A TREAT COMPLETE...

So, with the aid of the plethora of weekly events newspapers, we have been poking around the Santa Cruz music scene now and then.   With some due diligence one can find good music and one can find inexpensive music.  Sadly, of course, they are seldom the same venue.  Undeterred, we soldiered on knowing that the good generally outweighed the bad and that sooner or later we would be rewarded with some extra good.

Last Sunday we got all mountainy, and headed up the hill to beautiful downtown Felton for an evening amongst the tall and stately redwoods.  We had a delightful dinner at an Italian restaurant called Casa Bella Act II… an odd little converted house on Highway 9 up by Ben Lomond (next burg up from Felton).  After eats and drinks, bellies full and the night still young, we rolled back down to Felton and an established music roadhouse called Don Quixote’s.  This is a rambling old supper club from the 50’s that has changed into a Mexican restaurant and, in the back room, remodeled to accommodate a stage & sound system; an intimate music venue.

We had gone, on the recommendation of a local musician, to hear four women performing as Honeymoon.  We got there early to guarantee good seats so we had to sit there, drowsy with too much pasta, while the opening act played with the mikes and monitor balances, got their beers and played their set… actually not bad at all… Norway Rat outta Portland.

Then, after a mercifully short pause, Honeymoon took the stage and promptly knocked our socks off and half way back to Quincy.  The back of the stage held a couple of guys playing tight, creative bass and drums but they were completely overshadowed by the four young women who fronted the band.  Between them they played two guitars, a five string banjo, twin fiddles, keyboards, and accordion. Oh, and four stellar voices.  Yeah, this is not some gal with a great voice being propped up by some harmony singing… this is four individual lead singers, well steeped in their craft, who can gracefully pass the lead back and forth while the rest layer in tight and unique harmonies giving the group the sound of a dozen strong choir.

They jumped right in with original work and an a capella crescendo and never backed off.  They performed almost exclusively their own work (and it’s easy to see why...) except for a traditional medley of Wayfaring Stranger & I’ll Fly Away, both in a minor key, which left me wondering why anyone ever bothered to write the latter in a major key.

All too soon they had finished up their encores and we had purchased their only CD offering - a four tune EP release.  If you ever you get the chance to see them, don’t pass it up.  You can check out their website at honeymoonismusic.com and hear some snippets of their EP and you can probably find them on YouTube… but I have no idea how to do that…

The only issue I have with Honeymoon is that we continue to be disappointed by anyone we have heard since… the aforementioned reward of extra good.