Saturday, December 14
WOW Hall Membership Party: Dan Mahoney, Gumbo Groove Duo, The Muddy Souls, Cap’n Trips Plays Bob Dylan
Membership Appreciation Dinner Party
Doors 7:00 pm
Free for WOW Hall members.
To become a supporting member of the Community Center for the Performing Arts / WOW Hall, or to check your membership status, please call or visit the office: 541-687-2746, open Noon – 6:00 pm Monday through Friday.
You can also mail a check to:
WOW Hall Membership
291 W. 8th Ave
Eugene OR 97401
To join via PayPal click here: PayPal link
On Saturday, December 14, the Community Center for the Performing Arts celebrates its 44th Anniversary at the WOW Hall Membership Party, featuring entertainment by Dan Mahoney, Gumbo Groove Duo, The Muddy Souls and Cap’n Trips Plays Bob Dylan. A buffet dinner will feature food and beverages prepared by some of Lane County’s best restaurants and suppliers!
Dan Mahoney is a guitarist from Eugene specializing in Gypsy and Latin jazz. He is a graduate from the University of Oregon School of Jazz Studies, an accomplished classical guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and music educator. You may know him from his work with psychedelic rock and funk bands such as Bazil Rathbone, Basin & Range and Goldfoot. For the past two years he has been developing a new sound and approach focused on acoustic guitar and improvisation. Aside from his solo guitar performances, you can see him playing alongside his new jazz projects, Tug and the Heart Strings and The Whiteaker Hot Club. This summer Dan joined the teachers’ corps of the WOW Hall’s Music’s Edge Summer Rock Camps. "Aside from performing, I've always had a passion for teaching,” says Dan.
Gumbo Groove, playing as a duo at the WOW Hall's Membership Party, is an adventure in genre bending. Snatches of David Grisman-like riffs give way to New Orleans second line simmers, while shades of The Grateful Dead can be heard wending amongst the chordal carousings. “We call it Folk-Fueled Fungrass, played on traditional acoustic instruments,” they declare. Frank Sprouse (guitarist) writes and arranges the band's mostly original music. His influences include Dave Matthews, Monte Montgomery and Steve Kimock, with a nod to Jerry Garcia. He enjoys playing out over multi-textured grooves, and his dexterous acoustic playing takes Gumbo Groove to unique places. Steve Mosher (acoustic bass) builds his own instruments and speakers, all amazing to behold, and he's just as comfortable playing four strings as six or eight. With a long history of band membership from jazz to rock with all stops in between, he provides a solid and complex foundation for the musical explorations of Gumbo Groove. His musical vocabulary is deep, and his influences range far and wide, from Phil Lesh to Stanley Clarke.
Acoustic American roots music from Eugene, The Muddy Souls are Jacob John (guitar), Austen Slone (mandolin), Julianna Meares (double bass) and Pete Romanelli (guitar). They play songs by Django Reinhardt, David Grisman, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Radiohead as well as writing some of the best originals West of the Mississippi. Their concerts are an acoustic blend of folk, bluegrass, country and chaos. This year The Muddy Souls participated in the WOW Hall’s Eugene LIVE! Northwest Showcase series and, out of 26 acts, they were the winners! Currently the band is enjoying their winnings -- recording their second album at Ninkasi Studios, with their fearless leader James Book at the controls... stay tuned for album release party details!
Cap'n Trips have been playing together for eleven years now. They are Eugene's first band to pay tribute to the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. "Trips" has played the OCF Community Village, the Country Fair related Spring Fling and Teddy Bear Picnic, as well as venues throughout Oregon. Cap'n Trips plays Bob Dylan was formed two years ago to pay tribute to the early music of Dylan. Their sets mainly focus on the period Bob first went electric. "Trips" draws heavily from the albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Tom Lemmon (lead vocals, guitars, harmonica) and Marcy Andrews (mandolin) play in the bands Cap'n Trips, Hot Tuna Tribute Band and The Tributaries. Ken Sokolov (drums) has played in The Klezmonauts, Beat Crunchers and The Crawdads of Pure Love, among many others. Trey Longstreth (bass & back up vocals) has played in The Surfonics, Tourheads Caravan and Ras Gabriel’s 4/word Band. Sean Jackson (keyboards & back up vocals) plays in many other projects including Token Rhymes, Level Vibes and Major Lingo.
The Community Center for the Performing Arts was incorporated to save the Woodmen of the World Hall from demolition and keep it available to the community. On December 10, 1975, the WOWATHON began with live entertainment 24 hours a day for five days in order to raise a down payment. Today, the Hall remains community-owned and democratically operated thanks to a broad base of community support. Each year around this time the Membership Party serves to thank the supporters of the CCPA, a nonprofit (501c3) arts organization. Last year eighty-five area restaurants and other businesses agreed to contribute prepared food, beverages and other items for a buffet-style dinner and this year we hope to see a similar number of restaurants participating. Admission to the Membership Party is free for current members; memberships are available at the door for $15 to $40 or more.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Dan Mahoney at 7:20, Gumbo Groove Duo at 8:00, The Muddy Souls at 8:40 and Cap’n Trips Plays Bob Dylan at 9:30. To become a supporting member of the WOW Hall, or to check your membership status, visit the office or call 541-687-2746 during office hours (noon -6:00 M-F). The WOW Hall is located at 291 W. 8th Ave. (the corner of 8th and Lincoln in Eugene) and is open for all ages. Adult refreshments are available downstairs. For more information please call 541-687-2746.
