July 1 events, Acoustic Americana Music Calendar & News 2008

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"Tied to the Tracks"
ACOUSTIC AMERICANA
MUSIC CALENDAR & NEWS
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Events for July 1, 2008
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copyright (c) © 2008, Larry Wines. All rights reserved.
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WHY WE’RE ON BLOGSPOT.COM: after a long presence on MySpace, that site suddenly changed parameters to accept only short posts, now requiring a ponderous and VERY time-consuming process to list events in small increments. It’s far too time-consuming. So we began posting the calendar and news on Blogspot. We’ll see how this works, and we welcome your feedback, at tiedtothetracks@hotmail.com .
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FUTURE EVENTS are posted into 2009. We update often, and we add a BUNCH of concerts, festivals, club gigs, workshops, and recurring events as dates arrive.
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LATEST NEWS FEATURES always post separately. The most recent edition posted June 28; the most recent previous News Features posted June 19; recent editions are available at http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com; archived editions are available on the myspace page (www.myspace.com/laacoustic), by using the “View All” button, and if you don’t see what you want, then journey farther back by using the “older entries” button as many times as necessary. You can go all the way back to when acoustic music was made by indigenous natives pounding on hollow logs with rocks.
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TUESDAY, JULY 1
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Today’s anniversaries:
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JULY, the seventh month of the year, was originally the fifth month in the Roman calendar. The month was called “QUINTILLUS,” meaning fifth. It had 36 days. Various Romans who held power reduced the month to 31, then 30 days, and JULIUS CAESAR restored it to 31 days. MARC ANTHONY renamed the month July, in honor of Julius Caesar, whose birthday falls on July 14. The month officially became July in 44 BC – the same year BRUTUS stabbed and killed Caesar on the ides of March.
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CONGRESS SEEKS INDIAN ALLIES in the American Revolution by an act passed on this day in 1775. The British already had numerous tribes on their side, simply by promising to limit westward expansion of the colonies. By the time the war ended with the birth of the United States, the colonists’ few Indian allies were treated worse than those who had sided with the British. It would establish the schizophrenic pattern of the US toward Native American Indians that would brutally persist for almost a hundred and fifty years, and leave an inhumane legacy into our time.
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BUREAU OF INTERNAL REVENUE was created by Congress on this day in 1862, and we haven’t been able to get rid of the tax man ever since. Intended as a way to finance the Civil War, the original act of congress levied a 3% tax on all income between $600 and $10,000, and a 5% levy on all income over $10,000. Of, if it were that simple today.
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THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG began this day in 1863. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was in the midst of his second invasion of the North, a strategy aimed at a quick end to the war with a Southern victory. His army was moving northward to the west of a range of the Alleghenies, and the Federal army was somewhat behind his pace, to the east of the range. As armies have done for centuries, Lee’s was living off the land, the rich bounty of Pennsylvania farm country. When soldiers brought a newspaper to one of his commanders, the soldiers noted an ad for a shoe factory. Lee’s army was mostly barefoot. The advance moved east, toward the shoes, and an accidental skirmish with Northern cavalry. Neither side intended to fight there, at Gettysburg. It would become one of the decisive moments of the Civil War, over a three-day period…
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TODAY IS CANADA DAY, the anniversary of the founding of the autonomous dominion of Canada in 1867, when the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec formed a confederation. Today commemorates the passage of the British North America Act, and it would be followed two years later with Canada acquiring the vast possessions of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Within a decade, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island joined the Confederation. For a time, it appeared that British Columbia, far western Canada, might want to join the US, with whom coastal trade was active. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885 connected Canada as a vast, continent-spanning nation, and enabled mass settlement of the Canadian west, which occurred without the bloodshed so common in conflicts with Plains Indians and other western Native American Indian tribes in the US territories. All these things are celebrated on Canada Day.
