As promised, I will give a preview today of the live music and talented performers that will join us tomorrow at the beaver festival!
Bringing its unique brand of Urban Bluegrass to California and Nevada since 1986, The Alhambra Valley Band is as good as it gets. Lynn Quinones is an award winning song writer who told me this year she was working on a piece about the mother beaver! When I cajoled her into bringing the group to play last year she cautiously said, I don’t know how the whole group feels about the beavers. How surprised were we to find out that her bass player is married to a Martinez Early Childhood Center teacher who happens to be an avid beaver supporter! In fact, the teacher didn’t even know where her husband was playing that day and was surprised to see him at the festival! Lynn’s original song, “Willow Pass Road” is the soundtrak for the video letter to the mayor posted in the frame.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=8B0TV1qy0ws]
With over 30 years exerperience, Jeff Campbell has played for the queen, the Cheiftans, and the odd beer comercial. He keeps busy with a demanding schedule of wedding, processions and funeral appearances. He might have done it all, but I bet he’s never done a gig like this before! When I spoke to Jeff he told me he had brought his son out to see our beavers last year and was excited about being part of our festival. You might have heard him on our Cafe Spot on KGO this week. Jeff will lead the children’s procession to honor the return of beavers to Scotland after 400 years. He’s generously donating his time, so think about whether your next four weddings or funerals need a piper!
A utopia of Flutes! Flutopia is the creative produce of gifted musician Tracy Durden, a long time Martinez resident and friend to the arts. Her musical strains will be familiar to visitors of the Farmer’s Market, where she somtimes graces the city streets with her talents. Tracy is an accomplished flute instructor and Flutopia often plays at weddings and gatherings. Tracy and I went to Alhambra High School together, and regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to discover that we were in a “Shakespeare” reading group. For at least 37 weeks we gathered in each other’s rooms to read through the plays together. (I of course was industriously researching quotes to use at a later date in a ground breaking beaver-blog. I don’t have any idea what those other nerds were doing there!) I remember at one point in her life Tracy had the letters to spell her name on her bedroom wall. Times being what they are the “C” and the “Y” fell off and her room was left with the unusual promient letters spelling “TRA”. Friends asked about this, and I mark it as the first obscurely witty thing I ever said, when I replied airily “Oh she believes in TRA for TRA’s sake”.
Looking for some toe-tapping music that makes you want to wiggle up to the one you love? The Muir Station Jazz band will fit the bill. The Muir Station Jazz Band is named after the passenger train station that was once located at the eastern end of the AT&SF train trestle located near the historic John Muir Home in Martinez, California. In 1877 the Central Pacific Railway built a rail line through the property that Naturalist and founder of The Sierra Club, John Muir (1838-1914), received from a land grant. In exchange for the rail line going through his property he requested that a station be built by the trestle to ship his crops and other goods around the country. The station was removed when the California Zepher passenger service was discontinued by AT&SF and today there is no evidence today that it ever existed. In rememberence of that bygone era band we named the band after the long gone and forgotten train station. Larry promises me that he will end with the favorite tune, “Down by the riverside” because we beaver friends will need to “study war no more”.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=xbJ-OGX_lrQ]
