PISTOL RIVER – The Pistol River Concert Association presents Special Consensus at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, at the Pistol River Friendship Hall, 24252 Carpenterville Road.

Special Consensus is a four person acoustic bluegrass band that began performing in the Midwest in the spring of 1975. In 1984, the band initiated the Traditional American Music Program in schools across the country and began appearing on cable television and National Public Radio shows. As a result, the band has been featured in cover stories in Bluegrass Unlimited in 1998, 2005 and 2010 and several of the band recordings have received Highlight Reviews and appeared on the National Bluegrass Survey chart in that publication. In November 2003, Special Consensus received a standing ovation after the first band performance on the Grand Ole Opry at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. International tours have brought Special Consensus to the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Ireland and South America.

Tickets are $15 and available at Wright’s Custom Framing and Art Supplies in Brookings and Gold Beach Books in Gold Beach. Tickets may also be reserved online at www.pistolriver.com/tickets or by calling 541-247-2848. A $5 student discount or refund is available at the door with student identification.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMPYikmKHIU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6QKUTB81DE

Sol Flamenco

PISTOL RIVER – The Pistol River Concert Association presents Mark Taylor  with Terry Longshore and the Sol Flamenco Dance Company for two shows at the Pistol River Friendship Hall, 24252 Carpenterville Road.

Shows will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20.Tickets are $15 and are available at Wright’s Custom Framing and Art Supplies in Brookings, The Book Dock in Harbor and Gold Beach Books in Gold Beach. Tickets may also be reserved online at www.pistolriver.com/tickets or by calling 541-247-2848. A $5 student discount or refund is available at the door with student identification.

Classical and Flamenco guitarist Mark Taylor is an international recording artist and performer. He was already a professional classical guitarist when he began traveling to Spain in 1987. He studied flamenco guitar in Granada, Sevilla and Jerez de la Frontera and Madrid. He returned to the United States to form the Aire Flamenco Dance Company and  The Mark Taylor Flamenco Quartet. He has performed as a soloist in Spain and the United States and appears regularly as featured artist with the Sol Flamenco Dance Company and The San Francisco Bay area’s Potaje ensemble, directed by Chus Alonso. He has also collaborated with Francisco Gaona’s stage productions of Romanceros Gitanos, Cante Jondo and Cantares by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Liz Bortolotto began her life as a flamenco dancer in 1999. Since then, she has danced professionally with Sol Flamenco, Mark Taylor Flamenco, Flamenco Arts, and Los Cuatro Vientos.Bortolotto trained primarily with Jose Galvan of Sevilla and artists Yaelisa, Emmy winning choreographer and dancer; Carola Zertuche; and Elaine Marlow. She has also studied with traveling artists such as Antonio Granjeros, Belen Maya, Pastora Galvan and Joaquin Ruiz. She recently returned from Spain where she studied with Flamenco dance teacher Manuel Betanzos.Joelle Gonzalves – performer, teacher, and co-director of Sol Flamenco – has performed throughout the West Coast with a variety of flamenco companies including Aire Flamenco, Los Cuatro Vientos, Flamenco Puro, Flamenco Arts, and was a featured soloist in Yaelisa’s Noche de Amor.

Gonzalves’ attraction to the art of flamenco began more than a decade ago while she was earning her degree in art history. This led her to Sevilla, where she began her professional dance training with Maestro Jose Galvan. She has studied with flamenco artists Joaquin Ruiz, Concha Vargas, Angel Munoz, and Antonio Granjeros. She travels to Spain annually to study with Manuel Betanzos and receives private dance training and coaching with Yaelisa in the U.S.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBE9COh7GM

CRESCENT CITY – Season tickets for the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness (DNACA) 2011-12 concerts are on sale.Tickets may be purchased  at Del Norte Office Supply in Crescent City, Wright’s Custom Framing in Brookings, and from DNACA board members.The association’s 29th annual performance series begins Monday, Nov. 7, with the nontraditional bluegrass and new folk music of Crooked Still.Other performances include African guitarist and percussionist Alpha Yaya Diallo, gospel and blues-infused singer and songwriter Eric Bibb, traditional Veracruz folk musician Tlen-Huicani, and country rock legend Pure Prairie League. Season tickets provide discounts, and are transferable and replaceable.For more information or a free brochure, call 707-464-1336 or send email to dnaca@harborside.com.

Crooked Still videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcYhmOhf96g

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4oSok81III

Photo by Jef Hatch (HatchPhoto Studio)

The five members of the new rock band Tsunamic are not simply content to provide background music at a public event, bar or private party.

“We want to put on a real rock show, where the focus is on the band and the music,” said Tsunamic’s lead vocalist Steve Racham, 50, of Brookings. The rest of the band members, ranging in age from 48 to 57, reside in Brookings, Gold Beach and Crescent City.

“We’re not talking about three-chord stuff. This is pretty complicated music we’re playing,” said lead guitarist Milann Reynolds, 56, of Crescent City.

