December 2015

Happy December, and Yuletide (and everything else) is a comin'.

Hope your Thanksgiving was tasty and heart warming.   I was in Washington DC with family and met the younger daughter of my Durham cousins.   She is a pro DJ and I went to hear her work at RedRocks, a 3 story downtown dance club and a very different scene than I usually circulate in.   She is into African and Latin and it was a treat hearing her put together the grooves.   Here is a video of her in action, a bit different than what I saw her spinning for the dance crowd, and what a wild child!!  (Start at 30 seconds to skip the slow intro, and if you skip around make sure you see 3:20 on.  Whee !! )

Closer to home and earlier in the month, I caught Darol Anger's show at Studio 55 Marin, a fine place to hear acoustic music.   It had been awhile since I had heard Darol live, and my first time hearing him play with Emy Phelps -- lovely!!   Darol's fiddle and octave mandolin was wonderful, and Tristan Clarridge on cello was a treat.  The interplay between all the instruments and the vocals was major league.  Unfortunately no videos of that show, but here and here are two to give you an idea.  Tristan plays with Crooked Still and with the Bee Eaters -- so check out those videos too.

Also saw two shows at the Monkey House in Berkeley, another favorite venue.   Moonshine Jelly is a "celtic, gypsy, bluegrass, folk" trio of uber talented folks including Lee White, Justine Lucas and Kent Kessinger.  They play in SF a lot and are well worth your time and ears.   Here is a sample and one more a bit different.   

The other show I saw at the Monkey House was Chappell and Dave Holt with Carlos Reyes  I've posted their videos before and you can check them out on YT.  Carlos is a virtuoso violinist and harpist but played mostly Paraguayan harp that evening.  Heaven!!  Okay, I can't resist, here's one more.

And what am I up to you ask?  These days mostly moving north to my old haunts in Sonoma County.   So beautiful up here !!    And if any of you West County folks are looking for a good place to be this Friday, the 4th, join Floyd Latimer and me at Ruth McGowan's in Cloverdale.   We play 7:30 to 10:30pm for your listening pleasure.

Hope you holidays are joyous.   Merry and Happy Ho Ho Ho to all.

John

Roy Zat

Croizat

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