I love a good band story, and Venice, California, country act Johnny Marfa and the Lights sure has one. Marfa was born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, and he calls Fort Worth home though his band is based in SoCal.
“Once, some yuppie jackass questioned his Texas roots after a sunset gig in LA, and it nearly came to fisticuffs,” the band’s story goes. “Luckily, Johnny’s charming, debonair personality and daunting 6-foot-3-inch frame prevailed on the lad, and everyone left as great friends and lifelong fans—as is the case at every Johnny Marfa and the Lights show.”
The band describes itself as “Equal parts Broken Spoke, Hollywood hotspot, and CBGB,” and calls their sound a “Southern-fried, Cali-fied, Texas Tornado of good times.” For nearly a year, they’ve been the house band of LA’s famed rooftop honky-tonk bar Desert 5 Spot, “Melting faces and driving the line-dance-crazy California crowd to hit the dance floor the right way—for some Texas Two Steppin’.”
This Saturday, Jan. 11, saddle up and head to a free matinee show at Morro Bay’s The Siren (21-and-older). If you want to get a taste of Marfa’s magic, head to YouTube and check out the band’s video for “Keep on L-I-V-I-N.”
Gold Dust Woman
Is it possible to name the best Stevie Nicks song? “Edge of Seventeen,” “Leather and Lace,” “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Silver Springs,” “Crying in the Night.” The list goes on and on. Now 76, Stevie Nicks still tours. She’ll open for Billy Joel at Ford Field in Detroit on March 29, and she’s scheduled to play MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Aug. 8, but if you can’t make those shows, your best bet is seeing Stevie Nicks Illusion on Saturday, Jan. 11 (8 p.m.; 21-and-older; $30.12), at The Siren. They play Fleetwood Mac songs and hits from Nicks’ solo career.
Diana Grace channels 1970s-era Stevie Nicks. Monty Sommer re-creates Lindsey Buckingham’s vocals and guitar work. Laurie Richardson stands in for Christine McVie (voice and keyboards). Dave Christensen delivers Mick Fleetwood’s drum style. Brett Scott rounds out the band with John McVie style bass.
The show will probably sell out and be standing-room only, though the club has a few reservable tables for $100 (email monte@thesirenmorrobay.com for availability). Get ready to “Go Your Own Way.”
Psychobilly progenitors
Numbskull and Good Medicine are bringing The Meteors back to The Siren on Sunday, Jan. 12 (doors at 7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $22.35 at goodmedicinepresents.com). Formed in 1980 in London, they’re considered the U.K. pioneers of psychobilly—the mash-up of punk rock and 1950s rockabilly—a formula The Cramps pioneered in the U.S. Founding member P. Paul Fenech still leads the trio that’s touring in support of their 24th album, 2024’s 40 Days a Rotting.
“The Meteors started 45 years ago as a reaction against the soft rockabilly that was popular at that time,” their bio explains. “They have now evolved to become the acknowledged ‘Kings of Psychobilly.’ Their audience has continually expanded, and includes not just psychobillies, but everybody from rockabillies and punks, to bikers, and most alternatives. They are the original creators of psychobilly music, and although they have spawned hundreds of imitations, The Meteors are proud to be the only pure psychobilly band ever. Their songs are inspired by their personal experiences and interests.”
A-Mays-ing!
Sarah Vaughan, Phil Woods, Benny Golson, Red Mitchell, Gerry Mulligan, Frank Sinatra … clearly, pianist Bill Mays has collaborated with some of the giants of the jazz world in his six-decade-long career. This Saturday, Jan. 11, the SLO County Jazz Federation will host the Bill Mays Trio at SLO’s Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $35 general, $25 for Jazz Fed members, and $10 for students at my805tix.com).
“Bill Mays is a masterful pianist as well as a prolific composer and arranger,” the Jazz Fed announced. “After a lengthy tenure in Los Angeles working in the Hollywood recording studios, he relocated to New York City in 1984 and has played with numerous top jazz artists at all the major venues. His NYC based trio includes Dean Johnson on bass and Ron Vincent on drums.”
Visit slojazz.org for more information.
Ludwig 4 and 8
Sure, Ludwig von Beethoven’s 9th and 5th symphonies might be best known, but his 4th and 8th are probably his most underrated. Leonard Bernstein called the slow prelude of the 1st movement of the 4th symphony a “mysterious introduction which hovers around minor modes, tip-toeing its tenuous weight through ambiguous unrelated keys and so reluctant to settle down into its final B-flat major.”
Beethoven called his 8th “my little symphony in F,” and it’s surely his lightest—joyful, lacking a slow movement, and breaking from tradition by making the 4th movement the symphony’s heaviest.
Symphony of the Vines will present these two symphonies at Mission San Miguel this Sunday, Jan. 12 (4 p.m.; all ages; $35 general, $30 senior, $15 student at my805tix.com).
Immigration song
The United States has always had a complicated relationship with immigration. Aside from our indigenous population, we are a nation of immigrants, and yet we’ve had periods of anti-immigration sentiment. In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first restrictive immigration law. In 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act further restricted immigration. The naked bigotry of Operation Wetback began in June of 1954, and with the impending return of Trump to the presidency and his threats of mass deportation, our country appears to be poised for another round of ugly xenophobia. Seeing as how the contribution of immigrants brought America everything from Appalachian to jazz to zydeco music, it’s worth remembering and celebrating our immigrant heritage.
Next Thursday, Jan. 16, composer and guitarist Sungmin Shin will present Generation One—Music of Immigration in the Davidson Music Center, Room 218, on the Cal Poly campus (11:10 a.m.; all ages; free). Shin will explore “a wide range of styles, genres, and idioms, which is a culmination of the immigrant experience,” according to the Music Department. “The core theme of the program deals with identity and authenticity as an Asian American performing artist living in the U.S. through the lens of the guitar.”
Shin was born in Korea and now teaches at the University of Buffalo in New York, and his “genre bending program lives without borders and draws from Brahms to Debussy, King Crimson to Steve Reich, Jobim to Villa-Lobos, Seo Taiji to Stevie Wonder, and more.” Δ
Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Volunteers 2025.