Think of the less commercialized, more intricate songs by Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, The Who, and ZZ Top, and you get the picture of the band’s music mission. The five members, with decades of musical experience among them, are likely to pull it off. See them play live at a Halloween show Saturday, Oct. 29, as part of a double bill with local band Slow Children, at the 101 Bar and Grill, 98141 W. Benham Lane. Tsunamic is schedule to play around 9 p.m.

Practicing in an empty, undisclosed building in Harbor, Tsunamic performs as if there are 20,000 people, not just two, cheering their blistering performance of songs such as  Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic,” Neil Young’s “Down By The River,” and Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and “Kashmir.”

“We stay away from the standards, the songs that everybody knows, and go for the deeper cuts,” Racham said.

Racham enjoys singing melodic leads, but doesn’t shy away from the paint-peeling screams commonly associated with Zeppelin’s frontman Robert Plant. He often uses the straight microphone as a dance partner and seems just one step away from swinging the microphone on its cable ala Roger Daltrey of The Who. He’s accompanied by Reynolds’ searing guitar licks, Danny Bridges thumping bass, Tim Harrison’s consummate drumming and Dan DeLaney’s keyboard solos and chordal flourishes.

“We’ve all been playing music since we were kids. It’s always been a big part of our lives,” said Reynolds.

Tsunamic started with a ripple in Gold Beach last summer when Racham started playing music with Gold Beach keyboardist Delaney. They decided to form a band and started looking for a guitarist, bassist and drummer. After a few false starts and trying out a few drummers, they arrived at their current configuration.

“All of us have music maturity,” Reynolds said, explaining that each band member is an accomplished musician.“We’re not a schlock-rock band,” he added. “We’re doing something that keeps us all musically interested.”

Tsunamic’s first big gig was this summer’s Brew Festival in Gold Beach , attended by about 700 people, Racham said. Next, the band was invited to play the C&K Market company picnic at Brookings’ Azalea Park. (Racham is an employee of the grocery company and operates the barbecue lunch service at the Brookings Ray’s Food Place.)

“The response at the picnic was overwhelming,” Racham said. “That was great!”

Great responses are something that never seem to get old for the members of Tsunamic.

Racham spent his teen years singing and playing guitar for several rock bands in the Sacramento area, playing at the stage fair and winning two battle-of-the-bands competitions. He moved to Los Angeles where he played with several bands in the music scene there. He later formed a Southern Rock band in Oahu, opening for visiting acts such as Dave Mason, Molly Hatchet, Stray Cats and Bryan Adams. The band won an Hawaiian Music Award and toured in Asia for several years.

Bridges started playing drums at 3, played trombone in school and then played guitar for several garage bands. After high school, he moved to Eugene, where he sold his guitar for a bass and joined an all-originals rock band that spent the next 20 years playing the college scene and opening from visiting national acts such as Ratt, Alda Nova and Steppenwolf. He lived in Brookings off and on for the last 10 years, staying here permanently three years ago. He played at various music jams and was a member of several now-defunt bands, and then accepted an offer from Tsunamic.

Harrison, 53, who recently retired as pastor at the Crescent City Four Square Church after 14 years, has been playing drums since sixth grade.  He played in several high school bands and, in his 20s, became a regular player on the Los Angeles music scene.

“Classic rock has always been my favorite,” Harrison said.

Reynolds began his career when he picked up a saxophone at age 9. He began playing guitar at 12 and began vocal training at 15. At age 16 he won the Northwestern Jazz Festival Competition for sax improvisation. As an adult, he played in bands and worked as a studio musician in Santa Cruz, Calif., until moving to Crescent City.

DeLaney, 57, who plays keyboard and sings backup, started playing in bands while working full time in the aerospace industry. The bands he played in performed at popular music clubs on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He moved to Gold Beach in 1994 and began playing with local bands, including the Innovators and the Ferguson Brothers Band, and helped form the Rich Young Fools in 2003 with Racham.

Today, the band is practicing and looking for occasional gigs.“We’re not a dance band or a garage band,” Racham said. “We don’t really want to do the bar scene all the time; we’d like to do benefits and special events. We want people to look forward to seeing us play.”

Bridges added, “We’re not in it for the money; there really isn’t a lot money around here. Well, maybe a little. Anyway, all we want to do is create a good time for everyone.”

The public is invited to come watch local musicians perform originals and cover songs in a variety of music styles. The cost is $2 per person, musicians  and non-musicians, to help defray the cost of renting the Event Center. Refreshments will be available for purchase.

The event center is a small, intimate room that seats about 50 people. It has wonderful acoustics so most musicians can perform unplugged. Musicians who need power are asked to bring their own amplifier and microphones.Musicians who are interested in playing at this event should call Kim Banfield at 541-251-3952. Time slots are usually 15 to 20 minutes long, depending on how many musicians show up.

