$15 (same price online and at the door)
Doors at 7:30pm.
Show from 8:15-10:30pm with one intermission
Brian Belknap's Front Porch
For close to five years Brian Belknap's Front Porch nights featured acts with some of the finest songwriters from the Bay Area and beyond including, Mike Coykendall, Eight Belles, Tender Mercies, Field Medic, Kelly McFarling, Mayya, Graham Patzner, Passenger and Pilot, We Became Owls, Chelsea Coleman, Mr. Andrew and many more. Adding to the intimate welcoming atmosphere were the pot pies and pastries Belknap served up to complement the music. When he began dividing his time between San Francisco and New Orleans it was no longer practical to keep up with the monthly showcase but it returns to its longtime home at The Lost Church on Wednesday October 19th.
featuring...
Mike Coykendall
Veteran songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Coykendall has been amazingly prolific over the last three decades or so. Currently most well known for his duties as a sideman, producer, and recordist via his work with M Ward, Blitzen Trapper, She & Him, Annalisa Tornfelt, & Tin Hat Trio, to name a few, Coykendall has been making his own unique outsider records since the mid ’80s.
Coykendall (pronounced “Kirk-in-doll) was raised near the dead center of the contiguous 48 states of America in rural Norwich, Kansas. In early high school he began playing drums and guitar and went on to perform in mid-western regional cover bands during the early 80’s. In the mid 80’s he started writing and recording his own songs on cassette 4-track and soon formed Wichita, Kansas based prarie-psych popsters Klyde Konnor. Klyde was a prolific and daring band that self-released approximately nine cassette albums between ’86 and ’91.
In ’91, he moved to San Francisco where he and wife Jill formed The Old Joe Clarks. The Old Joes worked hard and made three nuanced, highly acclaimed Americana-esque records. 1996’s Town of Ten, 1999’s Metal Shed Blues, & 2003’s November.
In ’99 after relocating to Portland, Oregon, Coykendall was able to expand his home studio and begin working other artists. One of those artists was M Ward. Their first collaboration was Ward’s 2003 masterpiece Transfiguration of Vincent. Soon after, Coykendall became a member of Ward’s touring band (also with She & Him).
In 2012 Coykendall released his third solo record titled Chasing Away the Dots via Portland’s Fluff & Gravy Records. Dots is a widely varied, moody yet playful record with a lived-in feel and is the perfect vehicle for Coykendall’s unfurnished vocals. This tidy little diamond in the rough also contained guest appearances by some of Coykendall’s musical friends including M Ward, Zooey Deschanel, Eric Earley, & Ben Gibbard.
Translating Dots to a live setting was an undertaking, as the record itself was filled with guest performances and layers of studio psychedelia. Coykendall met that challenge by essentially turning the record inside-out and stripping it down to it’s basic elements. He took to rocking these songs out with an oversized Kay electric guitar while stomping a tin can kick drum and swishing away on a huge set of high-hat cymbals. He began calling it the “rig”, and it stuck. These spontaneous performances are often a thick mix of Coykendall’s own compositions and reinterpretations of other writer’s famous or not-so-famous gems. Not working from a set list and seemingly testing each situation to see what boundaries can be pushed.
In late 2015 Coykendall released Half Past, Present Pending, partnering again with Fluff & Gravy Records. On this record, Coykendall takes the listener closer to the live “rig” performances by mixing excellent new compositions (check out “Hard Landing”) with compositions from his back catalogue (check out “East of Cheney” or “Spacebaker Blues”) in with fresh interpretations of other writers songs (he covers Roger Miller, Syd Barrett, etc) to great effect.
He continues to write, perform, produce, engineer, and wander SE Portland.
https://mikecoykendall.com/
Sarah Bethe Nelson
Bay Area singer-songwriter Sarah Bethe Nelson’s multiple albums of balladry and pop chart an emotional wave of the multifarious and sometimes tumultuous changes of the area’s landscape. Her latest is no exception. Enter Mental Picture, a collection of aftershock spectral tunes ghosting in the aura of the recent age spinning out from the contradictions of Nelson's steely reserve and melancholy fragility. If past efforts highlighted a certain zeal for the times, Mental Picture, while no less resolute in its approbation of the charms of this particular wasteland, definitely adds the haunt of eyes that have seen a grimness and dared to wink back at it.
Think later Townes Van Zandt self-deprecation jolted through the afterglow of Stoned And Dethroned horizon-watching. What began as a way to stay sane in the early days of the pandemic when studios remained shuttered, the album was recorded in Nelson’s own Mission District living room with long-time creative partner Rusty Miller, as well as at the home of compatriot Doug Hilsinger—who both not only play on the album, but also claim co-producing, engineering and mixing roles—Mental Picture is an incredibly homegrown, early Smog-like affair. “It was a natural thing that grew slowly out of a pretty dark and unpredictable time,” she describes. “Music was something positive we could build together so, naturally, that’s what we did.” The vibes flit between tracks like opener "Five Lovin' Days" and the later "Night Birds," whose bare-bones gated, archaic stripped-down electro-acoustic production prefigures a post-apocalyptic cosmic country akin to Emmylou Harris strumming in a bomb shelter. Fuller tracks like "Better Off Dead" and ringer "I Can Just Leave" never shrug off the radioactive buzz, but coalesce into soulful stretches akin to Spiritualized through a ham radio. All paths lead to the title track, which closes out the album with an exhale of a journey long traveled that continues to unfurl. It’s a deserted landscape of echo alongside swaths of comet-like guitars burning through the night sky—perhaps with the tinges of a sunrise to come.
“The idea of forming a mental picture comes up constantly in conversation; we see things we want to see. We ask for clarification. We wonder how we can show what’s in our minds to the world. We try, and hope we’ve done our best.” Nelson thought it made sense to close the record that way, an opportunity to leave the conversation open and allow the listener to choose their own adventure. There's a certain kismet to Nelson’s latest album releasing on fledgling San Francisco label Speakeasy Studios SF. Label chief Alicia Vanden Heuvel is part of the very fabric of Nelson’s collective—she even lends her vocals to aforementioned "Night Birds," birds of a feather, naturally. It’s difficult for Nelson to even remember a time in San Francisco without her. They first played together at The Independent. “I was scared to death, waiting in the wings to go on with my band, Alicia walked by and gave me this look that just said everything was exactly how it should be, that I was supposed to be there fronting a band, showing the world my tunes. I never forgot that.” The feeling of homecoming here parallels the intimacy of Mental Picture and echoes the burnished survival instincts of the locals still standing and weaving tales together. But don't get this wrong, there's also a universality here that’s unchained by any particularities to a certain time and place. Everyone is in the Zone, after all.
https://www.sarahbethenelson.com/
Recommended if you like: Nico, Syd Barrett, Townes Van Zandt, Roger Miller, Lucinda Williams
Vaccines, boosters, and masks are strongly encouraged, but are not required as per local Public Health Policy.
Event Venue
The Lost Church - San Francisco, 988 Columbus Avenue,San Francisco,CA,United States
Tickets