On a Sunday night more than 100 men, most slightly older than your average prisoner, gathered in a chapel to hear a Blues Quartet brought into San Quentin State Prison by Lisa Starbird of Bread & Roses Presents.
“We’re on to a great start,” said guitarist and singer Kurt Huget after playing “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “House of the Rising Sun” and “Whiter Shade of Pale.”
“I was a kid when this music came out,” said Mark Tedeschi. “Our family would go water skiing on the weekends. We’d have lunch at this place and my mother would give me a handful of quarters for the jukebox.”
Heads were bopping with clapping in rhythm throughout the Feb. 28 performance by Huget, along with the bass playing of Tony Saunders, Peter Penhallo on piano, and the drumming of Julia Harrell.
“When I listen to this music it reminds me of good days — of love and the prospect of a better world being articulated through the songs,” said James Metters, who normally goes to the Protestant Chapel on Sunday nights.
“Are you ready for some Rock and Roll?” Huget asked the audience, which brought whistles, claps, and a few “Yeah! Rock and Roll!”
“I came here to support Lisa (Starbird), who brings artists in here to perform for us,” said Joey Barnes, as the music of The Beatles, Janus Joplin, and Buffalo Springfield filled the air.
Saunders, whose extended bass solos brought several whoops and applauds, has several CDs available on Amazon, including Romancing the Bass, Uptown Jazz and Appaloosa.
The quartet played an original, “Ain’t Gonna Muddy The Water Anymore,” which was the first time Huget and Penhallo played together.
“What a lovely time,” Penhallo said, referring to his experience. “You guys’ hearts are giving something to us.”
Harrell has been inside San Quentin several times. Her last performance, two years ago, was with Huget and Saunders on the prison’s Lower Yard at the annual Avon Walk Against Breast Cancer.
“It’s great to see all the smiles,” Harrell said.
After closing with “Hand Jive” by Johnny Oates, the audience went to the stage to shake hands with the band.
While autographs were signed, stories were exchanged about life in the 1960s and ‘70s, the era when most of the songs were hits.
