Hicks with Sticks
San Francisco Bay Area Twang Calendar Highlights
Bands / Clubs |
Sun Feb 10: Irelands 32 CalAmericana Association
showcase/benefit with Jenny Kerr, Starlene, Burning Embers, Axton Kinkaid, J Byrd Hosch Trio, Yard Sale and special guests. |
Full Calendar |
BIG BOOST IN TWANG-FRIENDLY CLUBS
San Francisco and the East Bay have three new twang venues thanks to the return of Benders in SF, and new ownership at both Ireland's 32 in SF and the Uptown in Oakland. There's
also good news from on-going clubs including Sweetwater in Mill Valley, the 23 Club in Brisbane, and the Rickshaw Stop in SF.
Bender's, at 19th and S. Van Ness in
SF's Mission District, had been gutted by fire in 2005; now the doors are open and the bands are playing. Bender's has booked everything from Americana stalwarts Jimbo Trout and the Fish People
to post-punkers the Crosstops. Their calendar hasn't really kicked in yet, but the menu has and it's not burgers and pizza. Find the bar and their exotic, but beer-friendly, menu at www.bendersbar.com/menu.html
.
"Ireland's 32" is a nationalist slogan calling for the unification of Ireland's 26
counties with the six northern counties controlled by Britain. The club wore its politics on its sleeve, right down to the pictures of dead Irish heroes on the club's
green walls. Fortunately, new owner Peter Cooper has toned down the politics and turned up the music. The unsinkable Misisipi Mike Wolf, man of
1000 bands, will be booking twang there on Sundays having kicked the new series off in December with his newest band, the Country Squires. Ireland's
32's site is still coming up to speed, but find what's there at www.irelands32sanfrancisco.com.
The Uptown
in Oakland has been purchased by the owners of the Blank Club in San Jose (and not a moment too soon). The news couldn't be better for the East Bay which lost traction when the Ivy Room
went disco. The Uptown had been one of the worst managed clubs in the Bay Area. It was completely lacking in identity, bands got put through many wringers, and only the desperate seemed
get booked. The beauty of the Blank Club, San Jose/Uptown, Oakland alliance is that touring bands can play San Jose and Oakland on back-to-back nights. Look for Big Sandy and Deke Dickerson
playing SJ and Oaktown in January. Find who is playing at www.uptownnightclub.com/Calendar.html.
The Sweetwater in Mill Valley which had lost its lease in September has moved around the corner. It will be roomier and better while maintaining the funky atmosphere of old. Www.sweetwatersaloon.com... The 23 Club in Brisbane actually closed for a month in late 2007 to work out some liquor licensing issues. They're back in full swing having staged
Jesse Dayton in December and with Little Sister and the Road Zombies Car Club party, January 11-12. Www.myspace.com/the23club
... The Rickshaw Stop on Fell at Van Ness in SF drew a good crowd for a Monday night Red Meat/ Eilen Jewell/Axton Kinkaid show. It looks like they want more in '08. Www.rickshawstop.com.
GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A LAWYER
Let's keep the irony in Christmas.
Ask Bay Area Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and musician Elmo Shropshire about the high cost of good fortune and you'll probably
get an exasperated answer. "Dr. Elmo" sang "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" in 1979. By 1984 it had reached the coveted million sales mark. In 1996 he signed a cartoon licensing deal with
Fred Rappoport Company and in 1997 Rappoport licensed another company to make a toy reindeer that sang the song. Shropshire sued saying that Rappoport had a right
to its cartoon characters, but no rights to re-market the song. In 2003, an appellate judge agreed, ruling in favor of Dr. Elmo.
Rappoport seems to be at it again, licensing the song, along with cartoon
characters to two companies that make a variety of Christmas doodads. This moved Shropshire's attorney to send cease and desist orders to Rappoport's
new licensees. Now Rappoport, citing a 2004 settlement agreement with Shropshire, is suing him for sending out the cease and desist orders.
If Shropshire "won" in 2003, why does Rappoport get to break the agreememt in essentially the same way in 2007 and then sue Shropshire for being upset about
it? Well, maybe it's because every year China graduates 1,000,000 scientists and 40,000 attorneys while America graduates 40,000 scientists and 1,000,000 attorneys.
