SAN GABRIEL VALLEY / COVER STORY : INLAND EXPOSURE : Something Musical Is Happening in the Pomona Valley. It’s ‘Rootsy,’ Indigenous, Acoustic-Based and Sure Sounds Good

Claremont is only an hour east of Los Angeles, but it might as well be light years away in outlook, in the way a regional sensibility takes hold once you leave the coast and head inland on Interstate 10.

Maybe it comes from living on the edge of the desert and in the shadow of Mount Baldy, where there are still open spaces that draw independent spirits, eccentrics and those who revere nature.

Maybe it’s the critical mass of smart people who are drawn by the prestigious Claremont Colleges and wind up settling in a town that retains its aura of old California, with its orange groves and Craftsman houses.

Maybe the Dust Bowl migrants had a hand in it, settling in nearby Fontana to work the steel mills, bringing Midwest traditions and music. Or perhaps it was the African Americans who drifted into Pomona after the Watts riots and began weaving their own multi-textured community.

Everyone has a pet theory, but no one disputes that Claremont has become the hub for a “rootsy” and unique music scene in the Pomona Valley, one that flourishes quietly amid two generations of skilled musicians and is beginning to draw notice from the outside world.

“There’s something different that happens here, indigenous music forms that don’t come out of Hollywood or L.A.,” muses Claremont musician Chris Darrow, struggling to capture the essence of the regional sound. “We have our own identity, and it’s very, very deep. There’s something about this place; once you experience it, people come here and stay. It’s like heroin.”

If you want to bracket the scene, start on one end with Ben Harper, a 24-year-old African American signed to Virgin Records who is carving a one-man musical niche with his hollow-neck lap slide guitar, his spiritual, rootsy voice and his socially conscious lyrics.

Although his voice evokes a Delta bluesman, Harper, who is Claremont born and bred, makes a point of telling people he hails from the Inland Empire.

“That’s my home, and I’m trying to pay homage to it,” Harper says simply. “There’s so much great music coming out of the Inland Empire that deserves representation, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Way over on the other side of experience is Darrow, a white, 50-year-old musician, songwriter and sage of Claremont. Darrow played in Linda Ronstadt’s original band and on Leonard Cohen’s first album, “Suzanne.” He founded the seminal band Kaleidoscope, credited by musical historians as one of the first to blend country, psychedelia and rock in the early 1960s.

“He’s a catalyst,” says John Chelew, musical director of McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, a venue for folk and roots music. “There are the people who influence the masses, and there are the sources for the people who influence the masses, and that’s how I see Chris.”

In between are a group of artists who draw inspiration or roots from the Claremont area. Mark Curry, another Virgin artist, recorded his first demo tapes in Claremont. David Lowery, who has an album on rotation at radio station KROQ, is from Redlands.

Darrow and music industry veteran John Van Hoven have put together an independent record company, Route 66, named for the historic highway that passes through the Pomona Valley, to focus on some of their favorite but little-known Inland Empire artists: Frizz Fuller, Emy Phelps, the Hershler Brothers, John Ware and The Fontana Boys.

“A lot of ideas come out of here, it’s just in the air,” said David Lindley, a Claremont resident who has played with his own band El Rayo X as well as with Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder.

Consider Claremont resident Jack Housen, 28. After saving up for a year, Housen got his friends together and recorded his own acoustic CD, Two Lane Road, which is now getting airplay on “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” the influential program on Santa Monica public radio station KCRW.

“There’s so many musicians in Claremont, and everybody knows everybody,” Housen says. “I was able to get this CD done because I had a lot of friends who were just into playing the music; they didn’t care about the money.”

*

Numerous older musicians associated with the country rock generation of the Eagles and Buffalo Springfield also make the Inland Empire home. It’s almost incestuous: Lindley married Darrow’s sister. Harper’s mother once sang in a folk group with Darrow. Darrow bought his first guitar at the Folk Music Center, owned by Harper’s grandparents, in downtown Claremont.

Darrow’s home recording studio, called Studio Nadine, is the epicenter of the movement, a fluid group of singers, songwriters and producers supported by an enthusiastic musical community that favors rootsy works with an edge.

The dusty, eight-track studio is where Darrow performs his versions of country rock, bluegrass and any other stray sounds that catch his fancy. It is where demo tapes are made that could land aspiring young musicians record deals. Where people can get advice, browse among Darrow’s 30-year music archives or just pass a lazy afternoon, drinking coffee and smoking and letting ideas percolate. A salon, if you will.

One recent summer day, singer/songwriter Eddie Cunningham was holed up in Studio Nadine with Darrow, working on some songs. Cunningham splits his time between Rancho Cucamonga and Nashville, where he writes and produces demos for such country superstars as Garth Brooks.

“When I come over here to write with Chris, it’s spiritually healing for me. I get extra wisdom I can’t have by myself,” says Cunningham, whose dulcet voice belies his bearded face and the sleeveless denim shirt, jeans and baseball cap that he wears.

Unlike the Seattle grunge scene that spawned Nirvana or the Minneapolis funk scene ignited by the artist formerly known as Prince, the Claremont scene is one that defies easy categorization.

