The Bands

These SF Bay Area bands and solos are listed by the first letter of their name.
Look for Emily Bonn & the Vivants under “E” rather than “B”, for example.

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77 el Deora features an urban alt-country sound powered by Jenn Courtney‘s vocals and the songwriting and telecaster of band leader Maurice Tani. They can rock things up, yet Courtney and Tani also perform as an acoustic duo.

The B-Stars are a C/W band with a mix of twangin’ covers and originals that has kicked into a higher gear since adding Mikiya Matsuda on steel guitar. Greg Yanito fronts the band while Eric Reedy contributes on stand-up bass and vocals.

The Bachelors play vintage rock and rockabilly every Monday at The Saloon in North Beach. This is San Francisco’s go-to gig for live music on a Monday night. The Bachelors – Brent Byners on bass and Jinx Jones on guitar – have been doing it for almost 20 years and they still deliver.

Big B and his Snakeoil Saviors serve a tasty mix of western boogie and swing, usually as an eight-piece band with Big Ben Buettner and Adrienne Pfeiffer sharing vocals, plus a piano and two horns.  David Phillips plays steel.  They also play in a stripped-down configuration for lo-fi gigs.

The Bolos are Don Burnham‘s four-piece country band.  Best known for his Lost Weekend big band, he has been writing more of his own material and sometimes needs to travel faster and lighter to perform it, as the low-overhead Bolos allow.

The Bootcuts are back with a new guitarist: one who lives in the Bay Area rather than Washington state (taking a lot of pressure off booking).  The triple-threat, all-female front line of Cristal Guderjahn, Meg Ryan and Lori Hersey keep their alt-country festivities moving.

Blue Diamond Fillups are a rockabilly 4-piece featuring Flash Ricketts on vocals with Jonnie Zaentz on lead guitar. Usually fast and furious, they can take a breather on songs like “This Magic Moment”.  The band also produces some excellent videos including “Drive Like Lightening Crash Like Thunder” which features vintage wheels tearing up the track while the BDF’s tear up the song.

Bluenotecats are a 3-piece rockabilly band that plays primarily in Sonoma and Napa counties.  The band’s leader, Dalton Piercey, also produces the annual Rockabilly Roundup in the North Bay counties, a one-day Fall event that includes bands, vintage cars and other necessities of rockabilly life.

Brothers Comatose are a 5-piece band that play their own DIY style of hard-driving acoustic Americana influenced by Wilco, bluegrass, the Rolling Stones, and the California dream.  Founded by brothers Ben and Alex Morrison, this relatively new band has been rocketing up the food chain with tours, festival appearances and fans coming from everywhere.  They cover the Stones’ “Dead Flowers” in this video recorded at Hardly-Strictly Bluegrass.

 The Buckshot Boys are (were?) a promising North Bay acoustic trio.  Unfortunately not much has been heard from them in 2011, and their web presence is a minimal MySpace page.  What’s really going on with the Buckshot Boys is a mystery at this writing, but all will be known eventually.

The Chop Tops are a hard-rocking rockabilly trio with Gary “Sinner” Marsh on lead vocals/stand-up drums, and Shelby Legnon blazing away on his green Gretch.  They have a strong catalog and one that’s surprisingly varied; no rockabilly ghetto for these boys.  Anchored in the present with strong respect for the past, Marsh lets the band’s audiences know that’s how it is, then rocks ‘em.

Chrome Johnson, which calls its style “junkabilly,”  has been around over a decade sometimes keeping under the radar for months on end.  Frontman Danny Uzilevsky keeps busy with his weekly songwriters’ night at 19 Broadway in Fairfax and by playing guitar in Rusty Evans and Ring of Fire.  Never a band to promote itself, Chrome Johnson has been known to materialize on a rare Fairfax Saturday night, or play a benefit car show, but otherwise they keep to themselves.

The Coburns lifted themselves from the ashes of King Cab, a hoppin’ San Leandro alt-country band that nobody got to hear much of.  Hopefully The Coburns will escape the same fate.  Jason Hammon and Katy Stephan front the band, which has picked up where King Cab left off; new and improved with female vocals in the mix.  And exactly where is San Leandro?  According to The Coburns, just drive around the East Bay until you find an number of houses whose owners have replaced their front lawns with rocks.

