Carolyn Sills (wrap-up)

By Greg Pool
Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by Carolyn Sills to Tree House Concerts (pictures and after-show interview/encore

* Our last concert of the year featured a local 40's and 50's singer, Carolyn Sills, from Santa Cruz, where she has performed as Patsy Cline.

* It was also a chance to have my friend, Charlie Wallace, play dobro. Our only other chance was back in 2005, when I almost got him to play in the band Camp Danger, who opened for Sherry Austin.

* Carolyn's band also featured Jerry Logan on bass and Carloyn's husband, Gerard Egan on guitar.

* Charlie plays guitar and pedal steel but used his lap steel last June for a project I'm working on called "Birdie In The Hole," about the CSUMB Men's Golf team winning the 2011 NCAA National Championship.

* If you were admiring Jerry's bolo tie, it's probably because he made himself! And like a dork, I forgot to ask him what kind of stone it was (I'm a recovering geologist), but I'm guessing from the purple red color that it was either amethyst or garnet.

* We had a couple of six year-old girls in the house, and the first few songs got their attention before they went off to play. My daughter came out, though, when Carolyn dedicated and sang "Mele Kalikimaka," which I had been working on this week on the ukulele for the big 1st Grade holiday party.

* It probably helped Carolyn's dedication that I was wearing my only "cowboy" shirt, which was decorated with the islands of Hawai'i.

* Below is a video of "Tacos, Enchiladas and Beans," the old Doris Day song, which Charlie introduced as the "the three wise men," just to fit it into the holiday spirit. If you watch this video in YouTube (click the YouTube icon in the bottom right), you will find a "snow" icon to let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Keith Greeninger & Dayan Kai (wrap-up)

By Greg Pool
Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by  Keith Greeninger & Dayan Kai to Tree House Concerts (pictures and after-show interview/encore

* This concert was entirely because Juliet wanted both Keith and Dayan to play our house in celebration of our seventh wedding anniversary. Some of you may remember when I proposed at a house concert in 2004!

* We've had Keith at our concert series twice before, once in 2005 when we lived in Pacific Grove and then again in 2009 when we started up our concerts in Carmel Valley Village.

* Dayan was a real bonus. He grew up in San Juan Bautista but had recently moved up to eastern Washington, so he's been a little harder to book. Now he's back in the Monterey Bay area, and it was a real treat to have him join Keith.

* We also had a surprise visit from Steve Uccello's on bass. He was high school buddies with Dayan, and he's also a graduate of the music program at Cal State Monterey Bay.

* It was a busy and fulfilling night, because there was such a demand we actually booked Keith & Dayan to play two shows for a total of 80 guests in Carmel Valley Village.

* The second show was later that evening, just down the road but still in the Village. Our friends Laura  & John Siletto hosted and drew from their circle of friends.

* I grew up with Laura in Monterey, and she was responsible for me booking The Rayburn Brothers back in 2009.

* And since we've recorded two podcasts with Keith, he was gracious enough to give up the after-show interview and encore to Dayan and Steve. You can still hear Keith in the background on that third song, belting it away. But as this performance shows, Dayan is good enough to book solo.

* Here's a video from the afternoon show, and here's the original video Keith talks about.

Direct link

Molly's Revenge (wrap up)

By Greg Pool

Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by Molly's Revenge to Tree House Concerts (pictures and after-show interview/encore):

* This was the lads' second visit to our concert series. They were only our fifth concert back in 2004!

* Although their music is upbeat Celtic, they're all living in and around Central California. Stuart Mason (guitar, mandolin) is down in Los Osos. David Brewer (pipes, whistles) is in Boulder Creek. Pete Haworth (bouzouki) is in Soquel. And John Weed (fiddle) is living right here ... in Carmel Valley!

* John and Stuart are also in the trad band Little Black Train and play around California a bunch.

* This was a special afternoon, because Pete recently announced his retirement from the band. This 2011 tour will be his last, so we were lucky to have seen him in his youth and prime. Thank you, Pete!

* One of the funnier moments was when the band egged on the crowd to "like" their fan page on Facebook so they could exceed 1,000 likes. They were already at 982 ... and it worked!

* If you are transfixed with the female singer on their latest cd "Aged 10 Years" then you've just experienced the amazing Moira Smiley.

* We were back and forth all week on whether an unusually cool June rain would force us inside, but despite the hazy sun we had a wonderful time in the back yard. Where did our summer go?

* Here's a glimpse of the band at the end of their second set:

Berkley Hart (wrap up)

By Greg Pool

Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by Berkley Hart to Tree House Concerts (pictures and after-show interview/encore):

* We discovered Jeff Berkley and Calman Hart in 2006 at a music convention in Sacramento (FARWest). I had the rare opportunity to hear them play for just me in a small room, and I was knocked out. 

* We had almost had these guys booked in 2010 but the tour fell through. Glad we stayed in touch!

* Jeff and Calman came up from San Diego, where they are big Padres (baseball) fans. They were at Plaza Linda last year when the Giants and Padres went down to the last day of the season, but they had to play a gig.

* They mentioned we could probably book the Giants third base coach, Tim Flannery, who joined them for their gig the next night in Santa Cruz.

* Best moment was when all the kids came up for Calman's song, "Big Bad Barbie Doll".

* Here's a glimpse at the duo.

Raina Rose (wrap up)

By Greg Pool

Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by Raina Rose, Andrew Pressman and Jack Wilson to Tree House Concerts on (pictures and after-show interview/encore):

* We first learned about Raina in 2006 at a music industry convention up in Sacramento. She was walking around barefoot, and I caught a glimpse of her ankle tattoo, which looks a lot like our logo!

* She brought a bass player from Austin, Texas, Andrew Pressman, but it turned out he grew up in Carmel Valley!

* We made it a point to tell our five-year old daughter, Sonoma, that Andrew went to the same elementary school as she does.

* Later on Sonoma fell asleep to Raina in the second set, telling Juliet, "her voice is so beautiful."

* The show was a wonderful excuse for Andrew to bring out Raina to meet the family because they had just gotten engaged (as we found out a few weeks later on Facebook). Congrats!

* Jack Wilson was a very special guest that night, and Raina let him take time to sing a couple of his songs. He also appeared on the after-show podcast. Here's a video of Jack performing "Fell Inside" at our house (courtesy of Ross Hendrickson).

* For the encore that night, Raina had local attorney Richard Rosen come up on harmonica (photo).

* Here's a video from the first set of "Act of God", which both I and Ross Hendrickson independently shot at the same time and put up on YouTube. I think Ross had the better camera!