# Barbara Dane at Miner Auditorium, July 13, 2017

[SFJAZZ](https://www.sfjazz.org/events/sessions/2017/0713/barbara-dane) presents [Barbara Dane](http://www.barbaradane.net/): 90th Birthday Celebration featuring the Tammy Hall Trio, the Chambers Brothers, and [Pablo Menéndez](http://www.cubamezcla.com/Mezcla_Direct_from_Cuba.html)  
[Robert M. Miner Auditorium](http://www.sfjazz.org/center)  
[SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=SFJAZZ+Center,+205+Franklin+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94102+USA&hl=en)  
7:30 PM, Thursday, July 13, 2017

[[2017-07-12|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2017|Up to the 2017 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2017#July_events|Up to the 2017 event list!]] ☸  [[2017-07-14|On to the next event!]]

{{:2017:2017-07:2017-07-13-bd-_uncredited_.jpg?nolink|Barbara singing (from SFJAZZ Facebook feed)}}

## Set One

[7:42 PM lights down, brief introductory film, band out; 7:45 PM BD enters to standing ovation]

01. [7:45 PM] (unidentified tune; lyric "could be illicit")
02. [7:50 PM] _Throw It Away_
03. [7:57 PM] _American Tune_  
[add Joe and Willie Chambers for a pair of a capella gospel tunes]
04. [8:02 PM] _Come by Here_
05. [8:06 PM] _Go Tell It on the Mountain_  
[band joins back in]
06. [8:11 PM] _It Isn't Nice_ &  
[add Pablo]
07. [8:16 PM] _People Get Ready_ (JC/WC) &
[drop Joe and Willie]
08. [8:22 PM] _How Long_ ‡
09. [8:28 PM] _On Your Way Down_ †  
[add Joe and Willie Chambers]
10. [8:35 PM] _Together We Can Move Mountains_ (PM/DJ/WC/BD)  
[set ends 8:40 PM; all off after a minute or two]

## Set Two

[9:08 PM lights down, band out]

01. [9:09 PM] _In My Life_  
[add Pablo; long stretch of banter]
02. [9:19 PM] _Havana Blues_ (PM) †
03. [9:23 PM] _All Too Soon_ †
04. [9:30 PM] _King Salmon Blues_ ‡  
[drop Pablo]
05. [9:40 PM] _The Eggplant That Ate Chicago_
06. [9:45 PM] _Be Reasonable_  
[add Pablo]
07. [9:54 PM] _My Brain_ †  
[set ends; ~10:01 PM Nina Menéndez enters with a Birthday cake; Joe and Willie Chambers follow; the band a crowd sing both the _Happy Birthday_ song and a Spanish equivalent; after a few minutes, Barbara decides to do an Encore]  
   
**Encore**
08. [10:04 PM] _Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around_ †
09. [10:09 PM] (unidentified tune; lyric "Tomorrow Is Another Day", BD/PM)  
[show ends 10:15 PM; this time they're really done; all off after a minute or so]

## Performers

* [Barbara Dane](http://www.barbaradane.net/): vox.

### Tammy Hall Trio

* [Ruth Davies](http://www.ruthdavies.com/): contrabass, electric contrabass;
* [Tammy Hall-Hawkins](http://www.facebook.com/TammyLHallPiano): piano;
* [Daria Johnson](http://www.drumdariajohnson.com/): drums, lead (s1t10) and harmony vox.

### the Chambers Brothers

* Joe Chambers: lead (s1t08) and harmony vox;
* Willie Chambers: & guitar, lead (s1t08, t10) and harmony vox;

### Special Guests

* [Pablo Menéndez](http://www.cubamezcla.com/Mezcla_Direct_from_Cuba.html): † guitar, ‡ harmonica, lead (s2t02, t09) and harmony vox.

## Notes

Well, advertising this gig as a Birthday Celebration seems a bit goofy considering that Barbara was born on May 12, but I suppose that a longer ceremonial period is permissible given the milestone achieved! And Barbara was in fine form -- moving really well (with the aid of her walker), standing for a few tunes, and belting out many of the songs with plenty of lung power. She's certainly still pretty sharp; although now and then her attention would lapse and she'd exhibit a classic senior moment, she'd usually recover with a wink or a shrug or some other signal to show us that recognized it and was moving on.

The performance and tune selection was uniformly excellent; my favorite for the night being Barbara's take on Allen Toussaint's _On Your Way Down_ -- it was all too easy to hear between the lines and make it out as a message to the many losers grubbing their way to the top of the global shit-pile irregardless of the rest of us.

I was really surprised that Lester Chambers was absent from tonight's party given that we just saw him at the [[:2017:2017-06:2017-06-21|Surrealistic Summer Solstice Concert]] a few weeks ago. Since all three of the brothers appeared to be pretty healthy, and there aren't any conflicted events shown on Lester's band page, in the absence of any other sort of evidence, I'm gonna guess that there's a bit of sibling resentment at the root of that mystery.

While I'm sorry that I missed Barbara's late April gig at the Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz, tonight was plenty good, and honestly, I probably would have skipped this one if I'd made it to the Kuumbwa show: it was a great evening, but not the sort of entertainment that I'm looking to sample all that often.

Rusty Aceves posted a nice [promo](https://www.sfjazz.org/onthecorner/barbara-dane-freedom-constant-struggle) piece about Barbara for SFJAZZ.

Kevin Vance devoted part of his July 9 radio show to Barbara; he's posted the [playlist](https://kpfa.org/episode/across-the-great-divide-july-9-2017/#playlist) and you can hear the archived stream of it via [KPFA](https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=263704). Jump ahead to 0:21:58 if you want to start with Kevin's introduction of Nina and Barbara; this segment ends 1:04:25.

If you'd like to read more about Barbara's accomplishments, Michael Healy wrote a great [biographical article](http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/Barbara-Danes-Wild-Ride/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc) for Oakland Magazine in 2015.

{{tag>music Barbara_Dane Tammy_Hall-Hawkins the_Chambers_Brothers Pablo_Menéndez Miner_Auditorium Ruth_Davies Daria_Johnson Joe_Chambers Willie_Chambers Nina_Menéndez}}

[[2017-07-12|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2017|Up to the 2017 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2017#July_events|Up to the 2017 event list!]] ☸  [[2017-07-14|On to the next event!]]