#26. Rhythms of Resilience: Paul DeMark Percussive Paths Through Humboldt's Musical Heartbeat

When the rhythmic pulse of drumbeats marries personal narrative, you get the unparalleled experience of sitting down with Paul DeMark. Our latest episode features this percussion savant as he recounts his incredible journey from the gritty Chicago Blues scene to the heart of Humboldt County's vibrant music culture. His sticks have beaten paths through the decades, from iconic sessions with Sunnyland Slim and Mike Bloomfield to shaping the beats that define our local soundscapes today. Each tap and crash of cymbals tells a story of change, resilience, and the undying spirit of live performance.

Strike a chord with the history and evolution of Humboldt County's music festivals, where genres like jazz, rockabilly, and blues find sanctuary. We reminisce about the magnetic pull of the dance floors at the Redwood Coast Music Festival and the unforgettable nights beneath the stars at Reggae on the River. As we spotlight the venues that amplify our county’s unique acoustics, from Rangel Town Cider's cozy confines to the historic walls of the Eureka Theater, you'll feel the echoes of a community deeply rooted in its musical traditions, enduring despite the ebb and flow of the digital tide.

Harmony isn't just found in melody; it's in the balance we strike between our passions and our well-being. We echo this sentiment by sharing a personal tale of rejuvenation—that became a stepping-stone toward a more vibrant life. Discover how the practices of yoga and Pilates aren't just for the mat but are instrumental in sustaining the rhythm of life for musicians like Paul. It's about striking drum skins and heartstrings alike, ensuring the music never fades. Join us for a listening experience that's as much about the beats we create as the heartbeats we seek to inspire.

Transcript

Paul's Musical Journey in Humboldt County

Speaker 1 0:30

Welcome everybody and welcome to my special guest, paul DeMarc. Hi, paul, hi, how you doing, scott? I'm doing good. You have a great face for radio.

Speaker 2 0:39

Well, I guess we're gonna be on YouTube too, so I'm glad I wore my favorite black sweater.

Speaker 1 0:44

Yeah, I dressed in manum gray black as well. Great to have you. Thank you, yeah. So I came over wondering what am I gonna talk to Paul about? So let's just talk to Paul about Paul. Tell me the Paul story. How did you wind up in Humboldt?

Speaker 2 1:00

Okay, well, it was through music. I came out on tour to San Francisco when I was 21 with a Chicago Blues piano player named Sunnyland Slim, who was part of creating the Chicago Blues sound. He was 65,. He's someone that went back to the early 40s, had given Muddy Waters his recording career start, backing him up, played with all the primary Chicago Blues people, toured with Howlin' Wolf. Everybody that was back there had his own bands, made his own records.

Speaker 2 1:40

Anyhow, a good friend of mine, harry Duncan from well, we met in Madison, wisconsin, and then he asked me if I wanted to go on a tour with Sunnyland in 1972. And you're 21. I was 21,. I was very inexperienced. I didn't start playing until I was 19, and I dropped out of University of Wisconsin, madison, after my junior year because I had gotten so much into the drums that I figured I needed to drop out to really learn, to find a teacher and devote myself to it for a few years to see if I really had the talent. So I dropped out and I'd probably played a handful of gigs. And but he was booking Sunnyland. He was helping various Blues musicians to get gigs and he was especially trying to help Sunnyland. So he ran into Mike Bloomfield, the great Mike Bloomfield of Paul Butterfield, electric Flag and Bob Dylan fame. And they're all New York people, right? No, they're Chicago Bloomfield as well.

Speaker 2 2:44

Yeah he grew up in Chicago and when he was a teenager he started going to the Southside and playing with people like Sunnyland. So my friend Harry asked him this is 1972, so he was very famous at the time. He lived in Mill Valley, he had moved out and he asked him if he would play guitar with Sunnyland and his band to help him get gigs around the Bay Area for a month, month of 1972, november 1972, excuse me, and so that's how I got out here. He said let's go.

Speaker 2 3:16

we drove 2000 miles and arrived in the Bay Area and started playing with Mike, probably four shows a week and then. So now it's December and we're still playing around the Bay Area. Well, sunnyland went back to Chicago in the middle of winter, the beginning of winter, and I decided I was gonna stay. My friend Harry and I would stay in California. So I lived in the Bay Area for the next two and a half years, was playing with Blues people like Luther Tucker and Dave Alexander, and put together a band with people that I met in rhythm and blues band. The bass player in the band, jerry Cooper. He met a woman there, Karen. They came up to Fortuna, got married Fortuna.

Speaker 2 4:05

Yeah he was from there, he grew up there. Oh, okay, yeah, and so I came up for the wedding. And then, about two months later, he called me and said Karen and I are putting together a country band and we have six months of guaranteed gigs every Friday and Saturday at the Rendezvous Lounge in Rio del, in Rio, and I've never heard of that.

Speaker 1 4:25

I've been here a long time. The Rendezvous Lounge yeah, it burned to the ground Downtown Rio del.

Speaker 2 4:30

Yep, right on Wildwood Avenue, how about that? And so it was guaranteed money $50 a night and I could get unemployment. And I thought, well, I'm kinda struggling in San Francisco. I might just give it a try, and if I don't like it I can always move back.

Speaker 1 4:46

Move to the country.

Speaker 2 4:47

Yeah, so that's how I got here. Huh, did you live in Fortuna? I lived in Rio del for about nine months and then moved to.

Speaker 1 4:55

Arcada how about that. And so you got into music. Then carried that career over into Arcada, exactly Arcada, eureka.

Speaker 2 5:03

Yeah, I had about seven months. The band that I played was called the Coopers, and then I looked for another band and I had been playing on jam nights at Harvey's Club, which was a corner of 36 and 101. It's no longer there because the freeway overpass there, but it was a very happening wild true Honk-a-Tonk.

Speaker 1 5:29

You remember that it was a little bar kind of, a setting Right on the corner right on 101.

Speaker 2 5:33

Harvey's Harvey's Club, yeah, and it was a really wild, true Humboldt County, honk-a-tonk. I played with guys quite a bit older. They were called the Sons of Redwood Country and I played there Friday, saturday and Sundays and did that for about seven months. By then I was living in Arcada and after that then I was in Northern Humboldt, mostly for the rest of my career. Sure.

Speaker 1 5:58

And you live here in Eureka. Yes, Let me just point out for our listeners and watchers that's right in here in Humboldt County. That's where it's vaguely funny when I do this and they point out the map so they can get a geographic. So I don't. I'm not sure if I met anybody that's played, as I perceive, as many bands as you have. So if there was a number, what would your dart throw be? Have you done over 100 bands?

