the hum / By Bob Doran

NPK’s Mission

For bluegrass on the alt. side with fine pickin’, tight vocal harmonies and an occasional Dead cover, check Greensky Bluegrass, a string jamband from Kalamazoo on the road behind their fourth album, Five Interstates, taking the Arcata off-ramp for a Monday night show at Humboldt Brews.  

That Monday, Jan. 19, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with added significance this year. The local chapter of the NAACP is holding their usual lunchtime celebration at the Adorni Center starting at noon, with the theme “I See the Promised Land.” They’ll have speeches, poetry and music, including the new Spanky and Our Gang, which includes Spanky McFarlane and my friend Karen Dumont, plus Karen’s new vocal group, Echoes of Glory, with Donna Landry and Doug Vanderpool among others.

As I’m sure you’re aware, next Tuesday marks the (final) end of one administration and the (hope-filled) beginning of another, and Humboldt County is ready to celebrate. Professional scene-ster and part-time musician Terrence McNally tells us of one end-of event: “Area bands Side Iron and Magnum [of which T-McN is a member] are joining forces at the Alibi for Operation Mission Accomplished: a Tribute to the Nation’s 43rd President. ‘This is historic times,’ George Walker Bush once quipped. This is indeed. On Tuesday Bush leaves office after eight years of protecting Americans from internationalism, the U.S. Constitution and the Democrat Party. Both bands opted to take their message of decisiveness and OB/GYN love directly to the most liberal corner of the county. Songs such as ‘Shock and Awe,’ ‘I Ain’t One for Fancy Talk’ and ‘Where Wings Take Dream’ will be performed. Attendees are encouraged to keep hope to a minimum.” Note: The show is not on Inauguration Day, it’s Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Alibi.

Tuesday, Jan. 20, is The Big Day and there’ll be dancing in the streets in D.C. and around the world as Barack Obama is inaugurated as our new president. Locally we have a number of options: Jambalaya has an “Inaugural Ball” to be broadcast live on KHUM with deejay Mike Dronkers as host. Supplying the musical soundtrack at the Jam: Absynth Quintet and The Sundown Poachers from Siskiyou County. Says Mike-D., “It’s going to be mayhem, but mayhem for, by, and of the people.”

Humboldt Brews’ Inaugural evening has kick-ass foot-stompin’ Americana from Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band, with UKEsperience opening. You’ll find more American music across town at Muddy’s Hot Cup that night as our own Striped Pig Stringband plays host to The Flat Iron Stringband on their biodiesel-fueled “Hard Times in the Country” Winter tour. FIS’ hope is that “down-home music that everyone can relate to” will “bring people’s hearts back to the music of Appalachian barn dances … just as the Carter Family spread the ‘Sunny Side of Life’ to Depression-era families through the radio waves…”

For American music of a different stripe, check the Myka 9 “Welcoming in a New Prez Party” at the Red Fox Inaug Night. Myka has Humboldt connections (he worked with J the Sarge and DJ Drez as Magic Heart Genies), but he comes out of the legendary Freestyle Fellowship and the L.A. Good Life/Project Blowed scene. He’s on The 1969 Tour, behind an awesome new disc named for the year he was born. He’s trading rapid-fire rhymes on the road with the likes of Sole (from Anticon), Ceschi and Factor (from Fake Four Inc.) plus Meeting of the Minds.

Dell’Arte hosts an Inaugural Ball at the Carlo including a replay of Obama’s inaugural address (the real time ceremony starts at 11:30 a.m. D.C. time). Aretha Franklin sings at the Washington version; The Bayou Swamis play in Blue Lake, where you are invited to come dressed as your favorite politician and contribute something warm to a “Brother, can you spare a dime?” clothing drive. 

“Hope” is the word of the day. Keep it alive. 

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