The Cottonpickers are one of Mitch Polzack‘s many and, along with the Royal Deuces, one of his most consistent endeavours.  That’s the way it’s gonna be with his better half, Laura Benitez, sharing his life and the stage.  The band is semi-regular at Ashkenaz dance shows and played on Laura Benitez’s solo recording.

 Country Casanovas play country and 50′s R&R covers, favoring the honky-tonk side of country.  Norm Collins fronts the band and Emily Hayes adds vocals from the distaff side.  Try not to make too much eye contact with Collins during their performance stince he will take that as a sign that you want to be the band’s manager.

The Cowlicks, who have never been know for line-up stability, are the alt-country band Todd Novak.  The band received a best California country band award in 2004, and continued playing some rockin’ shows and festivals and notably Cafe DuNord, but little has been heard from them lately since bassist Mike Anderson joined forces with 5-6 other bands.  Novac has had his quite times before, but sooner or later he’s got a bunch of new songs and the Cowlicks spring back to life.

The Dave Crimmen Band is a rockabilly and vintage rock trio fronted by Big Daddy “D,” pictured here on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame stage at Viva Las Vegas.  A word to the wise is not to yell “Freebird” during their show because Big Daddy knows every agonizing minute of it.  DCB has the largest CD catalog of anyone on this page, and while his CDs are all original tunes, his shows feature mainly covers from vintage performers who he has admired for years.

Devil Makes Three is by far the most commercially successful band on this page, claiming a world-wide following, and with good reason.  Frontman Pete Bernhard, leads this Americana trio and writes most of the songs.  Stand-up bassist Lucia Turino and multi-instrumentalist Cooper McBean make this a band of all solid players.  DM3 also provides a good example of how to sell big without selling out.

Emily Bonn & the Vivants resist classification by drawing on music from across the Americana spectrum.  They can be at home sharing stages with singer-songwriters, country or bluegrass bands while they play as an acoustic quartet with guitar, accordion, fiddle and stand-up bass.

The Fancy Dan Band is more than just a wardrobe.  This Americana band’s sound seems to come from nowhere in particular and from everywhere in general.  Dan Nordheim fronts the band, writes the songs and sets its standards of haute coiture.  It comes as a surprise to many that Dan is a preacher’s son.  Doubtless dad did not pray for this.

 Gayle Lynn & the Hired Hands is the outlet for music teacher Gayle Lynn Schmitt’s songwriting and singing.  She also has a children’s music band, the Toodala Ramblers, and can be found every December adding to the festivities at Shut-Ins Xmas shows.  As for country weepers, she’s got ‘em, like this.

The GoldDiggers started out as a rockin’ country six-piece, but stripped down to a three-piece in 2011.  Fronted by Ted O’Connell, the band still gets rocking when the occasion calls. Their debut CD was recorded with the sextet so the band comes in two flavors: live and recorded.  Little has been lost in the new power trio incarnation.

Hang Jones‘s newest line-up has been in place for a few years and it appears to be generating some alt-Americana energy as it evolves rapidly.  Their video of “Fishin’ Blues” provides a snapshot of what the band is about these days.

Shows seem to be few and far between for the vintage rockabilly band Hilary Marckx & 45-90.  This Sonoma County band draws on Carl Perkins, Sleepy La Beef, Johnny Burnett and like-minded early rockers for their inspiration.  Their name (.45-90) comes from a black powder cartridge introduced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company  in 1877, technology which by that time made muzzle loaders obsolete and western movies possible.

Jay Lingo fronts a country group that’s doing well in and around Santa Cruz.  We haven’t seen much of the band north of the Santa Clara county line and hopefully that will change.  In the meantime here’s a video so peeps who aren’t from Santa Cruz can know what to expect.

Jeanie and Chuck’s Country Roundup is a versatile band, equally at home with country or bluegrass, and can change gears to suit their audience.  Jeanie and Chuck Poling are strong supporters of roots Americana, hosting bluegrass jams every first Wednesday at Plough and Stars and producing shows at the cozy Velo Rouge Cafe in SF.