Speaker 2 6:22

Not quite. It's an interesting question. I wondered if you'd asked me that. No, a few weeks ago someone asked me how many bands I'd been in. So I thought for a couple of weeks and every day I would come up with other bands. I have a pretty good memory of my own personal timeline and I came up with 81. 81, that's a lot. That is a lot, wow.

Speaker 2 6:46

Yeah, I first thought, well, it was probably 40 or 50., but I defined it as a playing with a band that played a public performance, not just a jam session. And you know, I had some longevity with bands like Caledonia we played for seven years, the Delta Nationals played for 18, but I was always being asked to do, you know, one night thing, and sometimes I would be asked to play and have three bands in one night that I never met before. But we played it for a benefit at the Bayside Grange. Just sit in and go for it.

Speaker 2 7:18

Last night, the appliances, one of the bands I was in 89 to 92 with Fred Nabron, joyce All, gary Davidson, jeff Landon, brian Herlman, and so we're reuniting to do a benefit for Del Arte on Saturday, february 10th at the Carlo Theater, coming up, yeah, and so we were just talking about things and Fred said do you remember the Rockabilly Mimes? And I said wow, and he said it was a trio that Fred and I and Gary Davidson played in. And I said how many shows do we do? He said two. I said we'll have to add that to the list.

Speaker 1 8:00

Yeah, that's 80.

Speaker 2 8:01

I went from 80 to 81. Right there he bumped that one.

Music Scene in Humboldt County

Speaker 2 8:05

But I wrote them all down and it was fun just to realize, and I counted, like when I because in my 20s my friend Harry Duncan was asking me to go on the road and play many tours with Chicago and Texas blues musicians while I was living here, and so I would six weeks to maybe even just a weekend, like I went to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, played with Sunnyland there and had Charles Neville on sax with the Nellow Brothers and did five gigs in three days, played a six week tour on the West Coast with a Holland Wolves guitarist, hubert Sumlin, and Paul Delea, a harmonica player from Portland. So I had these stints. I played at the Monterey Jazz Festival blues afternoon with a great Texas guitarist named Albert Collins, the master of the Telecaster.

Speaker 1 9:01

He's great.

Speaker 2 9:02

So I had all these opportunities and I did that a few times a year while I was playing in local bands like Caledonia, so those were bands that I also counted if there was a change over in the bands. So it's been a really rich musical life for me here.

Speaker 1 9:19

Yeah, so let's talk about Humboldt and your experience here as it relates. So I'm going to ask kind of a three part question and we'll cycle back. So what do you see? This is the question Joni fed me. Thanks, my wife's way smarter than me, married up, like some of us, so early in the music scene here when you got here 70s, 80s. What was that about? What's it been in the middle and what's happening now in terms of things that strike your fancy you'd want to comment on. So how is the music scene in Humboldt County different? Say 40 years ago, or upon your arrival, it seemed like there's a lot of musicians that are really in quality now. I mean, I think at Caledonia they were still legendary.

Speaker 2 10:06

Well, the biggest change as soon as I started branching off and I started going to college at the Redwoods and taking jazz improv classes, and then I started going to Arcata and meeting with Fred and Joyce and doing jam session at the Jumbilaya, I quickly realized this was a mecca for musicians. There are so many really high quality musicians, from jazz to country to soul, rhythm and blues, and there were so many clubs here. That's the big difference. There still are a fair amount of venues here, but back then it was exploding with venues. There were a dozen places in Europe, how many bars in Arcata?

Speaker 2 10:48

Back at the day, arcata had obviously more music venues than now, and there were places that the den and places that I didn't play, but people could play five or six nights in a row and so it was more because you didn't have the internet, you didn't have streaming and people would go out. That was an entertainment, and so when I was in Caledonia right now, like when I do shows, it's almost always a one night stand Play a Saturday at the Speekies in Eureka, or we played last Friday at the basement in Arcata with the Big Eight, so it's pretty much just one night things, whereas back then there was such a demand where people would go out even during the week. The basement was called Bret Hart's. We'd play Caledonia would play Wednesday through Saturday. The Jambalaya we'd play Friday and Saturday Mad River, rose and Blue Lake Friday Saturday, brett the Old Talin Bar and Grill yeah.

Speaker 2 11:48

Thursday, friday, saturday I was going to bring that up. That's a big one, that was a huge thing, but we were playing three or four times a week and now it's not like that, it's all one night stand. So you could like I was actually making a living in my 20s I mean, I wasn't married and could actually pay my bills and I had part-time jobs like working at the Works Record Store, things like that. But I think that's the biggest change is that people don't go out as much and there's not as many music venues, but they're still the same to me, same amount of really high quality musicians here and they're always looking for places to play. And it's just back then there were more of them, but there's still. This is a place. Some places are theater places like Ashland. This is a music town.

Speaker 1 12:41

Yeah, yeah has been. So something occurs to me. You know, it's different between an old athlete and an old musician.

Speaker 2 12:48

No.

Speaker 1 12:50

It's like a set up. This is set up for a really funny joke, which is I see old musicians that still got it. You know a 40 year old, you know Tom Brady isn't that great anymore in football, but a lot of musicians season with their art.

Speaker 2 13:06

Absolutely. Yeah, many musicians they're playing into their 90s, yeah, but you know there's not much. Obviously it's not as physically demanding and for drummers it's physically demanding, but you know it's for someone like me, it's more in my fingers and my wrists and arms, so joints, yeah, and my feet.

Speaker 2 13:30

So you know it's. You know there's so many musicians that last a long time. I played with this great and there's a joy to it that I think helps people to have a sustained career. Like Hubert Samlin was one of the most joyful musicians that I played with and he was Halvin Wolf's guitarist incredibly influential blues guitarist.

Speaker 2 13:57

People like Eric Clapton looked at him as their musical hero and so I had a chance to play with him for six weeks and I spent a lot of time with him because he was very funny and very affectionate and one time he looked at me after a gig and he said you know, paul, you keep playing music. He was very beautiful, wow, and because he was beautiful when he played and he met it, he met it. Oh yeah, he'd be on stage and he was like mid-40s and he looked so happy on stage. I would look at him and think this guy has become someone that's about 25. So it's, you know, I think anybody that does something and has tremendous joy. I think it helps keep you young if that joy kind of permeates your whole body and being Never connected.

Speaker 1 14:44

So there's a preservative effect? I think so, yeah. Yeah no, I like that, unless, of course, you died in a hotel room at 28 in Florida or wherever Right.

Speaker 2 14:53

Wherever all the 28. 27 year old 27 year old 27 was the year that. Janice and Hendricks, jim Morrison, I think, tommy. Bolton, the guitarist, died pretty young too yeah he did, he did, he was gang and Pete.

