She’s a songwriting prodigy best known for her No. 1 hit single “At Seventeen”; he’s a folk pioneer who got his start playing alongside Dylan and others at the famed Gaslight Cafe in 1960s New York City. They’ve been friends for more than 50 years, and now Janis Ian and Tom Paxton share the stage, their songs and their stories when they perform together on Thursday, April 23, at City Winery, 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $38–$45. 707.260.1600.
Now in its sixth year, the Day on the Green at Montgomery Village is back to promote green businesses, inspire environmental awareness and to party with music, art and innovative demonstrations. Get a look at some electric cars, groove to the sounds of Shana Morrison and her band Caledonia, and bring the kids for crafts and educational activities. All proceeds from the event are going straight to environmental advocates Southeast Greenway Campaign, the Sierra Club and LandPaths. The party gets started on Saturday, April 25, in Village Court at Montgomery Village Shopping Center, Santa Rosa. 1pm to 4pm. Free.
The views are breathtaking, but the course is grueling; it’s the Dipsea Race, spanning from downtown Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. Those who run it know the endurance-testing thrill of the race, but you can see it from the comfort of a seat when filmmaker Sam Lueck’s ‘Dipsea Movie’ screens this weekend. Telling the dramatic story of the race’s 100th year in 2010, the doc captures all the action and emotion of the race and the legendary runners who attempt it. It plays courtesy of Mill Valley Village on Sunday, April 26, at Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. 6pm. Free. 415.388.1100.
‘Survive and Thrive’ has been Joel Billman’s mantra since October of 2013, when the Healdsburg resident took a fall on Fitch Mountain that nearly cost him his life. Paralyzed from the waist down, Billman was rescued in dramatic fashion. Yet even more amazingly, Billman has gone from surviving to thriving in the last 16 months, as he continually progresses back to mobility with the help of physical therapists and doctors. Hear Billman and his rescuers tell their story on Wednesday, April 29, at the Healdsburg Library, 139 Piper St., Healdsburg. 7pm. Free. 707.433.3772.
I applaud Paul Wirtz for his commitment to growing asparagus (The Crop Report, April 15). The Marin Master Gardeners have an excellent article on this topic, which might benefit readers who want to raise their own asparagus. Caution: this is not a project for those who want instant gratification. It takes three years until you can actually harvest the crop!
Via Bohemian.com
I’m glad that the Bopeemian did a story on Matt Carrillo (“So Long,” April 8). He was a really influential person. He definitely touched me. (I’m still going to say Bopeemian, though, since that’s my jam.)
Matt, you are missed. Facebook went nuts for you. Let’s try to go nuts for each other with better timing in the future. OK?
Via Bohemian.com
Sonoma County is no longer a working class place, but a huge playground for the rich and connected. Work for a living? You need at least two jobs to afford to stay here. There is no middle class, only the rich and the servant class who serve them.
The Jan. 28 letter to the editor (“Strikingly Uninformed”) written by the Walmart director of communications verifies my rant. This lady brags how the average wage for full time associate (oh, how PC—just say it: employees, workers) is $13.31! Wow! With all that pay, you can cut your second job a few hours so you might be able to save up enough, in say a few months, to go to the many eateries advertised in the Bohemian. That’s a poverty-level wage here in Sonoma County. You can’t live and pay your way here on that. Of the entire workforce at Walmart, how many are full time “associates”? My bet is not even half of them.
We keep being fed this lie that the middle class is dwindling. No, it is not. It is gone, long gone. For me to live a middle-class lifestyle that my parents enjoyed would mean I would have to be pulling down around $200,000 a year.
I would really like to see an article or breakdown of just how many workers here in Sonoma County make a wage like that with a full-time job and full benefits that include, health, dental and retirement. Outside of government sector jobs, I don’t know anyone who gets that anymore. The middle class is gone, and Sonoma County is becoming just a huge playground for the rich.
Windsor
Write to us at le*****@******an.com.
Last year, when songwriter Patterson Hood passed through the North Bay on a solo tour, he hinted that he’d be back soon with his popular alt-country outfit Drive-By Truckers, and, he said, they would have something a little different up their sleeves when they returned.
Those hints come to fruition this week when the band plays Napa’se Uptown Theatre. And as Hood said, this is no ordinary Drive-By Truckers show. They call it their Dirt Underneath tour, and this is only the second time in 20 years they’ve tried to pull it off.
