Wake the Dead

Gonna Revel. Gonna see Wake the Dead. Revel on! When I was marketing Neil O'Neill's CD on AmieStreet, I discovered this fabulous Celtic fusion rock group. I had no idea that old Marin/Sebastopol friend, Danny Carnahan was part of the group! How small the world.

From the Revels Artistic Director

Dear Reveler, I am writing you because I want to urge you to attend our Revels benefit concert being performed by Wake the Dead on Thursday, June 1st. There are a couple of very good reasons for going.

 A big one is that all proceeds will go to California Revels. This will help guarantee that we can produce the annual Christmas Revels in December. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we are in the midst of a crucial funding drive, and this show is an important part of that.

The other reason is simply that you will very much enjoy attending. I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot about the Grateful Dead, and all of the current buzz about the anniversary of the Summer of Love. This may or may not be your cup of tea. But I can say with great confidence that this concert will be. Wake the Dead is not a mere “cover band”.  They explore the roots of the music of Robert Hunter and the Grateful Dead, as well as other classic rock pieces of that era, and they reinterpret it to reveal the underlying values in the text and music – values that are very much Revels own.

It may surprise you to realize that you have already seen this band. If you have attended the Christmas Revels is recent (or even not-so-recent) years, you have enjoyed the performances of Danny Carnahan, Sylvia Herold, Kevin Carr and Paul Kotapish. Wake the Dead is steeped in Revels performance and you will feel the reveling in their show. This isn’t an electronic rock concert. It’s a beautifully crafted celebration of the era played on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and pipes.  We’re also featuring our own Revels Roses ensemble and the energetic Gaita Gals on the program.

So be there. Join us to welcome in the summer, support your Revels and be a part of the best musical celebration you’re likely to attend –  at least until the Christmas Revels.

This is how I celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. I rolled right over for JCY's Darkness, Darkness....I was so there. Followed by White Room, and Uncle John’s Band. I was in hog heaven. Alas, I had the "broken" camera so I was lucky to get anything at all. Mostly blurred photos of Ellin Barret, and Judith Gips. New replacement camera is on the menu. It was an old folks crowd, everyone was greyhaired and long in tooth, but we boogied on. We still had the moves. During intermission, Danny Carnahan and I caught up, he didn’t remember me, per se, he certainly remembered Chris Caswell, Sebastopol. They were the Celtic duo, Caswell Carnahan playing at the Celtic music festival. All the people we have in common. It was a perfect nostalgic Summer of Love evening.