Find the Dr. Elmo-produced "Grandma" video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPaGQEskSKM and Da Yoopers' "Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck" parody at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3rheWst1tE&feature=related. |
9th SF BLUEGRASS AND OLD-TIME FESTIVAL The 9th annual
San Francisco Bluegrass and Old Time Festival will be coming to clubs throughout the Bay Area from February 1 thruogh 9. David Grisman and Peter Rowan headline this year's
festival which includes jams, workshops, dances, kid's shows, and now film.
The festival promises to be more fun than its politics which began in earnest after last year when a group of 20 volunteer
reformers gathered to open SFBOT to new ideas. Technically, the Northern California Bluegrass Association owns the festival and has since its beginning, but NCBS does not involve itself in the
festival's organization. Festival management is done by an autonomous SFBOT Board, but in reality that Board is controlled by one band with support from hard-working booker and promoter Shelby Ash.
Booking over 60 bands at 18-20 venues is an invitation to problems. A show can be double-booked, a band's transportation can break down, a sound
system can give out, and so on. Anything that went wrong seemed to fall, often unfairly, on Ash. Never mind the 20-30 things that went right for each thing that went wrong. Still, many came to see
The Music Store, which Ash owns, as having a higher profile at the festival than NCBS.
This, along with other problems, inspired a reform movement but it was one that
failed almost as quickly as it flared. The volunteers fled as the incumbents made it clear that they were not about to change much of anything, least of all the
plum booking they always provide for themselves. A look at the SFBOT schedule will reveal which band has placed its self-interest above those of the
festival and NCBS because this year they've treated themselves to two plum gigs instead of the usual one. Think of them as taking a victory lap.
Meanwhile, enjoy the SFBOT Festival for the good time that it is. One of the things the festival has going for it is that it is the best showcase of local
acoustic Americana in the talent-rich Bay Area. It's way ahead of Hardly Strictly in its catering to our homeboys and homegirls. It's also going strong in
its ninth year, so even one self-serving band can't be messing it up all that much.
Www.sfbluegrass.org.
"LOOK WHAT THEY DONE TO OUR AIRWAVES, MA"
 In 2004 the Federal Communications Commission
set off a firestorm because of its support for greater media consolidation. This issue even brought the fractious left and right together in opposition to greater "cross-ownership" among broadcasters.
The FCC, not wishing to bow to the will of the people forever, pushed right back and, with little fanfare or discussion, loosened cross-ownership regulations between broadcast and print media.
Www.mediainfocenter.org/story.asp?story_id=113041158 has the story, and a
same old story it is. The charge was led by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a "big media" yes-man to the bone. Study after study has singled out lack of diversity
of opinion as the biggest problem in mass media, but the scary part is that people are growing to like it that way. A Pew study revealed that more than
half of the under 30 demographic prefer their news editorialized to their points of view.
Corporate news has long been what it is, but what about public broadcasting?
The problem with PBS is that it has been under-funded since the '80s. For an eye-opener, see www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/=global where the pittance we provide to PBS is exposed.
Between media consolidation and PBS evisceration, it's difficult to see how our
Federal Communications Commission could be doing any more to disenfranchise the public from the airwaves and stifle the flow of information.
ALL THE NEWS THAT PRINTS IN FITS
The CalAmericana Association is having its first benefit at Ireland's 32 on February 10th. It will be a showcase with members of the Jenny Kerr Band, Starlene, Misisipi Rider, Axton Kinkaid, Burning Embers
and more who have volunteered for the cause.
Www.CalAmericana.org... DRM, the copy protection scheme placed on the on-line distribution of MP3 music files, will die
out by the end of 2008 if trends continue. Sony, once a big booster of DRM, is quietly releasing parts of its massive catalog without it. Warner Music Group,
another of the Big Four labels, plans to offer its entire catalog on Amazon without DRM. On-line powerhouse iTunes has distanced itself from copy protection, a process also underway at Napster
... The Royal Deuces will feature some Bay Area all-stars on their second CD due out in February before the band tours Europe... Fatherhood has struck the Shut-Ins once again as Mike Roper
welcomed his first, 11-pounder Edward Kim Roper, into the world... Christina Therberge's yet to be named band has grown from a trio
to a quintet with the addition of drums and electric guitar. They're rehearsing and getting ready to cut a demo... The Bay Area's www.GuitarsNotGuns.org is a one-of-a-kind organization that provides
guitar lessons to foster kids and other high risk youngsters. "No child turned away due to lack of funds." It's a worthy cause indeed... |