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THE CHARGE UP SAN JUAN HILL in Cuba, a key battle in the Spanish American War, occurred this day in 1898, making Teddy Roosevelt a national hero. For most of the day, Spanish troops in fortified positions held-off a force ten times their size. Revisionist historians briefly tried to write TR’s role out of history, or to make him appear a usurper of historic circumstances. Additional research proved the bravery and leadership of the future president. It also proved that the black “Buffalo Soldiers” of the US 9th and 10th Cavalry played crucial roles, taking Kettle Hill, and enabling the success of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in taking the Spanish positions on San Juan Hill. From the captured heights of those hills, the Americans were able to besiege the city of Santiago, paralyzing Spanish troop movements. Two days later, the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago. The Spanish surrendered the city – and Cuba – on July 17, paving the way for US troops to come home and Cuba to gain its freedom from oppressive Spanish colonial rule. Oppressive home-grown Cuban rule would come later, and be overthrown by the Cuban Revolution in 1959, only to be replaced by oppressive communist rule under the Fidel Castro, leader of the revolution.
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THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME began this day at 7:30 am in 1916, as a massive British assault on German positions in France in WW I. The attack came after a weeklong artillery bombardment, in which 250,000 shells were fired. On this day, 100,000 British soldiers erupted from their trenches into no-man’s land, a tangle of barbed-wire and shell craters between the opposing lines. German machine guns had survived the bombardment, and 20,000 British troops were killed, and another 40,000 wounded by the end of the day. Hard-headed militarists demanded the attack continue, and it did – for four months, gaining a total of five miles of advance. 1,000 allied lives were lost for every 100 yards of advance. By the time the battle ended, one-and-a-quarter million were dead on the battlefield, 600,000 British and French allied troops, and 650,000 Germans. It was all justified as a “battle of attrition” that so drained German manpower that it helped contribute to Germany eventually suing for an armistice, 27 months later. Tell that to the dead.
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FIRST TV COMMERCIAL AIRED this day in 1941, as NBC was paid $9 by Bulova to advertise its watches during a Dodgers-Phillies game.
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THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN began this day in 1942, and German Field Marshall Rommel was denied occupation of Egypt and the chance to capture the Suez Canal. British General Claude Auchinleck (not Montgomery), commanding a force of British, South African, and New Zealand troops, with US forces maneuvered into a support role and supplying their allies, turned the tide of the Axis advance in North Africa. Henceforth, Rommel’s Afrika Korps was in a defensive role.
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“THE EDDIE CANTOR SHOW” ended its 23-year radio run on this day in 1954. It was once the top-rated radio show in the nation. It had been the “Chase & Sanborn Hour,” with Maurice Chevalier as the host until 1931, before Cantor took the helm. It was a victim of the new medium of TV.
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COMPROMISE URGED IN VIETNAM on this day in 1965, as US Undersecretary of State George Ball submits a formal report stating unequivocally that “The South Vietnamese are losing the war to the Viet Cong. No one can assure that we can beat the Viet Cong, or even force them to the conference table, on our terms, no matter hundred thousand white, foreign (U.S.) troops we deploy.” Ball’s report was refuted by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, whose recommendations were accepted by President Lyndon Johnson. On July 12, Johnson committed 44 US battalions to South Vietnam, a t a time when there were less than 10 US battalions there. Ultimately, more than 540,000 US troops would be in Vietnam, though George Ball and his original assessment and recommendation were correct. So much for hard-headed, win-at-any-price, militarists.
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WOLFMAN JACK, longtime and highly influential deejay, died this day in 1995. Born in Brooklyn as Robert Smith, he would be known as the king of airwaves in the ‘60s and ‘70s on XERB, a high-power station in Mexico that reached into the Midwest and beyond. He was a fan of the blues and soft rock, and was true tastemaker for American record buyers.
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HONG KONG REVERTED TO COMMUNIST CHINESE RULE on this date in 1997, after being a semiautonomous, democratically self-goverened British colony for a hundred years. With the memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre only eight years earlier, many wealthy Hong Kong Chinese had already left their homeland and moved to Canada, and elsewhere in the world.
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“Poem of the month” for July:
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TO JULY
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Here’s to July,
Here’s to July,
For the bird,
And the Bee.
