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MyWeek in Music at Acoustic Alliance 12
by Scott Zensen

From a fan�s perspective! Well this last Sunday I went to another music extravaganza. It was held at the Brick by Brick at 1130 Buenos Ave. In San Diego, which is right off Moreno blvd. near Linda Vista road. It is a cool out of the way bar just right for a larger than life get together of San Diego�s best songwriters and performers you might have a tough time with the door I know I did as many of the artists did too!. All for the cover price of $6 bucks. It can�t get any cheaper than that? Really! This one was called the Acoustic Alliance 12 and they are put together by a beautiful woman who puts heart and soul into organizing these venues for the local artists as well as introducing it to San Diegan�s who hardly know what�s going on in their midst. Sometimes if we are lucky we get to hear her sing too! But not this time because everybody showed up! This was the 12th show she has put together like this and another will be hosted on June 4th. also at the Brick by Brick! She does many more shows other than this series, she promotes artists from all over San Diego and a few from all over California through her ListenLocalsd.com web site.

The gist of the show is to have 12 artist come and do three songs each. The interesting thing is that they put four singer/songwriters up on stage all at once each to do one song in a circle until it gets to the last one and then starts over until they do three songs each. And they have three sets to accommodate all the talent! It�s really quite a remarkable way to see a lot of different acts! The music ranges from folk to rock ballads to rock. But all the gigs Cathryn Beeks sets up are not just folk or soft rock; you will hear blues and harder rock and alternative as well! You never know until you go or when you start recognizing the bands you know what you will be in for!

The Acoustic Alliance 12 show started out with� First set: It was Phil Harmonic who has been a artist in San Diego for many years and is the publisher of San Diego�s Troubadour a local newspaper on music. Then there was Mark Goffeney and David Gilbert (from the band Big Toe) a very talented performer who plays with his feet and sings with conviction! Then Barbara Nesbitt (I really liked her) sang I really liked her sound and she was picked as the ListenLocalSD.com featured artist last week. I really can�t say enough about her! Look for her to become big a big star in fact all of these guys are so talented I hope all of them get all the notoriety they deserve! then came Bill Coomes and Mike Spurgat from Deadline Friday. I missed hearing these guys when I went to another gig that promoted Scott Wilsons Coffeehouse 101 video at Humprey�s Back Door Lounge. I had to leave early and missed the last three bands and they were one of them. What a mistake I should have stayed! Bill has a wonderful voice and he did one cover but he made it his own, and Mike really plays a mean guitar, these guys were the other breakout singers for me that evening!

Second set has special guest artist: Julia Jordan who was visiting San Diego I believe? She had a killer voice and was a great guitarist as most of this set was! Then there was Pete Thurston, wow he looked like he had such a good time and oh my god can this guy play guitar! I was thoroughly impressed with everything he did that night; he even played a little guitar back up for the next singer. Saba who has a beautiful voice and a disarming smile I can�t wait to see her perform again and Joanie Menenhall finished the second set. She was great and at the end did a duet with her boyfriend whom unfortunately I cannot remember his name but I believe she said was in yet another band I have yet to see!

Third set had the incomparable Gregory Page who is billed as the songwriter supreme of the universe or something like that LOL and I have to agree! I won�t say much about him here because I have written several blog posts about Gregory. If you�re curious then check out my backlogs here or at my MySpace blog. Next came Steph Johnson or is it Brown now? She was supposed to be in the second set but got there late because she had just got married! Sorry guy's you missed out! Congrats Steph! (how�s that for dedication to your art!) She was so cute about it all night and she is so supremely talented that even when she was messing up a song (who can blame her?) Her voice is so melodic and beautiful! Well who cares just a few seconds of that voice can send you to places! Then came Berkley Hart who are comprised of Jeff Berkley and Calman Hart. I have only seen Jeff Berkley at that Scott Wilson Coffeehouse 101 gig and then he was with his other band called Citizen Band. So I knew he was good but he sings great. Of course he really isn�t by himself Calman Hart is there too! And he compliments Jeff as much as Jeff compliments him! He has a wonderful singing voice as well and Jeff always looks like he is having so much fun and he can really play that guitar too! Then Chad Farran was next; he did one song in Spanish or Portuguese (he just did a gig in Brazil). He is another master guitarist and great voice as well! There is no end to the talent in this bunch. Also, I have never heard anyone play a tambourine that way! He played it as backup for the next and last artist Matt Molarius. Last but not least from a band in San Diego called Transfer! He really belted out his songs! Everyone really like what he was doing on stage! Well that was the show! It was so awesome and all for $6. Where else could you get so much talent for so little. All of the artist sold CD�s at the show. So when the next one rolls out in June you should all come and support your local Artists. If you can�t get here then go to some of the links I provided and help them continue with their artistry and buy some cd's off of the internet!Like CDbaby You won�t be sorry. I�m out!

Ciao

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