A Veritable Folk Festival This Weekend on the Westside;
14 Below Serves up Some Secret Fish

by Tomm Carroll

Friday, Jan. 24 - Thurs., Jan. 30 -- This is Super Bowl weekend, when the best gridiron warriors of the recently concluded pro-football season do battle in San Diego. But here on the Westside of Los Angeles, it's a Super Bowl of sorts for Folk Music this Friday and Saturday, with some of the genre's top musicians -- both old guard and new -- performing on area stages.

The main event takes place Saturday night on the UCLA campus with "Washington Square Memoirs" when Westwood Village becomes Greenwich Village. Taking its name -- and inspiration -- from a recent 3-CD anthology of New York folk innovators from the late '50s and early '60s, the show features four legendary musicians who'll transform the college's hallowed Royce Hall into the biggest coffee house around!

Meet this weekend's Fab Folk Four. Tom Paxton is the author of such by-now-standards as "The Last Thing on My Mind" and "Bottle of Wine." Loudon Wainwright III inflected the music with humor and a skewering wit and still performs frequently today -- as a musician and as an actor. Mike Seeger is the half brother of folk icon Pete as well as a musicologist and co-founder of the New Lost City Ramblers. And John Hammond, a modern-day bluesman, has been using his formidable talents of late to forge blues interpretations of the music of Tom Waits. And with the possibility of a war looming, you can bet your original pressing of Blonde on Blonde that there'll be some protest songs included in their sets!

Young Folk: A contemporary version of the great Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris duo, singer-songwriter Johnny Irion and third-generation folkie Sarah Lee Guthrie (Arlo's daughter, Woody's grandaughter) headline Santa Monica's own House of Folk, aka McCabe's Guitar Shop, Friday night. Opening the show is local cowboy and singer-songwriter Mike Stinson, whose acclaimed debut album is entitled Jack Of All Heartache. Think of this show as a warm-upt for "Washington Square Memoirs" the next night.

Saturday evening, McCabe's welcomes Susan Werner, the accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist who will transfix the crowd with her disarming wit, unique charm and sheer beauty. At least that's what her publicity says.

Other shows of note this week include:

Friday

Reggae riddims resound at Santa Monica's Temple Bar when Burning Star and Spirit Level get the crowd a' skankin'.

Fans of Brazilian percussion can take lessons from Samba Lá, and then stick around for the group's floor show tonight at Zabumba in West L.A.

Saturday

The L.A. Guitar Quartet's Scott Tennant goes solo with his six-string at Culver City's Boulevard Music. On Sunday, he even conducts a workshop at the music shop/concert space.

Tony-winner Faith Prince belts out the Broadway showtunes at The Smothers Theatre on the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu.

Rockin' out at Rusty's Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier are Band Name of the Week Shut Up Marie, Blueshead and the pseudonymical Alan Smithee Band.

Sunday

Recover from your Super Bowl hangover tonight with DJs Garth Trinidad and Mr. French, spinning the hip sounds for "One Way" at Santa Monica's Zanzibar.

Monday

Sax-sation and flute-fly-guy Charles Owens leads his group for a couple shows at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City.

Tuesday

At Johnny Foxx's in West L.A., groove to the Latin sounds of "Salsabor y Cache" with Rogelio Moreno.

Wednesday

Oh My God! It's the Last Easy Year at Santa Monica's 14 Below this evening.

The Battle of the Bands continues at Rusty's; tonight's bout: Zero Worship vs. The Gnads.

Thursday

The closest you're likely to come to experiencing the late, great Janis Joplin live is a show by Christina Vierra and her Whippin' Boys, at Harvelle's, Santa Monica's own Home of the Blues.

PICK OF THE WEEK

PICK OF THE WEEK
FISHBONE
14 BELOW, SANTA MONICA
SATURDAY, JANUARY 25

Psssst! The secret is out! Returning to the scene of the crime -- Santa Monica, that is -- L.A.'s premier ska-punk-funk outfit of the 1980s, Fishbone are scheduled to make an unbilled appearance as the headlining act tonight for 14 Below's pre-Super Bowl par-tay. Think of it as a Christmas present…only a month late! Hey, maybe they'll do "Slick Nick."

You may recall that the 'boners recently released a live disc entitiled Fishbone Live at the Temple Bar and More, on which they fired off such such musical missles as "Down Boy," "Stank 'n Go Nutts," "Premadawnutt" and "The Devil Made Me Do It." But this time, they'll have a bit more space to bounce off the walls (and more of the audience will be able to fit in for the show) than at the tiny Temple Bar. Not that 14 Below is all that spacious. This show WILL be packed like, well, sardines - but with bones.

Nowadays, Fishbone consists of founding members Angelo Moore (vocals, saxophone, theremin), Norwood Fisher (vocals, bass) and Walter Kibby II (vocals, pocket trumpet), as well as Spacey T (guitars) and John Steward (drums). Serving as starters for the main musical course of flaming Fishbone are Gracious and The Uptown Rulers.