Beth Custer / Will Bernard / Ken Emerson

Beth Custer / Will Bernard / Ken Emerson

Will and Beth interrupt their regular programming to introduce Ken Emerson, a long time friend and collaborator. The evening will include, along with Will and Beth’s compositions, a selection of vintage jazz and blues as well as Hawaiian slack-key, hula and hapa-haole songs with Will on guitar, Beth on clarinet and voice and Ken on lap steel and resonator guitars. This will prove to be an interesting interesting and fun meeting of the spirits. Will and Ken have performed before, notably at Kauai’s Red Clay festival where they teamed up with Ken's Hawaiian trio to perform 30’s an 40’s Hawaiian music. Beth and Will have collaborated for decades.BETH CUSTERBeth Custer is a member of the ensembles Russian Telegraph, Club Foot Orchestra,Trance Mission, Eighty Mile Beach, Will Bernard/Beth Custer and Beth Custer Ensembles, Clarinet Thing, and The Mighty New Farm Band. She has composed for Zeitgeist and Left Coast Chamber Ensembles, and for the films of William Farley, Cathy Lee Crane and Brad Coley, and for the dance troupes Joe Goode Performance Group, AXIS Dance Company, Harupin Ha, and Osseus Labyrinth, and for the theatre productions of Campo Santo, The Magic, San Diego Repertory, and California Shakespeare. WILL BERNARDTwice Grammy nominated guitarist Will Bernard's unique voice was formed from the most part from the rich cultural roots of the San Francisco Bay Area. Along the way he studied classical music, jazz, played in basements and coliseums and absorbed the Bay Area Multi Kulti , the funk of New Orleans, and the New York Downtown edge. He has performed and/or recorded  with Charlie Hunter, Stanton Moore, Robert Walter, John Medeski, Bill Laswell, Ben Sidran, Peter Apfelbaum, Dr John, Tom Waits and a lot of other known and unknowns.  His 2007 CD "Party Hats" as well as his 1997 collaborative project T.J. Kirk "If Four Was One" were both nominated for Grammys. “Pond Life”, released 2022 on Dreck to Disk records is his11th album as a leader. KEN EMERSONKenton Robert Lopaka Emerson is a San Francisco bay area born/ Hawaiian island bred guitarist who covers many musical genres. He has played his special blend of Blues/Jazz Hawaiian guitar for 40 years and running. His original compositions and performances on 'Slack Key Guitar Vol 2' (Palm Records) helped bring in the first ever 2005 GRAMMY award for Hawaiian music. 'KE' played on Donald Fagen's 2007 GRAMMY winning "Morph the Cat" album. He is a master of many instruments including the slack key guitar and the Hawaiian steel guitar. He continues to perform in George Kahumoku's Masters of Hawaiian Music series and with Slack Key Guitarist Jim "Kimo" West.$20 cover charge; byob. A deal!Students $10; kids free. Mo bettah!Reservations: call the shop at 415-586-3733