Last
night Jon & Jane Laskin of the Musicians Workshop
presented another of their fabulous In-Home
Concerts at an estate home in Tenaja. About 150 people
came out on a cool, rainy evening to enjoy the sounds of It's
Beautiful Day.
If you're not familiar with the band, leader David LaFlamme started
this band in 1967 in San Francisco. Though they never quite reached the
peak of fame of some of their contemporaries like Santana, Jefferson Airplane,
Quicksilver Messenger Service or the Grateful Dead, their
main anthem "White
Bird" is easily recognizable to those of you who lived
through the Summer of Love, as are several of their other hits like 'Bombay
Calling', 'Time Is' and 'Girl With No Eyes'.
As
you might imagine, when you hold a concert in somebodys living room,
it's an intimate occasion - even if it's a huge living room. That's
what makes the In-Home
Concert series such a hit with fans. You
can check out previous featured acts here. Last night we
shared a meal with the band and ended up sitting less than 2 feet away
during the performance.
And did they ROCK! They
played a solid hour of hits and then took a short break to sign CD's
and original album covers and chat and drink a little vino and then
they came back on for another half hour of entertainment. They were
obviously enjoying themselves and, as a result, the rest of us did too.
David regaled us with short stories between songs about the genesis of
some of the material, about escaping out the back door of an old church
with Steve Miller as the cops were coming thru the front door and about
traveling thru India with the Maharishi in the early 70's.
The
last time I saw these folks live was in 1971 or 1972 on a bill with
Quicksilver and The New Riders of The Purple Sage (or maybe it was
Santana - there is much that's unclear about those days). Their music
hasn't lost a beat. Both David & Linda retain fine voices with
great range, David's fiddle goes from a gentle sigh to a rasping yell
in a moment showing why the value of rock & roll fiddle has
always
been underrated. His instrumental duets with lead guitar Rob Espinosa
were electric and his vocal duets with Linda were perfection. They've
been together 35 years through kids, grandkids and numerous concerts
and the compatibility shows through in every nuance of their music.
The
band is made up of David LaFlamme and his wife Linda. She's not the
original wife Linda who started the band in 1967 but she's the Linda
that's been there since 1970 so she's the voice you know. Drummer Val
Fuentes is also an original to the band, Toby Gray on Bass and Gary
Thomas on Keyboards have been with them for 20 years and lead guitarist
Rob Espinosa is the newcomer with only about 8 years tenure.
If
David LaFlamme and It's A Beautiful Day make it to your part of the
country, don't write them off as an over-the-hill gang. They will rock
your socks off. Not only that they are congenial, personable, eager to
sign autographs and talk about family or the old days. But not the good
old days - because as David says, there's still plenty of good days
left to come.
Gene, this is so cool! Thank you for posting it! I love intimate concerts and when the entertainers have the passion still alive, it makes it pure delight!
These are always so much fun. They get these big estate homes, a local restaurant usually donates a bunch of grub, a local winery usually donates a bunch of wine and the musicians are almost invariably top notch - usually somebody who was big awhile back and still has their chops and you're sitting in a living room with these people interacting with them while they entertain. It don't get much better than that.
It just takes somebody to get it rolling Susan. Jon & Jane started this program 10 years ago to provide musical education to kids. As school music programs have been eliminated or reduced, they have stepped up and currently work with hundreds of young people from about age 4 thruhigh school. They have actually had former students go on to compete on Americam Idol, Americas Top Teens, Americas got Talent, etc. They are entirely supported by contribution and receive no public money. They branched into these In-Home concerts about 5 years ago as a fund raising tool and it as been very successful. If you can dream it - you can make it happen.
Gene, It's a Beautiful Day is a group that I got introduced to during my college days. Although I never got to see them, I've listened to their self titled LP enough to wear the grooves out!
The only thing I hated was the fact that I couldn't find my original LP to get signed. Thought I had it but it must have got lost along the way (what a long strange trip it's been, eh?) They actually had four of the LP's that Jon picked up from a used record store here and I auctioned them off. I was gonna buy one myself but when the bidding got up over $80 apiece I figured I could just live with the signed CD.
Gene, Looks like a great time was had by all! Thanks for the comment on my post about the Mall. Yes, Temecula is going to really bounce back, I believe, more quickly than some other parts of California. We really cannot be thrown into the melting pot when trying to asses the overall market.
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The
band is made up of David LaFlamme and his wife Linda. She's not the
original wife Linda who started the band in 1967 but she's the Linda
that's been there since 1970 so she's the voice you know. Drummer Val
Fuentes is also an original to the band, Toby Gray on Bass and Gary
Thomas on Keyboards have been with them for 20 years and lead guitarist
Rob Espinosa is the newcomer with only about 8 years tenure. 
If
David LaFlamme and It's A Beautiful Day make it to your part of the
country, don't write them off as an over-the-hill gang. They will rock
your socks off. Not only that they are congenial, personable, eager to
sign autographs and talk about family or the old days. But not the good
old days - because as David says, there's still plenty of good days
left to come. 
;)
;)
Gene, this is so cool! Thank you for posting it! I love intimate concerts and when the entertainers have the passion still alive, it makes it pure delight!