Dave Alvin, John Doe, Peter Case, Big Sandy and more perform at the Dog & Pony Show benefit festival, Aug 30, 31 and Sept 1
Dear friends, fans and everyone else:
I’d like to let you know about a 3 day benefit called the
Dog & Pony Show that some close friends and I have put together for this coming Labor Day weekend, Aug 30, 31 and Sept 1.The past year has been very hard health wise for many members of the California music scene. Four friends/musicians of ours (western soul singer Chris Gaffney, superb guitarist Duane Jarvis, blues diva Candye Kane, psycho-billy hot-rodder Drac Conley) were all diagnosed with different forms of cancer and need our help to deal the expense of their various treatments. Instead of putting on four different benefits, I thought it might make more sense to do one BIG one featuring many of the bands and musicians that have played with Chris, Duane, Candye and Drac through the years. Thus, the Dog And Pony Show was born.
Seeing how my late friend (and spiritual advisor), Chris Gaffney, always referred our gigs together as “dog and pony shows,” I thought that his descriptive phrase would be a perfect name for the benefit (though he never did tell me which one of us was the dog and which one was the pony).
Sadly, as many of you may know, Chris passed away recently but the good news is that Duane, Candye and Drac are doing fine and hanging tough through this rough time. Without going into a long dissertation on the state of health care in our country, I would like to point out that they still need financial help with their treatments and recoveries. All the money we raise at the Dog And Pony Show will be going directly to them (or in Chris’s case, to his survivors) to cover their medical expenses.
If you are in California this Labor Day weekend, or even remotely nearby, I’d like to personally invite you to come to the shows. There will be great music, drinks, dancing, barbeque, some memories, some laughs, a couple of tears and a roomful of love. I’ll see you there.
Dave Alvin