Speaker 1 15:07

Purple. He's from my hometown in Sioux City, iowa. Oh okay, yeah, he was quite a guy, could have stuck around, but so one kind of one night stands now. So the audience and the participation, their consumption is different.

Speaker 2 15:24

I think so. Yeah, for sure, yeah. And obviously COVID has affected things. Oh my gosh, you know, even now it seems to be there's a kind of resurgence right now and COVID, so there's many people that just won't go out to a really crowded small club for sure. What was a benefit of COVID is that more venues. Obviously, during COVID went outside, yes, so many more outside music venues, and that's continued to this day. It's a little tough in the winter, but there still are some that are outdoor venues.

Speaker 1 16:03

Yeah, and we really like that. You know eat outside, you know just wherever you travel. There's like some sort of outdoor something now.

Speaker 2 16:13

Yeah, more than ever. And there's, you know, you've got Mad River Brewery that's an outdoor thing. Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville. They created a deck with a roof on. That is an outdoor area that people play. So how?

Speaker 1 16:29

about the winery in Philbrook. Yeah, that's a nice stage out there. Yes, that's fantastic, and I think it's like the best thing ever is this year. Oh, did you On account of Pam?

Speaker 2 16:37

yeah, Pam's my wife Pam Long. She was a general manager.

Speaker 1 16:41

She did a great job and you were in charge of musical yes.

Speaker 2 16:45

Judy Hodgson hired me to book all the bands every Saturday and Sunday 1.30 to 4. And we did 10 Thursday evening shows from 5.30 to 8. And had a wide mixture of early jazz to Citizen Funk, funk and even a couple of Grateful Dead oriented bands. So people love the outdoor venues around here now.

Speaker 1 17:08

Grateful Dead in Humboldt County.

Speaker 2 17:10

Let me just point out Philbrook for our fans.

Speaker 1 17:13

That here's our Kata. Here's Philbrook. It's actually on the map. Look there, nick, see it.

Speaker 2 17:18

Yeah, philbrook.

Speaker 1 17:20

It could be nice out there. It could be in the 80s or 90s in the summer, yeah.

Speaker 2 17:24

Once July hit June last year, we had a June gloom for the entire month.

Speaker 2 17:28

It was weird All the way out to Willow Creek, but then July hit and so it's hard to get people to come out because it's too cold. But then July hit and everything warmed up and crowds loved coming out there. Even Philbrook Market has an outdoor venue. They're kind of right now they're closed, trying to see what they're going to do. Not sure they're going to continue. Just read that yeah, so yeah, that's one significant change. There's a lot of outdoor venues.

Speaker 1 17:57

Now let's talk about festivals for a sec. So bigger things that have happened over the years between Blues Festival, jazz Festival, other things that come to your mind. What, paul, what to you? What has been the success stories there that have maybe made their mark or can one day?

Music Festivals in Humboldt County

Speaker 2 18:16

Well, obviously the Blues by the Bay had a great run. I don't know the years. I would say probably all through the early 90s, probably to 2005,. 10 to 15 year run. That was a great venue down at Halvorson Park by the Bay and that was a great festival.

Speaker 1 18:41

That's where Sarah Bareilles played with Buckleberry Flint everybody Right.

Speaker 2 18:45

Yeah, right, so that's been great. So we just celebrated our 31st or second year. We took two years off from COVID. I think it was the 32nd year. Are you a board member? I'm a board member, say we, I help publicize the festival. Super successful, right? Yeah, very much so. Yeah, and it's changed over the years.

Speaker 2 19:08

It was the when it started, so I think it started in 1990, it was the Dixieland Jazz Fest and then it became the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival and now it's known as the Redwood Coast Music Festival because the crowd was getting older and it's still a very much a dance oriented festival. But now it's expanded to be Eureka's American Roots Festival. So there's everything from early jazz like Dixieland, through rockabilly, zydeco, cajun, western swing, chicago blues, texas blues. So it's expanded to include all those kinds of Roots American music and it's going strong. We had seven stages. It's all based in Eureka and turnouts. Great. People come from all over the West Coast. Some people come from around the country because it's kind of unique. Right now A lot of musicians say there's nothing quite like it, because they come here and meet other musicians and they form bands here and just do one rehearsal and play with them. But it's still a very strong dance oriented festival. There's really truly great music.

Speaker 1 20:23

What about Reggae on the River? I mean, that's not happening at the moment, right, but that has its own southern humble. By the way, that's down in here, reggae on the River You're showing our list.

Speaker 2 20:36

You can't see anything Our viewers but it's way off the map over here. Yeah, it's about. Well, it's like Garberville. Yeah, garberville is about 40 minutes south of Arcada.

Speaker 1 20:45

And here's Garberville. Yeah, I can see it, it's down here. That was a big deal, that was a great run.

Speaker 2 20:50

I think they're trying to restart it. Yeah, it started in, I believe, 85 or 86 and had about a 30 year run that brought in a lot of people, right? Oh yeah, people all over the West Coast, and it was a premier.

Speaker 1 21:06

Reggae show right, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 21:09

Yeah, it became one of the top Reggae performers. We're playing there and, I think, another festival one of my favorites is the Humboldt Folklife Festival.

Speaker 1 21:20

Yeah, glad you brought that up.

Speaker 2 21:23

Yeah, and that's now. It's based in Blue Lake at the Del Arte School of Physical Theory. They have a really cool outdoor stage, the Amphitheater. Very nice yeah, really beautiful Great stage and then they have a stage on the street and that thing's been going on Wow. So when I first got here, there was a ranch up on Fickle Hill, lazy Jay, I think. Yep, right, do you know that place?

Speaker 1 21:52

Absolutely do.

Speaker 2 21:53

Yeah, and they used to have cowboys up there.

Speaker 1 21:56

Well, they had a.

Speaker 2 21:57

Western town. Yeah, it was a Western town and A rodeo ground Right, and then they had acoustic bands, bluegrass and things like that. I'm not even sure they had any electricity. But, that's how it started, and then the Humboldt Folklife Society worked with Del Arte and moved it there, so it's been there for probably 30 years now.

Speaker 1 22:22

Are you in that board as well? No, that's mostly. Patrick's been part of that.

Speaker 2 22:27

Patrick Cleary's been the president for a while yeah, quite a few years. They have a solid base of people on the board and they have volunteers and they work really hard. They do a great job.

Speaker 1 22:39

Yeah, they do. They have any of them Parago Park and Blue Lake and do they expand out from there much? I mean, it seems like that's.

Speaker 2 22:50

Well, they do a square dance. Oh they're, yeah, little things. Old-timey square dance at the Acadia Vets Festival. That's all part of the week of the festival. It's a week long, right, it's always. Well, it changed. It had always been the second week of.

Speaker 1 23:03

July. Moved to the third week of July.

