I’m hoping for a full house Friday night, Sept. 2, when the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley puts on a special benefit show for banjoist Bill Evans and his wife.
Kathy Evans, a long-time kindergarten teacher in the Albany schools, has been having a difficult struggle with leukemia and soon will undergo another bone marrow transplant. As you might imagine, an illness like this wreaks havoc with a family’s finances. A big turnout will be a great display of support for Bill and his family.
And purely as a show, this will be a great one. Doors open at 6 p.m. and Snap Jackson and the Knock on Wood Players will pick on the gallery stage for the hour until the main show begins. Then there will be a parade of musicians, all of whom have performed with Bill at one time or another.
Headliners are Hot Buttered Rum, jam/bluegrass group from California that has taken their music all across the nation in recent years. James Nash of the Waybacks will be their special guest.?
Evans’ current group, guitar virtuoso Dan Crary and songwriter/bassist Steve Spurgin (Spurgin, Crary and Evans), will perform. Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin will be there, along with the Hard Road Trio from New Mexico with guest Steve Smith. It’s a little hard to tell from the Freight web site just how the remainder of the musicians will fit together, but the list is such a talented crew the music will have to be great. Others to be on stage include: Tom Rozum, Eric Thompson, Keith Little, Sharon Gilchrist, Scott Nygaard, Alan Senauke, Steve Pottier, young bass phenom Max Schwartz and surprise special guests.
I can’t claim to be one of Bill Evans’ best pals but I’ve been around him a lot when I volunteered at CBA music camps for many years. You’ll have to go a long way to find a nicer guy, and a very long way to find a better banjo picker. After many years of teaching, performing and writing he seems just as enthusiastic about the banjo as I presume he was when he first learned to play “Cripple Creek.”
So, you Bay Area residents, or folks within reasonable driving distance: I’ll see you there!