And the Butterfly;
For the flowers
That blossom
For feasting the eye;
For skates, balls,
And jump ropes,
For swings that go high;
For rocketry
Fireworks that
Blaze in the sky,
Oh, here’s to July,
Here’s to July.
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- Anonymous
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TODAY’S EVENTS:
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TUESDAY, JULY 1
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Tue, every week; in Loma Linda:
9-11:30 am “LOMA LINDA UKULELE STRUMMERS” welcomes all, every Tuesday at the Loma Linda Senior Center, 25541 Barton Rd (behind the Civic Center), Loma Linda. (Senior Center is at the far end of the parking lot.) Everyone welcome. They say, “Although we meet at the senior center, we are not exclusive: vacationing or off-track school children, their teachers, moms whose children are in school at that time, singles, whomever, will be welcomed with open arms. If you don’t have an instrument as yet, we can help you get an inexpensive one to start with. You will purchase the music book and receive new music thereafter with no added expense. Each member donates $1 every week. We have a birthday party each month, and every 3 months go out together for lunch, using the money from the treasury.” Info, www.lomalindaukestrummers.org. Contact, Ginny Stone, 909 795 3841 or harryginny@hotmail.com.
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Tue, Jul 1:
Noon-2 pm HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED brings its BOB DYLAN tribute music to the “Pershing Square Lunchtime Concert Series” at Pershing Square, on W 5th St between S Olive St & S Hill St, L.A.; www.laparks.org/pershingsquare/concerts.htm. Ride the Red Line subway to the Pershing Square Station and avoid expensive downtown L.A. parking. Grab a take-out lunch across the street, and enjoy a FREE lunchtime concert downtown.
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Tue, every week:
4:30-6 pm SON JAROCHO CLASSES at East Side Café, 5469 Huntington Dr N, L.A.; 323-583-5113. Learn to play Jarana, a string Instrument from Veracruz; dance Zapateado; sing & compose Sones-songs; gain knowledge of Son Jarocho music; work sound & lights. Open to adults, children and teens. No cover, donations are accepted.
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Tue, every week:
6 pm Weekly BLUEGRASS JAM at Curley’s Café, 1999 E Willow (at Cherry), Signal Hill; 562-424-0018.
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Tue, every week:
6-8 pm ARANA MUSIC LESSONS at IMIX Bookstore, 5052 Eagle Rock Bl, Eagle Rock; 323-257-2512; www.imixbooks.com. For beginners to experts music lessons focusing on the arana and Son Jarocho, presented by Caesar Castro, El Jarochelo.
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Tue, every week; in Menifee:
6-8:30 pm SANDII CASTLEBERRY & RON DAIGH, folk fest faves, at Giovanni's, Pizza, Pasta & More, 26900 Newport Rd #112, Menifee 92584; 951-672-8080. Sandii says, “This restaurant has great Italian food, with very reasonable prices, beer, wine, salad bar, and a very casual family atmosphere. We’ll be playing some bluegrass, and all the other musical styles we do.” Menifee is about 15 minutes north of Temecula, off the 215 Fwy, exit at Domenegoni Parkway, go W about 1 mile. It’s just Past Newport Rd on the right side, in the strip mall with Blockbusters Video. Info, www.sandiicastleberry.com.
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Tue, every Tue:
6:30-11 pm SONGMAKERS “SOUP JAM,” country & bluegrass jam, at 3240 Industry Dr, Signal Hill 90755. Info, Don Rowan, 562-883-0573; http://songmakers.org. Acoustic instruments only, floating mic for voice, soup, donuts, coffee & tap water served. Loc is 1 mile S of 405 Fwy, 1.2 mi S of Long Beach Airport. Lakewood Bl South exit from 405, immediate right onto Willow for 1 mi (W), left on Redondo for 3/4 mile (S), right onto Industry Dr for 0.2 mi (W), building is 1st entrance for last building on the left; a fair-sized industrial building with high ceilings.
