Welcome to Barn Concerts
We host private invitation house concerts in a friendly setting where music can be enjoyed among friends. The "Barn" was a former winery which still maintains its rustic charm.Performers enjoy an intimate atmosphere and outstanding acoustics. Guests are treated to some of the best music around.
Upcoming Barn Concerts
Sherry Austin, Saturday April 5th, 2008,8:00 pm
Sherry Austin comes back to the Barn for a return performance!
A passion for making music can thrive so secretly inside us that we don’t even realize it. The kind of passion one doesn’t have to practice yet the music grows on its own, finally insisting to find its outlet. That is just what happened for Sherry Austin. The stories
and songs long tucked away have emerged fully composed in her first two CDs. She’s a natural born songwriter and singer with a recently bloomed music career. Like a rare blossom, admirers find the beautiful experience of her music well worth the wait.
Sherry’s compositions and the cover tunes she chooses show off the pure, clean fun of her warm voice. She rightfully calls her songs pure Americana. They are diverse in genre and content. Classic folk, country-folk, folk-rock, and the standard ballad are delivered with equal mastery. There’s no screaming, shouting, reaching or stretching out of shape in these vocals. Sherry sings right where it’s comfortable, truly engaging listeners with her combination of easy crystal clarity and powerful message.
The Atkinson-Kincheloe Band April 19th, 2008,8:00 pm
“Atkinson Kincheloe takes us to a quiet and deep and good place where we are in touch with what matters”....Bill Moyers, Author and Journalist
“ Beautiful in it’s directness, achingly honest, sung and played with obvious passion yet understated; their music is a “back to basic” paean to the warmth, honesty and simplicity that once defined “The American Way.” .....Mark Karan........lead guitarist and vocalist with “Rat Dog” and “The Other Ones”
This band grew out of a winter of music. Nights spent in front of living room fires, glowing with stories of music industry horrors, tales of perils of the road, memories of old alliances and changing times. But, most importantly, nights filled with the sound of the music of three veteran singer songwriters sharing what they do best. In the ensuing two years, we have grown into a rising new force on the local scene: and a clear and ringing voice for social justice, peace and change.
Eric Taylor, Friday May 2nd, 2008,8:00 pm
Eric Taylor returns to the Barn for another spellbinding performance! Last year Eric put on one of the best performances that the Barn has had the pleasure to host. We are thrilled to have Eric back again.
People have been talking about Eric Taylor and his songs since the early 1970s, when he was an integral part of a Houston songwriting scene that included Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Guy Clark. Taylor is one of the most influential songwriters to ever come out of Texas. Over the years, as his reputation and song catalogue have grown, he has had a profound effect on the evolution and development of such well-known Texas artists as Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and others. "Eric Taylor was one of my heroes and teachers when I started playing around Houston in the early 1970s," says Earle. "He's the real deal."
A mesmerizing performer, Taylor has been a featured artist at many festivals and tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. His TV and radio appearances include Austin City Limits, Late Night With David Letterman (with Nanci Griffith), NPR¹s Morning Edition and Mountain Stage, and BBC Radio Scotland.
Blah Blah Woof Woof, Friday May 16th, 2008,8:00 pm
Blah Blah Woof Woof was formed in 1998 as an independent music cooperative. Blah Blah Woof Woof is a vehicle to help songwriters pool resources, talent and energy to get their music out to the public. In the first year they released CDs from three award winning songwriters.
In a recent feature on nightlife around-town, the Mercury News called BlahBlahWoofWoof a "folk super group". This show will feature Chuck McCabe, Jay Howlett, Steve Kritzer and Rolfe Wyer.
More bio information will be coming soon. To find out about Blah Blah Woof Woof songwriters, check the Dog House at www.blahblahwoofwoof.com
Michael Gaither & David Anderson, Saturday May 31st, 2008,8:00 pm
Join us at The Barn for a split bill featuring two local songwriters:
Eleven long years after the release of his debut studio CD "Mad at the Moon" and five years since the issuance of "Mystic Knights of the Folk-Rock Wars", his minimalist thinkabilly collectors' item, songwriter and Morgan Hill native David Anderson announces the impending release of his third full-length CD of original music.
Layover in Reno produced by his son Damon. Joining him at the Barn will be seasoned veterans and dear friends Joe Millwood (guitar and vocals), John Andrew Eddy (guitars) and Doug Reynolds (mandolin and bass).
"Layover in Reno" continues his preoccupation with old-fashioned storytelling, wistful nostalgia, understated humor, hyperbolic economy, and an overall optimism regarding the human spirit. It includes two songs with a historical context: 'Alice Miller' (a Hecker Pass ghost story) and 'Daughter of the Sky' (about the life and accomplishments of aviatrix Amelia Earhart).
"Anderson knows how to strip it down to the bones and then build it back up with catchy melodies, solid lyrics and trace elements of other genres that give the music an emotional punch." / Good Times
Watsonville resident ("born and raised...got as far as Ben Lomond, and yes there's a song in there") Michael Gaither plays the second half of this local's night. Like his song "Jack of All Trades" says, he's done a bit of everything: journalist, teacher, even joke writer for Jay Leno. His debut CD, the 2006 release "Spotted Mule and Other Tales", is an Americana mix of folk and bluegrass story songs. He's currently at work on "Dogspeed" another story collection anchored by yet another animal totem.