Speaker 2 23:06

But that's a great festival. You know they have the music on the bay there at Foot of Seastreet. It's concerts that do Thursday nights Great point.

Speaker 1 23:19

Yeah, yeah, that's happening. The radio stations sponsored that. For what? 15 months?

Speaker 2 23:24

Yeah, Bicostal Media does that.

Speaker 1 23:27

And Friday night is now a venue Right.

Speaker 2 23:30

The Friday night market's going real strong. That's been around about four years now, and then McKinleyville at Pearson Park every Thursday in the summer they have a person at concerts. So that's just talking about it. It just shows how much Humboldt County audiences love live music, which is great for a musician like me because there's an audience that really likes to come out and see live bands.

Speaker 1 23:56

So yeah, zellia Park's fun. We do that. We live in McKinleyville so it's kind of on the way home. We've sat in 40-degree fog and listen to music. It's great.

Speaker 2 24:05

We love live music. You have to wear your layers.

Speaker 1 24:11

Yeah, we wear layers here. So, tell me about the venues that you like to play in in terms of sound or just the vibe locally where you feel it's fun.

Live Music in Eureka

Speaker 2 24:26

Well, you know, for me and many musicians, if the acoustics are good, then you love playing there. Yeah, because when they're difficult, you know the bouncing, like if it's everything's live surfaces and everything's bouncing, and it's very hard to control the sound and it's a string. It's hard to play music when the acoustics are very difficult, but when they're good, you know, those are the venues I like to play.

Speaker 1 24:54

And it flows yeah.

Speaker 2 24:56

Yeah, like I, like the Eagle House. It's a great venue. It has a balcony. That ballroom there, yeah, love it. It's, you know, and it's.

Speaker 1 25:03

That's the Arkley Theater. Is it sound wise?

Speaker 2 25:06

Sound wise, let's see. Well, I've never played there, okay, but I've heard sound in there and Chris Pereira is their sound technician at Litz and he does a great job, so I think that's a good venue. I think Rangel Town, cider in our case. Do you know about that? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 25:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:22

I've played acoustics.

Speaker 1 25:24

Saw Gary Davidson play there just recently. Yeah, you're the second person this week that said those very words. Because it's a cider house, that's kind of a warehouse, right.

Speaker 2 25:35

Yeah, it's where the machine works, used to be on I Street Cross from Hinsle's hardware, and it's a winery production and storage facility for Septentrio and North Story Wines and Rangel Town Cider. But what was fortunate is that Robert Goodman owned that building for many years and he sprayed insulation over the metal roof and that made it into a really good acoustic room. How about that? Is he still around? I think so he doesn't own it anymore.

Speaker 1 26:16

But you got Salt Restaurant and then what's it called the carriage house? Now, yes, right.

Speaker 2 26:22

But the acoustics in that room are great. So Pat Niddles, the owner of North Story Wines and Rangel Town, so she started doing music there and I said this is a great sounding room. So the musicians, if you have a room that sounds good, you want to play there. The current band I mean several different groups, but I'm in this showcase group called the New Pelicans and it's four of the five people who were in the handshakers. It's an Americana band and we did our first show there and I rented a stage and Chris Perr did sound and we love the acoustics in there. So that'll keep bringing musicians and audience members. Maybe they don't quite know why they like it, but often it's because it's a good sounding room Heard.

Speaker 1 27:05

it was a good show.

Speaker 2 27:06

Who's in the band, by the way? It's Michael Walker on guitar and vocals and songwriting, mike Bynum who plays guitar and sings and writes songs. They're both from the state of Georgia that came here independent of each other Gary Davidson on bass, darren Weiss on mandolin and myself. Is he the young guy Darren? No, no.

Speaker 1 27:32

Who's the young?

Speaker 2 27:32

You're thinking of the pedal steel player Alistair, maybe Alistair Page, but he's not doing this. He's busy with other projects. But then every every we only do them once a season we have a special local guest that we highlight and we play with that person and they'll play with us. The first one we did was a turtle from Is it barred fire?

Speaker 1 27:55

Barred fire yeah.

Speaker 2 27:56

And the next one's going to be Beverly Twist. It's going to be Saturday, february 24th at the Eagle House and we're excited because she's in Canary in the Vam. She was in Bells of the Levy, she specializes in 20s and 30s, so her yes, yeah, and Django Reinhart so with us.

Speaker 2 28:13

So far we've learned like four more Western swing songs, and so that'll push us in a different direction and then we'll be back in her. But the Eagle House is great. I've just played the basement last Friday how was that? And that's pretty good. The acoustics used to be really dead back in the early 80s, but they've changed the carpet on the stage so there's more life. So, it's a much better sounding room.

Speaker 1 28:43

I love you talking about Brent Hart, brent Hart's, brent Hart's. Remember that? Yeah, then it was a Brutzi Right. And then, yeah, and what was upstairs? Youngblood?

Speaker 2 28:52

Youngberg's was.

Speaker 1 28:53

Yeah, gosh, that's all history.

Speaker 2 28:55

Yeah, we've both been along here long enough to have lived it.

Speaker 1 28:59

They'll be like 10 people and I'll go. Yeah, I remember that, Was it Steve Young? Was that the guys that owned it?

Speaker 2 29:03

all yeah, Steve Youngberg's, yeah, and of course Bill Chino and Chris Smith and Gary Gephart.

Speaker 1 29:13

Great guys, yeah, Funny, funny guys. Yes they are. I walked in their office once and they were just it was hoots and I was there. So funny they're very quick. So today the speakeasy is a big venue.

Speaker 2 29:25

It seems like it's a small room, but a popular venue.

Speaker 1 29:29

They said the Tuesday Night Jazz is outstanding. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 29:33

It's the Jazz Alley Cats. They play Tuesdays and Fridays and they're starting to play at the basement. They're excellent bebop musicians.

Speaker 1 29:43

Who's the guy that's the tall piano player that plays with them? Tim Randall's Tim, yeah.

Speaker 2 29:49

Yeah, they're the RLAD quartet.

Speaker 1 29:53

Okay, yeah, and we you know I don't want to leave Soham out of this, but the what was the venue down there that everybody?

Speaker 2 30:01

all the Mateel Mateel's. Yeah, they're still doing music, are they? That's a great venue and there's so there's one on the main drag, redwood Drive, stone Junction, stone Junction, that's what it is. I haven't been there, but they're doing a lot of music there, mateel had a big history of, like, a lot of big names.

Speaker 1 30:20

Oh yeah, that came after.

Speaker 2 30:22

Absolutely yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 30:24

Where's the the Vets Hall in Eureka was known, or the Eureka Auditorium, kind of a deco chamber, right? Yes, yeah, that was what you were talking about the Eureka Auditorium?

