Laughing the Blues

Acoustic Bluesfest ‘99, originally slated to be held at Cafe Voltaire’s new location at Ash and Main streets in Ventura, will move across the street to the Elks Lodge. And from here on out, the only music to be heard at Cafe Voltaire will be “The Sounds of Silence”--without Simon & Garfunkel.

On the face of it, acoustic music shouldn’t fluster anyone, but a few weeks ago police shut down a show by the Tatters, an acoustic group featuring a trio of female singers.

These and other neighborhood complaints about noise led to an administrative hearing to decide the fate of Cafe Voltaire, and the verdict is in: No more music of any kind will be permitted there.

Wherever it is, the Bluesfest is going to be cool--what with L.A. blues heavyweights such as Doug MacLeod, Jeff Turmes and Andy Kaulkin, and Rich and Maureen Del Grosso on the bill. Opening will be local blues vet Bob Jones and headlining will be those acoustic musicologists and purveyors of “good-time blues,” Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, making a short surgical strike from their Santa Barbara homes.

These two don’t do any of those cryin’-in-your-beer songs, but rather several hilarious, obscure blues songs rescued from the time warp and lots of originals as well. Whatever mojo Ball and Sultan have working aims at the funny bone. Twenty years and about eight albums later, the duo have become hits on that endless blues festival circuit, plus they play weekends in Santa Barbara, with the occasional appearance in Ventura.

Ball has a great, gruff blues voice, and he plays a mean harmonica. Sultan is a guitar virtuoso. It’s low-budget blues with no need for buses or roadies, and on Sunday they’ll make new fans.

Ball discussed his favorite acoustic blues band during a recent chat.

Twenty years together is a long time; of course, it’s hard for two guys to break up. Is that it?

That’s part of it. There’s no personality conflicts. Kenny and I are great friends, and both of us have veto power over the other. We just had our 20th anniversary gig a few months ago at the Victoria Theatre up here in Santa Barbara. We’ll have a live CD out around the first of the year.

How many more of those funny old blues songs are still out there?

Most of the stuff we do is so obscure that most people think we wrote them, but we wouldn’t take credit for stuff we didn’t write. After a while, you run out of stuff you can steal, so we’re going to have to start writing more.

“Good-time blues,” that’s you guys?

Yeah, hopefully. That’s what somebody called us a long time ago and it just sort of stuck. We don’t write songs about working in a coal mine or sharecropping because we’d look like a couple of idiots. We’re California boys and we write what we know about--cars, girls and beer. And you know, of course, that Santa Barbara is the blues capital of the world.

Is the blues biz slowing down at this time of year?

It’s about to be that time right now. Usually the festivals go away around the end of October. In the winter, we write new songs, work on books and Kenny teaches. And we still play at the Cold Springs Tavern in Santa Barbara--we’ve been there for 20 years. We’d still play there even if we won the Lotto. We’re just gonna keep hanging out in Santa Barbara, playing and making a living.

DETAILS

Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, Jeff Turmes & Andy Kaulkin, the Bob Jones Trio, Doug MacLeod and Rich & Maureen Del Grosso at the Elks Lodge, 11 S. Ash St., Ventura, 11 a.m. Sunday; $8 advance or $10 at the door; 641-1743.

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The 562nd Air Force Band (the Air National Guard Band) will perform a concert of patriotic tunes and American favorites to commemorate Veterans Day on Sunday afternoon at the Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley. The band will be under the direction of its commander, 2nd Lt. Eric Patterson.

Opening festivities will include a presentation-of-the-colors ceremony to be performed by the 23rd Marines Weapons Company 2nd Battalion, stationed at Port Hueneme. The concert is the ever-affordable free. Admission to the museum is $5, or $3 for seniors and children.

DETAILS

The 562nd Air Force Band at the Reagan Library, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley, 1 p.m. Sunday; free; 522-2977.

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The Dance Hall Crashers, who play the Yucatan in Santa Barbara tonight, are lucky. Most bands have no good singers. Some bands have one good singer. The Crashers have two. Elyse Rogers and Karina Denike front this frothy and poppy dance band, on the road trying to sell a few copies of their latest release, “Purr.”

The album was produced by one Fat Mike, frantic frontman for NOFX and founder of Fat Wreck Chords, hired in an effort to have at least one “real adult” on the album. “Purr” is the debut disc for Pink & Black Records, an alias of Fat Wreck specifically for female-fronted bands. The album is a seamless collection of danceable pop with plenty of sarcasm from the leads on such songs as “Do You Think You’re Beautiful” and yet another L.A. song, “Beverly Kills.”

Opening will be the funniest band in the 805 area code, by far--Nerfherder. Fronted by orchid grower/wise guy Parry Gripp, the band was originally known by one of the longest (and dumbest) names around, the Decline of Paisley John Shaver. After shortening their tag to Nerfherder, they had a hit with a riotous song about Van Halen and got a deal with Arista.

The label didn’t push the album, and the band members are free agents again. Thus, any Arista tour with a bill of Nerfherder and Kenny G, Whitney Houston or Sarah McLachlan is on the back burner for now. A new album is imminent and the song about Courtney Love, few details of which can be discussed in a family newspaper, is worth the drive.

DETAILS

Dance Hall Crashers and Nerfherder at the Yucatan, 1117 State St., Santa Barbara, 9 p.m. today; $10; 564-1889.