Huichica Music Fest Celebrates 10 Years In Sonoma
By Dave Pehling
SONOMA (CBS SF) -- Marking its tenth year, the annual Huichica Music Festival brings an array of psych, soul indie and folk rock artists to the Gundlach Bundschu Winery this weekend.
Presented and organized by Northern California concert promoter (((folkYEAH!))) and winery operator Jeff Bundschu, the Huichica (pronounced "wah-CHEEK-ah") Festival was started as a smaller, more intimate alternative to larger festivals like BottleRock Napa and Outside Lands with a narrower musical focus while still offering the type of gourmet food and expansive wine options those festivals are known for. The North Bay fires in the fall of 2017 threatened the winery, Gundlach Bundschu and the grounds where the festival takes place luckily remained undamaged.
On Friday, the celebration gets off to a low-key start, using only two of the four available indoor and outdoor stages starting after the gates open at 2 p.m. After festival openers the Matching Shoe from St. Louis kick things off on the Giraffe Stage with their shimmering, soulful psychedelic pop, early afternoon highlights include sets from LA-based indie outfit Triptides (3:40 p.m. Barn Stage), sunbaked Taos, NM country-rock group Trummors (4:20 p.m. Giraffe Stage) and Canadian musician/producer Cameron Reed's groove crew Babe Rainbow (4:55 p.m. Barn Stage).
As the festival moves into the evening, fans will be treated to a set from celebrated all-star San Francisco psych quartet Heron Oblivion (6:20 p.m. Barn Stage). Comets on Fire veterans Ethan Miller (playing bass instead of his usual six-string instrument) and Noel Von Harmonson (guitar) first teamed with Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound mainstay Charlie Saufley (guitar) and noted psych-folk solo artist and member of Philadelphia band Espers Meg Baird (drums and vocals) during informal jam sessions that started in 2013. After members contributed to Mansion Songs (an album by Miller's other ongoing psych project Howlin Rain), the band would develop organically, conjuring a sound that wraps Baird's crystalline singing voice with ethereal guitars that gradually blossom into a feedback-laden squall equally indebted to Crazy Horse-era Neil Young and Japanese neo-psych giants like High Rise and AMT.
The band earned equally ecstatic praise from journalists and fans with a string of festival performances that included smaller fringe music celebrations (Portland, OR's Sabertooth Music Festival and Marfa Myths in Marfa, Texas) and larger fests (San Francisco's own Outside Lands). Heron Oblivion released a limited edition record of one the band's local live performances at the Chapel late in 2017 and has been working on new material for its forthcoming sophomore album on Sub Pop. Two retrospective performances help fill out the opening evening's line-up with Galaxie 500 and Luna mainstay Dean Wareham (7:45 p.m. Barn Stage) performing Galaxie 500's second studio album On Fire in its entirety and a live tribute to The Basement Tapes (8:05 p.m. Giraffe Stage), the landmark collaboration between Bob Dylan and the Band mostly recorded in the late '60s that didn't see official release until 1975.
Closing out Friday's festivities will be celebrated SF singer/songwriter Chuck Prophet and his longtime backing band, the Mission Express (9:55 p.m. Barn Stage). Prophet was a key member of country-influenced neo-psychedelic band Green On Red during the '80s, contributing to landmark albums Gas Food Lodging and The Killer Inside Me before embarking on a fruitful solo career.
Mixing modern lo-fi sensibilities with his storytelling songs and swampy roots influences, Prophet released a string of celebrated albums during the 1990s including the semi-autobiographical Homemade Blood and the clanking, Tom Waits-tinged The Hurting Business. The songwriter's contemporaries took notice of his skills as a tunesmith, with the likes of Texas punk-roots singer Alejandro Escovedo, rock band Heart and blues great Solomon Burke covering his songs.
Prophet has produced a string of acclaimed albums since then, including the historical San Francisco travelogue Temple Beautiful in 2012 and his latest acclaimed effort, Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins on Yep Roc Records in 2017, earning another round of ecstatic reviews. Self-described by Prophet as "California noir," the songs on the collection ruminate on mortality, whether lamenting SFPD officer-involved shooting victim "Alex Nieto" or paying respects to David Bowie and other passed legends on "Bad Year For Rock And Roll."
Saturday offers up a full-schedule of acts filling the four stages at Huichica with a dizzying variety of sounds starting at 11:30 a.m. with a set from New York experimentalists Olden Yolk on the Amphitheater Stage. Can't-miss performers in the early part of the day include '90s-influenced alt-rock band Winter (12:35 Barn Stage), soulful Bay Area R&B guitarist singer Quinn DeVeaux (12:55 p.m. Amphitheater Stage), revived SF post-punk groovers Dirty Ghosts (1:40 p.m. Cave Stage), fractured LA garage-pop act the Blank Tapes (2:20 p.m. Giraffe Stage) and a solo set from Wareham's wife and Luna partner Britta Phillips (2:20 p.m. Amphitheater Stage).
Another afternoon highlight at the Amphitheater Stage will be a 3:45 p.m. performance by the Love Band featuring Johnny Echols. One of the most influential Los Angeles rock band's to emerge during the '60s, Love showcased the brilliant songwriting of founding members Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean on the seminal psychedelic-era albums Da Capo and Forever Changes. Members of Los Angeles rock band Baby Lemonade made up the final version of Love that backed the mercurial Lee during the 1990s and again in the 2000s after he was freed from an over five year stint in jail on a gun charge. Classic-era lead guitarist Echols would perform with Lee and the band numerous times as they celebrated the 35th anniversary of Forever Changes in 2003 and rejoined the band full time in 2005. That sadly coincided with Lee being diagnosed with leukemia. He was forced to stop touring due to ill health and passed away the following year. The Love Band will perform Forever Changes in its entirety at the festival.
The balance of the schedule will keep the Huichica crowd entertained into the late evening with a return visit from SF prog-pop favorites Once and Future Band (4:50 p.m. Barn Stage) followed by sets from Chicago folk-rock group Fruit Bats (5:30 p.m Amphitheater Stage), prolific San Francisco songwriter Kelley Stoltz (7 p.m. Barn Stage), jangly New Jersey indie-pop group Real Estate (7:05 p.m. Amphitheater Stage), Pavement and Preston School of Industry member Spiral Stairs (8:30 p.m. Barn Stage), New Zealand psychedelic pop auteur Connan Mockasin (9:10 p.m. Barn Stage) and a festival closing appearance by Oakland's hypnotic psych explorers Lumerians (10:35 p.m. Barn Stage).
At 8:45 p.m., the Amphitheater Stage schedule will be brought to a close with a performance by R&B veteran Lee Fields and the Expressions. Much like his fellow soul singers Bettye LaVette and the late Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, gritty funk shouter Fields delivers impassioned, heart-on-the-sleeve vocals that hearken back to the music's classic '60s era. While his moves, sound and even a physical resemblance to James Brown earned Fields the nickname "Little J.B." early in his career, his modern recordings with the Expressions lean closer to the music made by Al Green during his string of hit '70s albums for Hi Records. For more information and tickets, visit the Huichica Music Festival website.
Huichica Music Festival
Friday-Saturday, June 7-8, 2 p.m. (Fri.) and 11 a.m. (Sat.) $55-$155; children 12 and under free
Gundlach Bundschu Winery