Blind Willies, Crowsong, Joel Streeter January 26, 2008

A great triple bill of original American music from three of San Francisco's top singer/songwriters.

BLIND WILLIES is virtuoso fiddler Annie Staninec and guitarist/singer/songwriter Alexei Wajchman. They're both SF School of the Arts graduates. Their 2007 album, The Unkindness of Ravens, is on DOA editor Jennifer Patton's 2007 Top 10 list. She wrote, "Blind Willies play incredibly wonderful music. Alexei is a remarkable songwriter whose lyrics go well beyond the average ramblings of most singer-songwriters. Annie's fiddle is the perfect accompaniment for Alexei and it's the soft wails from her instrument that really give this album an overall feel of quiet desperation. The great albums seem fewer and farther between each year. Blind Willies surprised me by bringing back that wide-eyed joyful feeling that I used to get from albums like this." Blind Willies will release a new album, Everybody's Looking for a Meal, in early 2008.

Randy Clark's band CROWSONG released a highly-praised double CD, Shelter/Eternal, in 2007. Randy teaches at SF's Blue Bear School of Music. "Clark makes his electric axe sing at the edge of feedback, wields a slide against his acoustic strings with ingenuity close to that of Cooder and Lindley, and generally creates a mysterious exotic vibe in a cobbled-together tradition whose gurus might include John Fahey, Sandy Bull, Harvey Mandel, and Bill Frisell. Clark's vivid timbres, mercurial ideas, and novel spins on eclectic influences (country, western, Delta blues, jazz, rock, Indian) give Crowsong their intoxicating and memorable personality." -- Derk Richardson, S.F. Bay Guardian and SFGate.com

"Clark wins over the crowd right away. He has dispensed with the glasses he wears offstage and, his long hair hanging in his face, he studies his fingers and makes constant adjustments to the knobs and switches at his feet. He puts his guitar through careful signal processing, kneeling at one point and playing the knobs on the floor, not the strings... Clark packs a wallop in his playing and he scores repeatedly with the crowd."-- Joel Selvin, S.F. Chronicle

JOEL STREETER, formerly of Gettysburg, PA’s Fizgigg and Washington, DC’s, Spy Cellar, has been featured on KFOG. In a DOA review of his album, Hear Me Out, Ryan McCarthy wrote, "Streeter’s melodic gifts seem to always be intermingled with the emotional maturity of his songs. Hear Me Out seems to do everything really well. Clear evidence of an indispensable songwriting talent." Joel's full band will be with him.

This is going to be a special night at the Utah. For the same price you'd spend on a mediocre/bad movie, you'll see live original music, with lyrics you can actually hear, in an intimate setting. Please come and support local music.

Hotel Utah Saloon 1/26/08 Saturday 9pm $10

500 4th Street@Bryant, SF

www.thehotelutahsaloon.com

www.blindwillies.net

www.crowsong.com

www.joelstreeter.com

Official Website: http://www.thehotelutahsaloon.com