From New Orleans funk to homegrown roots, Redwood Mountain Faire is back with a beat
It’s Creole on the California coast this weekend, as the Redwood Mountain Faire goes New Orleans. Featuring the Bay Area’s own California Honeydrops, who do second-line music so well that they were invited to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Meters Experience, a branch of Crescent City’s funkiest tree, the Faire is lining up to be a horn-heavy, hip-rocking good time.
Complete with art, food, local beers, crafts, and children’s activities, the faire is a community-focused event put on by the Valley Women’s Club of San Lorenzo Valley. Started in the early 1980s at Highland Park in Ben Lomond, it took a long hiatus in the late ’90s, and was revitalized in 2010. Since its reemergence, the event has raised nearly $140,000 for local nonprofits.
Over its rich history, the Redwood Mountain Faire has seen dozens of big names—including Etta James, Taj Mahal, David Grisman, John Mayall, Kate Wolf and many more—grace its stages. This year, there are over 20 bands from around the country, and a nice handful of the Santa Cruz area’s finest local acts. Here’s an overview of the action.
SATURDAY
The Meters Experience: New Orleans funk band the Meters is legendary in its Louisiana hometown and around the world. Pioneers of tight grooves, Crescent City soul and irresistible rhythms, the band has influenced countless funk acts with classic jams including “Cissy Strut” and “Look-Ka Py Py.” The Meters Experience is an extension of the Meters’ family tree, featuring guitarist Leo Nocentelli, one of the founding members of the original band.
Birds of Chicago: A rootsy husband-and-wife duo, Birds of Chicago blends catchy rock and soul grooves with folk aesthetics and tight, lovely harmonies. Comprising JT Nero from JT & the Clouds, and Allison Russell of Po’ Girl, the Birds are road-tested festival favorites and veterans of the Redwood Mountain Faire.
Jelly Bread: A funk, Americana, and soul outfit out of Reno, Nevada, Jelly Bread has won both Best Band and Best Album in its hometown. It’s also making waves on the larger music scene, sharing stages with acts like Robert Cray, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Dragon Smoke, and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. The band can rock ’n’ roll in style, but it’s at its finest when laying bare the stories that are at the heart of its music.
Filling out Saturday’s lineup are San Francisco rock act New Monsoon, Grateful Dead tribute band the China Cats, local roots outfit the Coffis Brothers and the Mountain Men, roots-rocking jam band Jim Lewin & Edge of the West, cumbia-fusion group Candelaria, rockabilly trio Los High Tops, Santa Cruz’s own Coffee Zombie Collective, and Americana/soul jam band Corduroy Jim.
SUNDAY
California Honeydrops: A band that got its start busking in BART terminals, the California Honeydrops have grown into a fan favorite of New Orleans funk, soul and groove. Led by Lech Wierzynski, a multi-instrumentalist originally from Warsaw, Poland, the Honeydrops have established themselves as a guaranteed good-time band, with dance-floor-packing funky grooves and stage-rattling musical antics.
Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands: Laurie Lewis is an internationally acclaimed star of the bluegrass world. A songwriter, vocalist, fiddle player, guitarist, upright bass player and more, she’s a born musician who embodies the spirit of American roots music. As folk legend Utah Phillips once said, “Whatever country music is supposed to be, she’s at the center of it.”
Afrolicious: Equal parts band and party, Afrolicious is the brainchild of two DJ brothers, Joe “Pleasuremaker” McGuire and Oz “Señor Oz” McGuire, who set out to blend various African music styles for a residency in San Francisco’s Elbo Room. The project has now grown into a musical collective that sees as many as 12 artists getting in on the action. Not sure what to expect? Think horns, beats, grooves, percussion, electronics, flutes, guitar and more.
Also performing on Sunday are Rose’s Pawn Shop, an Americana/folk/bluegrass outfit from Los Angeles, folk trio the T Sisters, family-fun band the Banana Slug String Band, local folk and blues standout Marty O’Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra, local Northern Soul crowd pleasers the Inciters, San Francisco-based swing/soul outfit Royal Jelly Jive, Boulder Creek-based all-girl string band Sugar By the Pound, and local folk-rockers the Rayburn Brothers.
The Redwood Mountain Faire takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31 at Roaring Camp, 5401 Graham Hill Road, Felton. $25 general, $20/senior and student, kids 12 and under are free. More information: redwoodmountainfaire.com. PHOTO: The California Honeydrops headline the Redwood Mountain Faire musical lineup on Sunday.