Speaker 2 30:35

Yeah, yeah, it's. You can't say that, it's just metal and hard surfaces everywhere. And I've played there and it's just that's, a nightmare venue. How about the Eureka Theater? Eureka, it has challenges. Okay, it does they're. The Redwood Coast Music Festival is going to work hard with their the board there to do what they can to improve the acoustics.

Speaker 1 31:01

It needs money to do that. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 31:05

And it has the overhang of the balcony. So there's a lot of challenges. There's potential. I mean it's the Redwood Coast Music Festival uses it because it's the biggest venue they have. They use the Adornee, which actually is pretty good, and then the Eagle House is the best, and Red Lion what?

Speaker 1 31:24

about Warfinger building. Does anybody play music out there? Yeah, I think so. I played there.

Speaker 2 31:31

Yeah, I played some, you know parties, private parties. It's not like a place. I mean, they do mostly private events, but there's, you know, it's, I don't know They've they installed a lot of acoustic baffling in there to improve it. So it's, it's pretty good.

Speaker 1 31:48

Okay, yeah, yeah, kind of open air too, you could see.

Speaker 2 31:51

Yeah, it's a great looking venue and they they did. They have worked on improving the acoustics, so it's really pretty good room yeah.

Speaker 1 31:59

So they go out tomorrow night and they were playing. Who would you go see if? If if any band that you're not in. Who would a couple of bands that you'd like to see, without offending your friends in the industry? Who would you? Who would you like to see as a five band lined up or a three band lineup somewhere?

Speaker 2 32:18

Well, one band I want to see, I'm I'm hoping let's see if they're going to be the night before New Year's I guess that's Saturday, right? Um, digging dirt there at the uh, arcadia Theater Lounge, okay, and, and they're. They're a band that's mostly local people that played here. You know I'm not sure their whole history, but somewhere around 10 years ago, five to 10 years ago, and I have never seen them, but I'm well aware of them and they they're playing festivals all over the country and, uh, but this is their home and so they just come back and do like two shows a year. So they're going to be at the theater lounge, uh, uh, saturday, and then New Year's Eve. So I'd like to, I'm thinking about seeing them. Um, let's see. I like uh, you know um, object Heavy's a good band to see. Um, um, you know, I I always like to see uh, home Cooking with Fred and Joyce.

Speaker 1 33:21

They're just um, they're some other really cool young you know young.

Speaker 2 33:24

You know young new bands that are on the scene, like Checkered Past and uh um, uh they're. They're doing like. I saw them at the fourth of July fest and they were doing like ska and reggae and soul and funk and really, really exciting.

Speaker 1 33:43

Checkered.

Speaker 2 33:43

Past, Checkered Past. Yeah, Nice, and I liked, um, um, Magnificent Sanctuary Band which does, uh, Grateful Dead covers Nice, Um, uh, excuse me, they do Jerry Garcia band covers primarily, and they're a really good band. They have great players. Um, you know, I want to leave other people out there's, there's a. Well, I like everything from you know acoustic stuff and Americana to you know uh, funk, like Object, Heavy and, um, you know those bands, Uh, but that's all I can think of at the top.

Speaker 1 34:19

That's good Many others. Great, I'm gonna leave somebody out. Yeah, so who have you? Um, we, when I started thinking about festivals and small things, uh, there's the fourth of July's, both Arcadia, Eureka. There's the Azalea Park thing in McKinleyville, there's, there's, it's you start talking about this, you go, oh, we're heavy, heavy music. Um, how about, uh Ferndale, you got the? Uh, the Steeple, the old Steeple.

Speaker 2 34:47

Yeah, what a great music venue that's become.

Speaker 1 34:49

Oh man yeah.

Speaker 2 34:50

That's fun.

Speaker 1 34:51

That's a great room.

Speaker 2 34:53

I played there a couple of times which shows with my brother Jeff and wow, the acoustics there are tremendous.

Speaker 1 34:57

So is it John Hammond the guy the producer? He's a producer's son. Okay, john Hammond Jr. Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:04

Yeah, john Hammond Sr was a producer. He discovered Bessie Smith um uh Bob Dylan, uh Springsteen he's my great uncle.

Speaker 1 35:15

I'm sorry that's wrong. I belied we actually do own the Hammond Trail, though Also Distant, relative.

Speaker 2 35:21

Also a huge lie, see my nose it's a very, a very distant relative.

Speaker 1 35:27

Hammond Lumber. It was the biggest Redwood Lumber company in the world until GP bought it, was it? And they divested it immediately. They, it was an antitrust. They would have had a monopoly. Uh-huh. So right on the bay was the, the most giant Redwood monster that ever, ever grew. But um, no relation, just discussed my teenagers when I say things like that, yeah, hey, scott Hammond.

Speaker 2 35:51

Hammond Lumber Another band I thought I like, uh, catalag Ranch, they're a great country rock band. Yeah, that's a good one, yeah.

Speaker 1 35:58

And then you know Mad River had that venue for still does I mean, but not as much music, but it was so regular.

Speaker 2 36:03

Yeah, they used to have wow, I don't know at least three days a week. Yeah, on a Thursday, friday, saturday, I think it's now just one day a week.

Speaker 1 36:12

Yeah, fridays, yeah, it's still nice to go to Blue Lake if you're freezing a McKinleyville and it's 70 out there.

Speaker 2 36:19

And you know a fun venue. The acoustics are kind of crazy because it's small and people get you know loud. And there's the Lager. The Lager yeah, I'm playing there tomorrow with a group I mean called the Big A, but I played with my brother, jeff, and a couple other people recently. Lager bar is famous, right, yeah. It's fun too. It's the crowd's really, really into it.

Speaker 1 36:42

Isn't that funny. We've been to Blue Lake a thousand times, never stepped foot in the Lager bar. It just oh, really yeah. Our pastor friends last week said, hey, we'll go and we got sidetracked, but we're going to go. Yeah, that's it, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 36:58

Well, come on. Tomorrow we're playing the big eight. We have Justin Brown from bass player. Well, oh, from Justin, from Jenny and David and sweet soul man and Jeff landing on guitar and Robert Franklin.

Speaker 1 37:11

He's, he's so Hobart's son right. Yes, yeah yeah, he's a really fun, excellent bass player, very versatile and you know, shout out to Gary Davidson, for you know the seventh time in the interview. But yeah, what a, what a great guy and a great player.

Speaker 2 37:25

Yes, he is, and very versatile and very much in demand, yeah so who have you seen in Humboldt?

Humboldt's Music Venues and Their Future

Speaker 1 37:31

and then I'm gonna ask you what you see down the road in the future. Who have you seen over the years that out of town, say at the Old Town Barn Grill? Who who just blew your socks off? That? That traveling bands like yeah, yeah, I mean Robert Cray or whomever.

