The Jefferson Agrarian

“There are two types of folk music: quiet folk music and loud folk music.
I play both.” Dave Alvin

Live at the Cascade Theater on Thursday, June 25 – The legendary Dave Alvin brings his retinue to Redding for the first time! Opening for Alvin will be local faves The Jim Dyar Band.

From the Big Room in Chico’s website:

Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
Dave and six women musical superstars!! Tickets: $20
This show, without question, is my “can’t miss show of the Spring, Summer and maybe even the Fall!! Dave Alvin, the Grammy winning front man from the super group, The Blasters, returns again to the Big Room (yes, his last show was a “get your tickets early, total sell-out) for a one of a kind music event. Not only is Dave a fabulous singer/songwriter/guitarist but he also has to be one of the smartest guys on the planet. I mean….he’s traveling with six of the most talented women musicians playing today. I’m talking: Christy McWilson: vocals, Cindy Cashdollar: dobro, Nina Gerber: acoustic lead guitar, Laurie Lewis: fiddle, Amy Farris: fiddle, Sarah Brown: bass, Lisa Pankratz: drums, Suzy Thompson: accordion & mandolin. They were the talk of Hardy Strictly in S.F. last year and I’m proud to be able to present this show to the Big Room faithful. I mean….Cindy Cashdollar, Nina Gerber, Laurie Lewis….are you kidding me? Please, get your tickets early because when they’re gone…..they’re gone. And yes, the dance floor is open!

For additional information on Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women, please visit www.davealvin.net

The King of California
Dave and his older brother Phil grew up in a music-loving family in Downey, California. As teenagers, they regularly attended blues, rockabilly, and country night clubs where they saw performances by greats like T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, and Lee Allen, who later joined Dave and Phil in The Blasters.

In 1979 Dave and his brother formed roots rock group The Blasters with fellow Downey, California residents Bill Bateman and John Bazz. The Blasters became a sensation in Los Angeles and won an enthusiastic cult following across the United States and Europe. However, the Blasters were unable to translate their critical respect and enthusiastic fan base into mainstream success, and in 1986, Dave left the band.

Shortly after leaving the Blasters, Alvin joined X as lead guitarist after the departure of Billy Zoom. Alvin amicably left the group to work on a solo project shortly after the recording sessions for their album See How We Are. Dave is also a member of country band The Knitters (composed mainly of members of X), appearing on 1987’s Poor Little Critter on the Road and the 2005 follow-up, The Modern Sounds of The Knitters.

In the early 1980s Dave, along with fellow Blasters members Bill Bateman and Steve Berlin, performed on several albums with the Los Angeles punk band The Flesh Eaters. These albums are considered precursors to what is now called “deathrock”.

Dave Alvin also played with the band The Gun Club briefly, playing guitar on “Eternally Is Here” & “The Stranger in Our Town” from the 1984 album, The Las Vegas Story.

Alvin’s first solo album, entitled Romeo’s Escape in the United States and Every Night About This Time in England, added a purer country influence along with a larger side-portion of the blues; while the album was critically well received, it didn’t fare well in the marketplace, and Alvin was dropped by his American record label, Columbia. Alvin suffered health problems which sidelined him for a while, except for a wild tour with friends Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana as the Pleasure Barons, which was described as “a Las Vegas revue from acts who aren’t going to be asked to play Vegas”. (A live album was released of a second Pleasure Barons tour in 1993.)

In 1989, Dwight Yoakam scored a hit on the country charts with Alvin’s song “Long White Cadillac”, and Alvin used the royalties to start work on his second solo set, Blue Blvd. Released by the California-based roots-music label Hightone Records in 1991, Blue Blvd received enthusiastic reviews and sold well enough to re-establish Alvin as a significant artist in the roots rock scene.

After releasing Museum of Heart in 1993, Alvin began to turn his attention to acoustic music with 1994’s King of California, and over the next several years Alvin moved back and forth between hard-edged roots rock and more introspective acoustic material that still honored his influences (and allowed him to display a greater range as a vocalist).

In 2000, Alvin recorded a collection of traditional folk and blues classics, Public Domain: Songs From the Wild Land, which earned him a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

When not busy recording his own music, Alvin has also worked as a producer for several other roots-oriented acts, including Chris Gaffney, Tom Russell, the Derailers, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, as well as collaborating with rockabilly legend Sonny Burgess. As a sideman, Alvin has recorded sessions with the likes of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Little Milton, Katy Moffatt, and Syd Straw.

Dave has had at least two books of poetry published: Any Rough Times Are Now Behind You and Nana, Big Joe & the Fourth of July. His poetry has appeared in Caffeine, the A.K.A. Review, Rattler, Asymptote and Enclitic. It has also appeared in the following anthologies: Nude Erections, Hit And Run Poets, and Poetry Loves Poetry–An Anthology of Los Angeles Poets.

He appeared as “Dave” in the movie Border Radio (1987), and as “Chauffeur” in Floundering (1994). He also appeared in Streets of Fire (1984) with The Blasters.

Your Jefferson Agrarian is taking a blog break – we’ll be back!

At 7:00 PM this Friday, March 27, Mark Oliver and Kim Merlino welcome all to the screening of the film Viajero and the CD release of East Edge of the Milky Way at the Liberty Arts Gallery in Yreka.

