In the grand folk-singing tradition of Woody Guthrie, Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen, the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project (aka Sierra Roots Project) is carrying on the multigenerational struggle for social justice with commissioned songs of our own.
This Sunday at 7 p.m., the Sierra Roots Project will present “Songs from the Heart – Harmony to End Homelessness” at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City. Singer-songwriters Juliet Gobert and Bob Woods will debut songs they wrote for the project along with their well-known and best-loved crowd favorites.
Additionally, three winners of the Sierra Roots Project singer-songwriter workshop and contest will perform their new songs about homelessness. The winners include Heather Grove, Walt Webb and Stephen Greenberg
This free concert is designed to inform and entertain the public about our homeless/housing crisis. Even people with jobs cannot find or afford legal housing because it doesn’t exist. Literally, there is no place to go.
The show starts promptly at 7 p.m. with Gobert’s all-woman band the Heifer Belles. In addition to Gobert, the Heifer Belles are Toni Valenta on acoustic guitar bass, Nici Van Kriedt on violin, and Nicole Deluze on accordion.
At 8 p.m., the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project will present a program of information and songs from the contest winners and some other songs about homelessness.
At 9 p.m., the Bob Woods Trio takes the stage for a full-on dance party in the tradition of the Geezer Gig. For more than 15 years, the Trio has proved you’re never too old to rock’n’roll.
For this show, the Trio consists of six all-star musicians. Skip Alan Smith on drums and “The” Brett Cole on bass are the permanent members of the Bob Woods Trio. Gobert is also a permanent member of the Trio (but who’s counting?). Joining the Trio for this special show will be Earle Ford on trumpet and Phil Kember on trombone from the Earles of Newtown.
As an incentive, while supplies last, audience members will be offered a free, high-quality T-shirt, shopping bag or bumper sticker in exchange for filling out a simple survey about what they learned from the event.
The well-designed T-shirts and bags from Laurel Simpson’s Grizzly Girl Graphics of Grass Valley are intended to be walking-talking billboards carrying on the Housing for the People by the People message of the Sierra Roots Project.
Even after we run out of T-shirts, we are encouraging audience members to share their thoughts and suggestions on the survey.
For the last year, the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project has been working behind the scenes on changing Nevada County’s policies on homelessness and alternative housing. We’ve had productive, one on one meetings with each of the Nevada County supervisors, department heads and senior-level staff.
The Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project has proposed code-busting, progressive ideas on homelessness and alternative housing. This concert is intended to develop the public support the supervisors will need to face down inevitable NIMBY (not in my backyard) opposition.
This free concert is underwritten by a grant from the Upstate California Creative Corps, which is administered by the Nevada County Arts Council.
The Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project wishes to extend our gratitude to Eliza Tudor, executive director of the Arts Council ,and her able staff. We are also grateful to council board member Donn Harris for his support as well as Nevada County Supervisor Ed Scofield and County Executive Officer Alison Lehman.
Of course, we also appreciate the time and consideration of Supervisors Sue Hoek, Heidi Hall, Lisa Swarthout and Supervisor Chair Hardy Bullock. Also kudos go to Amy Irani of Environmental Health, Ryan Gruver of Health & Safety Services, Kyle Smith of Planning, George Schureck of Building, Phebe Bell of Behavioral Health, Mike Dent of Housing, Trisha Tillotson of Community Development, Matt Kelley of Code Compliance, and County Counsel Kit Elliott.
Finally, the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project could not exist if it weren’t for the backing of Sierra Roots board members Susan Rice, Dianne Weichel and Nick Wilczek and our amazing business manager Kathy Ferguson in Michigan.
The Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project is all about housing for the people by the people because it is in the shelter of each other that we live.
Tom Durkin is the creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project. He may be reached at tomdurkin@sierra-roots.orgor www.project.sierra-roots.org.