The Jenny Kerr Band is the collaboration of musical partners Jenny Kerr and Philbillie Milner.  This alt-country band isn’t afraid to show its blues influences.  Kerr, who writes most of the material, can belt ‘em out when the need arises.

Jinx Jones & the KingTones is a rockabilly/honky tonk trio.  The guitar is the key to understanding this band as Jones, a.k.a., The Professor, can really deliver the goods on the ol’ six-string.  Whisky Pills plays bass and Jamie Lease plays drums.

 Joe Goldmark & the Seducers is a vintage honky-tonking quartet that plays every third Sunday at the Riptide in SF.  Joe Goldmark‘s pedal steel defines the band, which doesn’t phase guitarist Hank Manniger or anyone else on lead vocals, including the band’s many friends, who might show up any time.

Kit & the Branded Men. You’ve got to hand it to Christina “Kit” Lopez. This is her first band and she’s done a fine job of growing it into a honky-tonking quartet. She and her musical partner Glen Earl Brown Jr. are deep into the Bakersfield sound, but aren’t afraid to pick it up with a rockabilly tune or bring it down with a weeper. Check out their regular shows at Speisekammer in Alameda where you never know who’ll be sitting in next.

The Heel Draggers is another honky-tonking band that’s gaining new fans with every performance. Ayelet ” Lady A” Arbuckle can put a song into vocal overdrive when the need arises, and she also knows how to pull back. This home-grown video provides a taste of what the band can do.

Lariats of Fire have restarted after a long hiatus following the loss of their original drummer. Jason Greenwald and Peter Marietta are up front, singing, playing and writing most of the four-piece’s songs which tend to be more about urban experiences than cows, trucks and drinking. Well, maybe not the drinking.

The Lonestar Retrobates are an 9-piece western swing band headed by “Nicknaming” Milos  Sonka (vocals, guitar, pedal steel, fiddle) and featuring Bryan “The Other One” Adams and Emily Bonn-”Vivant” on vocals.  They play cowjazz, honky-tonk, bop, swing and whatever else they can get away with as long as people are hittin’ the dance floor.

Loretta Lynch doesn’t play much owing to its members’ commitments to jobs, parenthood and the other distractions of life.  This alt-country collective – Heather Davison, Val Esway and Ari Fellows-Mannion, in order at the right of the picture – deliver the songs, most of which they write.  They’re working on a new CD due late 2011/early 2012.

Los High Tops fashions it self a Santa Cruz rockabilly & surf band which, to split a fine hair, differs from surfabilly.  This trio plays songs in both styles without a lot of attention to fusing them together.   Check out their 30 second ad, which is undoubtedly the coolest ad ever for a hotel discount site, and talk about stretching a tight ad budget!

Los Train Wreck play a special type of show every second Tuesday at El Rio in SF.  Kathi Kamen Goldmark, also of Don’t Quit Your Day Job Records, and her musical partner Sam Barry, along with an all-pro line-up, host a live band karaoke night that features just plain folks who want to sing a song, as well as many of the musicians from bands on this page who are trying out new material or want to do songs that don’t fit with their regular groups.  Have you signed up yet?

Lost Weekend boasts a line-up that varies between 7-15 members plus who knows how many friends of bandleader Don Burnham that show up to play.  Along with Burnham, Pam Branden (Belle Monroe & her Brewglass Boys) sings Cindy Williams and beyond in their mix of cow jazz/bop/swing tunes.  Their shows at Little Switzerland, a throwback Sonoma restaurant with a dance floor, have the HWS Seal of Approval.

Big Vic Estrella (Big Mistake, SF Cattle Co.), currently of Mandatory Merle, tells Hicks with Sticks this is a new band he’s joined.  Day jobs and lives have made them slow starters, but little by little they’re building audiences.  It’s Big Vic’s Tex-Mex-flavored accordion that gets them every time.

Midnight Trio might be laboring in Livermore, Visailia and other Bay Area outlands, but that didn’t stop this rockabilly trio from playing Viva Las Vegas or releasing their first CD in 2011.  Brian Covey fronts the band while Matt Olivares (bass) and brother Mike Covey (drums) hold down the bottom end.

