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Arts & Life
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The next Lake County Fire Benefit will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, July 8, at the Soper Reese Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.
Headliner for the event is Johnny Rawls, an award-winning soul blues singer, songwriter and guitarist from Mississippi who tours year round.
His roots are solidly planted in soul and blues traditions built on his associations with Joe Tex, Little Johnny Taylor, O.V. Wright, Little Milton, Bobby Bland and B.B. King.
In recent years, Elvin Bishop, Kenny Neal, Marcia Ball, Wee Willie Walker and Nancy Wright have teamed up with Rawls at music festivals and the highly popular Blues Cruises.
Joining Rawls for the July 8 concert are three top-level blues musicians from Northern California: Matt Silva on guitar, Donny Mederos on bass and Rasheed on drums.
Proceeds will go to Hope City to purchase supplies to rebuild homes lost in Lake County fires. Hope City is the local project of the disaster relief agency Hope Crisis Response Network. More information is available at www.hcrn.info .
Locally made wine has been donated by Don Angel Cellars, Kaz Winery and Mt. Konocti Wines. Beer offerings include a pale ale donated by O'Meara Brothers or Coors Light. Soda, water and snacks will be available for purchase as well.
Bring your extra cash for the silent auction and raffle! Auction items include jewelry, a soap basket, picnic backpack, wine, gift certificates and a wine tasting.
The raffle prize is four table seats, with wine and treats, to the next Lake County Fire Benefit at the Soper Reese Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 15 with The Funky Godfather, a 10-piece band that plays James Brown hits. Proceeds from the raffle will go to the NCO Pawnee Fire Fund.
All seats are reserved and dancing is welcome.
Tickets cost $30 for table seats, $20 for center loge, $15 for the side loge. To purchase tickets online visit www.soperreesetheatre.com; in person from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport; or by phone at 707-263-3095.
Tickets will also be available at the Soper Reese Theatre box office starting at 2 p.m. before the concert on Sunday.
This is the 11th fire benefit concert produced by Spotlight On Productions in partnership with The Time Bank of Thrive Lake County. Event updates are on Facebook: Lake County Fire Recovery Benefits. For questions call 707-278-7126.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Evolutionary Blues... West Oakland's Music Legacy Trailer from KTOP TV-10 on Vimeo.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Join Lake County Community Radio for the only Lake County screening of the powerful film documentary, “Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland’s Music Legacy.”The film will be shown only on Friday, July 13, at 5:30 p.m., in the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum, 16435 Main St.
The film is based on evidence revealed in the book, “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Isabel Wilkerson.
The great migration of six million black Americans from the Jim Crow South to the urban centers of the West Coast, Midwest and East Coast oversaw disparate, yet similar musical trends that followed the inhabitants to their destinations.
This film traces the development of the West Coast Blues; specifically, the blues that evolved on postwar Seventh Street in Oakland.
The cast includes over 30 people including Bay Area musicians Alabama Mike, D’wayne Wiggins, The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, Freddie Hughes, Fantastic Negrito, John Turk, Wylie Trass, Lenny Williams, Lady Bianca, Marvin Holmes, Ricky Vincent, Bob Geddins, Jr., Sugar Pie DeSanto and author Isabel Wilkerson.
The soundtrack includes music from Big Mama Thornton, Fantastic Negrito, Sugar Pie DeSanto, L.C. “Good Rockin’” Robinson, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Talbot & De Thangs, Omar Sharriff, Marvin Holmes, Sonny Rhodes and Jimmy Reed.
The film also sports stunning archival still and video footage from public and private sources.
Immediately following the screening will be a Q & A featuring the film’s Director, Cheryl Fabio, and writer, T. Watts. Refreshments will be served.
This event is a benefit for KPFZ, Lake County Community Radio. Tickets are $12.50 for KPFZ members and $15 for non-members. They can be purchased at Watershed Books, 305 N. Main Street in Lakeport, or the studios of KPFZ 149 N. Main Street in Lakeport.
For more information, call 707-365-5503 or 707-995-3565.
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. – If you’re a Francophile and even if you’re not (but you love parties), the Soper Reese Theatre invites you to a Bastille Fête on Sunday, July 15, at 3 p.m. to celebrate France’s national holiday, Bastille Day.
This afternoon of French-themed fun includes live music, dancing, surprise guests, food á la française, wine and song.
Wear your favorite French outfit, bring your worst French accent and get ready for a rousing sing-along of the French national anthem.
Lake County's own minstrel group, My Divas, will open the day's activities.
Headliner the French Oak Gypsy Band gives a fresh spin on French and American Swing Era classics with a repertoire from French Chanson, Gypsy Jazz, Dixieland Jazz.
North Bay vocalist Stella Heath and French/American guitar player Gabriel Pirard lead this group of gypsies in their undeniably fun performances. Reed player James Inciardi rounds out the group.
With their French-inspired sound, spotlighting Heath’s magnetic vocals and the band’s tight rhythms they'll transport you straight into the bygone era of swing.
Tickets are now on sale for $25, $20 and $15. All seats are reserved. The dance floor will be open and dancing is encouraged, mais oui!
Tickets can be purchased online at www.soperreesetheatre.com or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-0577.
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- Written by: Soper Reese Theatre
John Foy is a poet living in New York whose book, Night Vision, published by St. Augustine's Press, was the winner of The New Criterion Poetry Prize.
I especially like this leisurely, conversational account of a walk in the woods that just at the end lifts its eyes and looks into a deeper place beyond the particulars.
Woods
I took the dog and went to walk
in the auditorium of the woods,
but not to get away from things.
It was our habit, that was all,
a thing we did on summer days,
and much there was to listen to.
A slight wind came and went
in three birches by the pond.
A crow uphill was going on
about the black life it led,
and a brown creeper went creeping up
a brown trunk methodically
with no record of ever having
been understood by anyone.
A woodpecker was working out
a deep hole from the sound of it
in a stand of dead trees up there.
And then a jay, much put upon,
complained about some treachery
it may or may not have endured,
though most are liars anyway.
The farther in, the quieter,
till only the snapping of a stick
broke the silence we were in.
The dog stood still and looked at me,
the woods by then already dark.
Much later, on the porch at night,
I heard the owl, an eldritch thing.
The dog, still with me, heard it too,
a call that came from where we'd been,
and where we would not be again.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by John Foy, "Woods," from Night Vision, (St. Augustine's Press, 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of John Foy and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2018 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser