Local musician, Tim Weed with Debbie Daly, came into the studio for some live music. Tim’s recent music is more acoustic – banjo and mandolin, but last night he plugged in his Strat and got down to some fun guitar pickin’. Tim grew up in SoCal and played every chance he could and in many styles. The story of how a SoCal surfer/musician came to know the Point Reyes area was neat. On a family vacation many years ago (1976?), he and his family stopped at the Inverness Store where he bought a book on the banjo and the rest, as one might say, is history. Thanks again for hanging out with Amanda and I for and spell and playing music, Tim.
After Tim and Debbie left, we got into some Wynn Stewart with his “It’s Such a Pretty World Today,” which was one of the top songs played on the jukebox at the old Silver Dollar Saloon in Point Reyes Station. The Silver Dollar is now the Station House, which no longer has a jukebox, but has great live music throughout the year.
Hope you can tune in this Thursday, February 4th. Tim Weed will join Mike and Amanda in Studio A at KWMR. Tim moved to West Marin from Tucson in 2008 and has been strumming his way into local and Bay Area hearts. Mike and I discovered that this bluegrass phenomenon has a Honky Tonk background and we hope to bring it out of him in studio this week. Tim is a man of many talents and we know that his connection to the Bakersfield Sound will be a topic of discussion. We’ll be playing some fun new tunes and honoring some requests – so if you have a request, just send it in – new button at the top of the blog for requests!
Fun time last night in Studio A at KWMR. Amanda told the story, so I’ll post the playlist along with some youtube clips. The biggest surprise of the evening was Flash’s voice. He’s got a great voice that can belt out great renditions of vintage Cash and Orbison. His voice was so big we had to move him far off the mic to keep the level down. Check out the following clip and you’ll hear what I mean.
A big influence on Blue Diamond Fillups and Jonnie, guitar and founder of the band, is Ronnie Dawson. We didn’t know much about Ronnie Dawson, but played a cut and then did some research. As is the case with too many popular artists of the 50’s and 60’s who suffered at American radio’s pop culture, Ronnie Dawson found an audience embracing his music in Britain in the 80’s that began a comeback of sorts. Now, with Rockabilly having wide-ranging popularity, from folks who listened to it when Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins were recording for Sun, to the 20/30-somethings with lead sleds, tattoos, and Betty Page pin-up girls, Ronnie Dawson might have a wider audience than he did when he was alive. Check out these Ronnie Dawson clips.
For the astute, you’ll notice one of Dave Alvin’s Guilty Women, Lisa Pankratz, on drums in the clip below.
Mike and I were hanging at the Station House Cafe for a quick bite pre-show and discussing our game plan for the evening. At the end of our meal we chatted with Cheryl, the owner, who asked us where we were headed. “Oh, you must be interviewing the guys who were just here eating, they were Rockabilly.” Another person we knew stated, “Yes, they just drove off in a red Galaxy!”
Ok, so we were in a small town, in a not large restaurant and we missed the “guys from the band” and their cool wheels. Well, it WAS dark and raining…. Anyway, we headed to the station and hooked up with Flash and Jonnie from Blue Diamond Fillups for a really fun show of live music and lively chat about Rockabilly. Minus base and drums these two were able to shake out some great tunes. Flash has a voice made for singing and Jonnie accompanied him nicely on acoustic guitar.
We expect that Smiley’s in Bolinas will be rockin’ when they plug in Friday (January 22nd) for four-hour show just down the road.
We were also able to connect with Dr. BLT for some catching up as he called in (as he has for every single one of our shows) from Bakersfield for an update. We had him request a Dave Howe song from Dave’s CD, A Face For Radio (BLT suggested the title track). Dave is another musician with a great voice who has recently been collaborating with Dr. BLT on some projects.
The play list is short, but sweet. Thanks for listening and let us know if you have any requests!
Our pal and fellow programmer Mr. Charlie Morgan of KWMR’s Tuesday evening music program Musical Variete has thrown out to listeners and fans of KWMR to vote for Bakersfield and Beyond hosts Amanda and Mike – Bakersfield and Beyond on KWMR in the North Bay Bohemian “Best Of” category for Best Media Personality: TV, Radio, Print for 2009. We would be honored to hold this spot after Charlie himself was voted Best Of for 2008. If you would like to cast your vote in support of Bakersfield and Beyond you must do so by Thursday, January 15. Here is the link. You must vote for at least 1/3 of the categories. Here is the link to the voting page for this years Bohemian Best Of. Here’s my plug for some shameless promotion of Mike and me (and our show). We’ll see what happens, you never know unless you ask! If you are up for it, please tell your friends.
We hope you who listened enjoyed the show as much as we had airing it. The concept was for each of us to compile our favorite 10 songs we played on Bakersfield & Beyond in 2009 and present the combined list of 20. We saw each other’s list only about an hour before the show. We both thought we would have picked some of the same songs, but there wasn’t one song that overlapped – several artists, but no songs. That meant we had a full 20 songs to play. There was one song that did make our lists initially, but didn’t make the final cut – the Joe Maphis penned “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music,” written after a night in the dim, smoky, loud Blackboard, the landmark Bakersfield bar where all the greats played. Since we did have time after our 20 songs, we slipped a version of Dim Lights by The Maddox Brothers and Rose in and the show was almost complete. Then we finished up the night with a tune by The Jones Family Fortune and Buckaroo by Buck Owens and Don Rich.
We also talked to Dr. BLT who’s joined us on every show and has helped spread the word (sound) of Bakersfield & Beyond from his home base in Bakersfield – thanks Bruce!
So Mike and I have made our lists. We have not shared them. We have each chosen ten tunes that represent the best that Bakersfield and Beyond had to offer for 2009 and will be spinning these and discussing our choices on the show this Thursday. Do you have a Bakersfield and Beyond favorite from 2009? Let us know!
We had a good time on December 24th and our friend Wyro joined us in the studio with his cameras. He got a few shots of us in action. I guess it must have been cool in there since Mike had his hat on and I put on my down jacket. It was a clear and cold Christmas Eve in Point Reyes. Thanks for checking out the blog – do you have a request for us to play? Let us know!
On our December 24 show we played the song Some Day by Jones Family Fortune. Wanted to let folks know if they enjoyed that song that they can download it from CD Baby or iTunes for .99 cents and continue to enjoy it while helping to raise funds to assist the families of the four slain police officers from Tacoma, WA. There are two versions for download. One is the full band electric version of the song and the second is an acoustic version of the same song. Ian Jones was a long time friend of Ron Owens, one of the four officers slain on November 29th, 2009. It was great to also be able to play Dr. BLT’s Homeless Christmas medley, which was recorded to raise funds for a homeless shelter in Bakersfield and is available through Dr. BLT’s blog.
Bakersfield and Beyond is found on KWMR - West Marin's community radio: 90.5 in Point Reyes Station and 89.9 in Bolinas and points south. KWMR can be streamed live at kwmr.org.
Bakersfield and Beyond is aired every other Thursday from 6:40 pm to 8:30pm. The following is a look down the road at show dates. The show dates will be continually updated.
