Freight and Salvage, 1827 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA (at Delaware Street)

The Freight and Salvage was the synthesis of the preceding folk music venues in Berkeley, such as the Cabale Creamery, the Blind Lemon and the Jabberwock. However, unlike its predecessors, the Freight and Salvage has remained opened continuously since its debut in 1968. Although it moved from its original location, and will move again shortly, it has remained a Berkeley institution almost since its inception. The Freight and Salvage has been an incubator for both traditional music and newer forms of music rooted in those forms. While the Freight has a proud tradition as a locus for the Appalachian music—bluegrass, old-timey and so forth—it has in fact been a primary venue for numerous kinds of traditional music in the Americas and Europe, and has found room for the occasional rock band as well.

As a Berkeley folk club, the Freight and Salvage was the successor—of sorts—to the Blind Lemon, The Steppenwolf, The Cabale Creamery and The Jabberwock. After the Jabberwock closed, there were still regular folk gigs at The New Orleans House. The New Orleans House, however, became more of a rock club, and as folk and traditional music got farther from the rock mainstream, the traditional Berkeley musicians needed another place of their own. The initial 87-seat venue on 1827 San Pablo was converted from a failed furniture store. The name was retained, as was the Yellow Page listing, to save money. Proprietor Nancy Owens added the words “Coffee House” to The Freight and Salvage sign, and the venue opened in July 1968.

Initially, Owens had planned a coffee house as a place to meet and talk, and had not anticipated music. Nonetheless, almost immediately, musicians asked to perform—and indeed, with acoustic instruments, how could they have been prevented?—and music rapidly became a regular part of the Freight and Salvage. Since there were plenty of venues for aspiring rockers, the Freight became the focus for musicians who played bluegrass, old-time and String Band music, English and Irish folksongs, and other traditional forms. Of course, being Berkeley, the musicians playing this music also had their own sophisticated and contemporary versions of this music. By 1969, the Freight was regularly booking famous performers of this kind of music, and it soon became a permanent stop on the folk circuit.

This page contains a list of known performances at the Freight and Salvage during 1968 and 1969, with brief descriptions of the performers. The descriptions are not exhaustive, and links are provided for more information. Ross Hannan heroically compiled this list from advertisements (mostly from the Berkeley Barb), with some healthy supplements provided by early Freight and Salvage calendars provided by Andrea Hirsig. Bare in mind that this is a representation of who was billed, rather than who actually showed up, sat in, hung out or otherwise was present.  Information about performers is the best that we have as of June 2008. Corrections, updates, insights and contradictions actively encouraged, to:

Corry Arnold

Chapel Hill, NC

corrarnold@aol.com

Art of the Freight and Salvage

The Freight and Salvage - An Annotated List of Performances

Folk music was still popular in Berkeley, and folk musicians sometimes got gigs at the New Orleans House (and later at Mandrake’s). However, those venues distinctly favored blues, and that hardly covered the entire spectrum of music. Freight and Salvage founder Nancy Owens initially wanted to open a coffee house that would act as a sort of “Salon” for music, art and philosophy. Various friends of Nancy Owens, as well as their friends, helped make the former furniture warehouse into a coffee house. However, even before it opened, many of the potential customers volunteered to play music, and so the coffee house became a folk music venue from the beginning.

A few things set the Freight apart. For one thing, rock, blues and soul music were well represented along San Pablo Avenue, but there was room for a venue that featured more intimate music. Although the Freight was conceived as a Salon, from the beginning there was no alcohol and no smoking in the Freight. Now, no drinks was fairly common in Folk coffee houses. Clinking glasses and noisy drunks don’t fit in well with quiet music. In any case, The Albatross, a popular English-style pub, was right across the street and served nicely for any and all who urgently needed a pint (its still there, and still does).

The fact that the Freight and Salvage did not allow smoking, however, was quite a radical step forward. No smoking in public places is taken for granted now, but in 1968 it was unheard of. Folk musicians from Bob Dylan on down happily chain smoked, as part of their image—it was a remarkable step to insist that all smokers had to step outside. As far as I have been able to determine, The Freight and Salvage was the first non-smoking music venue in the Bay Area. In any case, it set the Freight apart, and Nancy Owens believes that many people patronized the Freight in the early days because it was the only place that banned smoking.

1968

The precise date of the opening of The Freight and Salvage is currently clouded in mystery, but is presumed to be around Thursday, July 25, 1968 (even though other sources, including the Freight’s own website, suggest June). However, to understand the context in which the Freight musicians functioned, it is best to start a few weeks earlier, at the Berkeley Old-Time Fiddlers Convention.

6.8.68  Provo Park, Berkeley 35^th Annual Berkeley Old-Time Fiddlers Convention

The Finger of Scorn, The Golden Toad, Jose’s Appliances, Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show, Styx River Ferry, Stayton Family, Diesel Ducks, others, Fiddle Contest, Banjo Contest

Back when Berkeley was actually subversive, the idea was fairly inspired. In the liner notes to the Berkeley Farms lp on Folkways (see 2.17.69), Rita Weill explains the genesis of the event, which was:

Conceived in the back of a Volkswagen bus, on the way to a party in Marin County, by a group of people who wanted to retain the good music and interplay they’d witnessed at Southern fiddle-banjo contests, without the competition and corruption extant there.

In true deconstructionist Berkeley style, bribes and drunkenness were encouraged, and performers were judged on unfair criteria that were never explained. Since first prize was 3 pounds of rutabagas (second prize was 6 pounds of rutabagas), no one cared. Second prize was awarded to someone who wasn’t there, so the rutabagas were thrown into the crowd. A hilarious eyewitness description is provided by banjoist Winnie Winston, newly arrived from the East Coast, startled to see Berkeley hippies smoking joints while the policemen watched placidly.

Provo Park was actually named Constitution Park, but was called Provo Park by hippies, in support of the IRA. It was downtown on Grove and Allston, bounded by the police station, City Hall and the High School. All the fantastically named groups were from the East Bay or San Francisco, and they all played bluegrass or old-time music, long hair, pot smoke and all. The Berkeley folk musicians were very serious about music, but well in tune with everything else going on.

7.4-7.68 Berkeley Folk Music Festival UC Berkeley (Greek Theatre, Pauley Ballroom, Sproul Plaza)

Howlin' Wolf Band, Solomon Carlesbach, Floating Lotus Magic Opera, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Sam Hinton, David & Tina Meltzer, Jesse Fuller, Allan MacLeod, The Andrews Sisters, Paul Arnoldi, Charles Seeger, Alice Stuart Thomas, Vera Johnson, Ed Kahn, John Fahey, Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band, Mayne Smith, Song of Earth Chorale, Congress of Wonders, Dave Frederickson, Mitch Greenhill.  “Special Added Attraction” Joan Baez.

The flyer says “Special Events: 4^th July-Festival Music Fair, Opening Dance.  7^th July-Jubilee Concert, Closing Dance.

The Berkeley Folk Festival had been a big event on campus since it’s founding in 1958. It was still a big four-day event, but the final event (on Sunday July 7) was a rock dance in Lower Sproul Plaza with Fillmore regulars Quicksilver Messenger Service, Howlin' Wolf and It’s A Beautiful Day. Berkeleyites have fond memories of the 1968 Folk Festival, and many aspiring folk musicians were no doubt dancing to Quicksilver and Howlin' Wolf in Lower Sproul. Nonetheless, the Folk Festival was starting to turn into another day at the Fillmore. This didn’t diminish all the folk music performed at the Festival—and there was plenty—but traditional music was being elbowed aside by a wall of Marshall Amplifiers.

Folk Festival organizer John Chambless, a UC Berkeley graduate student, got a position at the University of Washington, and had an instrumental role in the Sky River Rock Festival in Sultan, WA, later that summer. The Berkeley Folk Festival continued until 1970, but it was reduced in stature amidst a torrent of major rock concerts, ironically enough cementing the niche that the Freight and Salvage would develop. 

7.24.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine, Larry Hanks

The precise opening date of the Freight and Salvage is shrouded in mystery. The Freight and Salvage itself suggests the date was June of 1968, and the 25^th reunion of the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band in 1993 represented June 25^th as the opening date of the venue. Ross Hannan has done extensive research in the Berkeley Barb and elsewhere, however, and all evidence points to July rather than 1968. We would be delighted to find evidence to the contrary, but Ross’s analysis of every Berkeley Barb from that period distinctly points to July.

The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, who periodically reform for the anniversary of the Freight, assert that they played the opening night of the venue. However, local singer John Shine clearly remembers that he was the second performer on the first night (he thinks Larry Hanks began the show), and he was sure he did not share the stage with the Skiffle Band.

Pending an advertisement or a newspaper reference, both of which are extremely unlikely for a tiny, self-financed venue not originally intended for performance, I am accepting both these stories as true. My assumption here is that Shine and Hanks played the first night the doors were open, and the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band played the “Grand Opening” (if you will) the next night, which was listed in The Berkeley Barb. The Barb was the local “underground” paper, and among many other functions served as the community entertainment calendar and trendsetter. A new hip venue would not open in Berkeley without notice from and in the Barb, because otherwise no one would have known about it.

John Shine, originally from Shrewsbury, NJ, was a young folkie when he came to UC Berkeley in Fall 1965. He played clubs like The Questing Beast and The Jabberwock in Spring 1966, but after 1967 he went native and left school to focus on music. With some help from Barry Olivier, Shine was by now primarily played Robert Johnson style Delta blues on the acoustic guitar. In the 1970s he would go on to play more electric music and had some success as a songwriter, before stepping away from music for career and family.

Larry Hanks was a former member of The Instant Action Jug Band, the house band at The Jabberwock (see 7.25.68 below) and played to hootenannies at the Jabberwock. A Berkeley resident, he had started performing folk music in the Bay Area in the 1950s. Apparently, Hanks recorded a folk album for Takoma Records, but when he heard the reverb on the final mix, he considered it inauthentic and withdrew his permission. Hanks played a wide variety of music, and was also an expert “trumpist” (Jew’s Harp).

A sample of a contemporary live performance by Hanks is posted on the San Diego Folk Festival site.

7.25-26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

The Freight and Salvage seems to have “officially” opened its doors on July 25, 1968 with the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band (CGSB). CGSB had formed out of a loose pool of musicians that played the Berkeley folk club The Jabberwock, including a number of members of the The Instant Action Jug Band. They played an amalgam of modern skiffle music, folk music and New Orleans style jazz, but with contemporary original songs. The group was lead by singer, guitarists Phil Marsh and “Dynamite” Annie Johnston, along with Hank Bradley (fiddle and various), Brian Voorheis (harmonica) and Richard Saunders (bass).

The CGSB were not the first band to form out of the soup of The Instant Action Jug Band: another Berkeley group called Country Joe and The Fish had done the same. Although the CGSB sounded little like Country Joe and The Fish, since CJF were headlining across the country, Vanguard records had signed the CGSB as well, perhaps hoping for another Lovin’ Spoonful style success.

Bandleader Phil Marsh had been born in Nebraska, and his grandfather was a country fiddler. He had come to UC Berkeley in 1961, and he had been playing folk music since the year before. The Skiffle Band had originally been a very informal group that played very acoustically, but by this time it was starting to get louder, and on the verge of adding drums and then electric bass (to compensate for the drums). In a place like The Freight, however, the group could play in the acoustic style that the band was originally conceived for.

7.27.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Taffypull”

There may have been performance calendars for the Freight and Salvage this early—the earliest we have is from November 1968—but if so, none have survived. In the Barb ads, something is listed for every night at the Freight and Salvage, even when there is no performer. This speaks to the idea that the original concept of the Freight was as a sort of modern saloon, with different arts being represented on different nights. In 60s terminology, the candy making exercise of a Taffypull (assuming, in turn, that it was not code for something else) would have been considered a “Happening.”

7.28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Glue-In”

Glue and paper provided (per the Barb ad). The “Glue-In” title suggests another Happening. There were plenty of coffee shops in Berkeley, and the Freight was trying to set itself apart.

7.29.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

“Rapping,” to hippies, in those bygone days meant something like “speaking openly and truthfully” (and maybe it still does). The Barb ad says “informal coffee, conversation and guitars.” At this time, the Freight was sticking to its original concept as a coffee house and “saloon”, so it was open when there were no scheduled performers. In a sense, informal coffee, conversation and guitars were common enough at such places, but the Freight felt obligated to define it as an event, and perhaps it was.

Designating nights without performers as “Rap” would continue until the Spring of 1969, when the Freight took to closing on Monday night.  It may reasonably be assumed that a “Rap” was something akin, although less formal than, a “Hoot”.

7.30.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Checkers Tourney

7.31.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poetry Reading

Like all college towns, Berkeley never suffers from a shortage of poets.

8.1.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

8.2.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Drama with Dementia performing Improv

Although I know little about the improvisational performance troupe Dementia, they appeared regularly at the New Orleans House (and later Mandrake’s), so they were part of the local hippie scene.

8.3.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

8.4.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

8.5.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Don Copeland

This performer is unknown to me.

8.6.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Glue-in” with driftwood. Open mike.

The open mike suggests that casual performances were encouraged.

8.7.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poetry Readings

8.8.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot with open mike

Hoot nights were a folk tradition, and there had been a Berkeley Hoot going back at least to the Cabale days. At a “Hoot” (short for Hootenanny, for you youngsters), usually held in a living room or a college dorm, everyone sang a song or two. The coffee house version of this allowed aspiring performers to get on stage and sing. This was both shared community experience and a chance for clubs to check out new performers. In the early 60s, most folkies got their first opportunities by excelling at a local Hoot. Hoot nights were typically a slow night like Sunday or Monday, but this night was a Thursday. This is a clear indicator that music performances had not fully consumed the Freight.

Hoot nights had been a staple at the Jabberwock from 1965 to 67, often hosted by local musicians like Larry Hanks or Phil Greenberg. Starting on 9.18.67, the hoots moved to Monday night at the New Orleans House (hosted by Hanks), but those did not last that long. The New Orleans House, while popular, was more of a rock club, and while folk music was not unwelcome it was more of a bar and a restaurant than a coffee house.

8.9.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike and Debby

Mike and Debby are sometimes listed as playing Irish music, but are otherwise unknown to me. In later calendars, “Debby” is spelled “Debbie”, and on occasion they are listed as the “Old Time Dynamic Duo” playing “Good Time Music.”

8.10.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Drama with Dementia performing Improv

8.12.6 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Crayon Encounter” with Bryson Collins

Seemingly another Happening, if an unlikely one.

8.13.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Schanck

This performer is unknown to me.

8.14.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Roger Lubin

The 1962 Folkways album Folk Music of Washington Square, capturing the mostly young revivalists who played in the New York parks, features tracks by Roger Lubin. I’m assuming this is the same performer, although I don’t know anything else about him.

8.15.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.16.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dementia

8.17.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

Dave Allen is unknown to me, though he seems to have been a regular Freight performer.

8.18.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Kazz (2:30), Mike & Debbie (9:30)

Kazz (whether a group or a person) is unknown to me.        

8.19.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

CGSB were not only regulars at the Freight, but its members often played there in other configurations.

8.20.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Checkers Tourney

8.21.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poetry Readings with Ray Ramsey

8.22.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.23.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dementia

8.24.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

8.25.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Magic and Music with The Busted Toe Mudthumpers

The Busted Toe Mudthumpers were an old-time string band from Ithaca, NY. They featured Walt Koken on banjo, George Dorian on fiddle and Bob Pine on guitar and others. The Mudthumpers made trips to California in 1968 and 1969. Dorian and Pine died in an auto accident, and by 1970 Koken formed a new string band in Berkeley with Mac Benford and Bob Potts, called The Fat City String Band. Later in the 1970s Koken formed The Highwoods String Band, who made three albums on Rounder Records. After a period as a fiddler and then a carpenter, Koken returned to banjo playing and recording in the 1990s. For further details, see his site here. Koken suggests on his site that tapes of the Busted Toe Mud Thumpers in Berkeley may eventually see the light of day.

For the unlikely story of the Busted Toe Mudthumpers, and their first California tour in 1968, with magician Ricky Jay in tow, see the biography of John Coster, the guitarist prior to Bob Pine. Jay, now a famous sleight-of-hand artist and professional magician, was a friend of the band and came along for the adventure. Jay’s unlikely presence fit in nicely with the early Freight’s program of various random happenings.

8.26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Neo Passe String Band

The performers are unknown to me.

8.27.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Scott

8.28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poetry and open mike

8.29.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.30.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike and Debby

8.31.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

The Barb ad says “country, folk banjo and guitar player.”

9.1.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Magic and Music with The Busted Toe Mudthumpers

9.3-4.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

9.5.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.6.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mitch Greenhill

Mitch Greenhill was the son of famed Massachusetts folk promoter Manny Greenhill—manager of Doc Watson and Joan Baez among many others—and an established folk musician. Mitch Greenhill’s most recent album would have been 1967’s Shepherd of the Highways (Prestige, Folkways). He was also the regular accompanist for singer Rosalie Sorrells (see 2.14.69). By 1969, the explosion of the rock music industry meant that many “successful” folk musicians were without recording contracts or opportunities. In late 1969, Greenhill began to perform regularly with Mayne Smith and they would release albums together in the 1970s (see various dates below).

9.7.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

9.8.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Busted Toe Mudthumpers (2:30pm), Dr Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band (evening)

Dr Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band played old-timey music (pre-bluegrass, essentially) and featured fiddler Sue Draheim, banjoist Mac Benford and guitarist Jim Bamford. Draheim lived at 6018 Colby Street, a large home where many musicians who performed at the Freight resided at one time or another. Dr. Humbead was their soundman, Earl Crabb. Shortly after the band began performing, another Colby Street resident, mandolinist Will Spires who would go on to perform with The Golden Toad, , joined the group. The tracks on Berkeley Farms (see Appendix 2) give a good idea of their sound, although they are augmented there by a number of friends (there is also a track credited to them on a 1994 Rounder anthology The Young Fogies, but I have been unable to track its provenance).

Despite their predilection for old-timey music, long hair was still a defining characteristic, and Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band played a number of rock gigs as well as more typical folk venues, including the legendary (and notorious) Sky River Rock Festival, the first outdoor rock festival, at Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm in Sultan, WA  (on 8.29.68).

9.9.68  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Folk and Blues Workshop with Lunn Ludwig

9.10.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poets Theater Happening with Fowler, Krech Paul X, Ken Spiker, Bob Georgio

Fowler, Krech and Paul X are unknown to me (its possible that this is poetic and its one person’s Nom du Poet).

Ken Spiker was a Flamenco and classical guitarist. Flamenco music had been an important component of the 50s and 60s folk revival.  However, since it turned out not to be the basis for rock bands, Flamenco has drifted out of the mainstream, but at this time it was still a significant part of the folk scene.

Bob Georgio is unknown to me.

9.11-12.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

9.13.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

9.14.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

9.15.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike and Debby

9.16.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Folk and Blues Workshop of Palo Alto

There is an implicit suggestion that this is connected to the previous two Sunday nights (Folk and Blues Workshop with Lunn Ludwig).

9.17.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Poetry Readings

9.18.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

9.19.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.20.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dementia

9.21.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Quarter Dozen String Band

The performers are unknown to me.

9.22.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mitch Greenhill

9.23.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Folk and Blues Workshop of Palo Alto

9.24-25.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

9.26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.27.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike and Debby

9.28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Barry Olivier

By 1968, Barry Olivier had been a key figure of the Berkeley folk scene for a decade. He had owned a music store on Telegraph Avenue, organized the Berkeley Folk Festival, ran Singer’s Circle events at various venues and gave guitar lessons to numerous aspiring musicians (including John Fogerty). He still performs and teaches guitar in Berkeley.

9.29.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

9.30.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Folk and Blues Workshop of Palo Alto

10.1-2.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

10.3.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.4.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

10.5.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

10.6.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Dave Allen

10.7-8-9.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

10.10.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.11.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

10.12.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike and Debby

10.13.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

10.14-15-16.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  “Rap”

10.17.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot with Larry Hanks

10.18.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ken Carter

Ken Carter is unknown to me.

10.19.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mitch Greenhill

10.20.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

Styx River Ferry was a Berkeley bluegrass band. They seem to have been widely regarded, as a Google search turns up a number of mentions. Some random photographs on a memorial site to Tom Hobson (a very interesting site, but tangential to this document), has some pictures of some band members. Band members included Marty Lanham and Bob Fowler, and Bob’s wife Ingrid. Ingrid Herman Fowler, a fiddler, was apparently Woody Herman’s daughter. Banjoist Lanham is now a guitar maker in Nashville.

10.21-22-23.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

10.24.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.25.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band "Scorpio Fest and Rumors of The Coming of Scorpio Man"

10.26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Quarter Dozen String Band

10.27.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

10.28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Pumpkin Carving Happening”

The Bay Area always loved Halloween (and still does).

10.29-30.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

10.31.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

The Freight and Salvage Monthly Calendar

Like most local venues, the Freight and Salvage had a monthly entertainment calendar that they sent to a mailing list, and sometimes posted on telephone poles around time. According to Freight historian Andrea Hirsig, near the end of the month, a group of Freight regulars would get together and have an envelope stuffing party to get the mailings ready. Other than small ads in the Berkeley Barb and the occasional handbill, the Monthly Calendar was the only form of publicity for Freight shows.

While the calendars listed the entertainment for each date, each square was also a miniature artwork as well. There were four main artists, Nancy Owens, Rita Weill, Holly Tannen and Deborah Cotter. The different squares were a compendium of styles common on the rock posters of the time, with ornate lettering, cut-out reproductions from various sources and other techniques. The 30 squares, however, made the Calendar a kind of collage of artworks, and each Calendar is like a miniature gallery, often printed on coloured paper.

Its not clear when the first Calendar was published, but the earliest that Andrea Hirsig has been able to find was from November 1968 (note-the cropped left margin comes from the original surviving copy). Long time Bay Area residents will note that while the Freight’s phone number is the same—548-1761—there is no area code, because all Bay Area phones from Santa Cruz to Marin and Contra Costa to San Francisco were in the 415 Area Code.

11.1.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country, Larry Hanks

High Country was a bluegrass band featuring mandolinist Butch Waller. Butch was from Berkeley, and as a junior high schooler he had a duo with Herb Pedersen. Later Herb and Butch formed the Pine Valley Boys, who made a go at bluegrass stardom in 1963-64. David Nelson, then at Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, joined The Pine Valley Boys in 1964. After various adventures, Herb Pedersen went on to Vern and Ray, The Dillards, Linda Ronstadt and The Desert Rose Band, and Nelson went on to the New Delhi River Band and the New Riders of The Purple Sage. Butch Waller founded High Country, one of the seminal bluegrass bands in the Bay Area.

A tag on the November calendar identifying High Country as “Two-Man Bluegrass” suggests that Butch Waller may have started the group as a duo. However, I do not know his co-conspirator was, but the most likely party would be Rich Wilber. In any case, they appear to have rapidly added members, although I’m not precisely sure whom. David Nelson, subsequently of the New Riders of The Purple Sage, may have been an early member (there is widely circulated, wildly misattributed tape from 2.19.69 of Waller and Wilber playing bluegrass with Nelson on guitar and Jerry Garcia on banjo).

By 1972, the time of High Country’s self-titled debut album (on Raccoon, the Youngbloods label), the line-up was Butch Waller (mandolin), Ed Neff (fiddle), Bruce Nemerov (banjo), Rich Wilber (guitar) and Lonny Feiner (bass), but I have not been able to determine the early personnel of the band. Despite ups and downs, the group remains together today, more or less, and regularly plays New Year’s Eve and other dates at the Freight and Salvage.

11.2.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Roger Perkins and Larry Hanks, Ken Carter

At least for the year of 1964, Hanks and Roger Perkins were a duo. It’s not clear whether the duo was ongoing, or this was simply a reunion of sorts. According to one North Beach commentator, Hanks and Perkins used to back up Janis Joplin in the early 60s when she sang at coffeehouses like The Fox And Hound (later The Coffee And Confusion).

11.3.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry           

11.4.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

Note that the Calendar says “We never plan anything on Monday or Wednesday but some drunk or weirdo usually comes in and entertains the troops. Won’t you join us?” The Barb ad just says “Rap.”

11.5.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

Given the benefit (below), I wonder if the Hoot was even held?

11.5.68 Helmet Club, Berkeley Benefit for Allen MacLeod

Mark Spoelstra, Clarence Van Hook, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Paul Arnoldi, Dr Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show, Larry Hanks, Sandy and Jeannie Darlington, John and Diedre Lundberg, Campbell Coe, High Country, Johnny Sunshine, Pipe Joint Compound, Erik Frandsen, John Shine, Richmond Talbott, New York Slew, KC Douglas, Mike and Debbie, Gil Turner, Dave Allen

The Helmet Club was at the foot of Addison Street, near Berkeley Aquatic Park. While its history isn’t known to me, it was a hall that could be rented for various occasions.

The benefit (burnefit) was for Scottish folksinger Allan Macleod whose house had recently burned down. Allan Macleod is from Scotland, and was also a veteran of the British Isles folk scene. At some point (apparently in the 1970s), he relocated to the Bay Area. He formed a partnership with expatriate British folk singer Dick Holdstock, and continues to perform and record today.

