Bikers Sing the Blues

Hundreds and hundreds of shiny Harleys will descend upon the San Buenaventura State Beach parking lot Sunday morning as the culmination of Beach Ride 2000, a fund-raiser for the Exceptional Children’s Foundation.

These basically kinder, gentler weekend bikers, including lots of doctors and lawyers and people who can actually afford Harleys, will be hearing music performed by classic rock stars.

This year’s biker-friendly soundtrack will include John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company fame and the World Classic Rockers. In addition to the bands, it’s going to be a biker swap meet with all sorts of motorcycle-related items for sale and plenty of food and drink. The Mr./Ms. Beach Ride Contest will return, as will the Tattoo Contest, and Larry Hagman is once again the grand marshal. There will also be a fashion show.

But when it comes to blues, there’s John Mayall, still the “The Godfather of British Blues,” despite the fact that he’s lived in the Valley since 1968. Mayall has been around so long that the blues were still in black and white when he started.

Sort of a British Ted Mack orchestrating a bluesy Star Search, Mayall has been a gifted talent scout over the years, making more discoveries than the heroine in a haunted-house movie. The guys standing around behind him have changed, but Mayall played on. Some illustrious former Bluesbreakers include Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, who went on to form Cream, and Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame.

More a function of Mayall’s longevity than anything else, the band is no revolving door by any stretch; in fact, current guitar player Buddy Whittington and drummer Joe Yuele have been with Mayall for years. Yet the various former Bluesbreakers, reportedly nearly 100 strong, could create an all-star blues symphony.

“Oh, I have no idea how many Bluesbreakers there have been,” the blues legend said, “but I’m sure it’s all documented somewhere. I have over 45 albums of original material and probably that many more of compilation albums.”

So Mayall will have no shortage of material to choose from, with a repertoire longer than the obit column in a Steven Seagal movie, but his choices will certainly be of the blue persuasion. Mayall began his musical career as a self-taught purveyor of one of the most rockin’ genres in music--boogie-woogie piano--then learned guitar and harmonica.

“I guess I picked it up from my father’s record collection, but that’s the only kind of music I’ve ever played,” he said.

Mayall formed the Bluesbreakers in 1963, at a time when just about every British band was a blues band, including the Stones, the Yardbirds and later, Ten Years After, Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac. After all those years, all those albums and all those gigs, Mayall seems immune to the whims of a career in music.

“For me, it’s the same year after year. I play just as much as I want to,” he said. “I don’t play in L.A. any more than I do anywhere else. All I know is we get up on the stage and play what we play everywhere from clubs to festivals. We just played for a bunch of bikers a week or so ago. They love the stuff we do.”

So what has the 60-something Mayall learned after nearly four decades of the blues? Plenty, although his theme song isn’t “Born to Be Wild.”

“I think I’ve learned the ropes after 40 years on the road,” he said. “I don’t drink and I don’t use drugs and I play what I want to play. I think people recognize the honesty in my music; and no, I don’t do [‘Born to be Wild].’ It’s not mine.”

DETAILS

Beach Ride 2000, Sunday, 10 a.m., with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, 11:15 a.m.; World Classic Rockers, 1 p.m.; and Paul Rodgers, 3 p.m.; San Buenaventura State Beach, Pierpont Boulevard and San Pedro Street; $30; (800) 696-3727.

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Named for that Finch guy in the book and movie, Atticus will return to the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, hosting a CD release party for its second effort, “Coming Around Again,” and showing its new video.

Gregory Peck was a memorable Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and Wendy Johnson is the memorable Atticus vocalist with an angelic voice. A bunch of Starbucks employees, Atticus has more caffeine-powered energy than is absolutely necessary, but they are adept at keeping things subdued to a mild uproar during Johnson’s folk-flavored relationship songs.

The players met at Cal Lutheran University a few years ago, and Atticus is Johnson’s first and only band. One of her friends asked her to sing and taught her to play guitar, and now the band is releasing its second CD.

The debut disc, “Excuse Me, Sir,” came out last year and sold more than 1,000 copies in its first week of release, making it the most successful independent local release since Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. It’s worth the drive just to hear Johnson belt out “Let It Rain” and “Fly.”

Oh, and getting a gig at the Civic Arts Plaza? Not a brain teaser at all. Johnson simply asked.

DETAILS

Atticus, Saturday, 8 p.m.; Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks; $10; 449-2787.

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Singing drummer Don Henley will appear at the tree-lined Santa Barbara County Bowl on Thursday night, a stop on his current “Inside Job Tour,” in support of the album of the same name. It’s Henley’s first release since 1989.

Clearly, Henley doesn’t need the money. In the 1970s, his band the Eagles sold more than 90 million albums. Of Henley’s three albums in the ‘80s, one went gold and two went platinum. So has he been on an extended shopping excursion? Not exactly, according to his latest bio.

“After a couple of decades of being a public figure, a person grows tired of his own face, his own voice,” it said. “If the malaise is allowed to continue unchecked, it can deteriorate into something that my pals and I call ‘Death by Show Business.’ This doesn’t refer to literal death--although that is sometimes the case--but more to a loss of enthusiasm and a withering of creativity--a sort of atrophy of the spirit . . . “

In addition to all that soul surfing, Henley and the reunited Eagles went on a much publicized tour a few years ago; plus he wrote a book, worked for environmental causes, built a new house and got married. In short, Henley has come a long way since his high school days and his first band, the Four Speeds.

DETAILS

Don Henley, Thursday, 7 p.m.; Santa Barbara County Bowl, 1122 Milpas St., $55; $37; 962-7411.