This show is being rescheduled. Stay tuned for updates!
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Phil Lawrence Band and The Familiar Strangers
Saturday June 24th 3 - 5:30 PM in the Amphitheater
Enjoy a double dose of Americana in our amphitheater! Don’t miss the return of these Sonoma County artists as they bring world-class music to our community arts & entertainment hub.
" Imagine John Hiatt gets in a car with Chuck Berry and they pick up a hitch hiking Dolly Parton! It's kinda like that!"
The Familiar Strangers play an Americana grab bag of music from western swing to country, bluegrass, folk, blues and even a little bit of gypsy jazz! This acoustic trio (occasionally a quartet) is perfect for smaller venues (no drums) but they nevertheless generate a big response from audiences with their friendly banter and responsiveness to requests from audience members. This is a band with a sense of humor that can easily move between material designed to get you up on your feet dancing or tugging at your heart to buy another beer and lose your sorrows. Their musical palette runs from Bob Wills to Doc Watson to Django Reinhardt and more. The band recently celebrated their first recorded project, Masqurade 2020, which is already garnering critical success.
The Familiar Strangers are Candy Girard – fiddle & vocals, Tim Sarter – bass & vocals, Kevin Russell – guitar & vocals. Read more about them at thefamiliarstrangersmusic.com
Phil Lawrence has been playing mandolin since 1978 when he bought his first round back mandolin on a whim. He began studying with Rudy Cipolla, the San Francisco Italian-American composer and mandolinist. He quickly learned to play all different styles of music: bluegrass, folk, rock, jazz, reggae, and even klezmer. Phil produced and published independent recordings of his original compositions in the 1980's and 1990's under his own label, Mandolinimal Productions. In 2004 Phil was invited by David Grisman and Mike Marshall to work as an assistant instructor at David Grisman's Mandolin Symposium in Santa Cruz, Ca. and he performed on stage with David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Chris Thile, Mike Compton, Don Stiernberg, and Radim Zenkl. His Mandolin Mezzotints CD with Radim Zenkl is still available. Phil plays a 1912 vintage Gibson F2 mandolin, a 1988 Martin D-28 guitar, and blues harmonica. He has performed with the legendary San Francisco 60's band, It's A Beautiful Day Acoustic, an acoustic jazz quartet/quintet featuring David LaFlamme from It's a Beautiful Day on violin. Read more about Phil on his website phillawrence.com