Viajero (2008)
“I awoke in the damp of pine needles, I witnessed today a sign from the earth. I had not yet used any tobacco. I acquainted myself with this messenger soon enough. I began to work with this energy and release the pressure from the land. I felt like a child does when she plays with the spirits. I consumed them, and listened to a language I did not know – yet I understood this message, I must depart.”
Casey Whirl, Viajero

Viajero, a film by Mark Oliver, opened at Galeri­a Tom¡s Ch¡vez Morado at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico in December 2008. A fifty-five minute experimental narrative shot in Siskiyou County and the high desert near Susanville, California follows a traveler, through the terrains and landscapes many of us here in Shasta will recognize.

Oliver began thinking about the project four years ago while wanting to make a film about the poet Joaquin Miller. “I wanted to capture the wandering artistic spirit of Miller when he was around Mt Shasta in the late 1800s and as the script developed it took on more of an experimental feel.”

Oliver worked primarily with Casey Whirl developing ideas and content and many times it was just Oliver and Whirl in the field doing the acting and shooting. Other important characters show up in Viajero, played by Brian Santos of Mt. Shasta and Mac Magill of French Creek. To complete the film, Kim Merlino put together a remarkable original soundtrack.

East Edge of the Milky Way (2009)
Kim Merlino’s latest musical release, “owes its birth to our life under the Mount Shasta sky. Take a minute to picture in your mind the amazing beauty of our home in Mount Shasta. Visualize the sky above you and feel the expansive eons of our galaxy. Take a deeper breath, and travel to the “East Edge of The Milky Way”. From this point in our starry universe allow yourself to be led and dissolve into the musical opportunity you are hearing. Allow your heart to open. As you know…Music has always been a wonderful tool for traveling on the inner journey and the music from the “East Edge” is a calculated risk that you can expand and open to a new and spacious inner vista.

---

Mark Oliver is an artist and writer who received his MFA from UC San Diego. His films and video installations have been exhibited in the US and abroad, some venues include: Los Angeles Film Festival, ART CONCEPT, St. Petersburg, Russia, Instituto de America, Santa Fe, Spain, Cold Creation, Barcelona, Spain, TNT, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, Tekfest,
Rome Italy, Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM, American Center, Paris, France.

---

Kim Merlino, a multi-instrumentalist, began his musical journey in the early 1960’s training in classical piano. In the late 60s he began playing guitar and experimenting with electronic music in rock bands. Since then his training and experiences have led him to study a variety of instruments including piano, banjo, mandolin, sitar, and guitar. His current favorite instrument is his sampling keyboard.

In 2008 Kim released “5 Buddhas Full Moon”, a meditative CD written in the “Ethno Asian” ambient style. His newest release (March 2009) is called “East Edge of the Milky Way” and is a combination of atmospheric electronica and acoustic sounds.

---

7:00PM, Friday, March 27th, Liberty Arts, Yreka

If one is seeking diversions from the headlines of war and unrest in today’s world, the 2009 Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s staging of William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” may not be your cup of tea. But if your love of theater resides in it’s undeniable imitation of life, then this riotous and upsetting production will most certainly resonate.

Shakespeare’s famous tragedy has been performed in film and theater by some of the world’s most famous actors since he wrote the play (probably between 1603-1607.) OSF’s cast for this staging is definitely up to the challenge. Many of us unfamiliar with the ways of theater don’t realize that many believe the play Macbeth is cursed, and will not mention its name aloud. It is thus often referred to as “The Scottish Play.”

Gale Edward’s direction is flawless. Lead actor Peter Macon anchors the show with his embodiment of the title role, and from his first uttered lines (“so foul and fair a day I have not seen”) he fascinates us with his intensity as he crosses the line into tyranny and madness. As Lady Macbeth, Robin Goodrin Nordli delivers a riveting performance of a wife driving her husband toward greatness, only to break down mentally and physically as she recognizes the barbarian her husband morphs into.

The supporting players also fascinate, especially Rex Young’s rendering of the martyred Banquo. His ghostly and bloody reappearance, which becomes the main impetus for Macbeth’s descent into madness, is quite memorable. The Three Witches (Robynn Rodriguez, Perri Gaffney and K.T. Vogt) are anything but comical as frightening scepters and prophesiers of doom.

The only comic relief (and welcome it is) comes offered by the Porter, ably played by Josiah Phillips, who appears a bit drunk as he enters to open the gate to the castle and utters, “Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key.” Then, rather than turning the key and opening the gate, he laughingly describes certain people he might welcome into hell.

As usual, OSF’s set designers create an environment that appears simple, but delivers as each scene changes. The lighting was perfect and on cue, as was the sound. The choice of costumes, especially in the Act I scenes around Duncan, were a bit distracting in their subtle and unnecessary references to Nazi SS officers. My preference would have been for a more benign representation, but the distraction was minor as the powerful acting held sway.

“Macbeth” is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, and this performance runs about two hours and ten minutes, with an intermission. While I wouldn’t recommend it for families with small children, it is certainly no more bloody and violent than most cinematic and television offerings. If I were introducing a teenager to Shakespeare, this would be the perfect performance to do so. I bought tickets the day of the performance via their handy online service, and many good seats were still available. This could be due to our economic woes, or could be typical for OSF this early in the season.

“Macbeth” is performed in the Angus Bowmer Theatre, designed by Richard L. Hay, for whom the 2009 season is dedicated. The Bowmer really doesn’t have a bad seat in the house. The performance runs at OSF from February 13 through November 1.

For more reviews of OSF’s 2009 performances, check out Jim Dyar at Food for Thought.