By Karl Byrn

When I speak with the Rev. Spike Stain, we always talk about Elvis. We’ll both tout the King’s out-of-print late ’60s collection The Memphis Record, noting how much we dig the swinging hard blues of “Stranger in My Own Hometown” and Presley’s maturity in general. Sometimes we talk about the Bible; sometimes we just get another beer.

Stain is musician Mike Steen of Santa Rosa, and he’s a genuine practicing minister, legally ordained for Christian ministry (and work with “other nondenominational beliefs”) through the Universal Life Church in Modesto. He’s a tall, imposing, yet friendly 30ish man who always wears denim overalls and speaks with the modest drawl of a Southern gentleman, a trait no doubt picked up from his childhood on a 30-acre prune farm in rural Merced County.

In his ministry, Steen has presided over several local weddings and funerals, “bringing to each the sacred quality it deserves,” he says, “in a very traditional way, respecting traditions.” He also sings and plays guitar in two hot rock acts with Sonoma County roots, the acoustic rockabilly-gospel duo Revival Revue and the tougher rocking country four-piece Haywire Honky Tonk.

Elvis himself once said that every style in the rock and roll mix actually springs from gospel music. Revival Revue make a strong case for Presley’s point. The Reverend entertains feverishly, shaking, jumping, growling, and exhorting his audience to believe in music that’s “inspirational, sensational, motivational!” Balanced by the steady, slapping click-clack of upright bass player Todd Troublemaker, The Reverend bashes out original rockabilly songs, folk-blues favorites, and gospel standards like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

Revival Revue recently celebrated its 100th gig, a run that included opening slots for notable national acts like country hit-makers Rascal Flatts and indie icon Frank Black. The duo is now completing a second self-released disc, Original Sin. Their new material mines themes and images straight from the Old Testament, from the male/female parables of the title track to the Judgment Day blues tale “Me and Satan.”

Haywire Honky Tonk finds the Reverend back in the arms of secular material. The band have recorded some twisted Reverend blues originals like “Sheep-Killin’ Dog” and “Returning to the Scene of the Crime,” but the bulk of their wine-and-women repertoire comes from outlaw country heroes like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe and Hank Williams Sr. Not surprisingly, the Rev’s musical muscle in Haywire Honky Tonk is former members of Sonoma County’s bygone outlaw revivalists One Horse Town: Henry Nagle on guitar and pedal steel (now with art-pop band the Spindles); Paul Hoffman on bass (now with emo-rockers the Listening Group); and Jesse Wickman on drums (now owner and house producer at Atlas Studio in Santa Rosa).

“It’s not an exclusive thing,” says the Rev of the material he brings to these two bands. “Honky-tonk music, basically, is good Christian folk who have fallen by the way. That’s part of the drama and torture of all these styles of music. We’ve all fallen.”

The Reverend carries business cards that reference Isaiah 57:15, a passage he carefully selected from the Bible. In that verse, the prophet Isaiah relays the voice of God, saying, “On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.”

That’s the message of renewal in the Reverend’s ministry of rock and roll. “I feel an exciting future for all these types of music, maybe because people are tired and fed up,” he says, before evoking a true Pentecostal fervor. “The world is crazy! It’s crazy! It’s crazy! People really want that old-timey feeling of being transformed by love and forgiveness.”

I believe what the Reverend is saying. I think the King would as well.

The Reverend preaches the good word with Haywire Honky Tonk on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Knockout in San Francisco. 415.550.6994. For info on local gigs, go to www.myspace.com/trailsendmusic.

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By David Templeton

Ever since the Cotati Philharmonic gave its first free concert seven years ago in the tiny, proudly eccentric town of Cotati, maestro Gabriel Sakakeeny has acquired a reputation as a kind of musical holy man, an outspoken philosopher whose view of music and the arts is not unlike what some preachers feel about faith and scripture. To many, in fact, Sakakeeny is Sonoma County’s mighty missionary of music, the Reverend of rhapsody, the cleric of classical culture. Hell, some days, he even thinks of himself that way. And if Sakakeeny has his way, all musicians–amateur and professional–would begin to think of themselves as holy women and holy men of music.