Speaker 2 37:46

I mean yeah.

Speaker 2 37:47

Well, the Robert Cray was fantastic and they they were based in Eugene back in the mid 70s To the early 80s is a great show. Yeah, they would come through about every six weeks. They were always fantastic. You know, I added James was great there, sam and Dave. I saw Junior Walk in the All-Stars. Wow, the. I worked for I the first two years when Deborah Lazio ran. It started 1980. I was her assistant. I did oh it's publicity marketing and I booked the local ax that. I introduced her to my friend, harry Duncan, who's in the music business, who I mentioned earlier, huh, and I connected her with him and he had all connections with all the booking agents. At the time he was managing the Neville brothers, very nice.

Speaker 2 38:31

So he was extremely well connected. Yeah, so she started Getting talking to him and he was her consultant and open doors for her to have the national ax, los Lobos came the first year we were doing shows.

Speaker 1 38:46

They're great.

Speaker 2 38:47

They were like is their first tour of the West Coast, are three dollars there and now they're like their 40th year, 50th, 50 in a blue lake, right yeah. Yeah, so you know, obviously the Neville's were always great there junior Wells and buddy guy, wow.

Speaker 1 39:05

So Bruce Coburn there.

Speaker 2 39:07

Yeah, Bruce Coburn.

Speaker 1 39:08

I saw him there. He's something. Yeah yeah, yeah, buddy, you know funny story. So here we go. It occurs to me, it's come to me that we didn't talk about center arts yet in Humboldt State. I'm sorry, and the running joke here is Son Humboldt State, is it Nick? It's Cal Poly Humboldt, so, and it's right over here in Arcana. Anyway, how old will that joke get?

Speaker 2 39:33

Well, I graduated from Humboldt State University me to 82.

Speaker 1 39:36

Dang it with a degree in liberal arts, recreation journalism for me journalists public relations and news and I I was fortunate.

Speaker 2 39:44

I used it for 30 years in my fields well, with Debra, lazio and promotion and all well. That was before I did that before I went to Humboldt. I went. I went there. I thought, well, I know how to get press releases in and work with the media, so I might as well get a journalism degree and I wanted to work in public relations but I did the news thing. So yeah, when I graduated 85. I started working in newspapers. I was down in Garberville at the Redwood record.

Speaker 1 40:08

That's right, you were, you were, you were and I was at the Arcadia Union firm yeah, our kid a union. Yeah, editor for about, because I worked for the Tri City Weekly. We were kind of sold. That were you. You were editorial. I was, yeah, I was the managing editor.

Speaker 2 40:20

That's right yeah.

Speaker 1 40:21

Did you ever manage the paper? We're over publisher Because I was Judy right or no no. Judy was her had a mr.

Speaker 2 40:27

Hadley, yeah, the Hadley's. When she was editor, the Hadley's. And then Patrick Odell from Fortuna took it over. Yeah, he, he bought it. He owned the satellite TV week in Fortuna as well and the Humboldt beacon weekly right, and so would record and the Redwood record, yeah, so used to call him citizen Odell from Citizen Kane.

Speaker 1 40:48

Yeah, so real quick back to the bar and grill and you connecting Deborah. How did you, deborah and Harry, get a guy from my five To come over three hours out of the way to go to the hotel? Oh, oh, tom, bar grill, or how did? How did you persuade bands to Kind of you know? So they're over here on the five and we're here on the 101.

Speaker 2 41:11

I think it was more people coming up or down 101. Okay, for more and then it got, you know, because it Debra it was, it really was a great business woman and you know, to me it was still the coolest music venue this area's ever seen. Sure, because of the way it was Looked, you know, had the balcony big dance for it everywhere and you could go all the way to the back of the room, be on couches.

Speaker 2 41:37

It was how these kind of mini environments. You could walk up the stairs and be looking down at the band. They were 15 feet away. It just and it had. We always had a sound person, sean Bohannon. And then then Russ Cole started helping him and Russ is still doing sound, by the way, he travels with Bruce Cobra.

Speaker 1 41:53

No oh, that's right.

Speaker 2 41:54

Yeah, yeah, but I think it. You know it had a great sound in there. She put a thick Velvet blue curtain over the windows and that did wonders, and then having everything mic'd was tremendous, just the the viewpoints from the balcony. It was a great, great venue that had a really good run up until probably the mid to late 90s yeah, when Debra was running with real names.

Speaker 2 42:21

I mean just hardcore, yeah, big big names and local bands it was always local bands too was always always a mixture of you know, because the the local bands you know, would get paid a decent wage but you know you'd have to. You couldn't do National acts all the time because then you have to guarantee him money. But you know, Debra did really well. We tried to make it so she didn't go too far out in the limb and just built up the club. So then the word gets around in the booking agents this is a great place to play. Yeah, you know, and I see, if you're driving from LA or San Francisco and you're going up to Portland, it's kind of on the way to stop.

Speaker 1 43:01

Yeah, you want to see Humboldt, it's great right and this is a great venue.

Speaker 2 43:05

Wow, they loved it.

Speaker 1 43:06

That's great, yeah, center arts. So let's talk about Humboldt, and they've had a number of People over the years and Roy Roy did a did a great job. Yeah, what do you Comments there? I, that's, that's been a killer venue. Yeah, that doza must be a good theater to play in.

Speaker 2 43:24

Yeah, it is yeah, I played there a couple times.

Speaker 1 43:29

You know, are they still remodeling it? I Thought they somehow. I thought they finished, but they're still doing a lot of their acts at the Arkley.

Speaker 2 43:36

Yeah, I'm gonna see the Wood Brothers at the Arkley in March. I don't know. I was at. I saw a Margo price not too long ago at the van dozer and look like everything was in place. Yeah, I'd be hard to start this. They've had so many fantastic James Brown yeah, I did see him. Ray Charles Really okay.

Speaker 1 43:58

Bonnie rates played their couple. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 44:00

It's a, you know it's let it less I. So one of the probably the greatest show I think I've ever seen there Well it is for sure was the old crow medicine show. Oh, I bet and love them. I was on one. I was in the first row, my brother, jeff, was in the first row and it's a curved thing, so he was on the right side, I was the left, we could see, but it was just a performance where these, you know, and with the sound, was fantastic. Where we were and it was, they just gave their whole soul to it. It was tremendous. But I've seen a lot of great shows there Gillian Welch and oh yeah, rawlings.

Speaker 1 44:35

I love them saw them there, yeah, yeah. So Bruce Coburn there and Beach Boys yeah that's been tremendous.

Speaker 2 44:41

I mean it. Well, it wasn't. It didn't exist when I first got here in 75. I think it started around 77 or 78.