Stagelights is non-profit organization that focuses on music outreach and education programs, and promotes local music events. For more information about Stagelights visit www.stagelights.us or go to Facebook.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISEWJrs4iU

PISTOL RIVER – The Pistol River Concert Association presents Moira Smiley and VOCO, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15,at the Pistol River Friendship Hall, 24252 Carpenterville Road.

Moira Smiley and VOCO is a visionary blend of voices – redefining harmony singing with the power and physicality of folksong, the avant-garde fearlessness of Béla Bartók and the delicious, vaudevillian accompaniment of cello, banjo, accordion and body percussion, according to the band’s website.

Moira Smiley leads an ensemble of extraordinary musicians who share a passion for spreading powerful, emotional music with lush four-part vocal harmony, cello, accordion and banjo. Original improvisation-built songs steeped in Appalachia and Eastern Europe. The group VOCO has the energy of street singing and the elegance of a string trio. Recently featured in Dirty Linen and on more than 100 radio stations nationwide on NPR’s “Harmonia” program,  VOCO has released two critically-acclaimed CDs in 2008 and 2009: “Small Worlds” and “Circle, Square, Diamond & Flag.”

VOCO music is described as “sweet, hard-driving Americana mixed with crooked eastern European dance and dissonance. It’s all rounded out with body-stomping percussive movement and joyous, magnificent, hair-raising harmonies – music that mourns and dances at the same time.”

Tickets for the Oct. 15 concert are $15 and available at Wright’s Custom Framing and Art Supplies in Brookings, The Book Dock in Harbor and Gold Beach Books in Gold Beach. Tickets may also be reserved online at www.pistolriver.com/tickets or by calling 541-247-2848. A $5 student discount or refund is available at the door with student identification.

More info at:

http://www.moirasmiley.com/VOCO_main.html

America’s premiere “indie” ensemble, Carpe Diem String Quartet, will share their acclaimed innovation and flair at the Crescent Elk Auditorium on Tuesday October 18, 2011 at 7:30 pm. Single tickets for this event are $15.  Memberships for the 2011/2012 season will be available at the door. For information please call Crescent City: 707-465-6572 or Brookings: 541-469-3390.

Defying classification, Carpe Diem String Quartet has earned critical acclaim for their genre busting concerts, demonstrating their relative ease with classic quartet literature as well as gypsy, tango, folk, pop and jazz idioms.  Carpe Diem is currently in the process of recording the nine string quartets of Sergey Taneyev for Naxos, the first of which has been released to great acclaim:

“The playing is excellent, unanimous in spirit, homogeneous in tone, with fine give-and-take between leading and supporting.”

– Edith Eisler, Strings Magazine

The quartet has dedicated itself to student outreach, establishing two successful education programs in central Ohio, “Connecting with Kids” – tying music to school curriculum, and “Music & Letters” – combining correspondence by famous composers with related pieces.  Their vision extends to a complete revitalization the Chamber Music experience including thematic concerts, visual media and technology, and programs featuring living composers.

See the video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/liveonstageinc2011#p/u/25/KG25M6JsLh0

The Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association has been presenting internationally acclaimed artists to the greater Crescent City and Brookings areas since 1948.  Two artists this season will present free Outreach Performances to students during the day in addition to their scheduled evening concerts.  Thanks to the generosity of Patrons and Sponsors, these concerts can be offered at affordable, family-friendly prices.

The Cleveland Duo

Friends of Music will begin its 2011-12 season with a concert by The Cleveland Duo and James Umble at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, at Calvary Assembly of God, 518 Fir St., Brookings.Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults and free for students 17 and younger. Tickets are available at Wrights Custom Framing and Art Supplies and at the door.The Duo consists of Stephen Warner on violin and Carolyn Gadiel Warner on piano. Umble is a classical saxophonist. They have been together since the 1993-94 season and have performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico in major chamber music venues, festival sites, universities and conservatories of music, temples, in special informative presentations for school children, and over the airwaves of both National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The three have also performed and lectured at national and international conferences including the annual Chamber Music America Conference in New York City, the World Saxophone Congress in both Montreal and in Minneapolis, and the NASA (North American Saxophone Alliance) at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.Their repertoire contains several new works as well as those of Bach, Handel, Ravel, Piazzolla, Bartok, John Adams, Leonard Bernstein and Erik Satie.Their collaborative album, titled “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe”  on the Dana Label was the recipient of a 1993 Grammy nomination citation in five categories, including best chamber music disc. At the Brookings concert, the musicians plan to perform Bach’s “Concerto for Violin and Oboe,” which was adapted for violin, soprano saxophone and keyboard; Shostakovich’s “Three Short Pieces for Two Violins and Piano; Mussorgksy’s “The Old Castle from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ ” for violin, piano and alto and soprano saxophones; as well as works by Ernest Bloch, Erik Satie, Brian Dykstra and Vittorio Monti.