Sunday Drivers

Sundays are often slow, musically, but that may be changing, with the Jonathan Raffetto Band starting to create a Sunday afternoon buzz at the Banana Belt Cantina on the beach in Ventura.

Here’s a venue with plenty of baggage. A decade ago, it was Charlie’s, the most popular spot for live, original music. After Charlie’s closed in 1992, the place sat vacant for a few years before being yuppified and resurrected as Pineapple’s, where business and popularity remained complete strangers.

For the last few years, it has been the Banana Belt. It’s larger, brighter and cleaner than Charlie’s, but with less soul. But then, there are also no fights, no drunken idiots and no need for police in the parking lot awaiting their next window of opportunity.

There is, however, some great acoustic music by Raffetto on acoustic guitar, Orest Balaban on bass, Jesse Siebenberg on drums, Steven Cooley on percussion, Danny Wilson on mandolin and, sometimes, Hippie Mark Searcy on harmonica.

“It’s a steady thing now,” Raffetto said. “Tom Wood, the [Banana Belt’s] owner, has been trying for years to get things rolling, and I think he has kind of a cool means to showcase interesting music. . . . The ceiling is high, there’s a lot of hard surfaces, and I think it’s just a matter of time. This is a thing we’ve just evolved into for the last four months, and it will continue, rain or shine.”

Indeed, the Banana Belt is more a legacy of Cafe Voltaire than Charlie’s or Pineapple’s. The old Voltaire was where Raffetto refined his playing and was inspired by others after moving to Ventura from Maui.

“I just kind of started playing the guitar seriously six or seven years ago when I moved to Ventura, and I just mimicked all the people I hung out with that I met at the Voltaire--Bud Bierhaus, Danny Wilson, Alan Thornhill, Stephen Geyer, Teresa Russell, Randy Cobb--the list goes on and on. I used to go down there every night--it was like a serious school. This lineup has been consistent for about two years. We all played together for the first time at the Voltaire.”

Raffetto has been a fixture of the local music scene since he moved here, beginning with a couple of rock bands, Nasty Jack and Heritage. He increased his fan base exponentially while working as a member of another dance-inducing outfit, Southern Cross, which unfortunately broke up at the end of 1997. These days, along with Cooley and Siebenberg, Raffetto is also a member of the hard-rocking Loudmouth Soup, which regularly packs Nicholby’s and Bombay.

The others have done this before as well. One of Balaban’s recent projects was a tour with Eels, but Wilson has the longest resume of all, including having worked with the Rincon Ramblers and the Tatters. Wilson has been around so long that he used to play at Charlie’s. Together, these guys create a serious pickin’ fest when they start jamming, sort of a Deadhead/amped-up/bluegrass thing. The JRB has vastly more music than time.

“We have sets worth of material,” Raffetto said. “There’s tons of songs that Danny, Orest and myself know--it’s endless. We know all of Hippie Mark’s songs, a lot of Danny’s tunes, a bunch of Orest’s songs and at least 30 of my songs plus some cool bluegrass. . . . JRB music pulls from old and new players and pulls from old and new music. It’s improvisational.”

Meanwhile, Raffetto is glad he’s here.

“I like the Ventura music scene,” he said. “Our plan right now is that I’m working on this publishing thing, trying to get some bread together, vying for some support, some serious involvement of people who want to become philanthropists to the arts. That’s why I write songs and that’s why I play them. It’s a serious commitment. This is my day job.”

Last Sunday, the encore was “Iko Iko,” which soon metamorphosed into “Not Fade Away.” That appealed to a number of dancers.

“They keep the party going,” Raffetto said.

DETAILS

The Jonathan Raffetto Band at Banana Belt Cantina, 362 California St., Ventura, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday; free; 643-5333.

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The Dixie Dregs, a group out of Atlanta with a long track record, should attract plenty of local musicians to the Ventura Theatre Saturday night, to watch them perform even as they wonder how they pull off those feats of musical brilliance.

The Dregs, an instrumental group, mix rock, jazz, funk, bluegrass and just about everything else, except an annoying, prancing singer screaming platitudes at the crowd. Frontman and bandleader Steve Morse explained the reasoning: “Well, we used to have vocalists, but they were, you know, weird. They always wanted to do classic rock.”

The band has been playing since the ‘70s, when they met at the University of Miami, where the music department rivals the football team in expertise. The band has performed from time to time but has taken lengthy breaks to allow for solo projects. Morse, for example, was a commercial airline pilot for a while, but then returned to a more satisfying career as a guitarist.

“It’s a challenge to do something different every night,” Morse said. “It’s hard beyond belief.”

DETAILS

Dixie Dregs at the Ventura Theatre, 26 Chestnut St., 8 p.m. Saturday; $30; 653-0721.

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It’s going to be a doubleheader in hell when Chris Hillman and Jesse Winchester perform tonight at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara at the latest episode of the long-running “Sings Like Hell” series.

Hillman is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of the Byrds who had a hit covering a Bob Dylan song, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” He also was a member of the country rock pioneers, the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as a member of country rock superstars the Desert Rose Band until 1993. Hillman’s latest album is “Like a Hurricane.”

Winchester is a singer/songwriter who released his debut album in 1970. He continued to release critically acclaimed albums until 1988, when he burned out on recording and touring, but not writing. Winchester continued to pen clever tunes while living in Nashville, where the likes of Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris and Wynonna Judd recorded his songs.

These days, Winchester is back with a new album, “Gentleman of Leisure,” on Sugar Hill, which is also Hillman’s label.

DETAILS

Chris Hillman and Jesse Winchester at the Lobero Theatre, 33 Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara, 8 tonight; $28.50 advance or $32.50 at the door; 963-0761.

Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.