Speaker 1 44:50

Yeah, they started doing shows when I went humble. Yeah, 78, 79.

Speaker 2 44:54

Yeah, that's my memory of it. Huh, so that's, that's a fantastic sir Robert Cray there.

Speaker 1 44:59

Yeah, quite the gentleman and good show right, we saw a guy named Durand Jones and the indications oh, I don't know that.

Speaker 2 45:06

Hey, there was.

Speaker 1 45:09

Soul just hardcore. Yeah, you know newer band but really good. And so Joni and I are older and we got good seats with fifth row and we looked around and it became a dance party Humboldt State students going nuts. It's like, oh, this is great, let's do this?

Speaker 2 45:25

We're not. Yeah, they don't do that much anymore. Yeah, no, that's probably a lot of money for seats to see the band. That's true.

Speaker 1 45:32

We saw Paul Reiser there, the the actor yeah, he did it. He does a stand-up, that's pretty kind of. Autobiographical and funny, and yeah he's a great guy yeah, so what do you see in down the road for music here and humble, what do you? What do you envision? The next permeation, the next, what's next step? Hmm, that's a good question. Next, that, as the kids say, next level, next level.

Live Music and Future Venues

Speaker 2 46:02

Well, you know Someone that I admire and that is really thinks on that level of what's going to be the next level in Humboldt and is a Brian Swislow from Object Heavy. And he's always talking about trying to promote the Humboldt County music scene and they tour around the country, so they're in a different space than other people. They have a record deal with a company.

Speaker 2 46:41

And so they're trying to make it. But he's always promoting shows independently and trying his things. I think for some bands that can draw, it's trying to promote your own shows like I'm doing with the New Pelicans is trying to approach like a dance concert or sit down concert, where you go into venues and say, okay, we'll promote it and let's charge admission. For a while people weren't charging admission and now it's starting to come back where people will pay to get in because you know it's a way to pay not only musicians but to pay for door people and some of the overhead at clubs. So they feel like, okay, the band's paid for out of the door, we're not taken out of our money. I think that's going to continue and, you know, I do think that outdoor venues are going to be really strong.

Speaker 2 47:33

A lot of bands. They work mostly from late spring into October, but you know, I think it's always just kind of incremental. Here there's a lot of musicians that record and put things out to promote themselves. That's obviously. There's much more of that. Because it's so accessible, people can have their own studios.

Speaker 1 47:58

The technologies come where you can do your own YouTube channel and stream all day long.

Speaker 2 48:04

Right, like I was talking to Michael Walker and Mike Bynum from the New Pelicans and I said, you know, as a promotional vehicle, we should record one song and just put it out on streaming services Spotify and other things like that YouTube, apple Music because you know I've been involved in a fair amount of album projects. But now it's like people often just well, here's our latest two songs. That was a song, yeah, because they're not. You know, especially on a local level, they're not going to make any money that way. It's used to interest people in your music and that's a trend that I see, that I think more and more people locally are going to do and just record their music, get it out there quickly.

Speaker 2 48:56

Here, it is here's where we're at right now and I think that's what I would like to move to. Like the Handshakers, we did a ten song CD, but it doesn't seem necessary. Yeah, maybe you don't have to do a full record. You don't Just do a few songs here and there and get them out there, and I think that's exciting. I think Object Heavy has a record label, some independent label, and that's great if you can get to that level.

Speaker 1 49:20

Yeah, who's the guy also touring Buddy the Blues? Buddy Reid. Yeah, buddy Reid, he goes down he goes.

Speaker 2 49:26

He's fun to watch. Yeah, he's very good he's. You know he goes back back playing with Lil Richard.

Speaker 1 49:32

Oh, is that right.

Speaker 2 49:33

Yeah, a group called Bacon Fad. There was a big Blues band in the LA area in the 70s, but yeah, he played with Lil Richard toured with him.

Speaker 1 49:42

How, about that. Yeah, so Richard's still alive Lil Richard, obviously.

Speaker 2 49:47

No, no, no, no, this was way back.

Speaker 1 49:49

Way back. Yeah, I know, Buddy Lil Richard perished right.

Speaker 2 49:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Buddy was playing with him. I don't know, it's probably the 70s early 80s Back in the day. Yeah, way back. But I, you know, I think everything it's always in a state of flux. There's always clubs like they're not going to do music and something else comes up. Like Septentrio was doing a lot of outdoor shows a year ago, yeah, and that that was cool.

Speaker 1 50:15

So the future has to do with venues too. So Wrangletown is an unlikely beautiful discovery. In the Arcata Playhouse they do it, they do a lot of shows, yeah, both in the Creamery and in the Tent right Mm-hmm. So there's the indoor outdoor-ish, mostly indoors.

Speaker 2 50:30

I played there a number of times. That's a really great venue, uh-huh. So you know, it's like I'm always, you know, hoping that you know, in my own way, trying to do shows at these venues just to keep it going, mm-hmm, you know, and to find venues. That's, that's good acoustics, and if you have a sound man that you always do it, sure At. You know the Playhouse and and down in Ferndale at the Old Steeple, you always have sound man there.

Speaker 1 50:56

Yeah, paul, is it his name Paul? Yes, yeah, he's a nice guy. Yeah, yeah, I really like that guy. Speaking of sound man, these guys you know Dick Taylor, huckleberry, flint claim that Russ is their fifth band member and they, they love Russell Cole. Yeah yeah, he's excellent. He just makes them sharp right.

Speaker 2 51:15

Oh yeah, oh, it's a good sound man. It's just gold and another golden.

Speaker 1 51:20

And another nice guy yeah. You know the arrogant artist or anything. No, no, you got to work with the.

Speaker 2 51:28

It's a small community.

Speaker 1 51:29

It's a small town, yeah.

Speaker 2 51:32

Jeff Kelly does sound as well as playing three or four bands and he's very good, and obviously Chris Pereira and Tofu Mike. Mike Schwartz, he does, yeah, good job.

Speaker 1 51:44

And Chris Pereira.

Speaker 2 51:46

So there's there's a number of guys that they've actually been able to make a living, and that's that's a testament to the music scene. There's enough concert venues that you will hire a sound man.

Speaker 1 51:59

Sam Saphir in that category. He's a local yeah.

Speaker 2 52:01

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 52:02

He does a lot of sound right.

Speaker 2 52:03

He does, he owns a lot of, he's kind of acquired a lot of sound.

Speaker 1 52:06

He's a PA guy too, right, he's got the.

Speaker 2 52:08

Absolutely PA and lights.

Speaker 1 52:10

Okay.

Speaker 2 52:10

Yeah, and Russ does a lot of work. Like he'll, they'll hire his Sam's company and then Russ will work for him. Got it Okay? So Russ is like an independent concert.

