The Sweetwater Music Hall – Mill Valley’s venerable live music institution and one of the most exciting live music venues in Bay Area history – continues to curate and spotlight incredible bands.
And as usual, the Sweetwater team is inviting in a series of holiday season shows that seek to both get us all in the holiday spirit and get us up and out to shake our respective tail feathers.
First up is longtime local legend Lorin Rowan’s Deep Blue Christmas Jam at the Sweetwater on Dec. 13th, featuring a dynamite group of musicians, including Mookie Siegel, Kirk Casey, Dick Bright, Eric McCann and Matt Willis.
Three days later on Dec. 16th, fellow local stalwart Jason Crosby links up with ALO, including Lebo, Steve Adams, and Ezra Lipp, to help Crosby interpret the material at both shows – a Holiday Tribute to Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas – Dec. 17th, 1pm & 7pm. MORE INFO & BUY TIX.
On December 21st, the Christmas Jug Band with special guest Kathy Kennedy – lead singer with Big Bang Beat, Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra and Mickey Thomas Starship plays an all-ages show. The Christmas Jug Band returns to bring you your musical holiday wackiness, with Paul Rogers, Greg Dewey, Tim Eschliman, Snakebite Jacobs, Candy Girard, Paul Robinson and Blake Richardson. This show, WHICH includes performers from Dan Hicks’ Hot Licks and Back pOrchEstra, features mostly CJB numbers including the single, “Christmas On the Moon,” poking fun at space billionaires, plus a good handful of Dan Hicks’ humorous holiday tunes. MORE INFO & BUY TIX.
Muldaur is best known world-wide for her 1974 mega-hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” which received several Grammy nominations, and enshrined her forever in the hearts of Baby Boomers everywhere; but despite her considerable pop music success, her 56-plus year career could best be described as a long and adventurous odyssey through the various forms of American Roots Music. During the Folk Revival of the early ’60s, she began exploring and singing early Blues, Bluegrass and Appalachian “Old Timey” Music, beginning her recording career in 1963 with the Even Dozen Jug Band and shortly thereafter, joining the very popular Jim Kweskin Jug Band, touring and recording with them throughout the ’60s.
In the 47 years since “Midnight at the Oasis,” Muldaur has toured extensively worldwide and has recorded 43 solo albums covering all kinds of American Roots Music, including Gospel, R&B, Jazz and Big Band (not to mention several award-winning children’s albums). She has now settled comfortably into her favorite idiom, the Blues. Often joining forces with some of the top names in the business, Maria has recorded and produced on-average an album per year, several of which have been nominated for Grammys and other awards. MORE INFO & TIX.