Michael is fond of mixing humor and dropping local color into his work: "Highway 17" gets regular airplay on KPIG radio. "Where'd the Time Go?" features a nostalgic look back at Days on the Green and the Sashmill Cinema. And "I Miss My Town" laments a small farming town replacing fertile soil with "houses where the food used to grow".
"Gaither's sense of humor and keen observation of the human experience preside over his clever Americana originals." (Amanda Martinez, Good Times Santa Cruz)
Heather Waters, Saturday June 14th, 2008,8:00 pm
The Boston Globe said she "couldn't hit a sour note if she tried." The L.A. Daily News declared her voice, "as evocative as Emmylou Harris'." And No Depression called her music "smart...honest...stirring." Now, roots-music aficionados who keep hearing the name Heather Waters can at last discover for themselves what has inspired the ongoing buzz.
Waters grew up on the outskirts of Chicago, the daughter of a steelworker and a corrections officer. Her father showed horses and played acoustic guitar but both parents always had a steady stream of Outlaw Country playing in the house. Their spitfire daughter had an epiphany during her junior year of college after a chance jam session with Buddy Guy. "After meeting Buddy, I thought…hmmm, paper on Kafka or jam with Buddy Guy? Kafka lost out," she says with a laugh. "I quit school right after that. My parents were livid."
After touring all over the East Coast, Waters packed her bags and headed south. She landed in Nashville, where she found a champion in Delbert McClinton, who tapped her to sing back-up on Room to Breathe, his Grammy-nominated album from 2002. The Room to Breathe sessions found Waters working alongside Emmylou Harris, as well as Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Rodney Crowell, and Butch Hancock. McClinton, however, was not alone in his affinity for the songbird; Anders Osborne, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings also started calling her for session work. Waters left The South for Los Angeles in 2003 and in no time, picked up where she'd left off in the Volunteer State.
shadow of you, Waters' first full-length album, fuses elements of bluegrass, stone country and the singer-songwriter genre into a brew that is at once a timeless evocation of indigenous American music and the distinctive expression of a singular artist. shadow of you is awash in melancholy and Waters admits an undeniable kinship with high and lonesome songs, an assertion revealed not only in her writing but also in the outside material she's drawn to. "Townes van Zandt has been credited with saying, 'There are two kinds of songs: blues and zippity do dah.' I definitely don't do zippity do dah." Waters punctuates her words with a sprightly laugh, as she's quickly finding out that there's much to be said for coming out of the shadows and into the light.
The Tarantulas, Saturday June 21st, 2008,8:00 pm
Tarantulas Jug Band is the official music-maker of Henry Coe State Park, playing good-time music from the 1920s to the 1950s for events at Coe throughout the year. The band’s musical repertoire spans Delta blues, field and work songs, ragtime, tin-pan-alley favorites and even old rockabilly standards. The songs are accompanied by homemade and antique string and percussion instruments played in jug band style.
The jug band tradition emerged from Kentucky and Tennessee in the early 20th Century when poor but creative individuals built their own instruments from found materials such as cigar boxes, trash cans and washboards. Reaching their heyday in the mid-1920’s and early-1930s, jug bands played a wide variety of popular music at dances, festivals, vaudeville theatres, rent parties and street corners throughout the South. To learn more about jug band music visit www.jugband.org and/or http://demtarantulas.com
Today the traditional jug band sound is kept alive by a group originally founded by Coe State Park volunteers that enjoy sharing the humor and old-time charm of this music. Taking their name from the furry, lovable arachnids that emerge in droves every fall, The Tarantulas Jug Band invites you to cast off your inhibitions and dance the “Grizzly Bear” to that old-time sound.
Tamra Engle, Saturday July 12th, 2008,8:00 pm
Tamra Engle has a career in music that spans more than twenty-five years. She started out fronting the all girl punk rock sensations The MsFits, which led to, among other things, opening gigs for the Go-Gos.
She has worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles and toured the country in several incarnations. Now Tamra has decided to focus on her superb songwriting skills. Two of her recent compositions have already been picked up by SHOWTIME for a brand new movie titled Dead End Street.
She is also wowing the Bay Area with her live acoustic shows. If you get a chance, come check one out. Her songs and voice are familiar, yet incomparable. Her songwriting idols include Bruce Springsteen, Amy Ray, Patti Smith, and Chrissie Hynde, which will give you a little insight into her sound. You can check out the songs themselves on her website www.guitartam.com . Or if you are lucky enough to catch one of her live sets, come on up and say hey. I know Tamra would love it!
