Summertime Sings In The City

Hey Beautiful people,

My husband Jeff, and I drove down to Marin on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Fairfax, Ca, one of my favorite towns ever. We are staying with wonderful friends, John and Nancy – and it’s so great to reconnect with them after so much time away. We wondered downtown after a delicious BBQ and checked out all the live music in town – a block long nirvana with three bars playing music 7 nights a week – I love it!

Yesterday I hiked on Mount Tam with Peter Clarke whom I consider both a friend and a spiritual guide. I love being in his presence. The man is deep and extremely interesting and I always come away from our conversations with a lot to ponder. After our hike I picked Jeff up from the Fairfax Coffee Roastery, where he had been working and we headed for San Francisco. We left the 100-degree plus heat into the blessed cool of the fog streaming over the hills like long white veils and silver fingers. It snaked down canyons and flowed like a trumpet blast through the Golden Gate. The cool hit us and we laughed with relief and giddiness. Being in the City at night is a wonderful thing.

I prayed to the parking gods to assist us in our search for the perfect spot and got one right in front of the Saloon!!! This has never happened to me before. I have spent over an hour circling and hunting in the past. It was an amazing find.

Our main reason for being down here this weekend is to attend the memorial service of my dear friend “Little” Lisa Stoufer. She and I used to go to The Saloon once or twice a weekend to see Johnny Nitro and dance for several years running. Her birthday would have been today, and we’d celebrated her birthday many times with Johnny in the past. I went to honor her memory and to dance and dance and dance for her because I could. And I can’t help but think she helped with that parking space.

I credit Johnny as being one of my musical mentors. He produced my first demo CD and gave me a lot of invaluable advice. He is both an excellent musician and performer. He knows how to work a crowd and I just love him.

Johnny was on form and Jeff and I let loose and found the very present rhythm and danced. We had a blast. I gifted Johnny with a copy of my CD “Ignition” and he asked me up to sing. It was on honor to be on that stage again and just let loose and have fun.

I am going to go get ready or the memorial and to sing to her spirit. Thanks for listening.

With love, Annie xox

If you like the blues – go, I know you will have a blast! Here’s some text from the Saloon’s website:

World’s greatest blues bar? Well, that may be a little strong, but it’s the oldest bar in San Francisco and boasts the best of the blues in the Bay Area, not only in terms of the incredibly good music with almost unbelievably small crowds of a mid-week evening, but because of the impressive array of CDs recorded on the premises and released by proprietor Myron Mu.

The days of catching Tommy Castro at The Saloon are probably past, but Johnny Nitro & the Doorslammers rock the place almost every Friday and Sunday night while Ron Hacker, Steve Freund, Cathy Lemons, Daniel Castro, Dave Workman and numerous others are on the regular roster too. And, every Monday night (“for the rest of our lives”), The Bachelors.

During the 1800s, so the legends go, drunks who stumbled out of this tavern risked being shanghaied for nasty and ill-paid ocean voyages. The building survived the ’06 earthquake, it’s said, because of its unusually stout timbers. It survived the subsequent fires, it’s said, because the fire brigades made sure protect the hookers who worked upstairs. Today the doorman-bouncer-soundman Greg scares hell out of would-be troublemakers but is actually one of the sweetest characters you’ll ever meet. And oh yes, for between sets, this place has about the best jukebox anywhere…

~ by anniemacmusic on July 18, 2009.