Music on the Byways and Highways from February to March

By B. Noel Barr, Music Writer Dude

For the last few weeks, we have been out cruising the highways and byways of the Southland for some sweet tunage. Our travels took us into Hollywood and West Los Angeles to the hallowed grounds of rock, blues and some good ole Americana stylings.

We got see the Stillwood Sages from Sacramento at the Whiskey A Go Go. This was an epic performance that raised the bar to another level. When infamous blues legend and sideman Jimmy Z, joined the Sages, the group delivered three soulful delivered. Curtis Hidebrand, the lead singer/songwriter and visionary of the group, brings a special vibe that has to experienced to be appreciated. His song, Power at the Crossroads and Roll myself another Holy one, engaged us with a sound that was timeless and brilliantly executed. Look for this band to be back in the next few months to play in the Harbor Area and the South Bay.

The following week found us at The House of Blues with local band dedfuel. This was a night of very hard rock and our Pedro homeboys brought it big time. San Pedro was well represented with at least 150 people (my guess it that there may have been more), all head banging and moshing, myself included, on the dance floor.

This is a very hard aggressive rock, bordering on death metal. The energy and excitement of this is group is over the top. They are currently working on a new collection of songs. One of the songs that resonates, they did a after Katrina hit New Orleans. The song Katrina is a hallmark to greatness, heavy, dark, and unrelenting, perfect!

Over the weekend, The Overstreet Jazz Band played to a capacity house at the Grand Annex. This is one-half of a 19-piece performance group, the 10 musicians, and vocalists. The group’s style of New Orleans jazz evokes 1930’s – 40’s pop music. The Overstreet Jazz Band is outstanding every aspect of performance. Of course, it does not hurt to have three hot vocalists who could thaw an iceberg at 100 yards.

On March 3, we went to the El Cid on Sunday’s to see the Flamenco Documentary Kumapania. It is a movie of passion and art. A tale of a migration not only of a people and culture, but how the music in this melting pot we call Los Angeles morphs into a music of all people. Kumapnia has been the winner of several film festival awards and was submitted to the San Pedro Film Festival for this year’s consideration.

We made it over to the legendary McCabe’s music store in West Los Angeles to catch Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. This was group’s  release event for their latest CD, White Swan.

The music performed here was true to the bone. Rob Carson has to be one the best writers in the field, he knows how to write a fine tune and bring it to life with subtlety and grace. Also contributing songwriter on the album is Ernest Troost offering up  Harland County Boys and Evangeline.

Another one of our favorite songwriters, Fur Dixon, gots a co-writing credit with Carlson on the Little Rabbit. The album is a joy to listen, but this is one of the most entertaining and musically satisfying groups in the alt-country, Americana scene today.