It is based on acoustic music, with emphasis on folk music of all cultures, a deep respect for the human voice and profound understanding of the instruments.

Call it a musical Arts and Crafts Movement.

And Harper is one of the main apostles.

“His whole thing is to master the tradition, to learn the tools, learn the language and then you can begin to speak and write properly,” says Chris Douridas, a DJ for KCRW who plays Harper’s debut album, “Welcome to the Cruel World,” on his “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show.

Harper, who has played with Taj Majal and recently returned from a European tour, credits his hometown for providing the inspiration.

“There’s attention to detail here,” he says. “It’s simple music. . . . It’s far enough from L.A. that you’re not thinking about a record deal; you’re just making pure music for the love of making music.”

Harper got hooked while working at his grandparents’ store, the Folk Music Center in downtown Claremont, a hands-on place with a homey feel where patrons are encouraged to pick up instruments and handle them. Later, he aprenticed himself to Howard Weissenborn, a master guitar maker, to learn how to make and repair string instruments.

Harper played slide guitar for Darrow’s neoclassic blues song “Whipping Boy.” Released earlier this year, the record has sold 50,000 copies.

Darrow, for one, is pleased to see Harper’s success. “If one person hits, it’s good for all of us,” he said.

But others are more ambivalent about seeing the Inland Empire catch fire.

*

“Whatever you do, don’t call it a scene, because that will ruin it,” one local pleaded.

The fear is that if word gets out, the looky-loos and the talent scouts and the kids hungry to latch onto something real will descend upon the Inland Empire and change it beyond recognition.

“They’re very protective of their scene. They want to see it blossom, but they don’t want it to explode and go away,” says Jennifer Matthews, director of alternative marketing for Virgin Records, who grew up in Redlands and keeps in close touch with the Inland Empire.

“At the same time, they like the attention,” she continues. “For a while it was Athens (Ga.), then Seattle. I think this is Claremont’s time, and they’re just starting to wake up to it.”

Not that they’ve made it big. Douridas, who plays Harper, Housen and Pomona band Geggy Tah on his show, says that whenever he announces a band is from the Inland Empire, listeners call in to inquire where that is.

After being part of a music scene in Dallas that fizzled, Douridas came to Los Angeles and KCRW. He says he was initially surprised to find so much music coming out of the Pomona Valley area because “it just seems so sprawling and without a center to me.”

But after learning more about the area, Douridas now believes Claremont has many of the cross-pollinating musical elements that make for success.

For one, there are hundreds of bright, creative people in and around Claremont--professors and students from around the world who come to the six Claremont Colleges.

Another linchpin of the scene is Nick’s Cafe, started 15 years ago by Nick Sandro to showcase local talent. Nick’s has live music most nights and you never know who will drop by.

Earlier this summer, it was David Byrne. The former Talking Head was in Claremont to catch up with the Pomona band Geggy Tah, which he signed to his Luaka Bop label after hearing a demo tape.

“It must be something in the water,” Byrne says of the Inland Empire. “Geggy Tah has so many deep, profound ideas in each song, in each minute of each song, that each song could supply a regular band with an album’s worth of material for years.”

Not that most bands expect to be discovered by Byrne or Virgin Records. And some are already making music on several local independent labels, including Shrimper Records, which is based in Upland and has put out eight compilations of Inland Empire bands.

“There were a bunch of good bands that weren’t getting anything released, and I had a lot of blank tape,” Dennis Callaci, the 25-year-old founder of Shrimper, explains laconically.

Adding to the musical ferment is Rhino Records, an independent record store in Claremont that devotes a section to Inland Empire bands. At last count, it had titles by more than 100 bands in stock, according to Rob DeChaine, the store manager.

DeChaine describes the Inland Empire as “a series of mini-scenes.” But he adds that everybody knows and helps one another, unlike the cutthroat atmosphere of Hollywood. Often, local fans drive to Los Angeles and even San Francisco to lend moral support and watch their favorite Inland Empire bands play.

The bands also get a boost from radio station KSPC at Pomona College, whose avowed philosophy is to play only independent bands, including many from the Inland Empire.

The circle comes round, unbroken, with Claremont’s Folk Music Center, the 35-year-old music store that many cite as the font of inspiration. In addition to a mind-expanding selection from dulcimers to ukuleles, the center has a small museum of instruments from around the world and holds weekly workshops. Next up: didjeridu lessons from a visiting Australian musician.

Harvey Kubernik, an iconoclastic record producer who started Freeway Records to put out spoken-word albums, makes frequent pilgrimages to Claremont and believes the Inland Empire is finally coming into its own.

“There’s a lot more activity . . . there than ever before,” he said.

Kubernik recently asked Darrow, a longtime friend, to be one of 14 artists contributing to a spoken-word recording called “L.A. Journal.”

Darrow obliged with an ode to the Inland Empire that reads in part:

A silent sunset

The foothills rage

Coyotes sing of forgotten ways

Its soul lies in the chaparral

In amber light of fading days

They come to school

From round the world

They seek this different life

All are touched by its power force

So deep--and so quiet

They come, they leave

Yet they always believe

They’ll return

To Claremont

The foothills

And the light.