Special National Attraction!
L'IL DAVE THOMPSON

From deep in the Delta, the blues redefined

A native of Greenville, Mississippi, Thompson has kept in touch with the Delta through good times and bad. He had a fast start and was nominated in 1996 at the WC Handy Blues Music Awards for "Best New Blues Artist" and "Contemporary Blues Album" with a Fat Possum Record release. His career has taken several twists and turns since then and he finds himself 10 years later on the road, backing up a brand new CD on Electrofi Records that reestablished his soul blues guitar mastery and maturity as a songwriter and performer. When he was here last year, he knocked out the crowd with a combination of sizzling blues and charisma.

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HOOKAH STEW

Garage, soul, powerpop -- John Michael Young can play them all -- and does

Hookah has evolved. And like all evolution, the progress is sometimes hard to see until ... a CD -- "Hits from the Hookah," puts the Stew in a new niche, that of tribal hook masters, rattling the bones of the 80s. John Michael Young formed this band over 10 years ago and gave it a crash course of Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Aquarium Release and the Five Fingers of Funk. Now playing on the van stereo: Oingo Boingo, Nirvana, Run DMC, The Subways, Anti-Flag, Kings of Leon, Mac Dre, Fat Boys, Rollins band, Weezer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jd Hardy, Human Rights, Van Halen. The riff is hotter than it was; the energy is jacking up. Evolution at work.

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NORMAL BEAN 
& SPECIAL GUESTS

PLUS THE DISTURBED POETS SOCIETY

& THE LOST CREEK GANG 

FEATURING KEN BABBS & MORE SPECIAL GUESTS

The Kesey Karnival comes to the Koast to kick 2009 out of town

For those who have forgotten the '60s, the Merry Pranksters were born on a bus trip from Eugene to New York in 1964, a ride intended to celebrate the publication of Ken Kesey's book "Sometimes a Great Notion" and to meet and greet the great Doctor Timothy Leary. The bus trip is the subject of Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," and led to the psychedelic scene and the rise of the Grateful Dead. Kesey, who had a summer home just outside Yachats, died in 2001 but his family and friends have kept his spirit and philosophy alive through (among other things) the replica bus FURTHUR 2 and the Normal Bean Show. We get the full-out, pranksterized version of the latter on the last day of 2009. On Friday, New Year's Day, the Poets, freaks and football fans mingle through the area of the stage and the Ducks vs. Buckeye mayhem. It's back to the music Saturday night, with a special edition of the Lost Creek Gang, including the horn playing of Ken Babbs, Kesey's longtime pal. Watch for Ginsberg in the crowd.

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