Natural Hot Springs
The Kingston Trio with special appearance by Bob Shane
Event on 2012-03-31 20:00:00
Doors: March 31, 2012 7:00 pm
Cost:
Age: 12 & over (under 16 must be w/ adult)
The Kingston Trio Official Website Facebook Page
In 1957 America was ready for a new style of music. Just out of college, Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard took dormant folk music and gave it a comic twist irresistible to the college crowd (and just about everyone else). The music was rooted in American Popular culture, but performed with a refreshing style that now seems timeless. Like the Beatles, The Kingston Trio created a national audience for their new style of music, causing a ripple effect on the entire music industry. When Tom Dooley went gold in 1958, the folk revival was born. In no time The Limeliters, The Brothers Four, Chad Mitchell and The Smothers Bros. all found an audience. It was this “folk revival” that set the stage for Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, The Byrds, and the protest movement of the 60s.
The then unknown Trio was playing at the Cracked Pot in the spring of ’57. In the audience was Frank Werber, a young publicist who was making a name for himself in the San Francisco nightclub scene. Werber was captivated by the spontaneity of their performance, and approached the band as they were packing their insturments after the show. They talked into the morning, and by the time the bartender was ready to lock up, The Trio had a manager, a contract (signed on a paper napkin!) and a name, The Kingston Trio, chosen for its Ivy League/Calypso crossover appeal.
The band worked tirelessly to refine the music and polish their act. Werber arranged for them to work with Judy Davis, San Francisco’s finest voice coach. After months of work, they were booked at the Purple Onion, San Francisco’s “discovery club”. They were an overnight sensation. A one week booking turned into a sold out run that lasted for months. Established entertainers such as Mort Sahl caught their show, and word began to spread throughout the show business world. The first KT tour took them from casinos in Reno to the nation’s premier nightclubs, such as New York’s Village Vanguard & Blue Angel, and Chicago’s Mr. Kelley’s.
In the Summer of ’58, The Kingston Trio returned to San Francisco, playing a four month standing room only run at the famous Hungry i nightclub. During this period the group also recorded their first album, which enjoyed mild success. That Fall, The Trio went to Honolulu to play at The Royal Hawiian. It gave Dave and Bob some time at home, unaware of what was happening on the mainland. Bill Terry and Paul Colburn, DJs at KLUB in Salt Lake City, took a liking to one of the songs on the first KT album and gave it heavy airplay. Other stations across the country picked the song up and and clamored for Capitol Records to release it as a single. Capitol’s vice president, Voyle Gilmore, called Frank Werber in Hawaii. “Get those boys back here” he said, “It looks like you’re going to have the record of the year.”
Gillmore’s prediction was no exaggeration. The song was TOM DOOLEY, and this was the beginning of a meteoric sucess that has become a show business legend. When the Trio returned from Hawaii, Tom Dooley was the number one song in the nation. Milton Berle, Perry Como, Dinah Shore & Patti Page all signed the Trio to appear on their shows. The Trio also remained loyal to their college audience, playing college shows every other day over the next six months. In those first four whirlwind years with Dave Guard, the Trio cut ten albums. The Dec. 12 issue of Billboard magazine listed four Trio albums among the top 10, a feat unsurpassed to this day. Voyle Gilmore of Capitol records produced the group’s top records. A gifted producer, his stellar work with The Kingston Trio & Frank Sinatra is still enjoyed by millions of music lovers.
In 1961 Dave Guard left The Kingston Trio to pursue a different musical direction. Several musicans were given serious consideration to fill the opening, including Roger McGuinn of Byrds fame. Nick and Bob agreed on John Stewart as the new member. “John was a natural” according to Nick. Bob said John gave the group “that extra solid sound” they had been looking for. John truly was the right fit. A first rate entertainer & gifted songwiter, he also had the good fortune to look great in a striped shirt. Anxiety at Capitol over the future of their best selling act quickly vanished when a group of label execs heard the band play their newest song, Jesse James, at Frank Werber’s house.
The Trio enjoyed six productive years with John Stewart. Although the flavor of the sound evolved, it remained as infectious as ever with the fans. The national and worldwide acclaim continued, and thirteen more albums were released. Many singles made the charts and several received Grammy nominations. Among the memorable albums were: Close Up, College Concert, Something Special, Back In Town, #16 and New Frontier. In 1967 Nick, Bob and John disbanded the Trio to pursue individual careers. “Pop music tastes were changing” says Bob. “That whole rock revolution spread from San Francisco across the country and took a lot of our audience with it. But you know folk music is timeless, and I knew it would come around again.”
Bob recorded four singles for Decca, including Rod McKuen’s Simple Gifts & Bobby Russell’s Honey. Although Honey sold like hot cakes in two test markets, Decca failed to promote the record, and Bob declined to record Russell’s Little Green Apples. Both songs, of course, ultimately sold millions for Bobby Goldsboro. John went on to record with Buffy Ford on Capitol, and continued to write; his Daydream Believer was a million seller for the Monkees. He and Buffy also campaigned vigorously for Robert Kennedy. Nick hung up his guitar for a time and took up auto racing. In 1967 he moved with his family to Oregon, where he ranched, antiqued and pursued other diversions.
By 1968, Bob was eager to perform with a trio again. The New Kingston Trio featured Pat Horine and banjoist Jim Conner, accompanied by bassist Frank Passantino and drummer Frank Sanchez. The New Kingston Trio enjoyed renewed sucess, recording two albums, and adding new material to the KT repitoire. In 1973 Bob teamed up with Bill Zorn, formerly of The New Christy Minstrels, and North Carolinan Roger Gambill. Roger brought vocal talents to the group ranging from pop to operatic. His rendition of Danny Boy was never recorded, but got to be a regular request from the fans. In 1976 Bob & Roger teamed with George Grove, another North Carolinan who had written and performed in Nashville. George’s vocal and insturmental talents are unsurpassed in the Trio’s history, and it should be noted that the symphony shows – of which they perform many each year – are made possible by his orchestral arrangements.
For Trio fans, March of 1982 brought a magical television event when PBS broascast “The Kingston Trio and Friends Reunion.” Bob, Nick and Dave performed for the first time since 1961; Bob, Nick and John for the first time since 1967. Every member who had ever performed as part of The Kingston Trio appeared that night. Surely this was one of the most notable shows in Kingston history. Tommy Smothers hosted, while each former Trio member performed a memorable sampling. Although the Kingstons had played to many sold out stadiums, this was different. People had traveled from all over the country, and much of the “who’s who” of the music industry attended. Each generation of the Trio performed that night – to deafening applause. Long time Trio fanatic Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac played bass. Mary Travers graced the show by singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone… it was truly a pinnacle night for Kingston fans.
Shortly after this phenomenal event, Bob, Roger & George recorded 25 Years Non-Stop, faithfully reproducing the Trio’s biggest hits over the years. It was followed in January of 1983 by Looking For The Sunshine, a collection of new songs. The Trio was maintaining a busy concert schedule when suddenly in 1985 Roger died of a heart attack. Roger was a superb musician and outstanding humorist… his shoes would be hard to fill.
Enter Bob Haworth, a musician who had cut his musical teeth on Kingston material. Bob was with the Brothers Four & managed to fill in so that neither group missed any dates. Bob remained with the Trio for three years, then left to pursue his solo career. At this point, it seemed natural for the Trio to turn to the man who had helped forge the original, compelling Kingston sound more than thirty years earlier – Nick Reynolds. “It took me about 15 minutes to feel comfortable singing with the Trio again”, commented Reynolds. The Shane, Reynolds & Grove Trio enjoyed many years of sold out shows.
The close of the Twentieth Century saw change come again to the Kingston Trio, as Bobby Haworth returned following Nick’s second retirement. Nick’s last show with the Trio was performed December 2, 1999 in Scottsdale, Az. The Trio then continued on with Bob Shane, George Grove and Bobby Haworth for five years, playing to sold out audiences and garnering rave reviews wherever they went.
