West of The West » Showbiz

Lauren Gurgiolo

renosepulveda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:20:00 +0000

OK this is for all of you Lauren Gurgiolo fans that have visited recently. Glad to have you here, but this is all I have for you. A young woman that doesn’t let playing the guitar get in the way of being a beautiful musician.

Lauren Gurgiolo

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2009

renosepulveda — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:52:38 +0000

We had a great day in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The weather was sunny, the crowd was big and friendly and the music was for the most part incredible. We just breezed right in to the foot of the Golden Towers Stage thanks to the efforts of some gracious friends that had gotten to the park around 4:00 AM to set up tarps right at the foot of the various stages. ”Just look for the yellow smiley face!” Arlene said. After catching some well deserved rest at the Stanyon hotel they began to filter in to the park. Evan and his wife Jaimie from Turlock with Arlene and Melissa from back east. Then Greta (the pride of Manresa Beach!) came meandering in. Last but not least , Jet City interlopers ;^) Davo and Grant taxied in from SFO at the last minute .

We had decided to make the Golden Towers Stage our base of operations because Buddy Miller was starting the day off there. I hadn’t seen him perform a full set of his own music since 2002. It was so good to see him with a full band in good spirits and obviously good health. He turned in a typical great, twangy Buddy Miller set with Regina Carey singing all the Julie parts and Emmylou Harris joining in on a couple songs. Then Robert Plant came in and helped close out the set with “I’m Movin On”, “What You Gonna Do LeRoy?” and “Sea of Heartbreak”.

Buddy Miller aka The Jesus of Twang

Former Ragamuffin and Nashville Superstar Phil Madeira!

Robert Plant dropped by to pay his respects

Next up was a band called Okkervil River. I’d never heard of them and we intended to bug out and go over to catch Boz Scaggs but these kids totally won me over. Lead singer Will Sheff poured his heart and soul and eventually his body into this music. They had the crowd right from the start but then disaster hit when the Will’s mike stand loosened up and dropped down to waist level. Doh! Sheff just dropped to his knees and kept singing as the crowd roared.

Eventually one of his mates came and fixed him up (no help at all from the local soundguys) Then the poor guy’s guitar cable popped out and again the sound crew didn’t move a muscle to help. Will looked lost and then angry for maybe…half a second and then he just started dancing and leaping about while furiously strumming a guitar nobody could hear. Scott Brackett, the keyboard player had to quit playing (again) and run up and get things plugged in. Eventually everything settled down and the band melded one of their songs into Sloop John B with the whole meadow joining in on the chorus while Sheff and bassist Patrick Pestorius laughed and triumphantly shoulder butted each other at the mike loving every minute of it. Ahhhhhh to be young…….

Okkervil 1: Will Sheff, patrick Pestorious and Justin Sherburn

Okkervil 2: Scott Brackett, Lauren Gurgiolo and Travis Nelson

Next up at the Towers of Gold Stage was Old 97s. A band I was really looking forward to seeing for some reason I can’t remember anymore. A joyless performance made worse by a couple of guitars that refused to stay in tune. Best thing I can say is Jon Langford and Xene Cervenca came out on separate songs to help get the crowd going.

Ken Bethea, Jon Langford and Rhett Miller

One thing I’d like to mention is the crowd at this event is also part of the show. You find yourself meeting with music lovers from everywhere around the world. Take for instance Denver and Mary pictured below. They were visiting California from St. Louis, MO and had run into Marty Stuart at their Hotel. He told them about the festival and they grabbed a bus to catch his set. We insisted they share our tarp with us as the ground they were siting on was a bit muddy. I found out Denver is a passionate and very knowledgeable country music aficionado. This guy took me to school and meeting them was just as much a treat as any of the music we’d heard.

Mary and Denver Perkins

Last up for Saturday at the Golden Towers Stage was Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. I’ll probably be writing more about these guys. Suffice it to say Brother Marty and his crew brought a ton of Nashville flash and professionalism to San Francisco. I was blown away.

Kenny Vaughn, Harry Stinson, Marty Stuart and Paul Martin

Top 5 Westerns

renosepulveda — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:32:19 +0000

My editor asked me to submit a list of what I consider to be the five greatest Western films of all time. I hate these kinds of things, especially when they are used to assign some kind of value to somebody’s art. That and picking five favorites adds up to a lot of agonizing because you have to exclude so many great films.

I guess lists do serve some sort of social function though. They are a way for people to get to know each other over common reference points. For instance, one person might really respond to The Wild Bunch but not even be able to sit through Destry Rides Again. What kind of information does this pass to various sensors? A whole lot I’m telling you.