11.6.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.7.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Paul Arnoldi

Paul Arnoldi, originally from the Wyoming prairies, initially came to the fore as a Cambridge folksinger and one time member of the The Charles River Valley Boys.  Paul moved to Berkeley in fall 1962 (to get a graduate degree in architecture), and oscillated between Cambridge and Berkeley for the next several years, before stints in New York and Los Angeles.  Paul was a regular on the Bay Area music scene in the mid 1960s, appearing at many of the Berkeley venues and across the Bay in San Francisco at venues as diverse as the Straight Theater and the Cedar Alley Coffee House performing his "prairie-influenced-east coast-urban-folk style of traditional and original material".  Paul Arnoldi is still a working musician, and for a brief biography see here.

11.8-9.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

In late 1968 Vanguard Records released the group’s debut album, The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band’s Greatest Hits (Vanguard VSD 79285).  Calling a group’s first album “Greatest Hits” is a trite joke today, but I believe this was the first instance of a band doing this.  The release date of the album is uncertain, but a comparison of Vanguard record numbers suggests it is very late in the year. The album featured a song from the repertoire of New England’s Double Standard String Band, called “Chinese New Year Waltz.” Hank Bradley had learned the song from the song’s co-writer Les Daniels, who had written that song (and many others) with fellow band member and Rhode Island School of Design student Martin Mull.  Mull was still some years away from his career as a solo musical performer, much less an actor.

Country Joe & The Fish and ex Blackburn & Snow drummer Chicken Hirsh, a friend of the band, played drums on a few tracks.  Since he is better known than any actual member of the group, almost all future references to the group (mostly based on a single entry in an English reference work called Fuzz, Acid and Flowers) refer to Hirsh as the band’s drummer.  In fact, the band in mid-1968 did not appear to have a regular trap drummer, and in any case Hirsh was with The Fish up until early 1969 when he took over an art supplies store in Oakland.  Later in 1968, Tom “Pookie” Ralston had joined the group as drummer. As the group played larger venues, and more rock-styled clubs, the need for a firmer rhythmic foundation required a drummer. Ralston had been in Berkeley band Sky Blue (see 2.21.69).

11.10.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band

11.11.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.12.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

11.13.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.14.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Ricker’s Contra Costa Country Contrapuntal Banjo       Band

Dave Ricker had moved to Berkeley at age 11 (in 1948) and had been playing music ever since. He was mainly a banjo player, but he also played fiddle. While his primary interest was old-timey music, which he discovered through popular folk music, he also played Irish music. Ricker had regularly performed on KPFA-fm in the late 50s and early 60s, particularly on the show “Midnight Special” (hosted by Gert Charito). I assume that Dave Ricker’s Banjo Band was an old-timey group, but I do not know that for sure.

11.15-16.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jesse Fuller, John Shine

Jesse Fuller, a solo blues artist known as “The Lone Cat,” was based in Oakland.  Among his better-known songs are “San Francisco Bay Blues” (widely covered) and “Beat It On Down The Line” (performed by The Grateful Dead). Besides playing guitar, Fuller played a self-built instrument he called a “Fotdella” to provide rhythm and bass accompaniment.           

11.17.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

11.18.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.19.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

The Barb ad has the Hoot on Monday night (11.18.68), but I am presuming here (for no specific reason) that the Tuesday night schedule was maintained.

11.20.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.21.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Clarence Van Hook

Clarence van Hook, a guitar player, was often billed with Oakland bluesman K.C. Douglas (who wrote and recorded the song “Mercury Boogie” in 1949, better known as “Mercury Blues”—see 12.24.69), and Van Hook continued to perform well into the 1990s.

11.22.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Paul Arnoldi, Roger Perkins

11.23.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike & Debby, Dave Allen

11.24.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Erik Frandsen, Gil Turner

While an accomplished folk musician, Erik Frandsen is better known today as a playwright and actor. Nonetheless, he was an active guitarist and folk performer in the 1960s. He made a tape with guitar legend Steve Mann that was passed from hand to hand amongst guitarists until it was finally released many decades later. At various times, Frandsen used the pseudonyms “Fresno Slim” and “Blind Erik Flatpick.” He has continued to perform, and in fact released an album in 2004, Antiques New & Used.

Gil Turner was a New York folkie and member of the New World Singers with Bob Cohen, Delores Dixon and Happy Traum. Notably, the New World Singers were the very first to perform and record Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” Gerde's Folk City in 1962. According to the Smithsonian Folkways site, the story goes that Dylan approached Turner backstage with the words to Blowin' in the Wind and asked if he could sing it for him. Turner was so impressed that he asked Dylan if he could take the song upstairs to the stage and perform it with the group, which he did.

11.25.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

11.27.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

11.28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alan MacCloud

Keep in mind that this would have been Thanksgiving. Berkeley was a place where many people went to re-invent themselves, and many of the Freight regulars may have preferred to spend Thanksgiving hearing folk music, whether because their families were far away or because that is why they moved away in the first place.

11.29.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Frederickson, Richmond (Steve) Talbott

This show was billed as “Old Berkeley Nite” on the calendar, a more-or-less monthly occurrence. The “nite” usually featured veterans of the Berkeley folk scene, but whether there was any other significance isn’t entirely clear.

Dave Fredrickson (b. 1927) moved to Berkeley in 1944 and as such was a veteran of the Berkeley folk scene. He recorded an album of Western and Cowboy music on Folkways Records in 1961 (Songs Of The West). He is still recording and performing, and just recently (2006) released a new cd, engineered by Earl Crabb (Dr. Humbead himself).

Richmond Talbott was a slide guitarist and blues singer, and an old friend of Jorma Kaukonen. Talbott (then known as Steve Talbot), Jorma, Steve Mann, Tom Hobson, Perry Lederman and a few others were the acoustic blues guitarists on the scene in the early 60s who were the hottest and most sophisticated pickers, although only Kaukonen went on to success. As a private joke, they all made up “fake blues names,” and Talbott chose as his name “Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane.” A few years later, this play on the name of Blind Lemon Jefferson was later borrowed by Jorma’s new band.

By 1970, when the Airplane was so big that RCA gave them their own label, Grunt. Talbott made an album for them. However, although the album was completed and given a title and record number (Getting Plenty, Grunt FTR-1010), and scheduled for release in 1972, it was never issued.

11.30.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sunshine Johnny Pipe Joint Compound, Blind Erik Flatpick

Brian Voorheis recalls the six piece Sunshine Johnny Pipe Joint Compound as a local Berkeley jug band. The compound was a real product, available in plumbing supply stores, and Berkeley hippies found the name funny. Gray Newell identified the members as Merrie Smith and Pam Bowen on vocals, Kathe Lower on tambourine and backing vocals, Malcolm Rockwell on guitar, banjo and by his own words electroluxophone, Alan Diamondstein lending a hand on vocals, washtub bass, jug and guitar. John "Jacquot" Walsh played washtub bass with Karl Klein on washboard and James "Frenchman" Kohn guitar.

Blind Erik Flatpick was a performing name for Erik Frandsen (see 11.24.68).

12.1.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

12.2.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.3.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.4.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.5.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike & Debby

12.6.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: New York Slew, Miriam Stafford, Wanda Ultan, Annie Johnston, Anna Rizzo

“Ladies Nite”

This show represents the beginning of a regular monthly feature of all-women performers. Modern readers may see nothing significant about this, but in fact this was all but unheard of in folk circles. Just as The Freight and Salvage was way ahead in having a non-smoking venue, appealing to women in general across a variety of musical styles was another way in which The Freight epitomized Berkeley’s exceptional character.

Annie Johnston (known locally as Dynamite Annie Johnston) was the lead singer for The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.

Anna Rizzo was the lead singer for a local band called Sky Blue (see 2.21.69), and by this time she was also the drummer. She would go on to play drums for Country Joe McDonald in the early 1970s, and sing with Matt Kelly’s Kingfish in the 1980s, along with many other musical endeavours.

Miriam Stafford, originally from New York, came to Berkeley in 1957 via Ypsilanti, MI, Greenwich Village and Europe. She became part of the Berkeley folk scene, singing old-time Pentecostal music and old-time music at The Cabale Creamery, The Jabberwock and on KPFA. This performance was likely an evening of solos, duets and group performances.

New York Slew are unknown to me, although the billing suggests they were women.

Wanda Ultan is unknown to me.

12.7.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country, George Ball

George Ball is unknown to me.

12.8.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and         Medicine Show

12.9.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.10.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.11.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.12.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

12.13.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Roger Perkins, Larry Hanks

12.14.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Diesel Duck Revue, Jody Stecher

Brooklyn-born Jody Stecher was not only accomplished on guitar and other typical folk instruments, but also studied Indian music with Ali Akbar Khan and others. He has collaborated and recorded with many artists and musicians. He currently records and performs with his wife Kate Brislin.

Diesel Duck Revue featured guitarist Eric Thompson and fiddler Sue Rosenberg along with Hank Bradley, Rick Shubb, Sue Rosenberg, Sue Draheim and Mac Benford. Although not particularly old (only 23 at this time), Thompson was already an experienced bluegrass picker. He had been in a Palo Alto bluegrass band with Jerry Garcia and David Nelson (the Black Mountain Boys), headed East where he had been in a band with a young David Grisman (the New York Ramblers), returned to the West and had been in the seminal pre-Grateful Dead group Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Band Champions. In the latter part of the 60s, he was in a number of local String Bands, as well as recording in Nashville backing up The Charles River Valley Boys (a Cambridge, MA band that included bluegrass versions of Beatles songs in their repertoire).

Eric Thompson has continued his career as an exceptional bluegrass and old-time guitarist, making music with his wife as well as a variety of other aggregations, including many collaborations with Jody Stecher.

12.15.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Roger Perkins, Dave Allen

12.16.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.17.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.18.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

12.19.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

12.20-21.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Gil Turner, New York Slew (20^th), Erik Frandsen (21^st)

12.22.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

The calendar has Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band, but the Barb has High Country, so I am assuming High Country actually played, based on the later publication date.

12.23.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Making Christmas Cards”

12.24.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

Although the Freight was closed on Christmas, it was still open on Christmas Eve. Once again, many people who moved to Berkeley may have had no preferable options.

12.26.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jim Lynch

Jim Lynch is unknown to me, but he appears to be a regular performer at the Freight, apparently in a Country and Western style.

12.27-28.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

12.29.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Chamber Music

Once again, the Freight presented a wide variety of music and performers, much broader than other venues.

12.30-31.68-1.1-2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart Thomas

Alice Stuart was a trailblazing blues guitarist and singer. She came from Chelan, Washington (in the centre of the state) and moved to Seattle in 1962. Alice Stuart was initially a coffeehouse and folk club singer, beginning at Seattle’s Pamir House (or P House) before moving down the coast to Los Angeles in 1963. She was invited, by Barry Olivier, to appear at the 1964 Berkeley Folk Festival and made quite an impression on those attending.  She moved to the Bay Area in 1964 and that year she released her debut album "All The Good Times” on Chris Strachwitz’s Arhoolie label.   After some touring on the folk circuit, she was briefly in the Mothers of Invention in early 1966.  In 1966 she took time out of her music career for her family, returning to the stage in 1968. She briefly performed as Alice Stuart Thomas, but soon reverted to her better known name. Later in the 60s Alice formed her first all electric band, Snake with Bob Jones from the We Five. Stuart has continued to have a successful performing and recording career to the current day.

12.31.68 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: New Year’s Eve Bash

Alice Stuart was scheduled, and no doubt performed, but Butch Waller has said elsewhere that High Country played the first Freight and Salvage New Year’s Eve, and no doubt they did also. It seems likely that many of the performers were present in the audience this night, and performing aggregations may have been fluid.

1969

1.1-2.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart Thomas

1.3-4.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Michael Cooney,

Erik Frandsen (3^rd), Mike and Debby (4^th)

Michael Cooney had been a folk singer and traditional banjo player from the early 60s onward. Up until about 1964, he was based in the South Bay Area. He then moved to the East Coast, so he would have been touring at this time, even though he no doubt had many connections in the area. He continues to be an active performer to this day.         

Cooney’s peculiar place in Bay Area music history comes from the 1963 Monterey Folk Festival, where Cooney and his traditional “frailing” banjo style took 1^st place in the banjo contest over the “modern” 3-finger (Earl Scruggs via Bill Keith) playing of the hottest banjo picker in the Bay Area, the ultra-competitive Jerry Garcia. Garcia biographer Blair Jackson interviewed judge Rodney Dillard about this over 30 years, and Dillard’s exasperation over having to continue to defend his decision is plain. “’I wish I could say Jerry won’ says Rodney Dillard, ‘but he didn’t.’”

1.5.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

1.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.7.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

1.8.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.9.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Erik Frandsen

1.10-11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mark Spoelstra, Mitch Greenhill

Mark Spoelstra was a Californian a 12-string guitarist and folk musician who moved to Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. He put out a number of fine albums on Elektra, but his career was hampered by his Conscientious Objector status, requiring him to perform alternative service from 1963-65. Spoelstra was a fine bluesy guitarist as well as singer, but he was more interested in having a family than the itinerant life of a professional musician.

