Story by by Jean Brandon
Photos by Derek Brandon

Personnel:

Kathy Kallick Band: Kathy Kallick (guitar / vocals), Brian Wicklund (fiddle), Tom Bekeny (mandolin), Amy Stenberg (bass / harmony vocals, Avram Seagal (from local band True Blue) played banjo.

Open Road: Bradford Lee Folk (guitar, vocals), Caleb Roberts (mandolin, vocals), Eric Thorin (bass, vocals), Paul Lee (fiddle) and Keith Reed (banjo).

The Great American Music Hall is an historic, old theatre from the turn of the last century, in down town San Francisco. The Victorian interor is quite dark and splendid, with dark maroon velvet furnishings and ornate gold Baroque decoration, all complemented by it's curtained balconies. Downstairs there is a bar and near the stage there are tables, some near the front being set for dining for those who have booked it in advance. It's like stepping back into the past, very much as I would imagine a Victorian Theatre Dining Club to be.

We arrived quite early to be sure of a good table near the front but there was no danger; we were the first in line. The doors opened at 7-30 for the performance at eight. There wasn't a huge crowd considering that Kathy Kallick is very well known and respected in the Bluegrass community but there were competing events.

The Kathy Kallick Band

Surprisingly, the Kathy Kallick Band opened the evening and proved to be a very professional looking outfit of very competent musicians. Kathy writes and performs many of her own songs along with some traditional Bluegrass ones and some updated Old Timey material.

Their opening number was the mid-tempo The Road is Rocky, which had a good, solid, tight sound. Other offerings included Burn Down The House with tasty banjo breaks from Avram Seagal. No fireworks but good solid Bluegrass nonetheless.

Introducing My Native Home Kathy explained that it was written as a tribute to her folk-singer mother, who doubtless would would have approved the excellent vocal colour and instrumentation that followed. There was some great bass from Amy Sternberg providing a good solid foundation (but shame about the cardigan, Amy...) Next came Down Yonder featuring Brian Wicklund on fiddle, and... Wow! What an awesome song! In fact he did an excellent job throughout the set, providing strong, moody, bluesy fiddle.

Amy sang one of her own compositions, Red Meat in The Compost.flloed by Sleeping in Sweet Peace and Rustlers Moon (which is another of Kathy's own songs).

Note the ornate woodwork!

Kathy plays superb guitar back-up; an elegant sufficiency (or, as our friend Bob Brown would put it, "An elephant sufficiently,") of notes with not a hint of flash, but so effective! This was simly solid, class Bluegrass! I was very impressed.

Tom Bekeny's main contribution was Metropolis Blues, which benefitted from excellent teamwork. In my opinion this is one of the reasons why this band is so successful; would-be performers please take note! Clever musicianship alone does not an entertaining performance make.

Later, Kathy joined Open Road

Kathy sang another of her own songs, The Messenger, which was enhanced by the great trio harmonies, as was I'm The One Who's Walking In My Shoes. "Even banjo players write some of their own stuff," said Kathy, as she introduced Avram Seagal. He then played A Dirty Riff, which was one of them.

Waterbound, sung by Kathy, is an old timey tune but this was a non-trad, superb version with a swinging fiddle break from Brian Wicklund. All in all it was good solid stuff!

At the 'merchandise' table we met Kathy's husband Peter Thompson, a very pleasant guy who obviously does stalwart work for the band. He also presented me with a copy of Kathy's latest CD so that makes him a Special Good Guy too... Derek went backstage to meet Open Road and was very impressed by the way that they clearly know how to co-operate in posing for photos. His advice is "Always help the guy who is going to help promote you..." Anything can happen if you don't.

Open Road

Big smiles always help...
Make the reader feel happy!

The second half featured Open Road, which our daughter Pam had seen at the Strawberry Music Festival and was keen to see again. Mostly the band members are quite young but it is a very traditional Bluegrass Band. They have a good, tight set up, performing round one mike... and don't they do it well! Very, very Bluegrassy with a truly traditional sound! They also looked the part in white stetsons, grey pants, white shirts and ties, creating a very smooth and professional appearance. This uniform combined with instinctive choreography around one mike greatly enhanced their stage presence.

How tightly can you pack???

A lot of their material is their own but it actually sounds ancient! The young guitar player, Bradford Lee Folk, writes many of the songs (as we learned from his dad who we were sat behind; he was justly proud of Bradford Lee!)

They had a problem with a cracked guitar bridge but the mandolin player nonchalantly re-tuned the guitar whilst Brad continued playing - they didn't miss a stroke! The vocal sound was like an echo through time with the guitar player's high lonesome tenor striking through. Boy, did they work that mike as they wove in, out, round and about. There were lots of Flatt and Scruggs nembers, and a great version of Reuben's Train.

Twin fiddles with Megan Lynch

After a short break they invited young San Francisco fiddler Megan Lynch up on stage and she and Paul Lee played twin fiddles to great effect. It was obvious that the band wanted to play all night but the venue wished to close at 11 p.m., so they invited Kathy Kallick and Avram Seagal back up on stage to finished the night with Blue Night and Cold Wind. The crowd went wild!

I must confess to being thoroughly mesmerised by their talent and sheer enthusiasm. It was a superb performance from Open Road! Open Road Website

Jean Brandon, Chester.

26 June 2004