St. Clair Productions - Rogue Valley Blues Festival

Rogue Valley Blues Festival

Historic Ashland Armory
208 Oak Street, Ashland Oregon
January 18-20, 2002
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Weekend

Concerts and workshops at Historic Ashland Armory.
Free performances at Ashland art galleries.

Ticket Prices:
Weekend pass, including workshops: $38
Friday evening only: $20
Saturday evening only: $22
Workshops: $15/each

Ordering Tickets: You can contact us to order advance tickets by sending a check and self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Ariella St. Clair
St. Clair Productions
P.O. Box 835
Ashland, OR 97520

For additional information please call
(541) 535-3562 or e-mail us.

Be sure to indicate which shows and how many tickets you need. Tickets are also available at Music Coop in the A Street Marketplace, Oak and A Streets, Ashland one month before the concert.

Sponsored in part by:
Ashland Inn and Suites (formerly Hawthorne Inn and Suites) 541-482-6932
Best Western Windsor Inn 541-488-2330
Mt. Ashland Ski Park
Ashland Daily Tidings

Second Rogue Valley Blues Festival, January 18-20, 2002

Friday, January 18 Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland
Barbecue Dinner, 6:30 p.m.
Music begins 7:30 p.m.

Click on thumbnails to enlarge

David Jacob-Strain - Guitarist David Jacobs-Strain sings and plays the country blues. At the age of 18, seasoned with performances at premier blues and folk festivals, he has gained a reputation for his intensely soulful singing and guitar work that reaches far beyond his home in Eugene. David first took up the guitar at age 9. By the time he turned 11, he was performing at Eugene's Saturday Market and on the youth stage at the Oregon Country Fair. At 12, he made his Seattle debut at the Northwest Folklife Festival, opening for Billy Branch. In 1999, he returned to the Mercer Arena stage in the feature show "Northwest Masters of Blues Slide Guitar." In 1999 and 2000, David became the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop's youngest-ever faculty member and in 2001 he was on the faculty of the Augusta Heritage Blues Week in West Virginia. Other notable festivals David has performed at include: Waterfront Blues Festival, Portland; California World Music Festival; Strawberry Music Festival; Bumbershoot, Seattle; and Denver Roots of the Blues Festival. http://www.efn.org/~dj_s/

Del Rey - Del Rey started playing classical guitar when she was four. As a teenager, she met bluesman Sam Chatmon who inspired her to become a blues queen. Her guitar playing combines country blues, stride piano, classic jazz and hillbilly boogie through the sensibility of an autodidact trailor-park esthete. Her original songs are classic in form, but lyrically post-modern. Her live show is full of complex guitar grooves and sly humor. Del Rey is fun to watch, with her dancing feet, infectious smile and elegant yet goofy outfits. Del Rey plays concerts world wide and also presents a concert/lecture on women musicians called Women in American Music. She writes about music for Acoustic Guitar magazine and other publications. Del Rey’s latest CD is X-rey Guitar, recorded with a full band. She has also recorded two solo albums, Hot Sauce (Hobemian 1995) and Boogie Mysterioso (Hobemian 1993). With Del Rey and the Blues Gators she recorded Chartruese (Hobemian 1991) and Cafe Society (Kicking Mule 1985).
“Del Rey... channels the spirit of Memphis Minnie while maintaining a thoroughly hip, Left Coast sense of cool.” Santa Cruz Sentinel www.hobemianrecords.com/delrey/delrey.html

Geoff Muldaur - One of the great voices and musical forces to emerge from the folk, blues and folk-rock scenes centered in Cambridge and Woodstock, Geoff Muldaur is back.
     Following a series of highly influential recordings and tours with acclaimed artists including the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, then-wife Maria Muldaur, blues legend Paul Butterfield and guitar wizard Amos Garrett, Muldaur temporarily left the stage for a working sabbatical. He continued, however, to hone his craft, albeit while flying beneath "radar." He produced albums for the likes of Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns and the Richard Greene String Quartet. He composed scores for film and television, garnering an Emmy in the process. And his definitive recording of "Brazil" provided the seed for and was featured in Terry Gilliam's film of the same title.
     Magical voice and love for roots music intact, he has most recently toured Europe and Japan, and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and, to commemorate the Smithsonian Institute's reissue of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, at Wolf Trap. His long-awaited album now in release, Geoff returns to the life of a touring musician, bringing American Music to Americans.
     His approach is one of honor and respect for the music's history, from the perspective of a contemporary artist very much of his own era. The result is a unique cross-fertilization, often humorous as well as touching, that keeps the field as fertile as the roots are deep. The Boston Herald has praised his "sweet yet grizzled voice wrapping itself around a wide variety of musical Americana" in interpretations"unusually deep and personal." www.din.or.jp/~hideki-w/geoffmuldaur.html

Saturday, January 19 Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland
Barbecue Dinner, 6:30 p.m.
Concert and Dance 7 p.m.

Otis Taylor - Otis Taylor first made a minor name for himself in the 1960s and 70s in groups such as T&O Short Line, 4-Nikators and Zephyr before retiring from music in 1977. After years of prodding from his musical mentor, bass player and producer Kenny Psarelli, Taylor returned to the stage in 1995. He has since released three CDs Blue-Eyed Monster, When Negroes Walked the Earth and White African. Taylor is a mult-insrumentalist (guitar, banjor, harmonica and mandolin), a booming singer and an evocative tunesmith.
Andy Griegg, editor of Real Blues magazine, praised White African with "Deep music from a ture genius level performer who takes his music and his African-American cultural heritage very seriously. Not only will you enjoy Otis Taylor's blues and be entertained by him, you will also learn from him. He delivers profound messages wrapped up in remarkably melodic packages."
The Albuquerque Journal said "...the Denver-based bluesman managed to cut the best blues album of the year. His band has forged an original sound (hard to find in the blues these days) based on a slow, deep groove."
http://www.northernblues.com/bio_taylor.html

Chris Cain Band - Chris Cain has a jazz-tinged,blues soaked guitar tone that is instantly recognizable. His deep,warm vocals have the maturity and authenticity of bluesmen many years his senior. Combined with his natural ability for songwriting, Chris Cain is without a doubt, a triple-threat talent.
     At the age of eight, Cain taught himself to play guitar and began playing professionally before he was eighteen. He studied music at San Jose City College and soon mastered piano, bass guitar, clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone. The combination of his blues upbringing and his jazz studies melded to form the searing guitar style that sets Chris Cain apart, and has moved him to the top ranks of the blues music scene.
     Cain’s debut recording, Late Night City Blues (Blue Rock’it Records-1987) garnered 4 W. C. Handy Blues Award nominations, including "Guitarist of the Year." Cain’s next three releases; Cuttin’ Loose (1990), Can’t Buy a Break (1992), and Somewhere Along the Way (1995) were recorded on Blind Pig Records and solidified Cain’s position as one of the nation’s top blues artists. In 1997, Cain released his 5th record, Unscheduled Flight, on Blue Rock’it Records. Two more CDs have been released on his own label.
     In addition to his recording career and heavy touring schedule, Chris Cain’s music has been featured in both film and theater. The movie Just Write starring JoBeth Williams, Sherilyn Fenn, and Jeremy Piven used the title cut from Late Night City Blues during a bar scene in the film. In 1997, San Jose Repertory Theatre commissioned Chris Cain to write an original blues music score for Thunder Knocking on the Door: A Blusical Tale of Rhythm and the Blues, by Keith Glover. Chris collaborated with Michael Butler and composed 13 original songs plus underscoring for the play. Their music earned them a nomination for Best Musical Score from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. http://www.chriscain.cc/

Opening band:
Gabriel and the Technicians - A favorite band of the Southern Oregon Region, playing events such as The Medford Jazz Jubilee, outdoor summer concerts and dance events, Gabriel and the Technicians is known for its style and instrumentation. Although best known for Swing and Jump Blues, they range into other dance beats (Latin & Funk) as well as Jazz and ballads. The band features vocalists Danielle Livingston and Inger Jorgensen, as well as Gabriel's harmonica playing. The rest of the band includes other local veteran musicians: Jeff Adams (bass), Gary Halliburton (Piano), Mike Fitch (Drums), and Robert Anglin (guitar). The band opened for Leon Russel this year when he performed at the Rogue Theater in Grants Pass. Gabriel has been a performer for over 25 years, beginning with the Bluegrass Gospel Train that played the Bluegrass circuit in Florida. He lived and played in Southern California and has toured in most of the Western states. Gabriel has opened for many national acts, including Doc Watson who compared him with Little Walter.

