Mary McCaslin's Roundup

Feb. 10, 2007

THANKS TO THE COMMUNITY

 

            When I moved to Santa Cruz in 1990 I knew the acoustic / country music scene fairly well from having come through in previous years to play area venues and from hearing radio station KFAT whenever I visited. But what I didn’t know is that this is a music and arts community that sticks together.

            On January 28th an event took place that demonstrated the generous spirit of this community. The Concert for Amy was a benefit concert to help Amy Haberman, who has had recent surgery and must undergo a final surgery very soon. The concert featured some of the finest musicians in the Monterey Bay area. Amy’s long time partner, guitarist Steve Palazzo, was one of the many musicians who performed, along with the Banana Slug String Band, Joe Weed and Marty Kendall, Mezut Ozgen, Ginny Mitchell, Deby Benton-Grosjean, Bill Coulter, Lone Prairie and Steve’s band Homefire. I was also privileged to be one of the performers. Dave Nielsen of Rancho Armadillo Recording Services and Dave Egan provided the sound.

            It takes an enormous amount of work to put on such an event. The first issue is to find a location. Upon hearing the news about Amy’s illness Ginny Mitchell and Marty Collins immediately volunteered to hold the concert at the Digital Media Factory, their state of the art video facility on the west side of Santa Cruz.

            Once the location and date were set, and the musical lineup established, various tasks were assigned to willing volunteers. One of the biggest undertakings was co-ordinating the live and silent auctions to bring in additional money the day of the show. This meant not only accumulating attractive items for bid, but organizing and displaying them. These Herculean tasks were performed by Clare Choate and her assistants.

            Numerous donations poured in, ranging from CDs, works of art and gift certificates, to vacation stays and a guitar from the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Larry and Doug of the Banana Slugs ran the live auction. It was one of the most exciting things I've ever witnessed. It was absolutely magical when the young man whose father made the winning bid on the Santa Cruz Guitar got up on stage next to his guitar teacher, who happens to be Steve Palazzo, and flat-picked the tune “Red Haired Boy.” He played like a pro and never missed a note. There was complete silence in the room.

            There were a thousand details to handle and many, many people stepped forward to help in whatever way they could.  I could not possibly name them all. It is a tribute to Amy and Steve that so many folks pitched in to make the Concert for Amy a financial success.

            On behalf of Amy and Steve, thanks to everyone who donated, participated or attended the concert. Thanks to Rachel Ann Goodman for her invaluable work on publicity, to the folks at radio stations KPIG, KSCO, KUSP, KZSC and KKUP, and to Wallace Baine of the Sentinel for their support of this very special event. A splendid time was had by all.

 

Mary McCaslin will teach at the Clawhammer Banjo Workshop Day on Saturday, February 10th. Email her at roundup@marymccaslin.com.