San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Famous friends share favorite moments
Stick around for 50 years, and some cool stuff is bound to happen. In the case of landmark Mill Valley music venue Sweetwater Music Hall, that meant regular jam sessions featuring rock royalty, open-mike nights filled with soon-to-be-famous faces, and the knowledge that if you were in the crowd, you were one of very few people witnessing history playing out onstage.
As part of Sweetwater’s golden anniversary festivities, which includes more than a dozen concerts at the storied music hall, a collection of posters, photographs and archival multimedia from the personal collection of former owner Jeanie Patterson will be on display outside the Mill Valley Public Library’s Lucretia Little History Room. Additional exhibits are slated to go up at Mill Valley Book Depot and the downtown location of Equator Coffees.
It’s a full Sweetwater takeover, and even with a calendar flush with offerings throughout Mill Valley, Sweetwater Executive Director Maria Hoppe suggests there may be a few surprises in store for fans who make their way to the venue this month.
“That’s the thing about Sweetwater,” she said, “it has the power to create these once-in-a-lifetime moments in live music that only happen in this room.”
To honor Sweetwater’s 50th anniversary, The Chronicle asked a few of the venue’s famous friends about their most cherished moments.
Fred Martin, Sweetwater Music Hall owner from 1972 to 1979
Fred Martin opened Sweetwater in downtown Mill Valley in 1972. Before he handed the reins to Jeanie Patterson in 1979, he enjoyed sitting in with saxophonist Jules Broussard during Broussard’s regular Sunday afternoon jam sessions, including a show featuring jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi.
“There was a time when Santana, members of the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Boz Scaggs, Van Morrison and Bill Graham all lived in Mill Valley, and we did a benefit for Bread & Roses (the Bay Area nonprofit performing arts organization). Vince Guaraldi provided the music. Another time, the staff wanted to do a T-shirt with the names of all the recording artists who had sat in with Jules. By the end, they had 100 names.”
Maria Muldaur, Mill Valley folk and blues singer
Maria Muldaur recorded her hit “Midnight at the Oasis” in 1973 and moved from New York City to Mill Valley five years later. As a local resident, she’s been performing at Sweetwater for more than 30 years. During that time, she’s even found herself plucked from the audience to take the stage on more than one occasion, like the time jazz guitarist JJ Cale beckoned Muldaur to join him — and then Dire Straits showed up.
“One night that stands out: the late great JJ
Cale was playing to a wall-to-wall packed house. He spotted me in the audience and invited me up to do a tune of his I’d recorded called ‘Cajun Moon.’ What a treat and a thrill for me. But as if that wasn’t enough, while we
were up there doing the tune, who walked in but the British band Dire Straits! Having just finished a big show in the city, they had rushed
out to Sweetwater to catch their idol, JJ Cale. The next thing I know, (Dire Straits frontman) Mark Knopfler and the other band members
were onstage, and I was invited to stay up there playing tambourine and singing harmonies with them till the end of the set. That’s just one of many magical moments that often happened at the Sweetwater.”
Michael Klein, board chair of Sweetwater Music Hall since 2012
Michael Klein’s role comes with some pretty sweet perks. They include booking Grateful Dead offshoot Further, featuring Bobby Weir and Phil Lesh, for a four-night run at the venue in 2013, and his wedding reception, which featured performances by Weir and country-rock artist J.D. Souther.
“Four nights of Further in the club, at their peak, was glorious. To see a band that big, sound-wise, in our little club, and to hear it sound so good, was a great feeling. It was like a (Grateful Dead) run at the Oakland Coliseum, without the cross-bay commute. The second, even more memorable night was when (my wife) Jackie and I had our wedding celebration at the club. Both Weir and J.D.
Souther played. Both sounded great and were incredibly gracious.”
Geoff Vaughan, bassist for Vinyl
Latin jazz, reggae, funk — Marin’s Vinyl does it all. A staple of the Bay Area music scene for more than two decades, Vinyl has maintained a Sweetwater tradition by hosting an annual party the night before Thanksgiving.
“When Jeanie Patterson invited Vinyl to play Sweetwater in 1996, we felt like we had arrived as a band. The walls of the club were adorned with photos of legends who had graced its intimate stage, and as a bunch of local guys whose band had formed in a garage a mile from the club, we were in awe but also inspired to bring a musical energy worthy of Sweetwater’s history. Our biggest takeaway from the more than 100 shows we played at the Throckmorton location has to be the sense of community and celebration that permeated those packed, sweaty gatherings. That same joyful, Sweetwater vibe has carried over to Vinyl’s yearly
Black Wednesday shows that continue at Sweetwater to this day.”
Zack Ruskin is a Bay Area freelance writer.