Saturday and Sunday Daytime:
Saturday Workshops at Historic Ashland Armory
11 a.m.
Geoff Muldaur - "Innovative Arranging Techniques for the Guitar"
Learn to personalize your guitar playing rather than just copying recorded musical performances. Muldaur demonstrates several approaches to taking American music and personalizing it by either: 1) re-harmonizing and otherwise altering the original performance, 2) creating accompaniment for previously a cappella material, or 3) moving traditional music from various original instruments to the guitar.
1 p.m.
Del Rey - History of Women in the Blues
Follow the development of the music from classic blues, to rural blues, to swing and “rocking hillbillies”, through the stories of the diverse and interesting women that played music from 1900 to 1950. Blues and Jazz are the major musical innovations to come from the Americas. The contributions of women musicians, singers, band-leaders and songwriters have long been neglected in conventional music histories, yet there are accounts of women drummers in Congo Square in 19th century New Orleans, women were the dominant element of the blues craze of the ’20s, and women instrumentalists played hot and sweet in big bands in the ’40s.
2:30 p.m.
David Jacobs-Strain - Slide Guitar
David Jacobs-Strain has been performing on stage since 1994 when he was 11. In 1999 and 2000, he became the youngest ever faculty member at the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop, along-side artists such as Paul Geremia, Alvin Youngblood Hart and John Cephas. This last summer he was part of the faculty for the Augusta Heritage Center's (Elkins, Virginia) Blues Week.

Sunday Workshops at Pioneer Hall, across from Lithia Park
11 a.m.
Michael "Hawkeye" Herman Country Blues Guitar
Michael "Hawkeye" Herman has taught guitar for over 25 years and has presented blues and slide guitar instructional workshops at major folk and blues festivals. In addition, Herman has contributed articles to Living Blues, Blues Revue and Blues News. In 2000, Herman was the composer/musical director/musician for Oregon Sahkespeare Festival's productions of El Paso Blue.
1 p.m
"Ask the Musician" Panel with Otis Taylor, Chris Cain and others
What's it like to be on the road? How do you get your guitar to sound the way it does? What's your favorite place to play? How do you get a song published? This is your chance to ask the musicians questions.
2:30 p.m.
Otis Taylor Writing the Blues
Deep emotions drive the lyrics of the blues. Every human feels the emotions of the blues and each has his or her own "original" blues. Writing music lyrics of this American music form porves a creative and cathartic outlet for human experience. Let Taylor guide you in finding the right expression for your best songs.

Free performances at Ashland art galleries
Ashland Gallery Association

Ashland Art Galleries Free Performance Schedule

Saturday, January 19, 2002

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Hanson Howard Gallery 82 North Main 482-7762
Michael "Cosmo" Sullivan

Claycombs Plaza Mall 40 N. Main St. (between Bug a Boo and Nimbus) 512-0908
Gary Robinson, guitar and vocals

1 p.m - 2 p.m.
Nuwandart Gallery 285 A St. #3 488-4278
Steve Berman, guitar and vocals and Richard Seidman, harmonica

Blue Heron Gallery 90 North Main 488-2562
Chuck Yates, guitar

Art and Soul Gallery 247 East Main 488-9006
George Rubalof, guitar, bass and vocals, and Linda Powers, guitar and vocals

2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Nuwandart Gallery 285 A St. #3 488-4278
Gus Johnson and Mich Lewis

Gallery Living Colors 4th and A Streets 482-1983
Katt Brothers: Beau Berry, guitar; Bob Clements, bass; Bob Flyte, harmonica

Jega Gallery 625 A St. (corner of 5th and A) 488-2474
Dan Tiller, Mississippi Delta Blues

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
American Trails 27 North Main (on the Plaza) 488-2731
Charlie Chase, guitar; Dave Vestnys, bass and Gary Berlant

Jega Gallery 625 A St. (corner of 5th and A) 488-2474
Brent Norton, guitar and vocals, and Laurie Jo Larsen, vocals

Gallery Living Colors 4th and A Streets 482-1983
David Spiegel and Susan Wells

Sunday, January 20, 2002

12 p.m - 1 p.m.
American Trails 27 North Main (on the Plaza) 488-2731
Cindy de Groft, violin, and Mark de Groft, guitar

Ashland Hardwood Gallery 17 North Main (on the Plaza) 488-6200
Gus Johnson, guitar, piano, and vocals, and Mich Lewis, guitar and vocals

1 p.m - 2 p.m.
Art and Soul Gallery 247 East Main (next to Washington Mutual Bank) 488-9006
Tom Frederick, bass and Craig Martin, guitar

American Trails 27 North Main (on the Plaza) 488-2731
George Rubalof, guitar, bass and vocals, and Linda Powers, guitar and vocals

