Two Mondays: Oct. 6 and 13, 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Bethany Congregational Church 556 N. Hope Avenue, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $30; non-member price: $45
Presented by: Norm Cohen
We generally don’t turn to popular music for documentation of social and political history, but there has been a great deal of musical commentary on life in the Golden State, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries—not only in mainstream pop music but also in country music (or “hillbilly” music, as it used to be labeled), blues music, and Hispanic music. In these sessions you’ll have a chance to hear dozens of songs that touch on California’s past—individual events (mostly tragedies), heroes and badmen (“Corrido de Patricia Hearst,” “Corrido de Cesar Chavez”), natural disasters (“The Los Angeles New Year’s Flood”); and memories from the days of ’49. And oh, yes—a song about our own Santa Barbara (“The Santa Barbara Earthquake”). These oft-forgotten gems will be accompanied by commentary on the historical background as well as the singers and composers/writers.