In the mid 60s Mark formed Jade Muse for a short time - they reportedly rehearsed a lot but only played a handful of shows, notably at the Jabberwock.  Jade Muse comprised Mark Spoelstra on guitar, virtuoso Willie Waite on soprano sax, bass player Mel, Ellen on harpsichord and filmmaker Michael Wiese on drums.  Although he moved to Stockton, CA in the late 1960s he did not totally drop out of music.

Spoelstra released a self-titled album on Columbia in 1969, and formed a country rock band with Greenhill and Mayne Smith called Frontier Constabulary (later sometimes shortened to just Frontier) continued to play folk festivals at least into the early 1970s. Mark Spoelstra continued to record and perform as time permitted until he passed away in February 2007.

1.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

1.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

1.15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

1.17-18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jesse Fuller, Clarence Van Hook

1.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Chamber Music

1.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

1.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dynamite Annie Johnston, Anna Rizzo, Miriam Stafford “Ladies Night”

1.24-25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Charley Marshall, High Country

Charley Marshall is billed as “The original singing Cowboy.” This may be close to the truth. Author Gerald Haslam, in his exceptional book Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music In California (1999: Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA), reports that country music in California began live broadcasts in San Francisco in 1926 (KFRC) and Los Angeles in 1927 (KFWD), and by 1929 KFI in Los Angeles also featured popular “Hillbilly” broadcasts on Saturday nights (just as the Grand Ole Opry did on Nashville’s WSM, beginning in 1925). Haslam explains that

Bands such as “Sheriff” Loyal Underwood’s Arizona Wranglers and Charlie Marshall and his Mavericks, both of whom favored western-influenced dance music, had also become popular in Southern California, where the population was growing rapidly. Because station wattage was then unregulated, thus often powerful, much of the state could listen to variations of country music   (p.31)

Although Marshall’s subsequent career (if any) is unknown to me, pre-WW2 Western music represents a significant part of the West Coast’s musical tradition, often subsumed under academic preferences for music from the British Isles or the rural South. At this time, Marshall would have had to be in his 60s, if not older. It would be interesting to know if High Country backed him.

1.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  John Shine

1.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

1.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: “Rap”

1.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

1.31, 2.1.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Alice Stuart and John Shine

Stuart and Shine, both blues guitarists and singers, often played together, apparently in both acoustic and electric settings.

2.2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Larry Hanks

2.3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Tim Ryan

Tim Ryan is unknown to me.

2.4.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

2.5.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joe Friedman and Barry Aiken

The calendar says “Classical Blues.”  Both Joe Friedman and Barry Aiken are unknown to me.

2.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Miriam Stafford, Dave Frederickson, Steve Talbott, Hank Bradley, Wanda Ultan, Carl Dukatz, Toni Brown  “Old Berkeley Nite”

Toni Brown had come from the Boston area and gone to Bennington College, where she majored in literature, so she had come to Berkeley to be near North Beach. She had played piano since she was little, and also played guitar. For years she had played in a string band called The Crabgrassers. By this time, she had become friendly with Terry Garthwaite, and they would go on to form Joy of Cooking (see 8.29.69)

Berkeley born slide guitarist Carl Dukatz had been on the music scene since the late 50s playing regularly at the Blind Lemon.  He would go on to feature on the Joy of Cooking’s debut album.  

2.7-8.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Johnny Sunshine Pipe Joint Compound

2.9.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

2.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Wayne Erbson

Wayne Erbsen was a Californian interested in traditional Appalachian music, particularly the banjo. In 1973 he moved to Charlotte, NC to learn more about the music, only to find out that Charlotte was not interested in preserving it. He ended up as a banjo instructor at Central Piedmont Community College, and to aid his students he wrote a book, How To Play The 5-String Banjo For The Complete Ignoramus! The book, initially self-published, became a huge success. Erbsen went on to write a number of other successful instructional books for traditional music. He now runs Native Ground Music, a company dedicated to preserving and learning about American folklore, music and traditions.

2.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

2.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Joe Friedman and Barry Aiken

2.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Anna Rizzo, Julie Meredith, Holly Tannen, Annie Johnston “Ladies Nite”

Tannen, a New Yorker who came as an undergraduate to UC Berkeley, had learned to play dulcimer both as accompanying instrument and with string band groups. Although dulcimer is hardly a typical String Band instrument, old-time music is all about adaptation, and she regularly sat in with groups like Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band.

Julie Meredith is unknown to me.

2.14-15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rosalie Sorrells, Dallas Williams

Rosalie Sorrells was born in Idaho and moved to Salt Lake City after she was married. She was part of the Utah folk scene in the late 1950s and early 60s. Around 1966 she began a career as a performer and later an author. She has an extensive discography, and though largely retired, still performs occasionally. She was often accompanied on stage by Mitch Greehnill. At this time, her most recent album would have been 1967’s If I Could Be The Rain on Folk-Legacy Records.

Dallas Williams would later collaborate with Terry Dolan on Sopwith Camel’s former member William Truckaway (William Sievers) solo album “Break Away”.

2.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

2.17-18-19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Seeger

The calendar refers to Mike Seeger as “the most outstanding single performer of traditional American music,” and by any rational accounting, that is indeed the case, as he was the founding member of The New Lost City Ramblers, and a significant solo performer as well. As a sign of his relative status, Seeger is scheduled for three shows each night (9:00, 10:15 and 11:30), for a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Although almost all performers played multiple sets, this show is the only “multiple show” booking that I have found during this period.

The New Lost City Ramblers were formed in Greenwich Village in 1958. At the time, string band and “old-timey” music was inaccessible to all but the most determined of record collectors. By performing and recording this music, the New Lost City Ramblers were the essential actors in introducing early American music to serious folk musicians, from Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia to everyone else. The original trio was John Cohen, Mike Seeger (half-brother of Pete) and Tom Paley. Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley in the early 1960s. By 1969, the Ramblers had released over 15 albums. They stopped performing regularly after 1969, but played occasional reunions.

At some point around this time, Mike Seeger spent time at 6018 Colby Street, where many of the Freight performers (such as Sue Draheim and Phil Marsh) lived. Seeger, who had thought that rock was displacing traditional folk music for good, was startled and pleased to find longhaired hippies (many of them in rock bands) playing traditional folk music for fun, and performing the music at the Freight and Salvage. Seeger persuaded Folkways Records to let him do “field recordings”, as if the Berkeley musicians were in a remote holler in the Great Smoky Mountains (it was smoky, anyway). Ultimately, an album called Berkeley Farms was released in 1972 (the title was also a play on the local milk producer of the same name), featuring many of the performers in this chronology (see Appendix 2 for details).

2.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

The calendar has Styx River Ferry, but the Barb ad has High Country, and I am assuming that to be more accurate.

2.21-22.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

Sky Blue was a Berkeley rock band featuring guitarist Vic Smith, singer Anna Rizzo, bassist Jack O’Hara and drummer Tom Ralston. They all lived in a house on Warring Street. Smith had led the group Second Coming, who had played New Orleans House with great regularity in 1967. Drummer Ralston (from Ann Arbor, MI) had since joined the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, so the talented Ms Rizzo simply took over the drum chores herself.

2.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

2.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Beryl Schwartz

Beryl Schwartz is unknown to me.

2.25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

2.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joe Friedman and Barry Aiken (classical blues)

The calendar just says “Barry and Joe”—I wonder if anyone went expecting acoustic Country Joe and The Fish (who were rehearsing a new rhythm section for a European tour at this time)?

2.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley’s Nekkid Hippie Review

Hank Bradley had been the fiddler for The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, but around this time he left the group. His day job as an engineer made it hard for him to accommodate a full-time rock gig. Bradley was a versatile musician who played many styles of music. For his current whereabouts see here. The exact nature of his “Nekkid Hippie Review” remains uncertain at this time.

2.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Louis Killen, Allan Macleod (Irish, Scottish and English Folk)

Louis Killen, from the Tyneside area in the northeast of England, was a leading performer of traditional folk music from the British Isles. He had already released numerous albums by this time, having been recording since the early 1960s. In the 1970s he moved to the United States, where he continued to record and perform. His discography is extensive, and he has sung and performed with a huge variety of major folk singers.

3.1.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Golden Toad

3.2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

3.3.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: closed

At this juncture, the Freight gives up any semblance of being a coffee house when they are not a performance venue. They are closed most Monday nights hereafter, except when there is a performer (which is relatively rare). It seems that the staff needed the night off as much as anything. From this point forward in the chronology, any missing date can presumed to be a night that the Freight was closed.

3.4.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

Untypically, the Freight is closed both Wednesday (3.5) and Thursday (3.6).

3.7.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Malvina Reynolds

Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978) was a topical songwriter and mainstay of the Berkeley music scene, most famous for writing “Little Boxes”, a rare pop hit for Pete Seeger in 1964 (ostensibly about tract homes in Daly City off Highway 101).

3.8.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Busted Toe Mudthumpers

3.9.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

3.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Cooney

3.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.12-13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Cooney

3.14-15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

3.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Baroque Music (flute, guitar, violin)

3.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Tom Maddox

Tom Maddox is unknown to me.

3.18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: George Ball

3.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rita Weill, Genny Haley, Anna Rizzo, Sunny Goodier - “Ladies Nite”

Genny Haley was a multi-instrumentalist who remains on the circuit today.  Sunny Goodier is unknown to me.

3.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

By early 1969, Hank Bradley had left the CGSB and Gary Salzman had taken over primary bass duties from Richard Saunders. Both Bradley and Saunders continued successful music careers, Bradley is widely regarded as a fiddler in many styles, and Saunders remains a well-regarded bassist in jazz and klezmer circles today.

3.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Charlie Poole’s Birthday (String Band Music)

Charlie Poole (born 3.22.1892) was the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, a string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 and 1930.  Poole was the forerunner of such seminal figures as Hank Williams and Bill Monroe. At the time, Charlie Poole would have been a very obscure reference, and there was no Wikipedia to reveal his significance.

3.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: New York Slew

3.24.69   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rick Bockner

Rick Bockner had been a founding member of the group Mad River, who had moved from Yellow Springs Ohio to the Bay Area in early 1967. Mad River released two albums that were far ahead of their time, the first full of feedback-laden constructions, and the second focusing on mellow country rock. The band was grinding to a halt at this point, and the last Mad River gig was a few weeks later. Rick Bockner is still a professional musician.

3.25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

3.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  All Go Hungry Hash House String Band

There is an Uncle Dave Macon song called “The All Go Hungry Hash House” (c. 1925). Dave Ricker (see 11.14.68) formed the All Go Hungry Hash House String Band with Phyllis Ricker, Jack Link and Holly Tannen in late 1968. They regularly performed in Sproul Plaza and at Berkeley’s Co-Op Markets (a venerable institution remembered fondly by old Berkeleyites).

3.28-29.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart, John Shine

3.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jim Lynch

3.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Karl Richey

Karl Richey released an obscure, self-titled album on Studio 10 Records in 1969. Champion archivist Patrick Lundborg observes that “This album is on the same label as Day Blindness, but is quite a bit different. Richey is a stoned folk troubadour type, with a bit of a Dylan fixation, but with more of a youthful late 60s counterculture edge.”

4.1.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.2.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ken Spiker       

4.3.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Busted Toe Mudthumpers

The Busted Toe Mudthumpers returned to California for a second tour, this time without magician Ricky Jay.

4.4-5.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bluegrass Circus with Sandy Rothman, Mayne Smith and Friends

Earlier in the 60s, Sandy Rothman had been in various bluegrass groups with Jerry Garcia and David Nelson. Rothman had mostly played guitar in those groups, but like many bluegrass musicians he was proficient on a variety of instruments. Rothman went on to become a successful bluegrass musician, with all the financial rewards associated with that profession. In the late 1980s, Rothman, Nelson and Garcia had a reunion of sorts in the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band.

Mayne Smith was a Berkeley banjo player who founded the Redwood Canyon Ramblers in the late 1950s, the first indigenous bluegrass band in the Bay Area. Smith and fellow members Neil Rosenberg and Scott Hambly were all Berkeley High graduates. Mayne Smith had been one of the key figures on the Berkeley from the mid-1950s onward. By 1965, however (having earned an M.A. in Folklore) he had moved to Los Angeles. However, while earning a living editing social science textbooks, he became interested in writing songs and began moving away from bluegrass towards Country and Western music (see 6.6.69). Sometime in 1969, he quit his job in academic publishing and focused on making a full-time career in music.

4.6.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

4.7.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry is unknown to me.