Misisipi Mike & the Players to Be Named Later is not really the name of Mike Wolf’s latest band, it’s just that bands form and dissolve around him so quickly that Hicks with Sticks can’t keep up.  He founded a half a dozen or so that came and went in 2010 alone.  Misisipi Mike & the Midnight Gamblers is the latest.  Mike tells HWS that he made the players sign affidavits and then confiscated their passports to keep them around.  He’s got some good country songs, so check him out in whatever configuration you find him.

Apparently they didn’t get the memo about the Patsy joke, “How many female singers does it take to sing “Crazy”? (Apparently all of them.)  They’re new and they’re The Patsychords, a band that has formed around singer Margaret Belton to deliver Patsy Cline and more.  Despite their name, they are not purely a Cline tribute band, but she’s their starting point.

Pine Box Boys songs are about someone dying, someone who did die or someone who will die.  Sometimes they kill off several people in the same song.  Well, what else should we expect from a band named after a cheap coffin?  Lester T. Raww fronts the group along with his soul mate Possum Carvidi.  The entire concept might sound like a one trick pony, but their best trick has been to rise above that through strong playing.  The front line also takes the stage as Possum & Lester, not as a duo, but as another band (more below).

The Plain High Drifters specialize in ’70′s country, mining the era’s gems and bringing them to the stage.  There’s top musicianship with vocal horsepower to spare in this band.  Smelley Kelley (Red Meat) handles most of the vocals.  Tom Armstrong (Jukebox Cowboys) and Eric Embry (Burning Embers) pitch in.

The Polka Cowboys are well-established at the most unlikely hillbilly music venue in the Bay Area, and possibly the world.  Find them at Champa Thai, which does have a nice stage, PA and dance floor, and is located in an El Sobrante strip-mall, just up the road from Richmond.  Thai food, dancing and hillbilly music — y’gotta love the Bay Area for treasures like this.

Contrary to its name, Possum & Lester isn’t a duo; it’s a band fronted by Possum Carvidi and Lester T. Raww of the Pine Box Boys.  The Pine Box Boys are dedicated to murder songs, so they needed a Possum & Lester band in order to perform their songs about drinkin’, druggin’, and wenchin’.  Who says these boys can’t grow?

Porkchop Express started out as a few pals kicking back and drinking beer at frontman Collin Conoley‘s place.  The next thing they knew they were an alt-country band playing gigs and making CDs.  The rumor that they had been kidnapped by Muslim extremists for being the Great Satan’s pork band, and that upon receiving the ransom demand, their families responded, “Keep ‘em!” is false, according to Conoley who has returned safely, remains active as ever, and is working on a new CD.

Quarter Mile Combo is one tight rockabilly quartet.  Nettie Hammar, who sang in the Mighty Slim Pickins, fronts the band while Justin Barr (guitar), Todd Troublemaker (bass) and Gary Daly (drums) kick out the tunes.  They’re actually dressed for a Halloween party in this picture, though Mr. Troublemaker (right) is wearing his everyday clothes, including the beer.

Red Meat, which has been together for well over a decade, plays high-cholesterol honky-tonk.  Scott Young writes most of the songs with Jill Olson adding a few of her own.  Both sing and both have turned songs over to frontman Smelley Kelley for the “Smelley Touch” (not available in any store).

The RevTones are a hard-driving rockabilly trio from Fremont.  Randy Schmidt fronts the band and writes most of the songs.  Marcus “Hot Rod” Edell keeps the beat on the biggest, baddest, bluest drum-kit is all of rockabilly.  Alan Parks holds steady on stand-up bass.  Checkout their songs, photos and more on their well-maintained MySpace page.

The RoundUps are a new band fronted by Loraine Belmonte, who was last seen in the bygone Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s.  They feature an old-school country sound that harkens back to the 1950s and ’60s.  Shirts with smiley pockets, blue jeans and boots are always welcome at Roundups shows.