The Dirt Underneath has its origins in 2007, when the band conceived of doing a semi-acoustic series of concerts that would see them reimagining some of their most beloved songs as well as reintroducing some hidden gems. It was a hit with fans and a refreshing change of pace for the veteran rockers.
The Drive-By Truckers are at it again, rearranging their material and approaching their sets with a new mindset. The band will highlight tunes from their latest release, 2014’s English Oceans, as well as a sampling from their catalogue. There’ll be more banter, more storytelling and a more relaxing “living room” vibe. Come along and know the Drive-By Truckers better, man. They play Saturday, April 25, at the Uptown Theatre, 1350 Third St., Napa. 8pm. $35–$60. 707.259.0123.
Spurred to action by the commitment of a reluctant but good-hearted newcomer, a band of young folks from a small town—some experienced dancers, others just learning how—all join forces to create something special for their community through the power of music, dance and sheer unbridled enthusiasm.
That’s pretty much the plot of the thoroughly charming Footloose: The Musical. It’s also a fairly accurate description of the delightfully energetic, if sometimes wobbly student production now running at Santa Rosa Junior College under the direction of Wendy Wisely.
Among the countless movie-to-stage adaptations we’ve seen in recent years, Footloose is easily among the best. Taking the best parts of the beloved Kevin Bacon drama, this adaptation refrains from overloading the story with a lot of extraneous plot and tone-deaf changes.
Especially clever is the musical score, blending a number of good if not great new tunes with some earworm favorites taken from the movie’s iconic soundtrack. Songs that just played in the background of the film become full-on production numbers or love ballads here, assisted by clever choreography from Lara Branen and a tight onstage band.
Following a tragic accident that killed a group of teenagers on their way home from a dance, the tiny town of Bomont has voted to make dancing illegal. The tragedy has frozen the town in grief, especially for the local minister, the Rev. Shaw Moore (Nathaniel Mack, sensitively handling a tricky role), who shoulders the weight of the town’s guilt, and is the strongest voice against dancing.
The reverend’s daughter, Ariel (Sidnie Johnson, excellent), is acting out, dating the town delinquent and generally misbehaving. And town oddball Willard (Evan Held, perfect) just can’t stop hitting people.
Into this pressure-cooker comes Ren (Erin Galloway), a reluctant transplant from Chicago, where his only respite from family troubles was dancing at local clubs.
Clearly, the scene is set for a clash of wills when Ren decides what the bursting-at-the-seams high school kids need is a big formal dance. As Ren, Galloway struggles with a few notes, but his spot-on charm, commitment to the role and infectious energy make him perfect as the outsider who helps a hurting community remember just how much fun it is to dance.
‘Footloose: The Musical’ runs Wed–Sun through May 3 at Burbank Auditorium, 1501 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. Wed–Sat, 8pm; 2pm matinees, Sat–Sun. $8–$22. 707.527.4343.
Justin Hayward has a featured position in the Moody Blues, as singer, guitarist and
main songwriter. But that latter talent looks like it won’t get any further use within that group.
The Moody Blues last released an album in 2003, the holiday CD December. There hasn’t been a studio album of new original music since 1999’s Strange Times.
Hayward believes that’s likely to be the band’s final studio album. “I think this is probably it,” he says. “People want DVDs from us now. I think any product we do will be along that line.”
Touring with the Moody Blues, though, will remain a priority for Hayward. The band plays April 29 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. But Hayward is also carving out time in his schedule for solo tours and making solo albums, like last year’s Spirits of the Western Sky.
If the Moody Blues are done making albums, they still leave fans with an impressive discography. Hayward and bassist John Lodge joined drummer Graeme Edge (this trio makes up the current lineup), keyboardist Mike Pinder and flute player Ray Thomas in time to make the album that saw the Moody Blues evolve from an R&B-based pop band into a far grander style of pop-rock, 1967’s Days of Future Passed.
Featuring Hayward’s “Nights in White Satin,” Future Passed is considered by many to be the first progressive rock album, and its lush, melodic and expansive songs gave the Moody Blues a stylistic template for the six additional albums they released before going on hiatus in 1974.
The band returned four years later with Octave, and then really hit their stride artistically again with the 1981 album Long Distance Voyager. The 1980s saw three more studio albums and hit songs like “Your Wildest Dreams” and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere,” before the pace of studio recordings slowed in the 1990s.
“People think the ’60s was our best time,” Hayward says. “But to be honest, the most fun was that time in the ’80s—to have that opportunity to be on TV and have hit singles in your early 40s. I was a kid in the ’60s, with my head down and a little too stoned. In the ’80s, I was able to enjoy it. Believe it or not, a lot of our audience today comes from that time, not the ’60s.”