Speaker 1 52:22

So Russ doesn't have to own a $10 million equipment yeah. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, and Russ did not mention the Brit Festival, which is not here, it's not even in the state, but it's Jacksonville. Can I show you on the map? Sure, it's way up underneath the curtain.

Speaker 2 52:38

Yeah.

Speaker 1 52:39

It's so. It's three hours away, but it's our. It's one of our favorite venues.

Speaker 2 52:42

Oh, I know, I know Spectacular.

Speaker 1 52:45

We see Jackson Brown, the Decemberists, we see Judy Collins and Steve Stills together, and you know, mind blowing the Hollywood vampires. Can I tell you about them? Sure, and then there's Cooper and Joe Perry from Aerosmith. Johnny Depp the actor, is a grungy metal guitar player and the guy from Guns N' Roses was the drummer.

Speaker 2 53:04

It was just really just a fair at that venue.

Speaker 1 53:07

Yeah, several years ago, pre COVID, but I think a lot of really. You know they've had Willie Nelson. Yeah, it's really Steve Martin.

Speaker 2 53:13

It's a whole spectrum of stuff. Yeah, it's like the bar and grill. Yeah, it's like center arts. I mean just it's a wide spectrum of artists. Yeah, I was there. I've been there twice than I saw. The last one I saw was John Prine, very nice, yeah. And that's a music town too. It's a really small town but they have three different bars that have live bands in that area, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I like, I like Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 53:42

Yeah, it's fun going up there. The who did we see that we really liked. Of course they have a lot of younger bands too. We saw Australian Pink Floyd not too shabby, you know, it's like it was there at the Brit Festival yeah, I've never. And there's Brit Floyd, which is nothing to do with the Brit Festival, it's their British Pink Floyd and they were also. I never really go to cover kind of bands, but they were pretty darn good, yeah. Yeah, so you're right, and they have a history of a lot of really good, really good shows and it's and, as you know, probably not easy to do outdoors.

Speaker 2 54:18

Well, you know they, they have enough money and they have an overhang. They probably have fantastic acoustics on the stage and great sound equipment and people.

Speaker 1 54:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:30

So that's why it sounds so good there. John Prine, that's something. Yeah, it was really nice. Wow, that's a great venue. Just sitting there on the lawn, yeah, and we were kind of high up, but you know they had it together. The sound was really good, yeah.

Speaker 1 54:43

Yeah, it's just fun. We love to go Southern Oregon. Yeah, anything else that you'd like to talk about before we go Musically or other?

Speaker 2 54:55

Well, I think… I'm always impressed and appreciate the fact that people will go out and see live music here. I think it's a small enough community where people know the bands and musicians. There's other places. I'm glad that I wound up here because I've been able to put together bands and join bands and play consistently for 50 years and it's because of well, almost I got here in 75, but because it's a smaller community. It's not like you're in San Francisco having to compete with big acts. Things are close, you can pull things together quickly and I see so many people. When I was playing with Caledonia, with friends, I still see people that they have a very long audience. I see people that have been coming out since for 40 years.

Speaker 1 55:55

To see them specifically? Yeah.

Speaker 2 55:57

But they'll come out and see bands that I'm into. We put together a band it was a vintage country band that we had in the 90s and we did a. We played the Folklife Festival. We did two or three gigs called the Country Pretenders and in the audience it's like people that I saw at the John Malaya in 1979. So that's what I really appreciate and I think people here are music goers. They love to go out and see live music and that's impressive. And whether they, if they don't want to go out to clubs, they'll wait till the weather's nice and but people come out, it's still amazing to me. For me it's been great because I've been able to keep playing shows, you know, and doing some recordings and just having a rich artistic life and I think a lot of musicians around here and audience members feel the same that it's. It's a true music county in my opinion.

Speaker 1 56:49

I rediscovered that in the last hour. Did you say just now you're 75? No Years old? No, I'm not.

Speaker 2 56:57

I said I moved here in 75.

Speaker 1 56:58

You were here in 75, because I only have you for like 59 or 60. Well, that wouldn't be possible. That would be weird.

Speaker 2 57:05

I'm past 70, I'll say that Okay.

Speaker 1 57:08

I tried enough at Al Bear. She just a little bit to turn me on to yoga about six, eight months ago. So, every morning, man, I stretch this this old car?

Speaker 2 57:18

Are you using the online?

Speaker 1 57:20

Yeah, well, I go on YouTube, adrienne and Adrienne, yeah, she's really good. And there's Mandy, she's the German and so she's great. She has a whole stretching routine, so, and then I'm glad you're doing it, yeah, then there's the chair workout guy now.

Speaker 2 57:32

So you could do the whole chair deal if you're, I can't even look at that guy.

Speaker 1 57:35

Yeah, he's like 75 and he's like ripped and he's like oh man, I don't know how to do that.

Speaker 2 57:44

So one question I ask everybody I like to go to a live class over at HealthSport. I'm going to give her a plug. Christine Fiorentino, Is that Pilates?

Pilates, Hip Surgery, and Yoga

Speaker 1 57:53

No, it's a yoga class. It's a yoga class. Yeah yeah, she's a led, but fed around for a while.

Speaker 2 57:59

Yeah, very popular and she does, you know, like two morning classes and two evening classes at HealthSport here and Myrtle Avenue Right over around the corner, right, and I love her classes, but there's a lot of good teachers there. You know. There's good teachers all over Himalaya Yoga is huge and there's private places and there's HealthSport yeah, she's just someone I've been going to since 2009. So, you know, people find their teacher and they stick with that person.

Speaker 1 58:26

We had Pilates down in HealthSport on the Bay and pre-imposed hip surgery.

Speaker 2 58:31

Oh, did you have hip surgery?

Speaker 1 58:32

Yeah, bilateral. Ten years ago, less and less summer, went for university medical. Yeah, pretty darn good, but one of the best things I've ever did. When you say, is it both hips, two in the same day? Wow, went to sleep at 1 pm and woke up at 10 pm and with two new hips and I'm going, let's dance, let's get some music going.

Speaker 2 58:51

You know it's somewhat. I think I might have told you like there was a few years ago, yeah, as arts alive, and someone introduced me to this guy who was about 10 years older than me and he got to talk about yoga and I said, yeah, I've been doing yoga since I was 19 and he said I think it's the number one thing you can do to slow the aging process, besides music Well, preservative, but you need to do yoga too. You need to do some kind of physical. Maybe that explains it. You need to stretch, you need to do something. It's two things, especially with drumming, you know you have to have your body together and you know you can't have a bad back and things like that.

Speaker 1 59:30

Yeah, hey, thanks for being here. All right, I'll see you in a minute.