It is a new found love and great privilege to be asked by an artist to write about their craft, their love, their product, and their passion. I approach the task with great seriousness and with much study and contemplation so that my product - my writing - will convey to you the reader, an informative and pleasurable read. It has been my honor to have spent several recent evenings listening to the new CD by David Rosales titled Smile. David is a gifted songwriter and vocalist. His vocal stylings on Smile are reminiscent of Johnny Cash blended with that familiar touch of Jim Morrison that fans of Silent Treatment (David's straight-up rock band) are so incredibly turned on by. Smile could b

Sunday nights at Shady Lady Saloon are usually a quiet affair. A few dozen patrons, sipping drinks and chatting while listening to the band play, are the norm. This was not so this May Day, which saw the triumphant homecoming of local favorites Blvd Park and Musical Charis from their two-month, cross-country “New American Dream” Tour. The Afterlife was the first to take the stage at a quarter after eight. They played to an already sizable crowd, one that you would normally see on Friday or Saturday evening, rather than on a “school night” like Sunday. Tyson Graf on guitar and Zack Sapunor on upright bass warmed up the early arriving patrons and a small group of listeners that included a m

 Drive-in movies.  I have always loved them.  Almost more than the movies themselves, I love my romanticized notion of them. I am madly in love with the classic Americana for which the Drive-In is so symbolic.  It is hard to describe the way that drive-in movies make me feel, it's something akin to an ecstatic melancholy. They harken to a simpler time, a time that I never really got to experience firsthand, but one that I can easily imagine while stuffing my face with popcorn and enjoying a movie under the stars from the hood of my car. I can vividly recall the first drive-In movie I ever attended: "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."  It was the summer of 1982, and I had just turned four year

This morning I thought I would go out and meet Suzanne Hunt’s challenge to see which Midtown block flies the most flags. As I was driving towards Midtown I was thinking about the Spain, Paraguay game and as I approached the Howe off ramp, going west on highway 50, I realized I did not really know exactly where Midtown was. I’ve heard discussions as to where the boundaries lie but I could not remember exactly where these are. I decided to get off on 65th Street and went west on Folsom Boulevard. I decided to stop for a little while at the East Lawn Memorial Cemetery to take a couple of pictures. I left the cemetery heading left on Folsom Blvd., and noticed many flags on my right hand side

Americana music fans will be treated to an early Fourth of July concert, as "Celebrate America" premieres June 20. The event, put on by L17 Community Arts Foundation in conjunction with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra will benefit the Central Downtown Food Basket. The Sunday concert will feature the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, a Sacramento-based group in existence for 48 years, and a wide variety of local artists performing at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on the UC Davis campus. "We're really excited to perform and play with the other choirs," orchestra executive director Roberta McClellan said. "We're looking forward to the collaboration." L17 created the Celebrate Ameri

The 6-piece Americana-Rock phenoms, The Whiskey and the Devil Chaplain, are making their Sacramento debut at Naked Coffee on Saturday, May 22nd. The guys make up a fantastic mix of indie roots, folk and straight ahead Americana music. Formed at the latter-end of 2007, the Whiskey is making a name for themselves one show at a time through their knock-down live performances.  Here is just some of the attention they've been getting: “The fellas that make up this Valley-born folk/bluegrass group played just a handful of songs, but it was enough to make an impression. They opened a February night show at the Cellar Door in Visalia for genre-faves Langhorne Slim and April Smith, and both were

It was a combination of a songwriting workshop and heartbreak over a girl that jump-started Americana singer Elliot Randall's career. "I think that every songwriter gets into songwriting because of a girl," he said. "Songwriters can write about heartbreak all day long if (they) experience it." Heartbreak or not, Randall has made a name for himself in a relatively short time. Since his debut album, Take the Fall, came out in 2007, he's had the chance to open for some of his childhood heroes: Creedence Clearwater Revisited and the Steve Miller Band. On Friday night, at the Fox and Goose Pub, Randall and his four-piece band will play the first concert of a California tour that he is co-hea