But rest assured—the Moody Blues also play their signature 1970s hits in concert, including “Nights in White Satin,” a song Hayward never expected to be a hit. If he had, he says, “I would have run a mile if you’d have told me what would happen. I would have been scared.”
Much of the talk about chainsaws and wine is inspired by concerns over new vineyard development. But if you really want to see a forest of chainsawed trees, go down to the cellar.
When you look at one to two wine barrels, you’re seeing the product of one tree. That’s because loggers only sell the bottom part of the tree to barrel makers, shipping out the rest to other industries. But it’s not even remotely a clear-cut situation, says Dave Ready Jr., winemaker at Murphy-Goode Winery, about the unusual source of some of his barrels. Trees for American oak barrels are selectively harvested by small teams, says Ready, mostly in Missouri. In the 1990s, the Minnesota native was excited to discover a family-owned stave mill in the southern part of his home state. At the time, the staves were being made into Jack Daniels whiskey barrels, but Ready convinced them to sell him some oak.
“The cold weather and the short growing season out there makes the grain really tight,” says Ready, “and I get nice flavors of the toasted nut character, a little vanilla, and it balances well with the Alexander Valley Chardonnay.”
Mildly toasty, the Murphy-Goode’s 2013 Minnesota Cuvée Alexander Valley Chardonnay ($26) has the same pineapple fruit and long, lemon-caramel finish as the 2013 Island Block Chardonnay ($26), because they’re essentially the same wine, aged in different barrels. Fermented in barrels made from French oak trees—which can be up to 200 years old and are mostly managed by the French government—the Island Block ratchets up the tropical theme with a toasted coconut note.
Trinchero Family Estates promises to plant one tree for each bottle of Trinity Oaks 2013 California Chardonnay ($9) sold. They’re not talking about oaks—the company donates to Trees for the Future, which helps to plant fast-growing tropical trees in communities around the world. To mark their 10 millionth “tree” planted in 2013, however, they did plant a live oak at the winery’s
St. Helena facility.
This was no spindly seedling, from the looks of the photo op, but a solid 20-foot tree. Turns out, when Napa Valley wineries want to add instant stateliness, or in some cases are required to make up for trees they’ve destroyed by development, they turn to the native oak experts at Napa’s Main Street Trees.
After planting a tree of your own this Arbor Day, April 24, enjoy this serviceable, budget Chardonnay’s cool apple juice flavor over hints of caramel, browned butter and oak.
Sonoma Coast Surfrider is disappointed that the California Coastal Commission (CCC) voted to remove jurisdiction from Sonoma County to determine the effects of placing 15 pay stations at beaches along the Sonoma Coast. Among the beaches proposed for the $8 daily fee are Bodega Head, Salmon Creek and Goat Rock. Even though the commission agreed that the county had properly denied the state’s application based on the effects of the proposal on public access and the coastal environment, they were influenced by the state’s need for revenue.
Surfrider argued to keep the discussion at the local level, but now the CCC has taken control of the process, and the choices are limited to yes to all locations or a modified proposal. We believe other solutions are available. The option to instate no new fees is slim unless it can be proven that the plan is not in compliance with Coastal Act requirements to preserve public access and protect sensitive coastal environments.
The permit now under review allows interested parties to comment and request that additional information be included in the review. It is important that the public affected by the possibility of the proposed fees express their concerns far in advance of the hearing and contact the coastal commission directly at et**********@********ca.gov. Interested parties may ask that there be a complete explanation of how or if the proposed fees will be spent locally, what the impacts will be to low income coastal visitors, what the cost is to public safety, if the proposed locations incorporate disabled accessible parking spaces, and the environmental impacts of the grading required to provide those spaces.
Our coast is primarily accessed by vehicle. Alternative free parking locations suggested by the state raise public-safety and environmental concerns because, for the most part, they are roadside pullouts along the highway or parking spots along more dangerous cliff-side locations that require traversing steep trails or crossing the roadway to reach the beach.
The date and location of the hearing are yet to be determined. It will be important to advocate for locating the hearing near or in Sonoma County since that is the area that will be affected by the decision. Surfrider is requesting that the coastal commission conduct community forums in Sonoma County prior to making its recommendation, so that citizens have the opportunity to express their views.
Cea Higgins is volunteer coordinator for the Sonoma Coast Chapter of Surfrider.
Open Mic is a weekly feature in the ‘Bohemian.’ We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.
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