4.8.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.9.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

4.10.69 Freight and Salvage Christopher Tree

Christopher Tree was (and is) a unique performer known for improvising music with a stage full of exotic gongs, including Tibetan temple gongs, and various wind and percussion instruments as well. These performances were called “Spontaneous Sound.” There was a self-released album of the same name, but without any mention of Christopher Tree, that was a collector’s item for many years. Local filmmaker Les Blank made a short film about Tree in 1967. Tree is widely regarded as a unique performer, although relatively few have heard his music.

Sometime in the 1970s, Tree moved to Europe and performed there. He has recently released a new Spontaneous Sound album.

4.11-12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jesse Fuller

4.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jose’s Appliances, George Ball

Jose’s Appliances, despite the name, were a traditional music ensemble, based in Oakland. The group had played at the 35^th (1^st) Berkeley’s Fiddler’s Convention (see 6.8.68), and the entry list for the band contests shows the “headquarters” of the group to be at Sunnyslope and Grand Avenue (near the Oakland Rose Garden). I have not yet discovered who was in the group. There is an apocryphal story that someone found a bunch of bowling shirts with the team name “Jose’s Appliances” sewed on, and the group wore those shirts when they played.

4.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Wayne Erbsen

4.15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley, Tom Maddox

4.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley

Hank Bradley played at the San Diego Folk Festival the next weekend, and a tape survives. A song is posted on the San Diego Folk Festival website, as is one from Bradley’s performance from 1968.

4.18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Steve Talbott, Dave Frederickson “Old Berkeley Nite”

4.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  High Country

4.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Chamber Music

4.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Benefit for Alice Stuart

Alice Stuart needed a Benefit after she had been robbed; and thankfully the Freight community was always ready to help out its own.

4.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jim Lynch

4.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: George Ball

4.25-26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

4.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

4.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dynamite Annie Johnston

4.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

5.1-2-3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bessie Jones and The Georgia Sea Islanders

Bessie Jones (1902-1984) learned songs from her grandfather, a former slave. She was discovered and recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1959, who recorded the songs and performances of the Coastal Georgia Gullah culture.

The April Calendar shows “Como Fife and Drum” as the opening act, but the May Calendar does not.

5.4.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

5.5.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jon Wilcox (possibly cancelled)

The calendar has Jon Wilcox, but the Barb ad lists the Freight as closed. Wilcox probably cancelled, and since the date was a Monday, the Freight probably simply remained closed. There is a reasonable possibility that Jon Wilcox was the Santa Barbara native who put out numerous folk albums on Folk Legacy and Sierra Briar, and is today a member of both Marley’s Ghost and The Rincon Ramblers.

5.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

5.7.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: All Go Hungry Hash House (Hoot)

5.8.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Salt Creek (country rock)

Salt Creek are unknown to me.

5.9-10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

The calendar has CGSB on Friday and Saturday, and Rita Weill on Sunday. The Barb has Rita Weill on both Saturday and Sunday, and CGSB only on Fridays. For various reasons, I am choosing the calendar as more likely correct.

5.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rita Weill (unaccompanied traditional ballads)

Rita Weill, another Berkeleyite, had “fallen in” (her words) with Neil Rosenberg, Mayne Smith and other original Berkeley folkies. She had initially sang and played folk and bluegrass, performing as part of groups on KPFA on “The Midnight Special.” In the early 60s she spent time in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and ended up in Los Angeles. She sang a lot at the Ash Grove in the mid-60s, focusing on English and Irish ballads.

She returned to Berkeley in 1967, having largely dropped out of singing, only to have John Fahey ask her to record an album on his Takoma Record label. She released an album on Takoma in 1968 (Rita Weill Sings Ballads and Folk Songs). She has remained active on the Berkeley Traditional Music scene to this day.

5.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Anthony Ace Verstraete

Tony Verstraete would have been in his early 20s at the time of this show.  He went on to teach at Penn State. When the Freight was open on Monday nights during 1969, it tended to feature fairly unknown performers.

5.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

5.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ken Spiker

5.15.69Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Miriam Stafford, Wanda Ultan and Friends

5.16-17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dan Hicks And The Hot Licks

Dan Hicks had been the drummer in the 1965 incarnation of The Charlatans, San Francisco’s original psychedelic Victorians, but by 1968 he was playing guitar and fronting the band. The Charlatans never rehearsed or gigged much (in any incarnation), and Hicks had an interest in psychedelically modified Texas Swing music, so in 1967 he formed Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks as a side project to open for The Charlatans and occasionally play local clubs like The Matrix. The original configuration of the band featured David LaFlamme of It’s A Beautiful Day on violin, and that was the band playing on Hicks’s first solo album Original Recordings (on Epic).

By mid-1969, the last version of The Charlatans had ground to a halt, and Dan Hicks And The Hot Licks was a full-time proposition. The line-up at this point was probably Hicks (guitar and lead vocals), John Girton (lead guitar), Sid Page (violin), Jaime Leopold (bass) and Sherry Snow (of Blackburn and Snow) and Marianne Price joining Hicks on vocals. It’s not clear if there was a drummer this early, and the configuration of female vocalists changed in the early days. Naomi Ruth Eisenberg of Dancing Food and Entertainment may have already replaced Snow. Although Original Recordings includes some of Hicks’s classics, including immortals like “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away” and ‘I Scare Myself” Hicks and The Hot Licks had considerably more success with their early 70s Blue Thumb albums (such as Striking It Rich and Last Train To Hicksville).

5.18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Guy Carawan

The calendar says “southern Freedom Songs, sea island folk tales, spirituals, hoedowns, blues, etc.”

Guy Carawan was born (in 1927) and educated in Southern California, but he moved to New York and was part of the initial Folk Revival in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. He had released a few albums on Folkways in the 50s, and accompanied himself on guitar, banjo and dulcimer (an exotic instrument in those days). Carawan holds the distinction of teaching the folk song “We Shall Overcome” to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, and thus introducing the song to the Civil Rights movement.

Guy and his wife Candie continue to perform to this day.

5.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Rusty Elliot

5.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

5.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Alice Stuart and John Shine

5.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Mayne Smith

5.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hedy West

Hedy West (1938-2005), daughter of a labor organizer, was born in Georgia. Although she moved to New York in the 1950s and became part of the Greenwich Village folk scene, her roots made the folk tradition a part of her rather than something learned. Although not widely known, she put out two albums on Vanguard in 1963 and 64, and then moved to Europe, where she was largely based for the next decade, releasing a number of albums there. She co-wrote the song “500 Miles”, covered by The Kingston Trio and many other groups. She accompanied herself on guitar and clawhammer banjo. At this time, she was probably based in Europe. 

5.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Eric and The Edsels

Eric and The Edsels were a string band featuring guitarist Eric Thompson, the successor band to Diesel Duck Revue. It’s not clear who else was in the group, but its reasonable to assume that Neil Rosenberg’s sister Sue was the fiddler, since she married Eric Thompson.

5.25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

5.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Rosalie Sorrells

5.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

5.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Styx River Ferry

5.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

5.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

The calendar features Miles Sonka with Capt. Billy Whizbang and The A**!*** on this date, while the Barb ad has Sky Blue for the entire weekend. Because of the relative dates (the calendar would have been produced in late April), I am inclined to find the Barb ad more likely.

5.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Sky Blue

The calendar features Johnny Sunshine’s Pipe Joint Compound on this date, but once again I am inclined to accept the Barb ad and assume that Sky Blue played.

6.1.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bluegrass Music with Sandy Rothman, Butch Waller, Hank Bradley, Mayne Smith, George Inskeep

The June, 1969 Freight and Salvage lists these five musicians but does not name them as a group. Most likely, they were simply performing songs they all knew and were not a group, as such. George Inskeep is unfamiliar to me, but the other musicians appear all over this chronology.

The Barb ad lists Larry Hanks, and it is possible that he played instead, but because of the nearness of the production of the calendar (late May) to this gig, I am inclined to believe the calendar here.

6.2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Lou Killen (possibly cancelled)

The Barb has this date empty. The first week of June 1969 is at odds between the calendar and The Barb.

The June calendar includes an admonition at the bottom: “Are you wasting time this summer, or are you practicing, so that you will be better in September than you were in June?”

6.3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

The Hoot had moved to Tuesday nights. The Freight was closed almost every Monday night in June, 1969.

6.4.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bob Parsons

The calendar says “6 and 12-string guitar.” The Barb has The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.

6.5.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: George Ball

The calendar says “A trip down Memory Lane.” The Barb has Styx River Ferry playing this gig.

6.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mark Spoelstra, Mayne Smith, Mitch Greenhill

Smith, a mainstay of the Berkeley folk scene since the 1950s (see 4.4.69), had recently returned to Berkeley from Los Angeles. Formerly a banjo player, he had taken up the pedal steel guitar along with an interest in Country & Western music. At this time, there was a pronounced distinction between syrupy Nashville music and the driving Bakersfield sound represented by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, and Smith tended more towards the latter. The Berkeley Farms album (see Appendix 2) includes two songs by Frontier Constabulary, and they play in a spare, swinging Western style, closer to Bob Wills than the big beat favored by “country rockers” like the Flying Burrito Brothers or The Grateful Dead. If this was indeed an early Frontier Constabulary gig, Michael Woodward was probably the drummer, and Lee Poundstone the bassist.

By 1969, the explosion of the rock music industry meant that many “successful” folk musicians were without recording contracts or opportunities. In late 1969, Greenhill began to perform regularly with Mayne Smith and they would release albums together in the 1970s.

6.7.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks, Rita Weill

“Very traditional folk”

6.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

6.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

6.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

6.13-14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Jean Redpath

The calendar says “100-Proof repertoire of Scotch folk songs.” Jean Redpath was born in Edinburgh, and learned about Scottish ballads at the University of Edinburgh. She moved to America in 1961 (aged 24), and soon signed to Elektra Records. She released three albums for Elektra in 1962 and 63. She has continued to be an active folk performer.

6.15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

6.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

6.18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Elon Feiner, Lee Knight

Elon Feiner is identified as “Outrageous Country Blues” and Lee Knight as “Magic & Magic Magician.” Elon Feiner was the bassist for High Country (Butch Waller’s bluegrass band) when they released their 1972 album on Raccoon Records. Lonnie Feiner has since moved to Portland, OR and continues to play bluegrass, sometimes under the name Eldon Finger.

6.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

The calendar says “Beautiful and Artistic.” True on both counts.

6.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

6.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  17^th Annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention Festivities

The 17^th Annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention, held that day in Provo Park downtown (several blocks away from the Freight) was actually Berkeley’s second. The first, held the previous year, was the 35^th Annual Old Time Fiddler’s Convention.

The second event was named the 17^th Annual contest, and similar lunacy ensued.  The show at the Freight was clearly intended as a sort of after party. The contest lasted one more year, and then became too formal and successful, thus defeating its purpose. However, after a brief 34-year hiatus the Festival and Contest were reactivated in 2004 as a multi day event.

6.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

6.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

6.25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jeffrey Cain

The calendar says “Latterday Buck Owens.” Jeffrey Cain was a songwriter friend of The Youngbloods. He wrote some songs that were recorded by both The Youngbloods and Jerry Corbitt. When the band had a big hit with “Get Together,” Warner Brothers gave them their own label (Raccoon), and Cain released albums for it in 1970 and 72.

6.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rick Bockner

The calendar says “’Mad’ Rick Bockner. Mad River goes acoustic!”  Mad River, locally popular (and  ultimately legendary) had played their last gig at The Bear’s Lair (on the UC Campus) about 8 weeks earlier.

6.27-28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: The Minx

Per the calendar, The Minx were Alice Stuart, John Shine, Audie DeLone and Jack O’Hara. Presumably, this was some sort of blues band (DeLone was mostly a pianist, O’Hara a bassist, and Stuart and Shine sang and played guitars), but I cannot say at this distance.

6.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show

A contemporary tape survives of Dr Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band playing at the 3^rd San Diego Folk Festival (4.26.69), joined by friends Kenny Hall and Hank Bradley. The tape is posted on the very interesting San Diego Folk Festival site.

7.1.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

7.2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Paul Arnoldi

7.3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher

7.4-5.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

7.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: George Ball

7.8.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

7.9.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley

7.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rick Bockner

7.11-12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

Vern Williams and Ray Park were both from Arkansas, but they met in Stockton, California and started playing bluegrass in the late 1950s. Younger musicians admired not only their driving style but also the fact that they had not learned bluegrass from records. Herb and Ray moved to Nashville around 1967, but after two years stardom did not beckon and they both gave up full time music careers.

In 2006 Arhoolie Records released a cd of Vern and Ray’s performance at the 1968 San Francisco State Folk Festival (where Herb Pedersen was part of their quartet), which gives a good idea of their sound.

7.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Chamber Music

Daniel Rieter-cello, Tom Marks-violin, Richard Solamon-clarinet

7.15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

7.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks with Gary Solaman

Gary Solaman is unknown to me.

7.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

7.18-19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Raw Snopes with David & Tina Meltzer, Elon Feiner, Greg Lausser

The calendar says “Bluegrassish.”

