From Bluegrass to Quaking Lit

I thought I was too cool for Blue Grass, but now I think Blue Grass is too cool for me. If you haven’t been to San Francisco’s free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, you are certainly missing something special. Okay, it’s not entirely special since still living dead heads roam the greens hoping to reclaim this fest as another tradition to drop acid to. It’s a bit sad to see these kind people clad in their colorful, hemp attire dance mystically to the roots rock of Drive By Truckers, but it’s also so damn San Francisco. The three days of music in Golden Gate park featured the unlikely and hardly bluegrass sounds of Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson and the aforementioned Drive By Truckers. I also got a chance to see the very folksy and yes bluegrassy Freakwater that strangely appear on the indie hip label, Thrill Jockey. I can see why that label jumped the hip train to record these folks. They are genuine and beautifully harmonious. My favorite moment at the fest was watching Richard Thompson. His guitar playing was amazing. I’ve never been a huge Fairport Convention fan, but I do realize their importance as 60’s Brit music innovators. Thompson put on an hour long folky extraveganza that dwarfed the prior perfromance by Costello. Add to this scene a beautiful, cloudless SF day.

Last night I attended SF’s unique Lit Crawl and loved every minute of Oscar Villalon’s reading at 826 Valencia from his new ‘booklet’ titled, The Way of the Thumb, a facetious account of the 826 three time crowned thumb wrestling champ. Villalon is the book review editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. The reading was followed by a thumb wrestling demonstration and thumb battle royal. The night started with a very sweet story by Tom Kealey who read his piece about volunteering at 826. Two wonderful students followed with their poetry. Later on my wife and I attended McSweeney’s and The Believer reading at 12 Galaxies which was packed. We could barely hear the readers who were at times interrupted by a drunken, literate jock who made loud, hollering yelps as if the on stage poet were expected to play Free Bird. The after party at the Elbo Room was filled with writers I could not identify, but the noise level and impossibility of ordering a drink required us to turn in early.

From the mailbag:

The Rewinds emerged from the Birmingham, Alabama music scene with their creative blend of southern power pop rock. Focused on well-crafted songwriting and influenced by the likes of Paul Westerberg, Guided by Voices, Big Star, Sloan and Superdrag, The Rewinds bring brilliant melodies and hummable hooks to their supercharged live show infecting the audience with their rock and roll energy.  Check them out at: www.myspace.com/therewinds.

The Rewinds features band members Michael Shackleford (vox/guitar), Glenn Drennen (vox/lead guitar), Brooks Marks (drums/vox) and Chris Markham (bass). Mastered by Emily Lazar (The Shins, Third Eye Blind, Depeche Mode, The Stills) at The Lodge in New York, The Rewinds self-titled debut was released on June 6th by Livewire Recordings/Ryko.