In March 2004, Bob Shane suffered a heart attack which has prevented him from returning to the road fulltime. Enter Bill Zorn, fresh from leaving the Limeliters, to rejoin the Trio and step in for Bob. Then in August 2005, Bobby Haworth left the group once again, and Rick Dougherty, also of the Limeliters, took over the spot. The addition of Rick’s beautiful voice has made the current lineup the most vocally complete group since the original days. The Kingston Trio today consists of Bill Zorn, George Grove and Rick Dougherty. They are continuing the Kingston Trio legacy with fantastic reviews, command performances and many standing ovations wherever they perform. As a fan put it, “our generation might not live forever, but I’ll bet The Kingston Trio will!”
at The Uptown Theatre
1350 Third Street
Napa, United States
FESTIVAL EN EL BARRIO with CALEXICO, GRUPO FANTASMA, SERGIO MENDOZA Y LA ORKESTRA, MEGAFAUN and more
Event on 2012-04-07 14:00:00
CALEXICO
Quasi-hosts of Night 4, Hometown heroes Calexico, become house band for the night, backing other artists and performing their own set of fine music. Let's pretend you don't know who they are and describe them here. There's always been intrigue and adventure at the heart of CALEXICO. Ever since they were a largely instrumental duo experimenting with their unique collection of instruments and soundtrack sensibilities, Joey Burns and John Convertino have constantly imbued their music with an unparalleled sense of drama, calling upon the myths and iconography of the American West and its Spanish speaking neighbor Mexico, equal parts Sergio Leone, Larry McMurtry, Carlos Fuentes and Cormac McCarthy. Naming themselves after a town near the California/Mexico border in honor of this cultural mélange, they've spent the eighteen years since they met in Los Angeles mapping out musical territory that had otherwise been neglected or at the very least considered the preserve of historians. CALEXICO's music has always mirrored Burns and Convertino's penchant for new experiences. From their intimate beginnings on Spoke, their dusty but highly evocative debut album for Germany's Haus Musik label, they've never shied away from embracing whatever inspires them. As their horizons have expanded, through both their relentless touring schedule and growing reputation, they have been able to call upon a growing community of collaborators and an ever-increasing familiarity with music from around the world, integrating both seamlessly into their idiosyncratic sound. Known for their ability to adapt to working with other musicians – from Nancy Sinatra to Neko Case- the cast on CARRIED TO DUST for example, includes Sam Beam, who appears on 'House Of Valparaiso', a furthering of their work together on Iron And Wine's breakthrough release In the Reins. Tortoise/Brokeback mainstay Douglas McCombs contributes to the ghostly sounds of album closer 'Contention City', and Pieta Brown lends her plaintive charms to 'Slowness', 'one of the album's few love songs', Burns admits. Amparo Sanchez (of Amparanoia, whose solo debut was recently recorded in Tucson with CALEXICO and who appeared on fourth album Garden Ruin) guests on 'Inpiración', while Jairo Zavala – another acclaimed Spanish artist to benefit from CALEXICO's production and playing skills on his forthcoming album – contributes to a number of tracks, including the upbeat opener 'Victor Jara's Hands'. Meanwhile, on 'Bend To The Road', Mickey Raphael – who CALEXICO met while working on the soundtrack to the acclaimed Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There – shows why his understated harmonica skills have not only earned him a place in Willie Nelson's band since the mid 1970s, but have also seen him work with the likes of U2, Emmy Lou Harris and Neil Young. 'The collaborative side to what we do is probably most recognizable on this album,' Burns states proudly. 'Over the years we've played on many people's albums and done remixes for groups like Goldfrapp, Arcade Fire and Gotan Project. I had this idea to do a straight up band album with all our members and then next, record an album where we back up a bunch of guests we've worked with in the past or who we'd always want to work with. The more I mentioned this idea, the easier it seemed to ask friends to sit in on current songs. All these distinctly different parts work in their own way to highlight the many aspects of our sound and feel. Whether from Barcelona, Berlin, Austin or Iowa City, there is a thread that flows through our music.' Of course CALEXICO these days is a band, something that became most apparent on their 2006 album Garden Ruin, when Burns and Convertino were joined by regular cohorts pedal steel player Paul Niehaus, Volker Zander (bass, upright bass) and multi-instrumentalists Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela (who also takes lead vocal for the first time on 'Inspiración' alongside Amparo Sanchez) for the writing and recording sessions. 'We knew we wanted to embrace some sweeping changes,' Burns recalls, 'and we wanted to experiment more with mixing in a different studio with a producer. We even asked a different artist to help with the artwork. There will always be that desire to move forward with this band. We rarely seek to repeat or return to formula.' They all bring creative ideas to the table, but there is a definite direction and aesthetic that John and I oversee throughout the whole process.' This final album is arguably CALEXICO's best recorded to date, one that reaches beyond their lo-fi roots without sacrificing any of the detail that has made them such a unique band.
