Looking back
A parade of musical memories from the past 14 years
By Bliss 07/30/2009
Anniversary celebrations trigger waves of memory, and the PW’s big anniversary splash is no exception. As we’ve compiled this issue I’ve been remembering shows, festivals, artists and interviews from the past 14 years. I’ve also been flashing back to the Baked Potato, Roccoco, Wise Guys, Tommy Tang’s, Moose McGillicuddy’s, Domenico’s and Billy’s Dugout, Toe’s Tavern, One West, John Bull, Ron Stockfleth’s Acoustic Music concert series, the Loft, the fabled E-Bar … they’re all gone, and with them stages on which musicians regularly performed. That’s been a quantifiable loss for local artists and audiences.
In the years when I started covering the local music beat, the AllStars (soon to morph into Cid), the Congregation, Upstream, Dread Zeppelin, the Mystery Band, the Fattback Bluesman, Caustic, Anny Celsi’s band Annyland, the unstoppable Mercy & the Merkettes, Velouria, PayPer Dolls, Hillbilly Soul Surfers, Arlo, Holliston Stops, Ben Vaughn, Gwendolyn, the Syrups and then-PW Managing Editor Bill Evans’ band Rev. Bill & the Believers were among the bands dominating local club listings. Agent Orange bassist Sam Bolle was moonlighting in blues guitarist Lauren Ellis’ band. The E-Bar was a funky home-away-from-home for the Moore Brothers and their Rubber Band as well as inimitable emcee Maurice. Ricardo Lemvo had just begun to break nationally but he still occasionally returned to Roccoco, here he’d performed unknown for years. You could count on seeing Oingo Boingo’s Johnny Vatos at Sunday jams at odsworth’s (now Cheesecake Factory), and of course at AllStars/Cid shows at then-owner Art Jong’s Old Towne Pub — they were the unofficial house band (a role later taken over by Snotty Scotty & the Hankies).
Throughout the late 1990s, you could also count on Denise Cogan to organize lively reggae and soca nights with Upstream at omenico’s. Poncho Sanchez was a regular fixture at the Baked Potato. Tower Records was still in business and occasionally hosted live sets by bands like Quetzal (an early performance before the acclaim that’s since made the Highland Park ensemble one of the most promising bands to emerge from this area in the past two decades). Nuevo flamenco guitarist Jim Stubblefield was promoting his first solo albums with gigs at Bean Town and Kaldi’s, where he was seen by a former classmate who’d recognized his name in this column; they later married. Some bands have survived, and many individual musicians soldier on. The Donovan-
Muradian Quintet still holds court with their straightahead jazz Sunday nights at Buster’s. Tom Sauber fiddles regularly at contra dances at South Pasadena’s War Memorial Hall. AllStars/Cid bassist John Avila keeps busy producing and playing with various artists, including ocalist daughter Leila. Congregation frontman Kevin Sandbloom has remade himself as a soulman and is touring behind his latest lbum, “Under Pink and Bourbon Skies.” Debra Davis, Rick Shea and Tim Tedrow remain leading lights in the acoustic community (but David Zink’s moved to northern California). Bum Steers guitarist Ed Tree remains active, producing and playing with singersongwriters
like South Pasadena’s David Serby, while Bum Steers bassist Paul Marshall hooked up with guitarist Paul Lacques and frontman Rob Waller in I See Hawks in LA, who’ve added much to the canon of cosmic LA country-rock. Over the past couple of years it’s been ratifying to watch the Hawks mentor Old Californio, a next-generation band of classic-rockinfluenced musicians raised in and around pasadena.
Writing this column has blessed me with the opportunity to interview many exceptional artists, including R&B pioneers Don & Dewey, who were gracious and fun and walking history books. The Ash Grove’s Ed Pearl and Ice House/Coffee Gallery Backstage impresario Bob Stane shared decades of memories and hard show-biz lessons one wonderful afternoon. Afro-Peruvian diva Susana Baca spoke no English and I spoke no Spanish, so an interpreter introduced a third rhythm into our dialogue about Baca’s work preserving folk songs and rhythms in Peru. Also Doc Watson, Kris Kristofferson, Ralph Stanley, Jay Bennett, Mary Gauthier, Graham Nash, David Crosby, James Raymond, Dave Alvin, Eric Lowen & Dan Navarro, Eliza Gilkyson, Chris Smither, Gillian Welch, late LA jazz veteran Jimmie Maddin and late, lamented “FolkScene” host Howard Larman … all memories I prize.
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