Off The Record – October 13 (CBAA)

1. I’m In Love Again /All By Myself – Bonnie Raitt & Jon Cleary – Goin’ Home:A Tribute To Fats Domino
2. All Right Now – Jon Cleary – Do Not Disturb
3. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Bob Dylan – Dylan
4. Changing Of The Guards – Bob Dylan – Dylan
5. Under The Red Sky – Bob Dylan – Dylan
6. Lovely Lovely – Meshell Ndegeocello – The Wolrd Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams
7. The Weight – Michelle Shocked – To Heaven U Ride
8. I Don’t Want To Play House Anymore – Carrie Rodriguez – Seven Angels On A Bicycle
9. Laughing Hard Or Crying? – Colin Gilmore – Black Wine
10. Up In Indiana – Lyle Lovett – It’s Not Big It’s Large
11. That’s The Way It Goes – Jimmy LaFave – Cimarron Manifesto
12. Poor Old Dirt Farmer – Levon Helm – Dirt Farmer
13. Gunslinger – John Fogerty – Revival

San Francisco Blues Part 1

If you’re going to San Francisco, you can wear flowers in your hair if you like but if you want to stay anywhere you should not forget to book well ahead of time. Since Hurricane Katrina, the city by the bay seems to have taken up many of the conventions, conferences and events that might once have been in New Orleans. The undoubtedly beautiful location also makes it a tourist Mecca.
I stayed at the Redwood Inn on Lombard Street; just a few blocks walk from the San Francisco Blues Festival in the Great Meadow at Fort Mason. It is a 15-minute walk to Fisherman’s Wharf and is well served by buses. The rooms are relatively cheap (US$90 + tax a night for the weekend), large and well maintained. There is an excellent little grocery store just around the corner, run by a delightful Palestinian gentleman who has been there for 30 years. You can get your supplies there and he makes an excellent sandwich. There are plenty of other places on Lombard if you want a wider choice.
My favourite place to stay in San Fran is the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin, but it is pricier (US$135+ a night) and was booked out for the entire festival weekend and several days beforehand.
The San Francisco Blues Festival, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, seems to reflect the laid-back nature of the locals and its producer Tom Mazzolini, who also presents a weekly blues radio show on KPFA. Apart from an article on John Hammond in Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle there was not a huge amount of publicity for the event. I recall being surprised last year at how few people turned up to see Little Richard. Tom says that there is a lot of competition with other events, including the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival the very next weekend with its fabulous line-up.
The blues festival setting is fabulous. Last year we could watch the fog roll in across the bay and its famous bridge every afternoon, this year the weather was slightly warmer. There is one main stage with a reserved seating area (US$80 a weekend) and a general area (US$35 a day/US$55 a weekend) beyond that section. It is easy to get a spot near the stage or you can sit further up the hill and enjoy a panorama of the bay on one side and the city backdrop on the other.
I arrived at the festival around midday on Saturday and managed to find a place under some shade from one of the large palm trees to the left of stage. Not that I was worried about getting sunburnt (no hole in the ozone layer here) but it made it a little more comfortable. Later, when it cooled down I was forced to put on a jacket.
John Nemeth kicked off the day and was followed by pianist Dave Alexander. Chicago’s Nick Moss & The Fliptops put in an impressive, rocking set. I was moved to buy their latest CD. Then Eric Bibb appeared to calm the mood somewhat with a lovely acoustic set, with guest harmonica player Grant Dermody.
Billy Boy Arnold introduced his song ‘I Wish You Would’ as the one that The Yardbirds had a hit with back in the ‘60s. That shows his history! He also performed ‘Wandering Mind’ and introduced singer Deitra Farr as one of Chicago’s finest vocalists. Farr said that her favourite part of Chicago was the airport!
Tommy Castro and his band put in a solid set and on ‘Too Many Bad Habits’ featured a powerful horn section that recalled the Stax sound.
The highlight of the first day, however, was headliner Robert Randolph and The Family Band with special guest Calvin Cooke. I am not sure how many bands have featured two pedal steel players but this was a killer outfit. The set started with ‘Good Times’ and then Cooke chimed in with ‘Wave My Hand’ and ‘The March’ while soon afterwards he got into an extended jam with Randolph on the gospel-infused ‘What Happens?’ Randolph then offered ‘Nobody’ and then an extended ‘Voodoo Chile.’ The encore was an epic ‘Help Me Make It Through’ which left everyone on a high. After three albums, Randolph’s career has not quite ignited the way we thought it might but there is no doubt that everyone at the festival thought they had seen something special and that Randolph is one of the most exciting performers to take the stage at any festival.

San Francisco

It is difficult to imagine that just over a week ago I was at The Mezzanine in San Francisco watching The Grand Final (or was it Grand Debacle), drinking Boags and eating a meat pie with about 400 other Aussies. Thanks to Karen, a San Francisco listener to Off The Record, who heard my voice report last week, figured I must be in the city, rang Triple R and got my email address and emailed me. Karen’s friend, a drummer in a well-known band, had a spare ticket. Would I like to come along? Would I?
This was just as I was cursing the AFL website because I could not get it to work properly. I had resigned myself to a night in the motel without the footy or, at the most, the diagrammatic display that updates every few minutes and is the footy equivalent of watching Pong! This is frustrating and I am unable to understand why the AFL is able to hijack all of the official radio broadcasters onto the AFL site alone. So much for the independence of the ABC when it is dictated to like this by the bullyboys at the AFL. You don’t have to launch the BBC’s FA Cup broadcast from the FA site, do you?
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Qantas were sponsoring the big screen telecast and also no doubt the beer and pies (which I must say tasted genuine). Most people in the room seemed to be barracking for Geelong and a lot were wearing the garb of various clubs. At half-time there was a chook raffle and later they auctioned a slab of Crown Lager (US$310) and one of VB (US$180). I hope this was for charity! Footballs were thrown into the crowd as prizes and the atmosphere was…well, it was just like being home.
There is something unique about a large group of Australians when they are treated with liberal amounts of alcohol. Something comfortingly familiar. To re-work a familiar expression, you can take Australians out of Australia but you can never take Australia out of Australians. The chat was friendly, people of all types mingled freely and there was a feeling of bonhomie in the air. After more than two weeks in America it was a welcome culture shock!
But not all of the things we talked about in relation to Australia were tinted by rose-coloured glasses. One of the most interesting people I met was a lady who lived with her scientist husband in Palo Alto (‘just around the corner from Steve Jobs’). His solar thermal energy company has recently signed a multi-million dollar deal to develop their ideas in the US. Just as he thought he would be retiring, this ‘nutty’ professor has a new lease of life.
‘Wouldn’t that have been perfect for Australia?’ I said, to which she replied, ‘You know Australia, they’ll let the technology go overseas and then buy it back at three times the price.’
By the time I got back to the motel it was well after midnight but I still had the chance to listen to the post-match analysis on SEN, which makes me wonder why I could not do the same on the ABC website, after all the game was over.
Anyway, it ended up being a great night and started the weekend off perfectly. Thanks, Karen.