GRUPO FANTASMA
The intrepid members of Grupo Fantasma have been doing things their own way for over a decade now, which continues with the highly anticipated and self-produced El Existential out May 11, 2010 on Nat Geo Music. An exceptional followup to their Grammy nominated Sonidos Gold (2008), this new effort's love for exploration using the sounds and fundamentals of traditional Latin styles is uniquely reminiscent of Fania Records; and GF, like Fania's staple of artists in its prime, has been on the corner long enough to not only be tough, resilient and self-assured, but also be mature enough to turn out top quality material repeatedly on its own terms. For El Existential the band opted to bypass the traditional studio route and installed a custom built facility in a three bedroom rental house in their hometown of Austin, Texas. Their goal: to immerse themselves in a collectively occupied homestead so they could create communally in a non-corporate, domestic atmosphere engineered to foster collaboration and experimentation. Special guests on the album include the legendary pianist Larry Harlow (who also appeared on Sonidos Gold) and guitar wizard Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets. Thematically, there are several references to web-spinning spiders which in Afro-Diasporic folkore is a trickster, a story-weaving teacher and above all a symbol of resourceful survival. Lyrics touch on sinners, seductresses, and self-searching, with a bit of spiritual advice, revenge, and reconciliation added for good measure. Musically, unraveling spools of cumbia, salsa, son montuno, Afro-funk, psychedelia, bolero, jazz, folkloric, cinematic soundtrack and even startling hints of new wave integrate naturally with the touch that only GF can provide. Every cut is animated with this rare analog spark that makes the whole thing warm and hand-made, especially in an era when so much Latin music is created in a teflon laboratory by robots pretending to be de la calle. The collective power of Grupo Fantasma is what makes this orchestra such a treat live. But their bundle of differences, that is itself an apt metaphor for the Latino experience in the USA, coheres quite well on El Existential. Expect delicacies on this record from incredible vocals to insane brass cavalcades, propulsive guitar and smoking percussion workouts. To enumerate all their individual charms would almost kill the collective thrill of first hearing the songs in sequence. Once you've heard El Existential, you'll realize it's so good that it's hard to keep quiet about it.