“A lot of pros end up thinking of music as just their job, and they get about as excited at the thought of performing as others get about clocking in at the office,” he says. “My dream is for musicians–professional musicians and all others who are lucky enough to have an orchestra or band or chamber group to play in, and especially musicians in America–to someday begin identifying themselves as the high priests of music and beauty. When that happens, this country will undergo a musical revival that will be absolutely explosive. It’ll turn the culture upside down.”

That lofty and optimistic goal is not just Sakakeeny’s own personal dream; it’s the bedrock mission of the American Philharmonic Association (APA), the five-year-old organization of which Sakakeeny is president. In line with its APA affiliation, the Cotati Philharmonic recently formally changed its named to the American Philharmonic-Sonoma County.

At first, the notion of a town the size of Cotati having its own philharmonic was a cute and whimsical novelty. After a few years, when it became clear that this group was indeed beloved by those unfamiliar with the tonal intricacies of Mahler, the whimsy wore off and the Cotati Philharmonic was viewed as what it always was: the real thing, not cute at all, but seriously dedicated to the emotional thunder of great music played with passion.

The recent name change is not a change of direction or vision for the growing volunteer-based ensemble. More accurately, it’s a reflection of the group’s readiness to take their mission to the next level.

“In some ways,” says Sakakeeny, “it is a recognition of having finally grown up. Over the last seven years, we’ve gone from being an ad hoc collection of committed people who wanted to contribute something to what is emerging as a major force in the symphonic world of the North Bay. Changing our name is the equivalent of graduating, getting a car and moving out of the house.”

Sakakeeny and his 70-plus musicians have gradually become aware that the self-identity of their orchestra, the way they have been thinking about themselves for seven years, has not been in line with the actual impact they have recently been making. Funded at a modest $40,000 annual budget entirely with donations and grants and performing 18 times last year, the philharmonic is creating some serious buzz. What Sakakeeny and the orchestra have created in Cotati is more than an entertainment or community service–it is part of a nationwide musical movement in which small towns across the nation embrace the concept of having their own all-volunteer, fully democratic philharmonic orchestras.

One goal of the APA is to establish a total of 25 regional American Philharmonics over the next quarter century. The growing town of Surprise, Ariz., will join the ranks in 2008 with the debut performance of its American Philharmonic-Surprise. The city of Surprise is currently building a 1,500-seat concert hall for the ensemble, which will become its rent-free home. That’s how serious the notion of a hometown philharmonic is being taken.

While his own orchestra remains without a concert hall, Sakakeeny believes that he and his musicians get far more out of being in the philharmonic than they put into it.

“There’s the whole thing about contributing something for no reason except to do it, because you’re passionate about it, and you want to share that with other people–that’s a spiritual payback,” he says. “It’s uplifting and inspiring. It’s always an incredibly moving thing. It’s truly spiritual.”

Currently rehearsing for the big season opener on the weekend of Oct. 21, the philharmonic is not squeamish when it comes to tackling the greatest and most difficult compositions. The opener, for which the orchestra will be joined by Sonoma’s violin w¸nderkind Nigel Armstrong, will include Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture no. 3, three works by Saint-Saëns and Brahms’ Symphony no. 3.

To Sakakeeny, there’s nothing better than doing a concert and witnessing the way the music affects and surprises so many people.

“Baby boomers, with no real experience with concert music, come up with tears in their eyes,” he says. “They say things like, ‘Oh my God, I had no idea. I’ve never been to the orchestra and I wouldn’t have come tonight if it hadn’t have been free–and you blew my brains out! I’ll bring my family to this kind of thing from now on and forever.’ And then they go out and buy Santa Rosa Symphony tickets because now they get it.

“It’s like they’ve been converted,” Sakakeeny laughs. “And that really is our mission, like a secular-spiritual-artistic mission, to win converts to the almighty power of classical music.”

The American Philharmonic-Sonoma County performs Friday-Sunday, Oct. 21-23, at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center. Friday-Saturday at 8pm (Friday is a dress rehearsal); Sunday at 3pm. 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. Free; donations hugely welcomed. 707.793.2177.

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