The Haight Ashbury is a street intersection in San Francisco. During the conservative America of the 1950s it was a rundown but quaint area. Its cheap rents attracted the artists of the Beat generation such as Jack Kerouac and a small artistic community began. Using every art form this bohemian generation expressed a new way of being American. As the 50s rolled into the 60s the area began attracting the disaffected youth of America, who identified with this liberating way of thinking and living. Artists, poets, rebels, spiritualists, revolutionaries and musicians flocked to the area. The Haight Ashbury became a vibrant centre of free expression; it has been likened to a renaissance whose effects are still resonating today.
The debut of The Songs of the Haight Ashbury Stage Show in July 2011 drew the largest crowds Stokers Siding Hall has ever seen. Those unable to fit into the hall created a mini-festival outside as the hymns of a generation were celebrated by the best musicians in the Rainbow Region. Performances in Nimbin and Byron in December 2011 filled the venues with capacity crowds who experienced a psychedelically huge night of fun with this exciting production that is going places.
The Songs of the Haight Ashbury Stage Show is a celebration of the timeless music of Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Country Joe and the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell and more
S Sorrensen, renowned author, comedian and poet is the Ringmaster, interspersing the songs with hilarious anecdotes and stories from the era. James T, who spent 10 years in Canned Heat, will play the songs he knows so well, an American expat whose career highlights include sharing the stage with John Lee Hooker. Multi-award-winning blues diva Lil’Fi will sing Janis Joplin with a unique authority that can only come from paying her dues and living the blues. Connor Cleary, hailed as one of the region’s most impressive young guitarists, breathes Jimi Hendrix from every cell and is electrifying. Bill Jacobi’s tramp-roots style will conjure Country Joe, Arlo Guthrie and Dylan. Worldfolk songbird Andrea Soler will channel the sweet purity of Joni Mitchell and mystical punk Diva Diana Anaid will sing Grace Slick as only one who has been down the rabbit hole can.