Ashland Hardwood Gallery 17 North Main (on the Plaza) 488-6200
Gary Robinson, guitar

2:15 p.m - 3:15 p.m.
Accents 45 E. Main (corner of Main and Oak) 482-5913
Greg Willis, old-time blues guitar and songwriter

Claycombs Plaza Mall 40 N. Main St. (between Bug a Boo and Nimbus) 512-0908
Tim Church, guitar and Craig Scmele, harmonica

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Accents 45 E. Main (corner of Main and Oak) 482-5913
David Speigel and Susan Wells

The Jewelry Studio 369 E. Main (former Provost Building) 488-1761
Peter Spring, guitar and vocals

Last Year's Performances at the
First Rogue Valley Blues Festival, January 12-14, 2001

Friday, January 12, 2001 -
Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland
Barbecue dinner at 6:30 p.m. (provided by Plaza Cafe)
Concert starts at 8 p.m.

Sheila
Wilcoxson

Michael
"Hawkeye"
Herman

Saturday, January 13, 2001 -
Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland
Barbecue dinner at 6:30 p.m. (provided by Plaza Cafe)
Concert and dance starts at 8 p.m.

Lester Chambers

KK Martin

Linda
Hornbuckle

Sunday, January 14, 2001 at 7 p.m.
Blues Jam featuring local musicians and Barbecue dinner
Jam hosted by the band Long Riders: Steve Pollinger, Scot "Hawkeye" McGuire, Dan Donahoe, Bruce and Kevin McKern
Saturday and Sunday Workshop Schedule:
Saturday, January 13, 2001
10 a.m. - 12 p.m. History of Women in the Blues -- Sheila Wilcoxson
1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Blues guitar (all levels welcome) -- Michael "Hawkeye" Herman
3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Harmonica workshop -- Lester Chambers with KK Martin
Sunday, January 14, 2001
10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Blues vocals -- Sheila Wilcoxson
1 p.m. - 3 p.m. History of Country Blues -- Lester Chambers and KK Martin
3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Slide guitar -- Michael "Hawkeye" Herman
Saturday and Sunday 10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Free performances in Ashland Art Galleries
Saturday, January 13
10:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
     Galerie Living Colours - corner of 4th and A - 482-2917
     Peter Spring on guitar
     Galerie Living Colours
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
     The Living Gallery - 20 South First Street (half-block off Main St.)
     Bruce Dicoskey on guitar and Jeff Adams on Bass
1:00 - 2:45 p.m.
     Galerie Living Colours - corner of 4th and A Streets - 482-2917
     Beau Berry on guitar, Bob Flyte on harmonica, and
     Marilyn Simmons-Cole on vocals
     Art and Soul Gallery - 247 East Main - 488-9006
     Gabriel and the Technicians unplugged
     Jega Gallery - 625 A St. (corner of 5th and A) - 488-2474
     Gus Johnson on guitar and piano
     Nuwandart Gallery - 285 A St. #3 - 488-4278
     Steve Pollinger on vocals and Scot "Hawkeye" McGuire on guitar
3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
     Jega Gallery - 625 A St. (corner of 5th and A) - 488-2474
     Gary Robinson on guitar and piano
     Hanson Howard Gallery - 82 North Main - 482-7762
     Scott Woolsey on guitar
     Davis and Cline Gallery - 525 A St. #1 (corner of 4th and A) - 482-2069
     Michael Sullivan (Cozmo) on guitar
Sunday, January 14, 2001
10:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
     Blue Heron Gallery - 90 North Main - 488-2562
     Dan Tiller on slide guitar and dobro
1 - 2:45 p.m.
     American Trails - 27 North Main (on the Plaza) - 488-2731
     Mark deGroft on guitar and Cindy deGroft on fiddle
     Ashland Hardwood Gallery - 17 North Main (on the Plaza) - 488-6200
     Steve Berman on guitar
     Nuwandart Gallery - 285 A St. #3 - 488-4278
     Charlie Chase (of Chase N The Blues), Dave Vestnys (of Boogie Kats) and      Mike Smith (of Rogue Soul)
3 - 5p.m.
     Talent House and Jewelry Gallery in the Plaza Mall
     (across from Plaza on Main St.)
     Gabriel and the Technicians unplugged
     Ashland Hardwood Gallery - 17 North Main (on the Plaza) - 488-6200
     Michael Sullivan (Cozmo) on guitar
     American Trails - 27 North Main (on the Plaza) - 488-2731
     Linda Powers on guitar and fiddle and George Rubaloff on guitar and bass