Friday, November 1, 7:30pm
Nevada Theatre, Nevada City, California
$30 premium reserved seating
$20 general admission
Three Times Through joins Farrow and the Peach Leaves for a musical family affair.
It could have been a country song, or even an Irish ballad. Instead, the real-life story of two musical families spreads in an arc from the Carter presidency to the current day. It’s a California tale from San Clemente beaches to the rolling, forested Sierra Foothills.
The folk quartet Three Times Through, voted the Union’s Best Band for three of the past four years, and Farrow and the Peach Leaves, (popular youthful country band) will bring their story of families making music to the Nevada Theater.
The story starts back in the 80’s, when Jeff Peach, Gale Peach, Greg Mirken and Margie Mirken thought it would be a good idea to play as a folk and Celtic band on the outskirts of one of pop music’s power centers. It wasn’t that they didn’t like rock and popular music, it was just that they played dulcimers and squeezeboxes and banjos and fiddles (and not the modern sparkles of electric guitar, bass and drums). They had met through the Mirkens’ business, a folk Music shop in Orange County called Shade Tree. As Blackthorn, they played consistently at cafes, the occasional music festival and at community concerts for several years. But there’s nothing that reinforces the musician’s dictum “don’t give up your day job” like playing dulcimer. Or a growing family, for that matter.
Following jobs and the desire for a place less frenetic than Southern California, the Peaches decamped for Banner Mountain. The Mirkens continued to run their music business for another 20+ years. But the friends kept in touch, visiting back and forth to Disneyland or Nevada City. The young Peach sons were amazed at how much traffic there was in the Mirken’s suburban neighborhood. The little Mirken daughters were amazed that most of Red Dog Road wasn’t even paved. The kids had fun playing together, the adults took care of the kids, but no music got played.
When time came to retire for Greg and Margie, Nevada City was the best choice because of the beautiful forests, multi-faceted community and good life-long friends. It was the kids who badgered the parents to get their instruments out again. After much tuning (Jeff’s dulcimer has 72 strings) and some laughter, “The Flowers of Edinburgh” came rippling out from fiddle, dulcimer, concertina and guitar. The first gig of the new era was a Junior High ice cream social, and then an artist friend’s backyard party. Along the way they even played prelude music for the wedding of a Mirken daughter to a Peach son, literally making it a family band.
Re-christened Three Times Through (TTT), a sly comment on the answer to the perennial question of how many times to play a tune in an Irish session, the quartet delights in blending traditional Celtic tunes with recognizable contemporary melodies (from the Harry Potter theme, to Paint it Black, StarWars and beyond). These mashups can get the attention of folks who might otherwise not notice Celtic music. Three Times Through has fun sharing their love of Celtic music and performing with hammered dulcimer, bodhran, concertina, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, fiddle and guitar.
Zach Peach, Jeff and Gale’s youngest son, was approached by his high school friend, Graham Farrow Knibb, about recording some songs in Zach’s studio that Graham had written. They met on Wednesdays to work on the songs. When they were ready to add some drums Zach took on that roll. (Their first album was titled ‘Country Wednesdays’) . They needed a bass player so their old high school buddy Leif Bonfils filled in for that. They liked the sound that was coming out of the studio and Farrow and the Peach Leaves was born. (People would always pronounce Leif as leaf, rounding out the band name.) They needed a lead guitar player so they recruited Graham’s dad, Keith, for the job. Hunter Jones was added to play pedal steel and keyboards and Zach’s older brother, Justin, joined the group playing guitar.
Farrow and the Peach Leaves has cultivated a satisfying sound rooted in Americana, Blues, Rock and Country that has been packaged in a versatile getup composed of thick blues guitars, locomotive rhythm, and seventies country rock overtones.
Fronted by singer-songwriter Graham Farrow Knibb, Farrow and the Peach Leaves pushes buttons that bring audiences as much to tears as to dancing. Their songs orbit themes of loneliness and love, betrayal and joy with deft earnestness and authenticity. Knibb is an expert songwriter and his skills are equalled by the band’s orchestration. Knibb is as much interested in love as he is in the mistakes we make again and again in the pursuit of it. Likewise, he channels the gestalt of the Sierra Foothills of Northern California – a mishmash of weed growers, coal rollers, demi-cults and strung out down-and-outs. His songs evoke the beauty in difficulty and the difficulties of living in a beautiful place.
www.dreamcabinsounds.com/fatpl
Hunter’s aunt, Sands Hall, will be joining in the evening fun to round out the Family Affair. Sands Hall is a renouned playwright, director, actor and singer songwriter.
It is sure to be an enjoyable evening of music and family fun!