A Day With Bill

Bill and I have known each other for a little while. I think I might've met him before we connected at the Pub, because I used to frequent the Ivy Room many years ago, but I can't be sure. What I am sure of is we know a lot of the same Berkeley and Oakland cats from way back when. Pierro, Nando, and I'm sure there's others. And oh by-the-way he's known Jenny for probably about thirty years. We have recorded together at Panama Studios, and at his house as well. He is a brilliant musician, singer and songwriter. Bill is a lyrical guy. His brain takes whatever his ears hear and twists it into a clever limerick, which depending on the subject-matter sounds ridiculous but it makes sense because he rearranges the context. One thing about Bill is that he is fiercely independent and he doesn't defer to anyone. Don't get him started.

I accepted though I didn't know what I was in for. We met up at about 1:30 at his house and loaded the car. I knew we were going to the city but beyond that I had no clue where we were going or what kind of venue or band it was. I tasked him with navigation duty, and I streamed Killing The Blues, the version with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, and similar stuff on the radio through a blue-tooth receiver and drove us over the bridge into Bill's world.

We got to the venue, a bandshell built in 1900. One-hundred and twenty-five years ago for the World Expo. He said, don't let that fool you, they have top-notch amplification provided by Meyer Sound, augmenting the natural amplification of the band-shell. And indeed, the sound was incredible. My ears did not hurt or get tired, the auditory experience was detailed and crystal clear. That might seem underwhelming to an amateur or someone who doesn't know about live sound but if you can crank a ten-thousand watt system and not hurt anyone's ears, that's an amazing technological feat.

We finally unloaded, avoided a two-hundred dollar ticket, and I re-parked the car.

The first person I met was Stephan. The guy in-charge.

I shook his hand, and asked him if I could plug into the board. He told me to ask Evan the sound guy.

Then I started taking photos. I detail my photographic setup elsewhere.

Graham really sent it with his raw outpouring of emotion and virtuosity with the violin and guitar. I knew it was going to be a good day.

The lineup for the Bandshell in Golden Gate Park on June 11th, 2025 was as follows:

Lead vocals, guitar and dobro: Essence Goldman of Essence and Gold Country, and Jonny and June Forever.

Lead guitar, and backing vocals: Danny Uzilevsky of Johnny and June Forever, and owner of Allegiant Records in San Anselmo.

Pedal steel: Jon Mitguard of the Stadler Gibbons Band.

Double-bass: Bill Macbeath singer, songwriter, musician of many bands. Too many to list.

Banjo and harmonica: Jenny Kerr, multi-instrumentalist.

Violin: Graham Patzner of Whiskerman.

Unfortunately, the audio was mangled. I think the signal outputs were way too hot for my little recorder. I turned the input down, but the bar was pegged the whole time. I don't know what caused that or where in the chain to even begin. I am an amateur audio engineer. I don't think headphones would've helped. I think it was something like an impedance mismatch or something fundamentally wrong. Maybe I was plugged into the wrong part of the board. I don't know.

Anyway, I'm really sorry about that because they kicked the door in with both feet. The show was amazing. Essence's songs about her dad nearly made me cry, she has an amazing voice and when she and Danny got busy nothing could knock them out of the groove. It was a great show and I was honored to be there.

I encourage you to follow the links and also look them up on YouTube.

At least I got some good photos.