David Meltzer was a poet and writer who was part of the younger generation of Beats, which made him a few years older than the hippies. He was also a singer and songwriter with his wife Tina, and they would form the group Serpent Power, which released two albums on Vanguard. The first album (and a few early live performances) were psychedelic improvisations, but the second album was closer to a folk duet. Since Elon Feiner played bass and guitar, it's reasonable to presume that Raw Snopes featured Meltzer’s songs in a bluegrass type setting.

7.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: 1^st Birthday Party (“Everybody Will Be There”)

7.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

7.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mayne Smith

7.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jim Bamford and Friends

Jim Bamford played guitar in Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility String Band. Typical of many Freight performances, this appears to have been a chance for him to play with different friends. Although it is unknown which friends were playing with him, it was very likely other people from this chronology.

7.25-26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

Since the Freight was a coffee shop, rather than a bar, teenagers were welcome. One regular teenage visitor was Marin County teenager Hugh Cregg III, at the time a Cornell University student (majoring in engineering), but a budding harmonica player. He regularly jammed with Brian Voorheis and sat in with CGSB on occasion. Later, after dropping out of Cornell and returning to the Bay Area, he started calling himself Huey Lewis and went on to  fame and fortune.

7.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Elon Feiner, Lee Knight

Elon Feiner is advertised as “country blues” and Lee Knight as “magic.” That probably means Lee Knight was a magician.

7.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

7.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: The Minx

7.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Peter Berg, Darryl Henriques, Lee Bouterse

“Random Productions” presents “Music, Stories, Drama.”

Peter Berg had been involved in Street Theater with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and The Diggers as well as being a bluegrass musician, and his wife Lee Bouterse was an experienced singer as well. Darryl Henriques later became a well-known comedian, actor (he was a Romulan Ambassador in Star Trek VI) and radio personality (remember Joe Carcinogeni on KSAN?).

This may have been a predecessor of the performance group The East Bay Sharks.

8.1-2.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

8.3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Janet Smith

8.5.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.6.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Rosalie Sorrells

8.7.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen

8.8-9.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

8.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Paul Arnoldi

8.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.13-14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Fred McDowell, John Shine

“Mississippi” Fred McDowell was born in Rossville, TN in 1904. After a time in Memphis, he moved to Como, MS by the 1930s where he lived the rest of his life. Though mostly a farmer, he played locally most weekends for decades. McDowell was discovered by folklorist Alan Lomax who recorded him in 1959 and released a few tracks as part of an Atlantic Records compilation. Berkeley’s Chris Strachwitz, proprietor of the Arhoolie record label, tracked McDowell down and recorded McDowell for Arhoolie. The success of the first two Arhoolie albums (in 1964 and 1966) made Mississippi Fred McDowell a sudden hit—after 40 or so years of incubation—on the folk and blues circuit.  McDowell’s song “You Got To Move” was recorded by The Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers, Bonnie Raitt was proud to cite Mississippi Fred McDowell as a significant influence, and recorded a number of his songs, and Hot Tuna made his “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” a staple of their electric and acoustic live sets.

Much loved by everyone who knew him, McDowell died in 1972,

8.15-16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mark Spoelstra, Mitch Greenhill, Mayne Smith

8.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jack O’Hara and Blackie Farrell

Kevin “Blackie” Farrell grew up in the Moraga area, in the hills just behind Berkeley. In the late 1960s, the Moraga area was still largely rural. Farrell, who was probably still a high school student at this time, was part of both the rural Western horse and farming country in which he grew up as well as the Berkeley hippies just over the hill. The Moraga area is quite wealthy now and considerably less rural, although hardly urban.

Nonetheless, Farrell became a well-known songwriter in a variety of Western styles. He has only performed and recorded intermittently over the years, but his songs are fairly well known. Bay Area listeners will know Farrell best for a song called “Mama Hated Diesels,” recorded by Commander Cody And The Lost Planet Airmen and widely played on FM radio. Other well-known Farrell songs include “Sonora Death Row” and “Rockabilly Funeral” (co-written with Brian Voorheis of CGSB).

Jack O’Hara, the bassist for Sky Blue, was an experienced folk accompanist, but its not clear if he sang as well. Farrell continues to perform occasionally, and still lives in the Moraga area.

8.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

8.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher

8.21-22-23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray (“Bluegrass from Nashville”)

8.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Blind Mountain Chicken

The copy of the August 1969 calendar is cut off and the billing can’t be read in its entirety. The readable part seems to be “----K LINKS Blind Mountain Chicken.”

8.26-27-28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: New Lost City Ramblers

The New Lost City Ramblers were formed in Greenwich Village in 1958. The original trio was John Cohen, Mike Seeger (half-brother of Pete) and Tom Paley. At the time, string band and “old-timey” music was inaccessible to all but the most determined of record collectors. By performing and recording this music, the New Lost City Ramblers were the essential actors in introducing early American music to serious folk musicians, from Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia to everyone else (see 2.17.69). Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley in the early 1960s. By 1969, the Ramblers had released over 15 albums. They stopped performing regularly after 1969, but played occasional reunions, so this show would have been near the end of the group’s regular performing career.

8.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joy of Cooking, Dave Frederickson

“Old Berkeley Night”

The Joy of Cooking had formed as a duo in Berkeley, (possibly called Gourmet’s Delight), featuring guitarist Terry Garthwaite and pianist Toni Brown.  Garthwaite was a veteran of the Berkeley folk and bluegrass scene, and Brown was an artist as well as a musician, having played in a string band called The Crabgrassers.  The group expanded to include conga player Ron Wilson, bassist David Garthwaite (Terry’s brother) and drummer Fritz Kasten. They changed their name to Joy of Cooking and shared management with Country Joe and The Fish. The Joy of Cooking’s home base had been the nearby club Mandrake’s (at 1048 University and San Pablo), where they held down regular weeknight gigs in the Spring of 1969.

Joy of Cooking was a significant group on the Berkeley scene, because both Garthwaite and Brown were accomplished musicians. Although both were excellent singers as well, Joy of Cooking featured the same kind of lengthy jamming popular at the time, rather than short and sensitive neo-folk songs.  The group was ultimately signed to Capitol Records and released their first of three Capitol albums in 1971.

8.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Malvina Reynolds, Janet Smith

8.30-9.1.69      Second Sky River Rock Festival Rainier Hereford Ranch, near Tenino, WA (south of Olympia)

Anonymous Artists of America, Black Snake, Blue Bird, Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, Collectors, Congress of Wonders, James Cotton, Country Weather, Country Joe and The  Fish, Crome Syrcus, Crow, Dovetail, Floating Bridge, Flying Burrito Brothers, Frumious Bandersnatch, Grapefruit, Guitar Shorty, Buddy Guy, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Dr. Humbead’s  New Tranquility String Band, Juggernaut, Kaleidoscope, Los Flamencos de Santa Lucia, Fred McDowell, Steve Miller, New Lost City Ramblers, Pacific Gas and Electric, Peter, Terry Reid, Mike Russo, Sons of Champlin, Rhythm Dukes, Mark Spoelstra, Alice Stuart, Yellowstone,  Youngbloods, Dino Valenti, Elyse Weinberg

The Freight and Salvage was closed on the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, probably so that many or most of the regulars could attend the Second Sky River Rock Festival, near Seattle. The 1968 Sky River had been the first outdoor rock festival in America (on the “Woodstock” model). Former Berkeley Folk Festival booker John Chambless had booked the festival, and many Berkeley rock acts had played. The list above is just those bands that were booked—numerous other (mostly lesser) performers played as well.

For Earl Crabb’s photos of Sky River, see here. Many Berkeley performers are in the pictures.

8.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks, Sandy & Jeannie Darlington, and Others [Old Berkeley Night]

9.2.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.3.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bob & Ingrid Fowler, Steve Young

Bob and Ingrid Fowler were from Styx River Ferry.

9.4.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: North Country with Chris Kearney, John Schank

9.5.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hedy West

9.6.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Kenny Hall, Larry Hanks, Jim Ringer, Bill Spires

Kenny Hall and Jim Ringer, based in Fresno, had played old time music around California as the Sweets Mill Sting Band. In 1969 the Sweets Mill String Band would have been Hall (mandolin), Ringer (guitar), Ron Tinkler (banjo) and Harry Liedstand (fiddle). Presumably this specific aggregation was a variation on that group. The Sweets Mills Mountain Boys recorded an album in 1972 (Bay Records TP727), with the four members above and guest appearances by Larry Hanks. Another album was released in 1974, and most of both are now available on cd.

Jim Ringer (1936-1992) had just moved to Berkeley, after some time as a sort of itinerant. In forthcoming years, he would go on to some solo success as well as his successful partnership with Mary McCaslin.

9.7.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Paul Arnoldi

9.9.69    Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher (Indian Music, Oud, Guitar and Folk)

Although Stecher was better known as a guitarist, he was a trained Indian musician as well.

9.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Wilhelm

The monthly calendar has Rick Bockner, but the Berkeley Barb has Mike Wilhelm.

Mike Wilhelm was the lead guitarist for the legendary (as well as Amazing) Charlatans, who gave birth to psychedelic rock 1965 as the house band at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, NV. The Charlatans had broken up and reformed a number of times by 1969, and at this point they seemed broken up for good. Wilhelm was a fine slide guitar player, and he went on to form a group called Loose Gravel. Loose Gravel could have played this gig, but it seems more likely that this gig was a solo blues performance by him.

9.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Commander Cody

For a relatively new band, Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen already had an extremely colorful history.

University of Michigan graduate students George Frayne (Fine Arts, piano) and John Tichy (Physics, guitar) formed the group at Ann Arbor in 1967 as Kommando Kody and His Lost Planet Airmen as an homage to an obscure movie serial. The group was a loose aggregation of local musicians, and was a continuation of a band that they had begun as undergraduates. The band continued on until early 1968, when Frayne’s teaching appointment at Wisconsin State-Oshkosh cut too deeply into the band’s opportunity to perform.

Nonetheless, a satellite member of the group, guitarist Bill Kirchen, late of the Grande Ballroom blues band The Seventh Seal, had moved to Berkeley with his group The Ozones. Frayne, tired of teaching after just one year, persuaded Tichy to belay graduate school and joined Kirchen in California. The first Commander Cody gig was for free on Telegraph Avenue on June 4, 1969 (Frayne played accordion), amidst a huge riot. However, Folk Festival producer Barry Olivier heard them and booked them at the 1969 Berkeley Folk Festival (see 10.23.69), after which they rapidly regulars at Mandrake’s and elsewhere.

As the band was still unknown, this was probably one of the group’s earliest formal gigs. The lineup at the time of this show was probably Cody (piano), Billy C Farlow (lead vocals), Bill Kirchen (lead guitar, vocals), John Tichy (guitar, vocals), Steve “West Virginia Creeper” Davis (steel guitar), probably Lance Dickerson (drums) and an unknown bass player. Dickerson, a Californian, was previously the drummer for bluesman Charlie Musselwhite (bassist Bruce Barlow, another Californian had not yet joined, and fiddler Andy Stein had would not come out from New York until December).

In 1969, the band lived in Emeryville, near the Berkeley line. By my calculation, this show was the sixth California performance by The Airmen, and their first headlining gig. There cannot have been much financial benefit for a 6-piece band playing the 87-seat Freight and Salvage, but the Airmen played the Freight about once a month for the next year, presumably because it was near their house, it was a fun gig and it provided an opportunity to work on new material.

The Airmen played a forward looking mix of honky tonk, Bakersfield country, rockabilly and rock and roll, mixed with an overeducated sensibility that made them part and parcel of the local Berkeley scene. The band was an interesting mixture of career musicians and moonlighting academics. The fact that there were numerous expatriates from Ann Arbor in the East Bay only helped the matter. The group was signed by ABC Paramount, and their legendary first album Lost In The Ozone was released in 1971 (the iconic single “Hot Rod Lincoln” reached #9 in 1972).

George “Cody” Frayne has continued a successful music career to this day, although he long ago reactivated his painting career as well, and remains a multiple threat. Guitarist Bill Kirchen and singer Billy C Farlow (one-time member of Billy C and The Sunshine Band) have also had lengthy music careers. Guitarist John Tichy left the Airmen after a few albums in the early 1970s, and presumably with few other professional options, ended up becoming Professor and Chairman of the Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY ,with a long list of distinguished publications (one of his current research interests is “to develop continuum rheological models for lubricant and granular flows from molecular simulations and apply them to realistic engineering surface configurations”).

