It was Spring 1960 at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island that I first met Guy Carawan. It was a rainy day and there were only 15 or 20 of us that braved the wet to listen to Guy, who us lefties were kind of impressed with because he had visited China with Peggy […]
When Joel Rafael started writing music 50 years ago, there was a war abroad, civil unrest here at home — with clashes between police and people of color, and blue-collar folk balladeers singing protest songs following the templates established by patron saints Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Looking around, the century may have changed, but […]
Is that a 12-foot-tall mechanical giraffe? Is that a 10-foot by 8-foot mural being created on the corner of Bancroft Street? Is that a cosplay outfit? It’s not even time for Comic Com! What has happened to Adams Avenue? “Continue to expect the unexpected,” says Adam Rosen, who is the executive producer for Art Around […]
Hello Troubadourians! Last month, we started this column by celebrating the sheer joy of plugging an electric guitar into an amplifier and turning it up. Then, about halfway through the celebration we came face to face with the reality that if we were going to actually play music with other musicians we had to turn […]
Believe it or not bluegrass music has been prominent in San Diego since at least the 1950s. Not bad, considering that Bill Monroe, the “father of bluegrass” didn’t put the genre on the map until the mid-1940s. Here is an excerpt of an article I wrote on the history of the San Diego Bluegrass Society. […]
Julian is an hour from San Diego but worlds apart in the pace of life and beauty of surroundings. This 1870s-era gold rush town comes alive in their annual salute to spring on Saturday, June 13th when the Sons of the American Legion open the gates to the ninth annual installment of the Julian Dance […]
On Saturday, June 20th Robb Bower Presents will bring its 17th year of great live blues back to the beautiful 100-year-old Menghini Winery in Julian, California. Bower is very excited about his annual Julian Blues Bash. The fantastic Bayou Brothers on the Back Porch Stage will be on board to keep the music jumpin’ all […]
The successful musician today is often the person who can create gigs instead of competing with hundreds of others for the established ones. The creative thinker who can open up new markets or outlets for their music. The instrumentalist who plays on the Vancouver Island Ferry every summer and sells thousands of recordings to tourists. […]