A good Western can leave you craving the smell of sage and wood smoke. Some can break your heart, or reaffirm your faith in all kinds of things. I swear the first time I watched The Outlaw Josey Wales, my sperm count doubled.

So without any further delay, here are my five all time greatest Westerns as of right this minute.

5. Sliverado I make no apologies for ranking this Reagan era film in my top 5. Together and separately, Lawrence Kazdan and Kevin Costner have made some truly epic Westerns. Out of all of them, Silverado is my favorite.

Kazdan and a stellar cast cover all the bases. Plucky homesteaders vs a rich cattle baron and Brian Dennehy as his bought and paid for Sheriff. The homesteaders have a hole card though in four Jedi gunslingers played by Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner and Danny Glover.

Extra bonus points for Linda Hunt stealing every scene as Stella “The Midnight Star” and John (not from around these parts) Cleese.

4. Unforgiven Clint Eastwood spent 25 years building two of cinema’s towering icons, both gunfighters. In 1992, he began tearing them down with Unforgiven. Beautiful and gut wrenching, I haven’t seen it in years, but I’ll never forget the shock of Eastwood unable to mount his horse, Morgan Freeman’s corpse in the rain and Gene Hackman pleading for his life. “I don’t deserve this… to die like this…I was building a house!”

You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans, then go and piss off a loser with a gun.

3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I don’t know why I like this film so much. There’s not a whole lot of action, it takes place mostly in town… It’s pretty much missing two of the three essentials of a great Western namely action and scenery so it’s up to the characters to carry the day and they do so spectacularly.

Edmund O’Brien’s drunken newspaperman, Woody Strode as Pompey. Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef… for chissakes, Lee Marvin, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne all in the same movie!

John Wayne is so good as Tom Doniphon, the beautiful loser. Every step of the way he sucks it up and does the right thing. God it’s all so bittersweet, you find yourself wanting to write an alternate ending. Jimmy Stewart and Vera Miles coming to visit Tom out at his old place, and there he is with some pretty Mexican lady with big tits and lots of kids…

2. Red River Cattle ranchers get a bad rap in Westerns but you watch this and you don’t blame them for looking down their noses on sodbusters and sheep farmers. It’s all about survival. Hanging onto the land and water so you can hang on to the herd so you can hang on to your life.

John Wayne and Montgomerey Clift star as Tom and Matt. For all intents and purposes father and son, their divergent devotion to duty turns them into mortal enemies. Walter Brennan, John Ireland, Noah Berry and Hank Worden round out Howard Hawkes’ finest film.

1. Shane The perfect Western. You have a family trying to eke out a living on a homestead on the edge of the prairie. Another evil cattle rancher can’t abide the encroaching settlers. A short, blonde stranger rides in. Something’s gotta give.

Van Heflin has a big heart but no clue to what’s going on with his wife and for a awhile you don’t know who’s a bigger threat to the family, the rancher or Shane. Then Jack Palance enters the mix. What a villain!

Director George Stevens gets everything right with this one. The old town at twilight, the shaggy dog, all the details are perfect. People get punched and stomped and actually bleed! People get shot with big-bore handguns and die. Not Sam Peckinpah dead, just dead.

I’ve seen this movie dozens of times and each time, I feel just like Joey looking under that saloon door.

So there you have em. I’ve showed you mine, show me yours. But first take this simple quiz to find out which Western movie bad ass you are.

Mission Express Slams Central Coast

renosepulveda — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:50:27 +0000

James (el Nino) DePrado and Todd Roper

Like some exotically named winter storm, Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express blew into Santa Cruz Thursday night. We had been tipped off early via the surf report so we loaded up the woody and hit The Crepe Place around 6:30 to get a good barstool. Met up with some fine fellow travelers and started to put on our wetsuits with the help of our lifeguard, Nick The Bartender.

We were placidly bobbing around out in the kelp, watching the otters frolic when all of a sudden, a Great White Truck eerily glided up to the curb. However, instead of franticly paddling back to shore we stayed put, hell we rejoiced. The otters rejoiced as well.

Otters, God bless em!

Kevin T. White and el Nino, musicians get all the chicks.

It was our old pals Moondoggie and Gidget and as usual they had me at the soundcheck.

Chuck Prophet and Stephanie Finch

My favorite Telecaster

Oh it was a fine evening at the beach. Being from Fresno and all I really can’t surf that well, but I know more than enough to recognize and appreciate genius on the waves. Moondoggie and Gidget and their crew make it look easy. At one point Moondoggie says “Hey gang! Lets do something wrong and stupid and lets all catch this next one together!” And so we did.

Balinese Dancer

!!!Video Update!!!