MEGAFAUN
Megafaun didn't need to record a thing during the first half of 2010. After all, 2009 had been a busy year, with four North American tours and an extended European run. Those trips supported the band's much-lauded second album, Gather, Form and Fly, praised by Rolling Stone for its "acoustic grace" and "clanging percussion," four-starred by the likes of SPIN and MOJO, and and declared "intriguing and heartfelt" in Pitchfork's 8.1 acclamation. And 2010 didn't look so lazy, either: Before the confetti could come down on the new decade, two North American treks were in the works, as well as a return to Europe in the spring and fall. Duke University had commissioned the band to record an expansive and expensive American roots music project, and Gayngs-the psychedelic soul supergroup on which the North Carolina trio had added drums, bass, keyboards and vocals-would demand at least a few of the year's finite weeks. But on a Monday morning in January, Megafaun started writing. Seven days later, they were in a proper recording studio for the first time-challenging themselves, challenging each other, challenging most everyone's notion about what Megafaun is and might be. The result is Heretofore, a six-song mini-album that finds the band both focusing their songs and stretching the limit of song itself. Driven by their experiences during the whirlwind of 2009, these 34 minutes, as fresh and revived as a Carolina spring morning, are something they felt they simply had to do. Good for us. Across its first two LPs-2008's Bury the Square on Table of the Elements and Gather, Form and Fly, the band's Hometapes debut-Megafaun did nothing if not test the boundaries of its comforts. Joe Westerlund and brothers Brad and Phil Cook (singers, songwriters, composers, arrangers and improvisers all) found rarified intersections between bedrock folk and howling drone, between primal blues and cascading feedback, between canyon rock and warped field recordings. Heretofore, a mini-album and Megafaun's third release in as many years, is yet another articulation of the band's evolved Americana vernacular. Rather than push the boundaries with sonic plundering or structural pillaging, however, Heretofore finds Megafaun pairing five of its most concise, communicative songs to date with its most challenging, compelling experiment ever, a radiant and redemptive 13-minute instrumental called "Comprovisation for Connor Pass." On the jangly pop rollick "Carolina Days," Phil Cook sings and smiles about the delights of new frontiers and old homesteads; on the gorgeous country drifter "Volunteers," Brad Cook guides two jilted lovers through their reasons to stay or leave. And on "Eagle," Westerlund leads the band through a playful monologue to his younger brother and sister. Lyrically silly, sweet and sincere, the song twists between the multidimensional movements of Phish, the ecstatic pulses of Megafaun collaborator Arnold Dreyblatt and the pure grit of Creedence Clearwater Revival. All of these tunes stare at the world with big, thoughtful, lyrical eyes and plant their flags with more immediacy than ever before. True to Megafaun form, the soundscape shifts once it all seems safe. But that sounds too deliberate: Megafaun spent months recording its first two LPs, squeezing in sessions in hot living rooms and cramped practice spaces between service-industry shifts. They made Heretofore in a series of instinctual bursts, thinking on the tape rather than thinking through the tape. The luxurious opening title track, for instance, was built from the first riff they stumbled upon during the opening day of rehearsals. Cantering and momentous, with rays of electronics filling the spaces between group vocals that stretch like rural routes, the tune was finished by nightfall. "Comprovisation" comes cut from the first 15 minutes of a four-hour improvisation recorded at the very start of these sessions. Megafaun added several layers and invited collaborators to contribute parts, but the core remains an unadulterated, instinctive moment-a statement of trust and communication, a union of familiarity and imagination. After more than three years of recording, touring and collaborating with Bon Iver, Akron/Family, The Dodos, Sharon Van Etten, Greg Davis and many more, it's Megafaun, wonderfully summarizing itself. Megafaun recorded Heretofore between January 12 and February 28 in Raleigh, N.C., at Flying Tiger Sound with BJ Burton. The music was mixed by BJ Burton and Megafaun and mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering. These six tracks feature, at various points, Robert "Crowmeat Bob" Pence on baritone saxophone, Mark Paulson on violin, Matt Watts on electric guitar, members of Slaraffenland on horns and a whole slew of pals on backing vocals. Megafaun is generally on tour. Megafaun will record a new LP later this year. Megafaun will remain forever restless.
SERGIO MENDOZA Y LA ORKESTRA
Sergio Mendoza y La Orkestra: It's a safe bet that most of us haven't heard the term "Indie Mambo" to describe a group before now, because such a style simply did not exist until young Sergio Mendoza invented it in late 2009, in Tucson, Arizona. The impetus? Mendoza was participating in an annual benefit event held at the world famous Club Congress, called 'The Great Cover-Up,' and had chosen the legendary Cuban bandleader Perez Prado as his coveree, as the rules of the event dictated. But combining that influence, as well as Cumbia and other Latin styles, with psychedelia-tinged rock music proved to be a formula that was extremely palatable, nay – savory, to Arizona music fans and Mendoza's fellow musicians.
at Barrio Viejo
198 West Cushing Street at the intersection of Meyer & Cushing.
Tucson, United States
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