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Tue; first Tue, every month:
6:30-10 pm HAMMERED DULCIMER PRACTICE GROUP at a private home in Downey; first Tue, every month. Round-robin format, all levels welcome. No dues or fees. Contact Bea Romano for loc: celticanamusic@yahoo.com.
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Tue; first Tue, every month; in Camarillo:
6:30-10 pm Songmakers “ROUND TABLE PIZZA SONG CIRCLE” at Round Table Pizza, 880 Arneill Rd (near Ponderosa; in Longs, K-Mart, Vons shopping center), Camarillo. Get 20% off your order during the Songmakers event. You can call to order ahead at 805-484-8900. Info, www.songmakers.org/circles/round_table.htm; TJ Zeiler, 805-482-0029.
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Tue, Jul 1; every Tue, Jun 3-Aug 26:
7-9 pm PONCHO SANCHEZ LATIN JAZZ BAND plays this week’s “WINE, JAZZ & MOONLIGHT” 5th annual summer series at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Enjoy free concerts by some of the country's top jazz performers on summer Tuesday evenings in the central courtyard of Hollywood and Highland Center. The event is FREE to the public and a wine tasting donation with wine provided by Wente Vineyards benefits Project Angel Food. Come early, and grab some dinner at one of the local restaurants.
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Tue, every week:
7-10 pm OPEN MIC - Music, Comedy, Spoken Word, at Synergy Café Lounge, 4437 Sepulveda Bl (just S of Culver Bl), Culver City; www.synergycafelounge.com; 310-482-3490. An eclectic open mic night. Bring your instruments, poetry, comedy, and anything else you'd like to share during your 8-10 minute set. Great atmosphere, excellent opportunity to see and meet other performers. No cover, food / drink purchase expected. Info, contact MC Jackie, jackielievense@yahoo.com.
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Tue, Tue, every week:
7 pm “MAIN STREET SONGWRITERS SHOWCASE” at Café Bellissimo, 22458 Ventura Bl, Woodland Hills; 818-225-0026. It’s a nice format, always with two recording artists, each doing a half-hour set, followed by an open mic; www.garretswayne.com. No cover, but venue expects a minimum $10 food / drink purchase.
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Tue, every week; in Tehachapi:
7-10 pm “ACOUSTIC JAM” at Mama HillyBeans Coffee & Community, 426 E Tehachapi Bl, Tehachapi; 661-822-BEAN; www.mamahillybeans.com. They welcome "All unplugged acoustic players." Venue has great ambience, food "made from scratch and about 95% organic." No cover.
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Tue, Jul 1; special date this month; normally the1st Wed, every month:
7:30-10 pm monthly “SONGWRITER'S NETWORK SEMINAR” with music industry guest speaker DAVE BANTA, at The Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Av, Altadena 91001. Songnet’s monthly seminar brings an assortment of accomplished music industry insiders, from traditional record label execs to the gurus of new media. It provides musicians and songwriters the opportunity to get inside information on the business side of music, to help their creative endeavors and careers. Info on night’s program, the organization, articles, links to the music business, and CGB impresario BOB STANE’s "boilerplate," explaining why some artists do not get booked on a regular basis, are all at www.thesongnet.org.
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DAVE “RAINMAN” BANTA is a multi-platinum recording producer/engineer whose career has brought him into the studio with many of the leading producers and artists of our time. Mr. Banta has produced/engineered both GRAMMY and EMMY-WINNING projects along with several top-10 singles. His credits span a large variety of styles from rock to pop and rap, with a focus on production and mixing; including Michael Jackson, Sting, Tupac, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Bone Thugs in Harmony, Tracie Spencer, The Roots, N.W.A., Lina Santiago, Take That, Mark Wahlberg, Carlos Ponce, Coolio, and Rodney O' and Joe Cooley. He has also produced music for several prime time shows including "Everybody Loves Raymond", the WB's "Jack and Jill", and MTV's "Undressed." He writes and produces for the Fox network. You can also hear his music on "Ace Ventura Nature Calls", "Poetic Justice", and "Dangerous Minds". Mr. Banta has been teaching music production and engineering at UCLA for 10 years, and he teaches at Musicians Institute. He is program director of Audio Workshops in Venice Beach.
