Celebrating Another Memorable Music Festival in NorCal!

Mill Valley Music Festival does it again!

Mill Valley Music festival is three years new and every year has been a great stressless success (for a music festival). Good vibes all weekend for this super nice and family friendly music festival. This is my third year covering this event and every time has been a winner! The stages are close together without infringing on each other and all the vendors I spoke to were lovely.

As it doesn't seem to be a super commercial driven event, the good vibes were plentiful. And the alcohol intake seemed to be very minimal as it was very family friendly. All the music was great as well, which is the point at a music festival.

Every year I discover new aritists that I wasn't aware of prior to the MVMF so there's that. I always appreciate learning about the music I didn't know of and this year, for me, the stand out as far as new music (new to me) was The Crosby Collective....OMG!...Jason Crosby designed an entirely new genre. Calling it a mash up doesn't really do it justice but for lack of another description, that's the wording I have to use. Oh my! All the tunes they played were amazing. One example that stands out in my mind was when they began the music with a distinctly Doors song, "Riders on the Storm"...then when the lyrics entered, all of a sudden it was Michael Jacksons' "Billy Jean"...huh??? But it works. And it works so incredibly well. By the end of their set I was almost speechless, and after they played, I told him so.

Unbelievable combinations of tunes you wouldn't normally imagine being as one. But the songs went from one to the other and back again, and melted into each other in a stunningly entertaining and surprising way that totally worked and worked well! Bravo to Jason Crosby for this amazing feat! Very impressive indeed! Another artist that I was pleasantly surprised with was a young lad I used to see in Fairfax most weekends doing open mic. His parents used to bring him to the pub to perform. He is none other than Matte Jaffe. If you're from the North Bay, and hung around the music scene in Fairfax at any point in the last couple decades, you would know of him. Well, young Matt is all grown up and is now a 30 year old man! His music was all original and really really good. The genre is kinda old school rock with a thread of punk woven in and all executed well by his trio of a basic guitar, bass and drums. I was impressed by Trevor, his drummer who was super creative with the beat and sounds cradling Matts' music. Looking forward to seeing this band around the bay and beyond as I think they are going places!

My pals, The Wreckless Strangers gave us an amazing set as well. I've been seeing them for several years now but this time was slightly different. I don't know what was going on with them but the 'punch' they delivered on Sunday at MVMF was slightly different than their norm. It was raunchy, sexy and bigger than ever. If you get a chance, I highly suggest you catch them. They play Hardly Strictly every year and around Nor Cal and beyond.

Headlining on Saturday was Gary Clarke Jr. He was fantastic as he usually is. The first time I saw Gary Clarke was at a radio station event when I was working for the Krush. It was his birthday so we threw him a little party in the private upstairs room. I was standing next to him as he blew out the candles and what I remember from that night apart from the great blues he gave us was how tall he was (to me). He gave the MVMF their moneys' worth and he's a real connector to his audience. Which I think is so important for any artist onstage.

On Sunday the headliner took us back in time and everyone had a blast dancing to the music of Nile Rodgers and Chic! They were also great. And it was a super nice way to end the weekend with "The Freak"! Everyone had a great time with this finale!

Thanks goes out to all the organizers, security, vendors and artists that performed. They put together this great, stress-free, good vibes music event and I do hope it continues to brighten up the North Bay for a very long time to come! As always, remember..."Life is short...break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, be kind to each other, and never regret anything that made you smile". And of course...see live music!

With peace, love, art and music,

Cheryl ☮ ❤️🎵 Check out my You Tube channel for videos from the event: youtube.com/@TheMusicSoupVideo?sub_confirmation=1