Ginny Mitchell, Saturday August 2nd, 2008,8:00 pm
After releasing her first album and receiving widespread acclaim in Canada, Ginny Mitchell decided to bring her talent to California in 1991. Her music can best be described as a "rootsy" mix of Americana and country. An accomplished singer, writer and instrumentalist, Ginny began singing at age 4 and playing guitar at 12. First-time listeners and longtime fans alike are drawn in by her honest and soulful delivery, which has been compared to Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Linda Ronstadt , Roseanne Cash and the great Patsy Cline.
Her accomplishments started in British Columbia, Canada, where 21-year-old Ginny became the winner of the Canadian County Music Associations Best New female Vocalist. This high-profile win eventually lead lead her to tour throughout Canada and the US as an opening act for Tammy Wynette, k.d. lang, Ricky Skaggs, Asleep at the Wheel and Greg Allman. Her independent CD, “Just to Hear Your Voice” released in 2006, has also received praise and airplay across the US.
Today, Ginny finds herself juggling time between live performances, producing Santa Cruz Live, as well as continuing to write material for her next release.
Fur Dixon & Steve Werner, Saturday August 23rd, 2008,8:00 pm
Fur is a hand-crafted songwriter and angel-voiced cowgirl. She gathers her musical influences from Gillian Welch, June and Mother Maybelle Carter, Hazel Dickens, and Johnny Cash. As a teen, she cut her teeth singing in church and winning musical contests. Fur has played rockabilly and hard driving country music with Los Angeles bands the Hollywood Hillbilly's and the Screamin' Sirens. She's lived and played in Austin, New York, and has toured Europe on bass with Psycho-punk legends the Cramps. Fur's songs come straight out of her heart. Her voice is playful, melodious and seductive. When she sings you a story of hope and heartache you know she has traveled every mile of that journey. Fur is the voice of an old friend, heard across a campfire on a starry night, a voice that calls upon ghosts of another time, when the Carters and the Stanleys sang those same truths around the home fires of their beloved hills.
Steve is an unrepentant Harley-riding, hard-traveling folksinger. He is a Flat-pickin', Travis-pickin' son of a gun and his original songs have the timeless quality of classic folk songs. Steve made his name as guitarist and bandleader for original fifties rockabilly singers like Glen Glenn, Ray Campi, Johnny Legend, Tony "Wildman" Conn, Sonny Burgess and Tommy Sands. He’s played Lollapalooza and opened for Bob Dylan. His first album, Biker Campfire, has become a staple in the motorcycle world. The songs he wrote for expatriot American rocker John Whiteleather, in Sweden, scored on the charts all over Europe, where he travels frequently. Yet, for all that rockin, folk music has always been his first love, his heart and his home. With his trusty Martin HD-28 He's played all over the world from Japan to Europe and all across the USA. An old-school troubadour trained in the ways of his heroes Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Steve keeps that grand tradition alive in fine rough and rowdy style.
Together, Fur and Steve are a combination that can’t be matched. In their guitars there’s the smoke of a thousand campfires. When they sing harmony it’ll raise the hair on your arms. Listen to their words and you’ll want to pack up, climb into the back of their pickup truck and head out for a musical joyride down the dusty highways and backroads of the American west.
Caji & Solame, Friday September 5th, 2008,8:00 pm
Photo's and bio coming soon!!
Houston Jones, Saturday October 18th, 2008,8:00 pm
Houston Jones is a California based high octane Americana sextet. Formed in 2001, the band performs a strong original repertoire that ranges from bluegrass and folk to blues and gospel. With a world-class combination of vocal and instrumental prowess, Houston Jones features Peter Tucker (drums and percussion), Glenn Houston (lead guitar), Travis Jones (lead vocals and acoustic guitar), Henry Salvia (keyboards and accordian) and Chris Kee (standup bass).
“As good as any singing and picking I’ve heard in my thirty years in the music business. Do your friends a big favor, and turn them on to this band!” - Bob Brown, Owner, Rancho Nicasio, and manager, Huey Lewis and the News
Voted “best new discovery” and “best vocalist”, Strawberry Music Festival
www.houstonjones.com
The Palm Wine Boys, Saturday November 8th, 2008,8:00 pm
West African palm wine music and American folk and blues all come together to make up the mellow rhythmic sound of the Palm Wine Boys. Palm wine music is West African roots music. Like folk and blues, the roots music of North America, it is the music of the township and village; "an expression of the day-to-day life of ordinary people, the music of their hearts. It tells of their joys, their sorrows, their pleasures and their displeasures" said the late S.E. Rogie, one of the great innovators of the genre. The Palm Wine Boys fuse the lyrical sensibilities of folk and blues with the guitar lines and rhythms of palm wine music to create a new form. They play innovative world roots music.
"The rich vocal harmonizing, combined with intricate guitar interplay and lilting rhythms make Palm Wine Boys a fresh, warm breeze in the increasingly stale 'world music' atmosphere" - Larry Kelp, KPFA
Their recently released second album, Up & Down, their first for Oakland, CA based indie folk label Wildplum Recordings, will remind many of early highlife or acoustic calypso with its lilting melodies, irresistible bouncy rhythms, and playful lyrics. The new CD features four part harmonies, the dual intertwining guitars of palm wine music, strong bass lines, occasional flute and various African hand percussion throughout.
