Music

“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”  The passing of Pete Seeger in January made many nostalgic for the era when `topical songs’ boldly took on social issues.  Seeger was most famously associated with the Civil Rights struggle of the early Sixties and the anti-war movement which followed.  He also sang about environmental concerns, particularly the pollution of his beloved Hudson …

The world comes to NAMM.  A maker of a guitar fretboard cleaner from New Zealand (Boogie Juice by name) is elated to announce he’s found a distributor for his product—in Thailand!  A family of Greek bouzouki makers has, for the first time, flown from Athens to Anaheim.  China’s presence grows greater year by year.  Every January, the National Association of …

Baja is especially alive with music in December.  There are Christmas Concerts for every music lover from Hard Rock to Classical.  My personal favorite was “Canta Noel” presented by our very own Ensenada Opera Star, Maria Lozano.  Maria is now also teaching voice at the University here in Ensenada, in Tijuana, and in Mexicali.  Her students adore her, and some …

Ray Charles and the Beatles both `covered’ him.  He held his own with the era’s great rock and Soul singers to become part of America’s soundscape of the Sixties.  Yet by the decade’s end he’d become a self-parody, popping out of cornfields on the hillbilly Laugh-In called Hee Haw.  Twenty years after that (and before Johnny Cash), he’d become the …

Ensenada’s Sunday afternoons are jumping with music at the Papas & Beer Cantina, a very well known establishment located at the corner of Ruiz and 1st Street.  Papas & Beer is one of the best places in town for locals and visitors to enjoy their favorite drinks and appetizers, watch current sporting events, and listen to some of the finest …