Brothers


Tanya Rose

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