Houston Jones at Freight & Salvage

We had wonderful evening exploring a, new to me, music venue in Berkeley last Saturday. Just a few blocks from my office is Freight & Salvage, a coffee shop that has been legendary in Berkeley for over 40 years. It's specialty is "traditional music", broadly speaking. While it is currently in an old auto mechanics garage, in a few weeks it moves up Addison closer to Shattuck to a new multi-million dollar venue...not bad for a non-profit coffee house.

Better still, we were treated to the music of Houston Jones, a local Northern California Band with roots all over the United States. This band claims it plays High Octane American music, but I would call it some of the best complex rock/jazz/country/classical and down right silly music I have heard in a long time. The band gets its name from its leaders, Travis Jones on vocals and rhythm guitar,and Glenn Houston, on lead. While I would consider Travis to be the lead, the name Jones Houston would have been a mistake. Peter Tucker plays drums, Chris Kee plays bass and writes many of their songs, and Henry Salvia handles the keyboards. Check them out.