:B@60 DON’T FORGET‌WE SERVE FOOD TOO!
Mc Near’s Dining House Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner BBQ • Pasta • Steak THURS 2/18 • ALL AGES • FREE ALL STAR JAM + RAFFLE
DINE, DANCE, DONATE BENEFIT FOR HAITI RELIEF www.restaurantshelpinghaiti.com FRI 2/19 • 8:00PM DOORS • $25 ADV/$30 DOS • 21+ REGGAE
THE KINGDOM OF ZION TOUR
ALBOROSIE & THE SHENGEN CLAN SAT 2/20 • 7:00PM DOORS • $20 BALCONY/$25 FLOOR • 16+ COMEDY
LOOKING FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE TOUR
GALLAGHER SUN 2/21 • 7:30PM DOORS • $25 • ALL AGES FUNK/BLUES/HIP HOP
G LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE WITH REDEYE EMPIRE TUE 2/23 • 7:00PM DOORS • $30 ADV/$32 DOS • 18+ JAZZ
AN EVENING WITH
MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD WED 2/24 • 7:00PM DOORS • $25 • 21+ FOLK/BLUES
186 3033H Ray Wylie Hubbard calls his drinking years ‘a really bad Tennessee Williams play.’
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Ray Wylie Hubbardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard lessons from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Up Against the Wallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
JORMA KAUKONEN PLUS GE SMITH SUN 2/28 â&#x20AC;˘ 8:00PM DOORS â&#x20AC;˘ $25 â&#x20AC;˘ 21+ JAM BAND
CB-3
(CHRIS BERRY TRIO) WITH SPECIAL GUEST
STEVE KIMOCK TUE 3/2 â&#x20AC;˘ 7:00PM DOORS â&#x20AC;˘ $20 â&#x20AC;˘ 21+ ACOUSTIC/JAZZ/NU-JAZZ
ACOUSTIC ALCHEMY FRI 3/5 â&#x20AC;˘ 7:00PM DOORS â&#x20AC;˘ $15 â&#x20AC;˘ 21+ SIBERIA ROCK
IGOR & RED ELVISES SAT 3/6 â&#x20AC;˘ 7:00PM DOORS â&#x20AC;˘ $25 â&#x20AC;˘ 21+ R&B/ROCK
SONS OF CHAMPLIN PLUS WILL CHAMPLIN
For All Ages Shows â&#x20AC;˘ No Children Under 10 Allowed
23 Petaluma Blvd, Petaluma
707-765-2121 www.mcnears.com 38
02.17.10-02.23.10
THE BOHEMIAN
By Bruce Robinson
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ost songwriters are hardpressed to explain where their music comes from. Ray Wylie Hubbard once summed it up as an equation: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inspiration and craft plus time and effort minus fear and doubt, multiplied by purpose equals song.â&#x20AC;? That summation appeared in his comments about the songs of his 2001 release, Eternal and Lowdown, but it could be applied just as accurately to his newest CD, a powerful, stripped-down set with the unwieldy title A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C). â&#x20AC;&#x153;I still believe that,â&#x20AC;? he affirms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Removing your fear and doubtâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is so important, because then you have the freedom to find that inner creativity to write about whatever you want to.â&#x20AC;? For Hubbard, a seasoned practitioner, that compositional urge can be triggered by anything from a tornado he experienced as a child to the simple satisfaction of beating on a pan with a stick. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, I can drive by a snake farm and write a song,â&#x20AC;? he laughs, referring to the title song of his previous record, Snake Farm. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I can find inspiration. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all around, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re conscious of itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;just look around
and see something thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting,â&#x20AC;? he continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So yeah, I can write a song about pretty much anythingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;wasp nests, opium, the Four Horsemen. This album kinda proves it, doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it?â&#x20AC;? With a song devoted to each of those subjects, A. Enlightenment readily confirms that assessment, while applying spare, sometimes strongly percussive musical settings to his plainspoken observations. The feral rhythms of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pots and Pansâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whoop and Hollarâ&#x20AC;? evoke the primal field workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; chants recorded by musical anthropologist Alan Lomax some 70 years ago, while songs like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Down Home Country Blues,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Drunken Poetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dreamâ&#x20AC;? and the title track ride on surging, full-band treatments. At the same time, the arid emptiness of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Opiumâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypseâ&#x20AC;? seems rooted in the dustbowl plains where Hubbard grew up, steeped also in the rich imagery and musical traditions of the Southern church. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite understand what was going on at the time, but I could see the power of it,â&#x20AC;? he reflects. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So it still stays with me.â&#x20AC;? Now 65, Hubbard says heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been making music ever since â&#x20AC;&#x153;I made that decision back in my 20s that I was going to hang my life on this old guitar,â&#x20AC;? he says. But for a long time, his only claim to fame as a writer was a rowdy half-joke popularized by Jerry Jeff Walker. Hubbardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Up Against the Wall, Redneck Motherâ&#x20AC;? became his musical albatross. For years after it appeared on Walkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breakthrough Viva Terlinuga record, he elaborates, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d go into a club and people would say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Play â&#x20AC;&#x153;Redneck Mother,â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d play it. Then Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another song I wrote,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d go, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Play â&#x20AC;&#x153;Redneck Motherâ&#x20AC;? again.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? But heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s since made peace with the old tune. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now today, it fits in my arsenal very well, because I have all these other songs. I enjoy it now. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good card to have in your hand, a trump card.â&#x20AC;? Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the only thing he sees differently these days, two decades into what could be characterized as the second act in his biography. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yeah, the first act was a really bad Tennessee Williams play,â&#x20AC;? he admits. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Either that or Paradise Lost, I suppose. Up until I turned 41. On my 41st birthday, I got clean and sober. The second act, the last 20 years, has been a really good act.â&#x20AC;? Hubbard attributes his turnaround to the dual circumstances of hitting â&#x20AC;&#x153;emotional, mental, physical and spiritual bottom,â&#x20AC;? and the timely intercession of fellow Texas musician Stevie Ray Vaughn. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Stevie was the first guy Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d seen who had gotten sober but still had an incredible edge to him,â&#x20AC;? Ray recalls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I realized Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d had all the fun I could stand and it was time to change my thinking. Try to have that psychic change that they talk about. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;Cause if I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, I probably wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be here now. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I have the tools today to play the game in a positive way,â&#x20AC;? he continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a quote from my wife: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The days that I can keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; So thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what I try to do.â&#x20AC;? Ray Wylie Hubbard plays with Mary Gauthier on Friday, Feb. 26, at the Sebastopol Community Center. 390 Morris St., Sebastopol. 8pm. $25â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$30. 707.829.7067.