the hum / By Bob Doran

Funky As Ever

Across town Monday at theArcata Playhouse saucy comedy duo Cass King and John Woods akaThe Wet Spotsoffer a somewhat kinky sex-ed vaudeville/music review.

Since Leftover Salmon spawned and floated downstream a few years back, guitarist Vince Herman has turned his attention to a new project, Great American Taxi, pursuing a slightly less “polyethnic” take on Americana. For the current GAT tour, which comes to the Red Fox Tuesday, the band also includes pedal-steel player Barry Sless from the David Nelson Band, Phil and Friends, The Dead, etc. Added bonus: They’re on the road with Colorado-based Victor Barnes, who offers “insurgent bluegrass” as the opening act.

Those in search of high-toned entertainment might want to take in the Tchaikovsky Perm Balletperformance ofRomeo and JulietTuesday*at the*Van Duzer. Is this the real deal? Well, the Russian dance troupe travels with a full orchestra instead of a CD player, if that’s any indication.

Next Thursday, March 27, marks the 16th Annual Taste of Main Street, a mobile grazing party with nibblers ranging among 21 sites in downtown and Old Town Eureka. The night also marks the beginning of this year’s Redwood Coast Jazz Festival, about which you’ll hear much more next week. The kick-off is a Big Band Danceat the Adorni with music by Swing Fever, a quarter-century-old band from the Bay Area that swings on tunes by Duke, the Count, Gershwin, Porter and the like. Ready to swing? This is the start of a long weekend made for dancers.

I got an e-mail the other day from Folklifer/songsterJoel Sonenshein. He’s coordinating ahouse concert featuringAudrey Auld-Mezera,an*Australian expat songwriter who lives in Bolinas (in Marin County) and sings like she’s from the South instead of the land down under. She’ll be in town next Friday, March 28, with ace*guitar player Andrew Hardin, who played for many years with Texas folky Tom Russell. The house concerts work like this: Joel sends the details out via e-mail to a hundred or so people. They pass it along to friends; everyone needs to e-mail or call to set up a reservation and to find out whose house the show is at. Having attended a few of these shows, I can testify that it’s an incredibly intimate way to experience music up close and personal. Over the weekend Joel called me asking for help with a little disaster. Something went haywire in his e-mail program: All of his e-mail is irretrievably lost and so is his e-mail list. He’s not sure who’s coming to this show and he can’t inquire. Now computers are pretty much black boxes to me — I can’t fix his e-mail — but I can do this, post the house party man’s e-mail address: joel@asis.com. Going to see Audrey? Were you on the list before? Want to be on it now? Drop him a line and help him resurrect his list.

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