San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘A sense of adventure’
Orchestrated by Matt Mcbane, the Carlsbad Music Festival returns with its trademark diversity of sounds
Matt Mcbane really means it when he says he likes to mix things up. This weekend’s 17th Annual Carlsbad Music Festival proves it. There will be Afro-cuban jazz, bluegrass, chamber music, Senegalese kora playing, Mexican son jarocho and much more.
“I try not to segregate types of music — we want to give a sense of adventure to audience members,” said Mcbane, the festival’s artistic director and a Carlsbad native who lives in Brooklyn when not working here on the annual event.
Last year’s festival, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, would have been the 17th. The festival skipped a year, but not a beat.
The 2021 edition will be held entirely outdoors Friday through next Sunday at St. Michael’s bythe-sea and Magee Park.
“Being outdoors should give people a sense of security,” said Mcbane, whose own band, Matt Mcbane + Build, performs Saturday.
Two food trucks will be at the festival each day, and an artisan market will feature about 15 booths.
Punk poet
On Sunday evening, Los Angeles guitarist-vocalist Sunny War will perform.
In a recent interview, she recalled coming to San Diego years ago to busk on the streets for donations.
“Sometimes I would take the train from L.A. and hang out there, mostly in Ocean Beach,” said War, 30. “One time I got invited to play at Artwalk, right by the beach.”
Praised for her distinctive finger-picking guitar style, she considers herself a poet more than a musician.
In high school, War learned to play Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train.” She discovered Chet Atkins and listened frequently to Mississippi John Hurt.
While some label her a folkblues singer, War brings another sensibility to her music. A onetime teen runaway with a history of drug abuse — and a keen observer of social ills — she loves punk rock. Her first group was a punk band, but with acoustic instruments and no amps.
“I want to sound like a blues player with lyrics like Black Flag’s,” she said with a laugh.
That isn’t that far from the truth. Her new album, “Simple Syrup,” is bluesy with insightful, socially aware lyrics that can move and provoke listeners.
One of its songs, “Its Name Is Fear,” was written in the first few confusing months of the pandemic, when misinformation was creating paranoia. Another, “Losing Hand,” expresses the pain of her own past, when she lived on the streets.
Born Sydney Ward to a single mom in Nashville, she started learning guitar at 7. After moving to L.A. when she was a teen, her regular hangout was Venice Beach. Eventually, she moved to San Francisco and traveled with gutter punks.
“When I was in Northern California, I was drinking myself to death,” she recalled.
The only time she ate during that time, she said, was at the East Bay chapter of Foods Not Bombs. Now settled in downtown L.A. and clean from drugs for 11 years, War can’t unsee the homeless.
“In L.A., I made a fuss on Instagram about the homeless here and said we should start a chapter. At first, I was totally overwhelmed. But people came together and now we serve 100 vegan meals every Wednesday.”
‘Different ways of listening’
Born and raised in Pakistan, Arooj Aftab is a Brooklyn-based composer-singer, whose CD “Vulture Prince” was among Pitchfork’s Best New Albums of 2021. One of her pieces, “Mohabbat,” landed on former President Barack Obama’s playlist this summer.
California native Gyan Riley is featured on “Vulture Prince” but is coming to the Carlsbad Music Festival for his own gig. The New York-based guitarist-composer, known for his wide-ranging collaborations and compositions, is the son of pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley.
Shahzad Ismaily plays electric bass, guitar, drums, percussion and synthesizers. Born in the U.S. to Pakistani immigrants, Ismaily has worked with many notable musicians, including Elvis Costello and Laurie Anderson. Last month, he appeared in Bob Dylan’s mysterious streamed concert called “Shadow Kingdom.”
Most performers at the Carlsbad Music Festival will have far less travel time.
Steph Richards Power Vibe is led by genre-busting trumpetercomposer and University of California San Diego professor Steph Richards. Its members include harpist Tasha Smith Godinez, violist Amy Cimini and drummer Andrew Munsey.
Of the many local artists at this year’s festival, only two appeared at the 2019 edition: Trouble in the Wind and the Chunky Hustle Brass Band. It has become a festival tradition for Chunky Hustle to cavort through the streets of Carlsbad with its New Orleansstyle second-line parade music.
“People may come for one band they want to hear,” Mcbane said. “They’ll scratch that itch and then they walk around and open their ears to a new style. We present different ways of listening. Some music makes you want to dance. With other music, you sit back and listen with your ears and head.”