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In addition, every THIRD Wednesday, SongNet’s performance showcase is held here, with lots of musicians, plenty of songs and fun. (Register on their website to perform.) Coffeehouse fare available. Free entry, $5 suggested donation.
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Tue, recurring:
7:30 pm Weekly OPEN MIC at Hallenbeck’s General Store, 5510 Cahuenga Bl, North Hollywood; 818-985-5916; www.hallenbecks.com. Venue offers sandwiches, coffeehouse fare. No cover.
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Tue, Jul 1:
8 pm DENVER AND THE MILE HIGH ORCHESTRA at Safari Sam’s, 5214 Sunset Bl, Hollywood 90027. They’re a Christian-Americana band from Nashville, with some big fairgrounds gigs this summer. Cliff Wager tells us, “Our friends are playing in Los Angeles at Safari Sam's on July 1st. Come and Enjoy another great band from ‘THE NEXT GREAT AMERICAN BAND’ TV show” where CLIFF WAGNER & THE OLD NUMBER 7 were final-round finalists. Denver & the boys have only two Southern Cal gigs all year, and this is one of ‘em. Artists’ info, www.myspace.com/denvermho.
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Tue, every week:
8 pm OPEN MIC at Viva Cantina, 900 Riverside Dr, Burbank; www.vivacantina.com; 818-515-4444.
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Tue, every Tue:
8:30 pm LIVE MUSIC (artists tba) at the Cowboy Palace Saloon, 21635 Devonshire St (Devonshire & Owensmouth), Chatsworth 91311; www.cowboypalace.com; 818-341-0166. Live music 7 nights a week, sometimes acoustic, sometimes electric. Preceded by free swing dance lessons with Ed, 7-8:30 pm. No cover.
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Tue, Jul 1:
9 pm THE STOLEN SWEETS at The Temple Bar, 1026 Wilshire Bl, Santa Monica 90401; 800-594-8499; www.templebarlive.com. The Portland-based STOLEN SWEETS revive the songs of ‘30s sister act, THE BOSWELL SISTERS. Comprised of vocalists JEN BERNARD, LARA MICHELL & ERIN SUTHERLAND, guitarist-singers PETE KREBS & DAVID LANGENES and bass player KEITH BRUSH, their arrangements are inspired by the Boswells' tight 3-part harmonies, frequent tempo changes and "knowing shrugs and raised eyebrows," as noted by the Portland Oregonian newspaper. The Sweets recently traveled to New Orleans to headline the “Boswell Sisters Centennial.” They’ve also performed their unique brand of vintage jazz in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia and Germany.
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The Boswell Sisters were popular harmony singers in the late 20s and early 30s, keeping company with the likes of the Dorsey Brothers, Bunny Berigan, and Benny Goodman -- partnerships that provided the jazz world with some of its most influential recordings. The nature of the music was auspicious and good-humored, providing a ray of hope to listeners during a truly dispiriting economic depression.
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Unlike the original Boswell arrangements that featured piano, clarinet, and horns, the Sweets incorporate gypsy jazz accompaniment, reminiscent of Django Reinhardt. Doors at 8 pm. $10 cover.
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Tue, first Tue, every month:
9 pm “RONNIE MACK'S BARN DANCE” with a full lineup of guest performers and THE BARNDANCE BAND at El Cid, 4212 Sunset Bl, L.A. 90029; contact venue for set times, www.elcidla.com/ronnymack.html; 323-668-0318.
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View more July events at http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com, as chronological date listings, and longer “looks ahead,” as separate posts. NEWS FEATURES are also there, AND at www.myspace.com/laacoustic. News Features, radio playlists, and other things, are archived on myspace; use the “view all” button, scroll down, and if you don’t find what you want, then use the “older” button and scroll-down, as many times as necessary, all the way back to when acoustic music was made by indigenous natives pounding with rocks on hollow logs.
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copyright (c) © 2008, Larry Wines. All rights reserved.
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Questions? Comments? Contact us at tiedtothetracks@hotmail.com
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