9.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Lisa Kindred and Rip Elswit’s Band

Lisa Kindred was a blues singer from Buffalo, NY, by way of Chicago and Greenwich Village. Like many 60s performers, she first heard the blues on the radio and performed in coffeehouses. Subsequently, she went electric but stayed in the same vein. She had released an album on Vanguard in 1965 (I Like It This Way) and another album, American Avatar, released in 1970 as The Lyman Family with Lisa Kindred. Mel Lyman, formerly in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, had helped record her second Vanguard album and then apparently absconded with the tapes. Like all stories involving Mel Lyman, the story is confusing and unsettling, but suffice to say it appears that the album was not approved or appreciated by Kindred. She was in a Los Angleles band called the UFOs in the late 60s, and then returned to the Bay Area by 1969. Lisa Kindred is still an active blues performer in the Bay Area.

Rik Elswit was a guitarist who had moved to San Francisco in 1965. He played folk gigs and electric gigs, as well as extensive session work for commercial jingles and the long forgotten synthesizer duo Beaver & Krause. In 1971, Nashville producer Shel Silverstein (whom Elswit had recorded with) introduced him to the group Dr Hook and The Medicine Show. Elswit spent the next 15 years touring and recording with the band, participating in such hits as “Cover Of The Rolling Stone.” Elswit is now a music store manager and still performs in the Bay Area.

9.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

9.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mayne Smith and Friends

Since Mayne Smith was friends with everyone in this chronology, this could have been anything.

9.18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Golden Toad

The Golden Toad was a peculiar group started by artist Bob Thomas to perform at the then-new phenomenon of “Renaissance Pleasure Faires.” Thomas would play lute, one friend would bagpipes, another would play violin, and his wife would play the drum. Members included Will Spires, Ernie Fischbach and Deborah Leall (record collectors may recognize Fischbach and Leall from the obscure LP A Cid Symphony). Although the music was hardly period specific, it fit with the alternative nature of the early Renaissance Fairs in Marin and Los Angeles. The Golden Toad was a regular aggregation of various size (depending on availability of members), playing mainly Mediterranean folk tunes, but they played few gigs outside of the Fairs. As an artist, Bob Thomas is best known for his famous Lightning Bolt logo for the Grateful Dead, as well as the album cover for Live Dead.

For an interesting interview about Bob Thomas, Golden Toad and early Renaissance Faires, see here.

9.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart, Commander Cody

The calendar just has Alice Stuart, whereas The Barb has Stuart and Commander Cody. It seems more likely it was one or the other. However, Alice Stuart was close friends with the Cody crew (a 1969 tape circulates with her standing in on bass with the Airmen), so perhaps they did play together. It is uncertain who actually played bass with the Airmen at this time, and maybe she was temporarily part of the group.

9.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart, Commander Cody

The calendar has Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.

9.21.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley and Friends

9.23.69   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

9.24.69   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Al Silverman and Audie DeLonge and Friends

Audie DeLonge was later better known as Austin Delone. Delonge and Al Silverman had been songwriting partners in Los Angeles, which is how their song “One For One” ended up on a 1967 Linda Ronstadt album (Evergreen Volume Two by The Stone Poneys, Capitol Records). At this time, Al Silverman lived in the Warring Street house with members of the band Sky Blue.

The calendar has a band name, but the lettering is so ornate it’s hard to determine (its something like Home, Come or Dome).

9.25.69   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mylos Sonka & Friends (C&W)

Mylos Sonka is a steel and lead guitarist as well as singer and yodeller. Apparently he was originally from Ann Arbor, MI. There have always been large contingents of Ann Arborites in Berkeley, particularly in the Winter months. He is still active today in various groups, including The Lone Star Reprobates.

9.26-27.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jesse Fuller

The Barb has “home cooked Hungarian goulash” for the 27^th (Saturday night), and its not clear if that was in addition to or instead of a Jesse Fuller performance that evening.

9.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

9.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.1.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue,  Al Silverman and Audie DeLonge and Friends

This double-bill is fortuitous. Jack O’Hara was the bassist for Sky Blue, and although he was from California he had spent time in Greenwich Village (he played bass on a Ramblin Jack Elliott album, for instance). O’Hara would return to New York with Austin DeLone, where they would form the rock band Eggs Over Easy. Eggs Over Easy ended up in London, and became the house band at a pub called the Tally Ho in Kentish Town. As a result, Nick Lowe and others credit Eggs Over Easy with spawning the Pub Rock movement in early 70s English rock (such as Brinsley Schwarz, Dr Feelgood, Graham Parker and many others).

Who replaced O’Hara as bassist in Sky Blue in late 1969 is unclear. However, Alan Silverman joined Anna Rizzo and Vic Smith of Sky Blue—possibly Silverman had already joined Sky Blue—to form the band Grootna in 1971. Grootna released an album produced by Marty Balin (and released on Jefferson Airplane’s Grunt label). Grootna even played the closing of the Fillmore West, and their 7.1.71 KSFX-fm broadcast (promulgated on wolfgangsvault.com) featured a touching performance of “I Can’t Get No Nookie” (see 11.28.69 below).

10.2.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jasper Slade (aka Mike Wilhelm)

10.3.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Richard Greene, Mitch Greehnill, Mayne Smith and friends

Richard Greene grew up in Los Angeles and studied classical violin, until he heard Scotty Stoneman (Ken Frankel appears to be the guilty party), and then he became a fiddler. As a teenager, he had been a sometime member of the Pine Valley Boys with Butch Waller and Herb Pedersen, and he joined Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys in 1966. By 1969 he had moved to Marin County and joined the rock band Seatrain, who performed regularly at the Fillmores and local rock clubs. The Freight and Salvage, however, provided a platform for members of rock bands to perform with their musical friends in other styles. Although its hard to be certain, it appears that this collaboration with Berkeley stalwart Mayne Smith and Boston’s Manny Greehnill was a busman’s holiday of sorts for Greene. Greene would continue as a critical player in “modern” bluegrass and acoustic music in general.

10.5.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

10.7.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.8.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Tom “Pooky” Ralston and Friends

Pooky Ralston was the drummer for the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band. However, they were somewhat moribund at this time and were not playing a lot of gigs.

10.9.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks and Friends

10.10-11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

10.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dr. Humbead’s New Tranquility Band

The old-timey style of the band was conducive to having their friends sit in, which they apparently did regularly. By this time, guitarist Eric Thompson had become a full-time member (having “officially” joined at the second Sky River Rock Festival in Tenino, WA on 9.1.69).

10.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Golden Toad

“fresh from the Renaissance Pleasure Faire”

10.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Allan Macleod, Bill Spires

Will Spires was a violinist and mandolinist who played in Dr Humbead’s New Tranquility Band (see 11.10.68) and The Golden Toad (see 9.18.69). He also played concertina, and played Irish music in a number of groups, as well as String Band music, and no doubt that side of his interests was on display this night. Spires lived at 6018 Colby with many other musicians who played at the Freight and Salvage. For an interesting memoir of that time from a house resident, see here.

10.17-18.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry, Steve Young

This Steve Young is unknown to me (the future 49ers quarterback was 8 years old at this time).

According to Berkeley fiddler Laurie Lewis, Styx River Ferry were apparently responsible for bringing bluegrass to a San Francisco bar called Paul’s Saloon (on Union Street). Although Styx River Ferry left the Bay Area for Nashville in 1972, Paul’s Saloon was the centre of Bay Area bluegrass throughout the 1970s.

10.19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

10.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.22.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Tim Williams

The artist is unknown to me.

10.23.69  Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mayne Smith and Friends

10.23-26.69  Berkeley Folk Festival  Greek Theater and other venues

Country Joe and The Fish, Youngbloods, Brownie McGhee &Sonny Terry, Sam Hinton, Arthur Big Boy Crudup, Alice Stuart, Charles Seeger, Mark Leving

10.23.69  Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley Country Joe and The Fish, Youngbloods, Vern and Ray, Janet Smith, Commander Cody, Jeffrey Cain

At this distance, I have been unable to determine the Folk acts who played the festival after the opening night. Nonetheless, it is clear that a rock concert was needed to generate excitement for the whole event. Joe McDonald, Barry Melton and all the members of the Youngbloods were old folkies and very much in tune with the Festival, but it was the rock concert that brought out the fans.

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen had been “discovered” by Barry Olivier, playing for free outside of Cody’s Books (see 9.12.69), and the Folk Festival—or more accurately—the rock concert at the Folk Festival—was where the band first got widely heard in Berkeley. Long time Airmen bassist Buffalo Bruce Barlow, recently in Magic Sam’s band, joined the group for this show (who he replaced remains unclear).

10.24-25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Lisa Kindred, Rik Elswit, Nancy Brown

Kindred, Elswit and Brown would subsequently perform under the name of Ripple. The relationship between Ripple and the Lisa Kindred-Rip Elswit Band (see 9.13.69) is uncertain. Kindred played twelve-string, Elswit lead and slide, and Brown played bass, and both Kindred and Brown sang. The group had a regular Saturday night gig at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz (at the old location on the Eastern end of Pacific Avenue) as well as a regular gig at a place called Gatsby’s. Producer, songwriter Shel Silverstein (see 9.13.69) used to come to Gatsby’s to visit Brown, and a resulting friendship with Rik Elswit caused him to recommend Elswit to the fledgling Dr. Hook group in 1971.

10.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Shine

10.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

10.29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hank Bradley & Friends

10.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

10.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bob Wilson, Rick & Markie Shubb

Rick Shubb, though not well known, was a Bay Area banjo pioneer. Around 1963, he was in a bluegrass trio with Ken Frankel and Sandy Rothman, and regularly performed in Berkeley, probably at the Jabberwock. From 1965-67, he had played in the Smoky Grass Boys (wink wink) with David Grisman and Herb Pedersen. As a sidelight, he was a graphic artist, and did a few Carousel Ballroom posters (Jerry Garcia was his former roommate on Waverley Street in Palo Alto) as well as a famous poster for the 35^th Annual Berkeley Fiddlers Convention at Provo Park in Berkeley in June 1968 (the next year’s convention was dubbed the 17^th annual). By this time, Shubb had moved somewhat beyond bluegrass, and along with co-conspirator Bob Wilson, a guitarist, and his wife Markie, Rick had moved into the diverse crossover style that mixed jazz, bluegrass, folk and everything else.

Just to puncture the myth about unsuccessful banjo players (“what’s the most common phrase of professional banjo players? –Would you like fries with that?”), Rick Shubb invented a revolutionary capo (fretting device) that sold over a million units, and became a legend of a different kind. Bob Wilson and Rick Shubb are still making music together in this century.

In 1968, Rick Shubb and Earl Crabb (aka Dr. Humbead) made a unique poster called “Humbead’s Map Of The World.” Besides expressing a People’s Republic of Berkeley world-view, the map listed—by name—everybody in the world--the Berkeley world--, which along with a few people like Chairman Mao, John Lennon and Jerry Garcia, included everyone on the Berkeley folk scene at the time. There are actually multiple versions of the poster, although the “list of population” is the same.

11.1.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike & Debby

A surviving November, 1969 Freight and Salvage calendar advises “hornpipes, fiddle tunes, etc” and adds “freshly returned from Ireland with many additions to their repertoire.”

11.2.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: The Myth, Campbell Coe or John Shine

Per The Barb, probably John Shine was the performer. However, the calendar makes it look like The Myth is a group, but perhaps Campbell Coe himself is the myth. Indeed, per Sandy Rothman’s comment on Scott Hambly’s obituary for Coe (1924-2005) at some point bumper stickers appeared around Berkeley that said “Campbell Coe Is A Myth.” Coe came to Berkeley in the 50s, and sold and repaired guitars, banjos and other stringed instruments. He also helped John and Deirdre Lundberg open their music store, so Coe was literally instrumental in the Berkeley folk music scene. He was also a fine musician. When his store (Campus Music) closed in the 1970s, he returned to Seattle.

For Scott Hambly’s obituary of Coe, see here;

For Sandy Rothman’s comments thereupon, see here.

11.4.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

11.5.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Clarence Van Hook and friends

11.6-7-8.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Golden Toad

The Barb has the Toad for three nights, but the calendar has “Phil Marsh and All” on the 6^th (Thursday). Although Marsh still led the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, he played gigs with his friends at the Freight when the CGSB were not playing.

11.9.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ripple: Lisa Kindred, Rik Elswit, Nancy Brown

Ripple featured Kindred, Elswit and Brown., but I don’t know if there was a drummer or other members.

11.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

11.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Janet Smith, Miriam Stafford, Rita Weill (“Ladies Nite”)

Janet Smith was Mayne Smith’s younger sister, and while very much part of the Berkeley folk scene, was more of a listener than a participant, being somewhat younger. By the 1960s, she went to school and became interested in Elizabethan folk songs. This night’s performance was likely an evening of solos, duets and trios, and an example is captured on the Berkeley Farms album (see Appendix 2).

11.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Solari & Carr

The calendar says “Hip Vaudeville.”

11.14-15.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Richard Greene, Andy Kulberg, Mayne Smith, Mitch         Greenhill                                  

The Barb ad says “fiddle and modern strings.” The calendar says “fine fiddle” and “modern string innovations.”

