the hum / By Bob Doran

Not from here

Despite the student exodus, the café closest to campus, Muddy’s Hot Cup, has an almost full schedule. This week it’s improv comedy benefiting the Shakespeare company Shake the Bard on Thursday, Feminasti DJ Blancatron spinning house Friday (she’s also at the Alibi Sunday), Rooster McClintock getting all twangy and shit on Saturday with Jay Dirt opening, Scatter the Mud ‘s Celtic session Sunday, the usual Wandering Menstruals Monday and a songwriter night on Wednesday with Gregory Alan Isakov , Reed Foehl and Curtis Thompson from Kulica. Wait, what about the Tuesday jazz thing with Susie and Shao Way? That’s moving to Thursdays.

What local musician do you suppose has had the most national (and international) press in recent months? My educated guess says it’s Saint John Hunt, leader of the blues/rock outfit St. John and the Sinners , who play Friday at the Red Fox, and twice Saturday: at the veteran’s North Coast Stand Down and at Blue Lake Casino. And no, he’s not in the papers because of the band. It’s because he knows who killed JFK, or at least he knows what his dad told him — his dad being E. Howard Hunt, “a 27-year career CIA executive officer and covert operative most well-known for his role in the Watergate affair,” as St. John puts it on his website, www.saintjohnhunt.com, where you can buy his book, Bond of Secrecy , and a DVD interview revealing some big secrets. Not having heard the Sinners yet, I’m not sure what secrets are concealed or revealed in their music.

The Redwood Run is the ticket for power-packed rock/blues this weekend with Gregg Allman , Joe Bonamassa , Joan Jett and Molly Hatchet among those playing for bikers and just plain music fans down in Piercy.

You may have heard that young blues guitar ripper Corby Yates has taken up residency somewhere east of here out Highway 299. He’s on the coast Friday and Saturday shredding at Cher-Ae Heights. (On second thought, is he still considered young?)

My favorite local shredders Dragged by Horses get heavy at the Alibi Saturday, joined by Santa Cruz psyche rockers, El Sonido , who describe their crashing sound as “liquid.”

Jazzy/jammy guitarist Will Bernard plays that same night (Saturday) at the Red Fox. I signed up for Will’s e-list at some show long ago and since have followed his rise in the jam world gigging with the heavies, Stanton Moore, Robert Walter, Lonnie Smith, John Medeski, guys like that. For this show he’s fronting his own band, Motherbug . Should be good.

You’d think the Reggae biz would calm down, but it hasn’t. I ran into Mateel board member Bob Stern at the Summer Arts Fest Saturday and asked him what’s up with Reggae on the River vs. Reggae Rising. “They’re going to try to put on a festival; we’re going to try to stop them,” is how he put it. Next salvos will be heard at the Planning Commish this Thursday.

The latest: Mateel supporters calling for boycotts of any nonprofit planning on having a booth at Reggae Rising. And how do you boycott a nonprofit anyway? Maybe when your house is on fire you don’t call the local VFD? Sorry if this sounds like a broken record, but how about a little peace in the neighborhood?

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