OPENED FOR THE GRASCALS AT THE GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL IN SAN FRANCISCO ON JANUARY 26, 2010!
Photo by Mike Melnyk
KEYSTONE STATION
Keystone Station is a traditional bluegrass band from Marin County, CA, whose members are all veterans on the Bay Area music scene. Formed in the winter of 2001, they made their grand debut at Sweetwater in Mill Valley in June of that year. The band has played the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival three times, the SF Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival twice, the CBA Veterans Day Festival in Woodland, and they are regulars at Murphy's in Sonoma.
Keystone Station was built upon the duo Keystone Crossing -- Larry Carlin and Claudia Hampe. These two have been performing together since 1996, singing the songs of the brother duos from the early days of country and bluegrass music. They have shared the stage with Ralph Stanley, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, The Laurel Canyon Ramblers, and many others. In the winter of 2001 they started jamming informally with some local bluegrass pickers, and they decided to expand the duo to a five-piece band.Other Station members now include Kenny Blacklock on fiddle, Dave Earl on mandolin, and Kris Hare on banjo. The repertoire of Keystone Station is based on the songs of such notables as the late "Father of Bluegrass," Mr. Bill Monroe, as well as the Stanley Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs. With haunting three-part harmonies, and hot instrumental picking on acoustic instruments, Keystone Station is steeped in the bluegrass tradition.
Check out their gig schedule on Musi-Cal.
KEYSTONE STATION BAND MEMBERS
Larry Carlin -- one of the founders of the band, Larry is a performer, producer, and writer of bluegrass in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from King of Prussia, PA, he has been living in Sausalito for 25 years, and he plays standup bass. He performs in four bands (this one, Keystone Crossing, Dr. Elmo & Wild Blue, The Whutknotts), writes the Almost Daily News column three times a week for the California Bluegrass Association web site, a monthly column titled "The Bluegrass Muse" for Bluegrass By The Bay, writes a biweekly email music newsletter called Carltone's Corner, was the founder and host for ten years of the long-running Marin Bluegrass Jam, produced the bluegrass series called Bluegrass Gold at Sweetwater in Mill Valley for eight years, books the music for Murphy's Irish Pub in the town of Sonoma, and occasionally does movie reviews for the Movie Magazine International radio show. He is a member of the California Bluegrass Association and the Northern California Bluegrass Society. He plays a 1956 Kay M-1 bass.
Claudia Hampe -- the other founding member of the band, Claudia is from Radnor, PA, and has been living in and working as a realtor in Mill Valley for over 30 years. She sang in folk groups in high school, was in the Marin County band Rowdy & The Rivets many years back during the "Urban Cowboy Scare" of the early '80s, and she also warbles the high parts with The Warblers. Claudia plays rhythm guitar and sings the beautiful parts that make the rest of the Keystone Crossing/Station sound so good. Her guitar of choice is a 1997 Collings OM-2H.
Kenny Blacklock -- originally from Santa Rosa, CA, Kenny lived in Sausalito or Japan for many years before settling in Petaluma in 2009 with his fiddling wife Katy Bridges and two young daughters. Besides playing fiddle (he also plays tin whistle, keyboards, mandolin, musical saw, and viola)(but not in this band), Kenny is also a music teacher, a member of the bands Dr. Elmo & Wild Blue and Bluegrass Contraption, and he is the grandson of the legendary and late Bay Area saw player Charlie Blacklock. He plays a 1747 Schedelich violin, speaks, reads and writes Japanese, and he is ready to lead the band on a tour of Japan.
Dave Earl -- a lifelong musician and another native Californian, Dave proudly states that the singing of the Stanley Brothers and the intensity of Bill Monroe inspired him to take up bluegrass mandolin in 1998. In addition to Keystone Station, Dave performs his solo American Roots Music show at SF Fisherman's Wharf. He's also performed with Carolina Special, The Alhambra Valley Band, Cabin Fever, The Whiskey Brothers, The David Thom Band and The Earl Brothers. He's played onstage at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Bluegrass By the River, Wolf Mountain, CBA Father's Day, Willow Creek, Plymouth, The Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, Woodland, Scott's Valley and SFBOT. He plays a 1992 Flatiron F-5 mandolin, and he resides in the hollow of San Francisco with his wife Janet..
Kris Hare -- the third native Californian in the band who now resides near the town of Paradise, Kris has been involved in playing music since the age of five, but wasn’t introduced to bluegrass music until the late ‘60s. Initially a listener, she later heard the banjo calling her name in an inspiring moment that came from her first exposure to a vinyl record by Country Gazette on which Alan Munde was playing “Down The Road.” After listening to that album (at least a thousand times!) she was forever hooked on banjo. Kris has played in several bands, which includes her first band The Red Dirt Bullies as well as her most recent groups, Keystone Station and California Borderline. She is currently playing an original flathead 1941 TB-75 with a Frank Neat neck. When not playing bluegrass, she is a veterinarian whose special interests lie in emergency veterinary medicine. Kris’s favorite breed of dog is the German shepherd but she loves anything with four legs and a wagging tail.