blakejonesmusic
local music, local arts, The Underground Garden

Over a dozen (actually, the count is now at 15!) local artists are contributing to this piece. The only guide lines are that they do their thing  on a 12″x12″ piece of wood that we provided, and that they use the idea of “Underground Garden” as their leaping off point. Adam wall (awesome blogger and woodworker) is going to assemble it all together. This   wonder-to-behold will be unveiled at our CD release party at Audie’s Olympic/Club Fred on Saturday, April 24th.
And what a party it will be!
Don’t miss this chance to see this unique work from this group of local area artists.

(pictured are works from Teresa Flores and Aileen Imperatrice.) 

Here’s the complete list of artists: Teresa Flores, Shannon Johnson, Aileen Imperatrice, Ross Garcia, MyCow, Monica Geigle, David Gomez, Grayson Soenke, Abolino Bautista, Donnalee Dunn, Jamie Meadows. Ole Scovill, Ramiro Martinez, Ed Stewart and Adam Wall.

The Rogue Festival has been over for about four days. I feel like I’m pretty much recovered from the wonderful but long days (and nights). This afternoon and evening I plan on doing as little as possible and enjoying the beautiful Spring day. [Nothing like relaxing on a back patio in the Central Valley in the Springtime with a cold drink of one's choice in hand.]

I count the talk-show Rogue Festival presentation: “The Underground Garden: scene-makers, tall-tales and Fresno rock ‘n roll” as a success.
Sure there were some rough edges, and the 45 minute limitations of the show made us wish we had more time to visit with these folks, but as a teaser of things to come and a pointer towards what such a show could develop into, I think it worked.
I also think it showed that there’s still a ways to go in meeting two main goals that I had for the show:

1) getting people excited about the decades-long musical heritage Central California has
and
2) to continue to explore and appreciate this metaphor of our local arts/music scene as an Underground Garden: a place where things can thrive, a place that is inter-connected, a place where new things can develop, a place that understands it’s history yet moves toward the future—even if it is still, for the moment under-explored and under-appreciated.

Underground Garden events still coming up:
*the completion of the Underground Garden cooperative art piece
(which now has MORE than a dozen local artists working on it)

*and the release party of our band’s album The Underground Garden at Audie’s Olympic Tavern (formerly Club Fred) on Saturday, April 24th.
—THIS show has more than a dozen *musical* guests slated to perform, as well as dancers, food, AND the debut of the above-mentioned art piece.

Stay tuned!

In keeping with this “underground garden” metaphor, I’d say this is the one time of the year where the local underground garden burbles up almost to the surface. (Maybe if I’d started with the metaphor “underground thermal mud pot” or “gyser”, that sentence would have worked better.)

But, in spite of my bad writing, it’s true. In these 10 days of the Rogue Fest, it seems that the extreme concentration of performers and their creativity and the audience that’s interested in such things just about breaks through to the general conciousness of our beloved sprawled-out town. For just a moment, we might skip our chain restaraunts and Hollywood blockbuster movies and see what kind of crazy thangs our neighbors and fellow Fresnans can dream up.

There’s some posts below (yours for a scroll-down) about what’s brewing in my own show. We launch the first episode tonight at Veni Vidi Vici at 7:30. This one concentrates on the local music scene of the 60′s and 70′s.

Come on out to the Rogue Festival! Bring a friend or two, and see what a deliriously delightful underground garden is blooming just under the surface of Central California.

Was it Ben Franklin, or was it Randolph Hearst or was it Johannes Genzfliesch zum Guttenburg that said “A newspaper unites a community”?

Music scenes are communities. Many small newspapers, zines and websites dedicated to Fresno music have risen up and disappeared over the years. In this episode, we talk to the people behind two of them: Gary Edwards (The Valley Music News [late 70's/early 80's]) and Josh Tehee (current editor at www.fresnofamous.com).

Bands need a place to play.
On this same bill is Freddie Martinez who took The Olympic Tavern in the 80′s and re-christened it:
Club Fred.

All three of these people are multi-faceted. Between them, they’ve written books, played in bands, ran record stores, ran rock clubs, organized music festivals, promoted gigs and fought fires.

Come to episode 2 of “The Underground Garden: scene-makers, tall-tales and Fresno rock n’ roll” at 3:30 on Sunday, March 7th to hear their stories.

Spinners Records (Gary's former business)

The 1,000 Faces of Tehee: writer,editor, punk rock singer, indie songwriter...