the hum / By Bob Doran

Young Old Timer

Friday is Arts! Arcata night: Arte Brown plays liquid guitar at Plaza Design providing a soundtrack for Jackie Oshiro‘s watercolors. Greg Willis plays music and Jay Brown shows “new works for the new year” at Arcata Exchange. Rose Armin-Hoiland sings torch songs with backing by the 24/7 Jazz Trio at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. Duncan Burgess plays guitar at Libation where Tony Gonsalves‘ landscape photography is on display.

A Thousand Years at Sea is a folk/rock/Celtic combo out of New York City escaping the snowy eastern weather for a West Coast winter tour that brings them to Mosgo’s Friday, Jan. 8. While ATYAS is normally a trio, just fiddler Ethan Lewis and guitarist Colin Cotter made the westward journey this time. But that’s OK, they’re the songwriters on the band’s new CD, Silver Shores Await.

The extremely flamboyant Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Abbey of the Big Red Wood is starting off 2010 with something they call Beach Blanket Bingo, although it bears no relation to the B.B. Babylon show with big hats that’s been running forever in Frisco. No, this “night of tropical splendor” at the Bayside Grange on Saturday, Jan. 9, features drag queens and bingo (and prizes for the best tropical attire). Sister Fawn invites you to, “Come escape the rainy winter doldrums!” As always with Sisters events, it’s a benefit, this time for local homeless service agencies, specifically Arcata House, All Faith Partnership for Shelter and North Coast Resource Center (formerly known as the Arcata Endeavor).

The Aughts were a time when borders between genres dissolved. Describing a band’s sound became more difficult as band’s defined themselves in terms like ” folk/rock/Celtic,” and blues, country, rock, jazz, etc. all blend together. I’ll admit to over-reliance on adding the tried-and-true “alt.” prefix to all of the above (and I’ll probably continue using it). One of my favorite local alt. something bands, Strix Vega, is out to have fans come up with some sort of category for their music. (They once told me they were a ” folk/indie/rock band.”) Here’s a note they sent out: “Hello friends. If you’re interested in winning tickets to Strix Vega’s show at The Alibi on Jan. 16, here’s what you can do: Email your description of the Strix Vega sound to Strix Vega (strixvega@hotmail.com) by Jan 11. Voting will be open to you, our friends and fans. The creator of the description of the Strix Vega sound that gets the most votes by Jan. 15, wins a pair of free tickets to see Strix Vega live at the Alibi.” Not sure what they sound like? You can hear them this Saturday night when they play at Brad’s Capricorn Bash at the Red Fox with a revived version of B-Swizlo‘s Acid Jazz Experiment.

If by chance you pick this paper up on Wednesday, Jan. 6, you’ll still have time to catch a show we did not know about last week: a return engagement at Nocturnum by guitarist James Hunnicutt. Formerly of Wayne “The Train” Hancock’s band, Hunnicut plays a rootsy, ballsy mix of country and rock. He’s still touring behind his All By My Lonesome album, and still doing so all alone.

At the end of last week’s little Humboldt scene history lesson I wondered if there were any places I forgot. Richard C. Brown of Eureka notes one place I missed: “Jon’s Place (now closed) a few doors down from The Playroom in Fortuna. He had a coin-operated karaoke machine, where budding karaoke singers could practice their craft before hitting the big time at Brogi’s Boiler Room.” I actually remember Jon’s Place from shooting photos for a Journal story by Arno Holschuh (“So You Want to Be a Star?” Aug. 23, 2001). As I recall, Rumours was the karaoke hot spot back then. Any more memories?

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