Royal Deuces are the rockabilly incarnation of the versatile Mitch Polzack.  He also plays in bluegrass, Cajun/zydeco, swing and country, but is careful to keep each style to its own band rather than working them into one.  His rockabilly trio features a mix of rockin’ covers and originals with a country-ish track or two just to mix things up.

Half of The Rumble Strippers, Roxanne Ciccone (stand-up bass) and Eden Heartattack (drums), emerged from the Mighty Slim Pickins to form this quartet.  This has been a fairly recent event, and for now the band’s website is just a home page.  They do have a Facebook page which can be found via that home page which is linked to here.

Rusty Evans & Ring of Fire.  True, Rusty Evans can out-Johnny Johnny Cash, and deliver all of the crowd pleasers.  Still, it’s not quite right to count them as just a tribute band.  RoF’s CD releases have been all original material.  Guitarist Danny Uzilevski is this band’s secret weapon as audiences listen to the color he adds to familiar songs.

The Saddle Cats are four western swing pros.  Band leader Richard Chon swings one of the meanest fiddles around.  Bobby Black is in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame for a good reason.  Their line-up also features Gordon Clegg on guitar and Bing Nathan, who has played with everyone from The Saddlecats to famed conductor/composer Igor Stravinski, on stand-up bass.

Shitkickers are a one-of-a-kind Americana band, with attitude having as important a role as music among the band and its fans.  They maintain a solid bottom end with electric base and drums layered by electric and acoustic instruments up front.  Brian Christian is a real presence delivering their rockin’, twangin’ tunes with the gusto that lets the band live up to its name.

Wherefore the Shut-Ins? America’s finest hulabilly band hasn’t been playing much with family-man business coming on frontmen John Poultney and Mike Roper.  But they have gotten back to practicing, Roper’s distraction in Cheetahs on the Moon has changed to a newer and, happily, a more focussed venture called The Verms.  As winter nears, keep an eye out for their Christmas shows at places like The Riptide or Bazaar Cafe where they put on a show with the only Xmas music that people who are tired of Xmas songs can stand.

Toshio Hirano is the Bay Area’s Japanese cowboy.  Born in the Land of the Rising Sun, he was bowled over by the music of Jimmie Rogers as a teen.  He performs at Amnesia and the Rite-Spot every month, singing songs, sometimes solo and sometimes with accompaniment, by Rogers, Hank Williams and other country favorites.  He’s no novelty act.  On the contrary, his sincerity which has won over many a Mission hipster in addition to his fans who return to see him month after month.

West Coast Ramblers are an all-pro western swing/bop/cowjazz group that arrived much like a new star emerging from the ether.  Steve Walz (Stillmen, vocals, rhythm), Josh Workman (Hot Club of SF, lead guitar), Lee Jeffriess (Big Sandy), and Ran Bush (Loaded Ponies, upright bass) seemed a bit under-employed, musically, in 2010.  The Hi-Rhythm Hustlers were winding down which freed Jay Laude (Stillmen, drums) and “poof”, the WCRs really hit the ground running.

Whisky Pills Fiasco, yes, whisky as medicine is as good a concept as any behind an alt-counrtry/rockabilly trio.  Whisky Pills himself sings lead and slaps the doghouse.  Johnny Fiasco is on drums, Danny Fiasco plays stringed things, and plenty more contributed to their first CD.  Hear songs from that CD in their entirety by clicking in the link above.

Whisky Richards are on a roll, from San Francisco to band leader Chase Christie’s native Alaska, where they toured in the summer of 2011.  The band took a quantum leap when it added the fiddle and voice of Katy Rexford (Burning Embers).  Navigate to the Music page on their site to hear and see what got the Alaskans out on the floor.

Yard Sale is an acoustic trio steeped in singer-songwriter Americana, which, in this case, is not as folksy as singer-songwriter Americana often suggests.  Melanie DiGiovanni (Catheads,  accordion), Jill Olson (Red Meat, bass) and Denise Funari (guitar) all write and sing, passing lead vocals from one to another while maintaining set cohesion through their fine arrangements.

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Visiting Bands from beyond the Bay

The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit (Oakdale)
Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys (SoCal)
Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Phonics (SoCal)
Dave Alvin (Downey)
Dave Gleason (Ventura)