Andy Kulberg was also a member of Sea Train, and this seems to be another collaboration. Kulberg was Seatrain’s bassist, so this may have been the complete band (Greene played fiddle, Smith banjo and Greehnill guitar).

11.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

11.18-19-20.66 Freight and Salvage Bukka White

Bukka White (1909-77) was a Mississippi blues singer and guitarist who first recorded in 1930. He was “rediscovered” by ED Denson and John Fahey in 1963, and resumed his career as a professional musician. He played a National Steel guitar and recorded for a variety of labels, including Berkeley’s Arhoolie

11.21.69 Freight and Salvage Alice Stuart

11.22-23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mance Lipscomb

Mance Lipscomb was born in Texas in 1895, the son of a slave.  Although he played music all his life, he never recorded until he was in his 60’s.  East Bay resident and Arhoolie Records principal Chris Strachwitz was instrumental in finding and recording Lipscomb. Lipscomb represented a “songster” tradition that preceded the blues, and included a wide variety of black and white song traditions (including the blues).  Lipscomb was a fine performer and a popular person who did well at Folk Festivals and with the new market for ‘rediscovered’ singers. 

Lipscomb recorded several albums on Arhoolie, and he was the subject of a documentary film by Les Blank called A Well Spent Life.  He died in 1976.

11.25.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

11.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Anna Rizzo and Friends

Anna Rizzo was the lead singer and drummer of Sky Blue. She would later go on to play with Grootna, Country Joe McDonald’s All Star Band and Kingfish, among many other groups. As this was a Wednesday night, this was probably just a fun gig on a night when Sky Blue was not performing.

11.27-28-29.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

The October 18, 1969 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, making fun of the spate of “Super Session” album, printed a satiric review of an imaginary bootleg album called The Masked Marauders, claiming to be a recording of Dylan, The Beatles, Mick Jagger and others recording in Hudson’s Bay, Canada.  The review, written under a pseudonym by Griel Marcus, was a self-evident joke (featuring, for example, George Harrison and Bob Dylan doing a sensitive version of “Kick Out The Jams” on acoustic guitars). Nonetheless, in a tribute to the power of Rolling Stone at the time, record stores were inundated with phone calls. 

Marcus and Rolling Stone editor Langdon Winner rapidly put together an album to spoof the review.  Although actually on Reprise, the label said ‘Diety’ to parallel the nonsense in the review.  The album, simply entitled Masked Marauders (Deity ,  Reprise 6378), did not have pictures of any of the musicians.  Surprisingly, the album, released in November 1969, featuring skiffle versions of some of the music described in the review (including the touching “I Can’t Get No Nookie”), supposedly sold over 100,000 albums, and peaked at 114 in the Billboard charts.

According to “sources” (no doubt Marcus and Winner), the musicians were “members of The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.”  Soundman Earl Crabb was present at these historic sessions (apparently held in a garage), and confirms that the group were the primary musicians on the record. Brian Voorheis recalls that Anna Rizzo, singer for the Berkeley band Sky Blue, handled the drum chores. Vic Smith, also of Sky Blue, played the bass. The Masked Marauders LP is often listed (rightly or wrongly) as the second or “other” album by The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.  Since the group appears to have ground to a halt by mid-1970, it was a peculiar legacy for the band.

11.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: The Lynch Mob (C&W)

I know nothing of this group, although I assume Jim Lynch led the group. However, it’s worth commenting that times have changed enough that a band with this name would not be commercially viable.

12.2.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.3.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Dave Allen’s Blue River Band

12.4.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Solarity Carr (comic Mime)

Is this act the same as Solari & Carr from 11.13.69?

12.5-6.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

This date would have been near the end of Vern and Ray’s career as a duet. Both of them continued as musicians, however, and they had a reunion at the 1999 Wolf Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley.

12.7.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

12.9.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.10.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Renaissance Catch Singers

I do not know if this was a style of music, or what.

12.11.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Benefit for Stone County, Arkansas

The calendar says The Amelia Earhart Choir, with the help of just about all musicians, will hold a benefit for Stone County Arkansas, the 3^rd poorest county in the US.”

12.12.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band

12.13.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

12.14.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

12.16.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.17.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Montezuma’s Revenge (John Campbell, Richard Saunders, Larry Murphy, Danny Newson)

Richard Saunders had been the bassist in Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band, but the other names are not familiar to me.

12.18-19.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher's Cockamamie Construction Company String Band

12.20.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mark Spoelstra, Mitch Greenhill, Mayne Smith and the Boys

This was likely a performance of the band Frontier Constabulary.

12.21.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Going To Canada (with Al Silverman, Janet & Mayne Smith)

Presumably Going To Canada was the name of this aggregation, since—to my knowledge—none of these artists left for Canada. Its not clear if this group played on this night or the 26^th, or both.

12.23.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

12.24.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: K.C. Douglas and Richard Riley (blues)

K.C. Douglas was born in Sharon, MS in 1913, and later played with blues legend Tommy Johnson.  He relocated to Vallejo, CA in 1945 to work in the Navy shipyards.  By 1947 he had relocated to Oakland and was working regularly as a blues performer.  He had a hit in 1949 with “Mercury Boogie,” better known as “Mercury Blues” and recorded by Steve Miller (1967), David Lindley (1981) and Alan Jackson (1992), and later used by the Ford Motor Company.  From 1963 onwards, Douglas was an employee of the Berkeley Public Works department. 

After a performance at the Berkeley Blues Festival in 1970, Douglas had a boost in popularity, and he performed successfully until his death in 1975.

Richard Riley was Richard Riley Riggins, better known as Harmonica Slim. Riggins, born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1921, moved to Oakland in 1963, and met KC Douglas at the Ritz Club in Richmond, and began to play with him regularly from then on. Although not a major figure, he continued to record into the 21^st century, including a song called “KC Douglas Was A Fine Man.” He died in 2003. Riggins would have accompanied Douglas, and probably sang some songs on his own as well.

12.26.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Janet & Mayne Smith

The Berkeley Barb has “Going To Canada (with Al Silverman, Janet & Mayne Smith).”  Later in the month, the Barb ads were more likely to supersede the calendar, so the group probably played this night rather than the week before.

12.27.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Rick & Markie Shubb, Bob Wilson

12.28.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks, Pam Ostergren

Pam Ostergren was a singer and banjo player from the San Diego area.

12.30.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

12.31.69 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  New Year’s Party

This chronology is focused on Freight and Salvage performers in the venue’s first 18 months (6.25.68>12.31.69). However, since we uncovered some dates beyond that time, I am including the listings here without comment (well, except when I have a comment…).

1.2.70      Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

1.3.70      Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike & Debby (Irish Fiddle Music)

1.4.70      Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joy of Cooking, Dynamite Annie Johnson

1.6.70      Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

1.7-8.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys

2.1.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

Andrea Hirsig sent a copy of a Freight and Salvage calendar for February, 1970.

2.3.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

Mike McQueen was the host of the Tuesday night Hoot

2.4.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ripple

Rik Elswit, Nancy Brown and Lisa Kindred

2.5.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

2.6-7.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Frontier Constabulary

Frontier Constabulary featured Mark Spoelstra, Mitch Greenhill and Mayne Smith.

2.8.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

2.10-11.12.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Mike Seeger

2.13.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher and Eric Thompson (guitar duos)

2.14.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Janet Smith

2.15.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  High Country

2.17.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

2.18.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Richard Greene and Panama Red

Panama Red was Peter Rowan (as revealed on the March calendar). Rowan’s famous dope song of the same name would not gain prominence until after 1973, when it was recorded by the New Riders of The Purple Sage (on their CBS album of the same name) and performed (and later recorded) by Rowan’s seminal hippie bluegrass band Old And In The Way (with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Vassar Clements and John Kahn). It is interesting to find out that Rowan had at least been using the persona much earlier.

2.19.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Janet Smith

2.20.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  The New Tranquility String Band

2.21.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Walt Koken and String Band

Koken’s prior group, The Busted Toe Mudthumpers, was defunct due to a tragic auto accident (see 8.25.68). However, Koken stayed in Berkeley and continued to play old time music on the fiddle as well as the banjo. 

2.22.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

2.24.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hoot

2.25.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Hank Bradley

2.26.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Joy Of Cooking

2.27.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  East Bay Sharks

The East Bay Sharks were a performance troupe, a sort of hip Comedia D’el Arte performing “Street Theatre”. Phil Marsh was their musical director.

2.28.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Kilby Snow

Mountain Music of The Autoharp from Virginia, circa 1906

3.1.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

Andrea Hirsig supplied a March, 1970 Calendar.

3.3.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.4.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ripple

A casual observation of the February and March 1970 Calendars suggests that many performers had agreements to appear once a month at the Freight and Salvage. Ripple, for example, appeared on the first Wednesday of February and March, High Country on the third Sunday, Commander Cody on the fourth Sunday, Joy of Cooking on the final Thursday, and so on.

3.5.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Peter Rowan alias Panama Red

3.6.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Ladies Night with Annie Johnston, Janet Smith

3.7.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Styx River Ferry

3.8.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Phil Marsh and some others

3.10.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.11.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  People’s Deternational Silver String Band

In true Bay Area fashion, the Calendar art makes the band’s name very hard to read.

3.12.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Blue River with Dave Allen

3.13-14.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jesse Fuller

3.15.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

3.17.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.18.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Wil Spires and Friends

An Irish Music celebration, the day after St. Patrick’s Day (at a venue with no liquor license).

3.19.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Will Scarlett

3.20.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Walt Koken and Friends

3.21.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart

3.22.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley:  Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

3.24.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

3.25.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Random Productions, Volume 3

The calendar says “One of the finest productions, with Peter Berg directing stage traffic.” Peter Berg was a musician who was also connected with the Mime Troupe crowd, so this could have been music, theater or both.

3.26.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joy of Cooking

3.27-28.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: John Jackson

The calendar says “Arhoolie Reords presents John Jackson, blues and country dance tunes from Virginia.” Arhoolie, the product of East Bay schoolteacher Chris Strachwicz (still going strong today) played an important role in the local traditional music scene, well beyond the confines of Berkeley.

4.1-2.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Richard Greene and Panama Red

4.3-4.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Vern and Ray

4.5.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Will Scarlett and Friends

4.7.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.8.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Bob White

4.9.70   Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Blue River (Dave Allen, Eddie Dye and all)

4.10.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: East Bay Sharks

4.11.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Sky Blue

4.12.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen

4.14.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.15.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Pam Ostergren

4.16.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: People’s International Macedonian Silver String Band with Folkdancers

4.17-18.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Frontier Constabulary

4.19.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: High Country

4.21.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.22.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Juanita and John (guitar and cello)

4.23.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Jody Stecher and Friends

4.24-25.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Alice Stuart and John Shine

4.26.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Styx River Ferry

4.28.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Hoot

4.29.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Larry Hanks

4.30.70 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley: Joy of Cooking

Unknown Performers

There follows a list of performers at the Freight and Salvage who are unknown to the authors, or little is known and we always crave more.  Their first show date and any descriptions from the calendar or ads have been provided.  If you are able to help out filling in the details, we would appreciate you letting us know.

Dementia 8.2.68: improvisational theatre troupe

Don Copeland  8.5.68

Mike & Debby 8.9.68: Irish Music

John Dillon 8.11.68

The Maelstrom 8.11.68

Bryson Collins  8.12.68: “Crayon Encounter”

John Schanck  8.13.68

Dave Allen 8.17.68: country, blues guitar and banjo

Kazz 8.18.68

Neo Passe String Band 8.26.68

Mike Scott 8.27.68

Fowler, Krech Paul X 9.10.68: Poets Theater Workshop

Bob Georgio 9.10.68

Quarter Dozen String Band 9.21.68

Ken Carter 10.18.68

Gil Turner 11.24.68

New York Slew 12.6.68

Wanda Ultan 12.6.68

George Ball 12.7.68

Jim Lynch 12.26.68: Country and Western

Tim Ryan 2.3.69

Joe Friedman and Barry Aiken 2.5.69: Classical Blues

Carl Dukatz 2.6.69

Julie Meredith 2.13.69

Dallas Williams 2.14.69

Tom Maddox 3.17.69

Genny Haley 3.20.69

Sunny Goodier 3.20.69

Kevin Barry 4.7.69

Jose’s Appliance’s 4.13.69: String Band (Oakland based)

Salt Creek 5.8.69: Country Rock

Rusty Elliot: 5.19.69

Bob Parsons 6.4.69

Gary Solaman 7.16.69

North Country with Chris Kearney, John Schank 9.4.69

Steve Young 10.17.69

Tim Williams 10.22.69

Solari and Carr 11.13.69: “hip vaudeville”

Renaissance Catch Singers 12.10.69

Tabulated List of Performances at the Freight and Salvage